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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Allan Quatermain
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: November, 1996 [eBook #711]
+[Most recently updated: December 29, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Ng E-Ching, Singapore and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Allan Quatermain
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+Contents
+
+ INTRODUCTION
+
+ CHAPTER I. THE CONSUL’S YARN
+ CHAPTER II. THE BLACK HAND
+ CHAPTER III. THE MISSION STATION
+ CHAPTER IV. ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+ CHAPTER V. UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+ CHAPTER VI. THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+ CHAPTER VII. A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+ CHAPTER VIII. ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+ CHAPTER IX. INTO THE UNKNOWN
+ CHAPTER X. THE ROSE OF FIRE
+ CHAPTER XI. THE FROWNING CITY
+ CHAPTER XII. THE SISTER QUEENS
+ CHAPTER XIII. ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+ CHAPTER XIV. THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+ CHAPTER XV. SORAIS’ SONG
+ CHAPTER XVI. BEFORE THE STATUE
+ CHAPTER XVII. THE STORM BREAKS
+ CHAPTER XVIII. WAR! RED WAR!
+ CHAPTER XIX. A STRANGE WEDDING
+ CHAPTER XX. THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+ CHAPTER XI. AWAY! AWAY!
+ CHAPTER XII. HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+ CHAPTER XIII. I HAVE SPOKEN
+ CHAPTER XIV. BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+ NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.
+ AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+
+I inscribe this book of adventure to my son ARTHUR JOHN RIDER HAGGARD
+
+in the hope that in days to come he, and many other boys whom I shall
+never know, may, in the acts and thoughts of Allan Quatermain and his
+companions, as herein recorded, find something to help him and them to
+reach to what, with Sir Henry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank
+whereto we can attain—the state and dignity of English gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+December 23
+
+“I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I was so
+proud, and my heart is broken. It is very hard having only one son to
+lose him thus, but God’s will be done. Who am I that I should complain?
+The great wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all
+in turn, some soon, some late—it does not matter when, in the end, it
+crushes us all. We do not prostrate ourselves before it like the poor
+Indians; we fly hither and thither—we cry for mercy; but it is of no
+use, the black Fate thunders on and in its season reduces us to powder.
+
+“Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening to him. He
+was doing so well at the hospital, he had passed his last examination
+with honours, and I was proud of them, much prouder than he was, I
+think. And then he must needs go to that smallpox hospital. He wrote to
+me that he was not afraid of smallpox and wanted to gain the
+experience; and now the disease has killed him, and I, old and grey and
+withered, am left to mourn over him, without a chick or child to
+comfort me. I might have saved him, too—I have money enough for both of
+us, and much more than enough—King Solomon’s Mines provided me with
+that; but I said, ‘No, let the boy earn his living, let him labour that
+he may enjoy rest.’ But the rest has come to him before the labour. Oh,
+my boy, my boy!
+
+“I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and builded
+barns—goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in; and now his
+soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate. I would that it
+had been my soul and not my boy’s!
+
+“We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey and ancient
+tower of the church of this village where my house is. It was a dreary
+December afternoon, and the sky was heavy with snow, but not much was
+falling. The coffin was put down by the grave, and a few big flakes lit
+upon it. They looked very white upon the black cloth! There was a
+little hitch about getting the coffin down into the grave—the necessary
+ropes had been forgotten: so we drew back from it, and waited in
+silence watching the big flakes fall gently one by one like heavenly
+benedictions, and melt in tears on Harry’s pall. But that was not all.
+A robin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon the coffin and
+began to sing. And then I am afraid that I broke down, and so did Sir
+Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as for Captain Good, I saw
+him turn away too; even in my own distress I could not help noticing
+it.”
+
+The above, signed “Allan Quatermain”, is an extract from my diary
+written two years and more ago. I copy it down here because it seems to
+me that it is the fittest beginning to the history that I am about to
+write, if it please God to spare me to finish it. If not, well it does
+not matter. That extract was penned seven thousand miles or so from the
+spot where I now lie painfully and slowly writing this, with a pretty
+girl standing by my side fanning the flies from my august countenance.
+Harry is there and I am here, and yet somehow I cannot help feeling
+that I am not far off Harry.
+
+When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house—at least I
+call it a fine house, speaking comparatively, and judging from the
+standard of the houses I have been accustomed to all my life in
+Africa—not five hundred yards from the old church where Harry is
+asleep, and thither I went after the funeral and ate some food; for it
+is no good starving even if one has just buried all one’s earthly
+hopes. But I could not eat much, and soon I took to walking, or rather
+limping—being permanently lame from the bite of a lion—up and down, up
+and down the oak-panelled vestibule; for there is a vestibule in my
+house in England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were placed
+pairs of horns—about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which I had
+shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I never keep any horns
+which are not in every way perfect, unless it may be now and again on
+account of the associations connected with them. In the centre of the
+room, however, over the wide fireplace, there was a clear space left on
+which I had fixed up all my rifles. Some of them I have had for forty
+years, old muzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays. One was
+an elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed round the
+stock and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen—a “roer” they
+call it. That gun, the Boer I bought it from many years ago told me,
+had been used by his father at the battle of the Blood River, just
+after Dingaan swept into Natal and slaughtered six hundred men, women,
+and children, so that the Boers named the place where they died
+“Weenen”, or the “Place of Weeping”; and so it is called to this day,
+and always will be called. And many an elephant have I shot with that
+old gun. She always took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce
+ball, and kicked like the very deuce.
+
+Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the horns which the
+guns had brought low; and as I did so there rose up in me a great
+craving:—I would go away from this place where I lived idly and at
+ease, back again to the wild land where I had spent my life, where I
+met my dear wife and poor Harry was born, and so many things, good,
+bad, and indifferent, had happened to me. The thirst for the wilderness
+was on me; I could tolerate this place no more; I would go and die as I
+had lived, among the wild game and the savages. Yes, as I walked, I
+began to long to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the wide
+veldt and mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of game
+travelling down the ridges to the water. The ruling passion is strong
+in death, they say, and my heart was dead that night. But,
+independently of my trouble, no man who has for forty years lived the
+life I have, can with impunity go coop himself in this prim English
+country, with its trim hedgerows and cultivated fields, its stiff
+formal manners, and its well-dressed crowds. He begins to long—ah, how
+he longs!—for the keen breath of the desert air; he dreams of the sight
+of Zulu impis breaking on their foes like surf upon the rocks, and his
+heart rises up in rebellion against the strict limits of the civilized
+life.
+
+Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to? For forty years and
+more I lived among savages, and studied them and their ways; and now
+for several years I have lived here in England, and have in my own
+stupid manner done my best to learn the ways of the children of light;
+and what have I found? A great gulf fixed? No, only a very little one,
+that a plain man’s thought may spring across. I say that as the savage
+is, so is the white man, only the latter is more inventive, and
+possesses the faculty of combination; save and except also that the
+savage, as I have known him, is to a large extent free from the greed
+of money, which eats like a cancer into the heart of the white man. It
+is a depressing conclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the
+child of civilization are identical. I dare say that the highly
+civilized lady reading this will smile at an old fool of a hunter’s
+simplicity when she thinks of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so
+will the superfine cultured idler scientifically eating a dinner at his
+club, the cost of which would keep a starving family for a week. And
+yet, my dear young lady, what are those pretty things round your own
+neck?—they have a strong family resemblance, especially when you wear
+that _very_ low dress, to the savage woman’s beads. Your habit of
+turning round and round to the sound of horns and tom-toms, your
+fondness for pigments and powders, the way in which you love to
+subjugate yourself to the rich warrior who has captured you in
+marriage, and the quickness with which your taste in feathered
+head-dresses varies—all these things suggest touches of kinship; and
+you remember that in the fundamental principles of your nature you are
+quite identical. As for you, sir, who also laugh, let some man come and
+strike you in the face whilst you are enjoying that marvellous-looking
+dish, and we shall soon see how much of the savage there is in _you_.
+
+There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good? Civilization is
+only savagery silver-gilt. A vainglory is it, and like a northern
+light, comes but to fade and leave the sky more dark. Out of the soil
+of barbarism it has grown like a tree, and, as I believe, into the soil
+like a tree it will once more, sooner or later, fall again, as the
+Egyptian civilization fell, as the Hellenic civilization fell, and as
+the Roman civilization and many others of which the world has now lost
+count, fell also. Do not let me, however, be understood as decrying our
+modern institutions, representing as they do the gathered experience of
+humanity applied for the good of all. Of course they have great
+advantages—hospitals for instance; but then, remember, we breed the
+sickly people who fill them. In a savage land they do not exist.
+Besides, the question will arise: How many of these blessings are due
+to Christianity as distinct from civilization? And so the balance sways
+and the story runs—here a gain, there a loss, and Nature’s great
+average struck across the two, whereof the sum total forms one of the
+factors in that mighty equation in which the result will equal the
+unknown quantity of her purpose.
+
+I make no apology for this digression, especially as this is an
+introduction which all young people and those who never like to think
+(and it is a bad habit) will naturally skip. It seems to me very
+desirable that we should sometimes try to understand the limitations of
+our nature, so that we may not be carried away by the pride of
+knowledge. Man’s cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an
+elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round
+and round it, you can polish it highly, you can even flatten it a
+little on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the other, but
+you will _never_, while the world endures and man is man, increase its
+total circumference. It is the one fixed unchangeable thing—fixed as
+the stars, more enduring than the mountains, as unalterable as the way
+of the Eternal. Human nature is God’s kaleidoscope, and the little bits
+of coloured glass which represent our passions, hopes, fears, joys,
+aspirations towards good and evil and what not, are turned in His
+mighty hand as surely and as certainly as it turns the stars, and
+continually fall into new patterns and combinations. But the composing
+elements remain the same, nor will there be one more bit of coloured
+glass nor one less for ever and ever.
+
+This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselves
+into twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we must look to
+the nineteen savage portions of our nature, if we would really
+understand ourselves, and not to the twentieth, which, though so
+insignificant in reality, is spread all over the other nineteen, making
+them appear quite different from what they really are, as the blacking
+does a boot, or the veneer a table. It is on the nineteen rough
+serviceable savage portions that we fall back in emergencies, not on
+the polished but unsubstantial twentieth. Civilization should wipe away
+our tears, and yet we weep and cannot be comforted. Warfare is
+abhorrent to her, and yet we strike out for hearth and home, for honour
+and fair fame, and can glory in the blow. And so on, through
+everything.
+
+So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in the dust,
+civilization fails us utterly. Back, back, we creep, and lay us like
+little children on the great breast of Nature, she that perchance may
+soothe us and make us forget, or at least rid remembrance of its sting.
+Who has not in his great grief felt a longing to look upon the outward
+features of the universal Mother; to lie on the mountains and watch the
+clouds drive across the sky and hear the rollers break in thunder on
+the shore, to let his poor struggling life mingle for a while in her
+life; to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and to forget his
+woes, and let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptibly
+moving energy of her of whom we are, from whom we came, and with whom
+we shall again be mingled, who gave us birth, and will in a day to come
+give us our burial also.
+
+And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelled
+vestibule of my house there in Yorkshire, I longed once more to throw
+myself into the arms of Nature. Not the Nature which you know, the
+Nature that waves in well-kept woods and smiles out in corn-fields, but
+Nature as she was in the age when creation was complete, undefiled as
+yet by any human sinks of sweltering humanity. I would go again where
+the wild game was, back to the land whereof none know the history, back
+to the savages, whom I love, although some of them are almost as
+merciless as Political Economy. There, perhaps, I should be able to
+learn to think of poor Harry lying in the churchyard, without feeling
+as though my heart would break in two.
+
+And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shall be no
+more of it. But if you whose eyes may perchance one day fall upon my
+written thoughts have got so far as this, I ask you to persevere, since
+what I have to tell you is not without its interest, and it has never
+been told before, nor will again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE CONSUL’S YARN
+
+
+A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and one
+evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there
+was a ring at the outer door. Going down the steps I opened it myself,
+and in came my old friends Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good, RN.
+They entered the vestibule and sat themselves down before the wide
+hearth, where, I remember, a particularly good fire of logs was
+burning.
+
+“It is very kind of you to come round,” I said by way of making a
+remark; “it must have been heavy walking in the snow.”
+
+They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and lit it with
+a burning ember. As he leant forward to do so the fire got hold of a
+gassy bit of pine and flared up brightly, throwing the whole scene into
+strong relief, and I thought, What a splendid-looking man he is! Calm,
+powerful face, clear-cut features, large grey eyes, yellow beard and
+hair—altogether a magnificent specimen of the higher type of humanity.
+Nor did his form belie his face. I have never seen wider shoulders or a
+deeper chest. Indeed, Sir Henry’s girth is so great that, though he is
+six feet two high, he does not strike one as a tall man. As I looked at
+him I could not help thinking what a curious contrast my little
+dried-up self presented to his grand face and form. Imagine to yourself
+a small, withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thin hands,
+large brown eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and standing up
+like a half-worn scrubbing-brush—total weight in my clothes, nine stone
+six—and you will get a very fair idea of Allan Quatermain, commonly
+called Hunter Quatermain, or by the natives “Macumazahn”—Anglicè, he
+who keeps a bright look-out at night, or, in vulgar English, a sharp
+fellow who is not to be taken in.
+
+Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short, dark,
+stout—_very_ stout—with twinkling black eyes, in one of which an
+eyeglass is everlastingly fixed. I say stout, but it is a mild term; I
+regret to state that of late years Good has been running to fat in a
+most disgraceful way. Sir Henry tells him that it comes from idleness
+and over-feeding, and Good does not like it at all, though he cannot
+deny it.
+
+We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that stood
+ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary, as it is
+apt to do when one has a short week ago buried the hope of one’s life.
+Next, I opened a cupboard in the wainscoting and got a bottle of whisky
+and some tumblers and water. I always like to do these things for
+myself: it is irritating to me to have somebody continually at my
+elbow, as though I were an eighteen-month-old baby. All this while
+Curtis and Good had been silent, feeling, I suppose, that they had
+nothing to say that could do me any good, and content to give me the
+comfort of their presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only their
+second visit since the funeral. And it is, by the way, from the
+_presence_ of others that we really derive support in our dark hours of
+grief, and not from their talk, which often only serves to irritate us.
+Before a bad storm the game always herd together, but they cease their
+calling.
+
+They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood by the fire
+also smoking and looking at them.
+
+At last I spoke. “Old friends,” I said, “how long is it since we got
+back from Kukuanaland?”
+
+“Three years,” said Good. “Why do you ask?”
+
+“I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell of
+civilization. I am going back to the veldt.”
+
+Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed one of his
+deep laughs. “How very odd,” he said, “eh, Good?”
+
+Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured, “Yes,
+odd—very odd.”
+
+“I don’t quite understand,” said I, looking from one to the other, for
+I dislike mysteries.
+
+“Don’t you, old fellow?” said Sir Henry; “then I will explain. As Good
+and I were walking up here we had a talk.”
+
+“If Good was there you probably did,” I put in sarcastically, for Good
+is a great hand at talking. “And what may it have been about?”
+
+“What do you think?” asked Sir Henry.
+
+I shook my head. It was not likely that I should know what Good might
+be talking about. He talks about so many things.
+
+“Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed—namely, that if
+you were willing we should pack up our traps and go off to Africa on
+another expedition.”
+
+I fairly jumped at his words. “You don’t say so!” I said.
+
+“Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don’t you, Good?”
+
+“Rather,” said that gentleman.
+
+“Listen, old fellow,” went on Sir Henry, with considerable animation of
+manner. “I’m tired of it too, dead-tired of doing nothing more except
+play the squire in a country that is sick of squires. For a year or
+more I have been getting as restless as an old elephant who scents
+danger. I am always dreaming of Kukuanaland and Gagool and King
+Solomon’s Mines. I can assure you I have become the victim of an almost
+unaccountable craving. I am sick of shooting pheasants and partridges,
+and want to have a go at some large game again. There, you know the
+feeling—when one has once tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid
+to the palate. That year we spent together up in Kukuanaland seems to
+me worth all the other years of my life put together. I dare say that I
+am a fool for my pains, but I can’t help it; I long to go, and, what is
+more, I mean to go.” He paused, and then went on again. “And, after
+all, why should I not go? I have no wife or parent, no chick or child
+to keep me. If anything happens to me the baronetcy will go to my
+brother George and his boy, as it would ultimately do in any case. I am
+of no importance to any one.”
+
+“Ah!” I said, “I thought you would come to that sooner or later. And
+now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; have you got one?”
+
+“I have,” said Good, solemnly. “I never do anything without a reason;
+and it isn’t a lady—at least, if it is, it’s several.”
+
+I looked at him again. Good is so overpoweringly frivolous. “What is
+it?” I said.
+
+“Well, if you really want to know, though I’d rather not speak of a
+delicate and strictly personal matter, I’ll tell you: I’m getting too
+fat.”
+
+“Shut up, Good!” said Sir Henry. “And now, Quatermain, tell us, where
+do you propose going to?”
+
+I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering.
+
+“Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?” I asked.
+
+“Don’t know the place,” said Good.
+
+“Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?” I asked again.
+
+“No. Stop, though—isn’t it a place about 300 miles north of Zanzibar?”
+
+“Yes. Now listen. What I have to propose is this. That we go to Lamu
+and thence make our way about 250 miles inland to Mt Kenia; from Mt
+Kenia on inland to Mt Lekakisera, another 200 miles, or thereabouts,
+beyond which no white man has to the best of my belief ever been; and
+then, if we get so far, right on into the unknown interior. What do you
+say to that, my hearties?”
+
+“It’s a big order,” said Sir Henry, reflectively.
+
+“You are right,” I answered, “it is; but I take it that we are all
+three of us in search of a big order. We want a change of scene, and we
+are likely to get one—a thorough change. All my life I have longed to
+visit those parts, and I mean to do it before I die. My poor boy’s
+death has broken the last link between me and civilization, and I’m off
+to my native wilds. And now I’ll tell you another thing, and that is,
+that for years and years I have heard rumours of a great white race
+which is supposed to have its home somewhere up in this direction, and
+I have a mind to see if there is any truth in them. If you fellows like
+to come, well and good; if not, I’ll go alone.”
+
+“I’m your man, though I don’t believe in your white race,” said Sir
+Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my shoulder.
+
+“Ditto,” remarked Good. “I’ll go into training at once. By all means
+let’s go to Mt Kenia and the other place with an unpronounceable name,
+and look for a white race that does not exist. It’s all one to me.”
+
+“When do you propose to start?” asked Sir Henry.
+
+“This day month,” I answered, “by the British India steamboat; and
+don’t you be so certain that things have no existence because you do
+not happen to have heard of them. Remember King Solomon’s mines!”
+
+Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this
+conversation, and this history goes on its way in very different
+surroundings.
+
+After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion that our
+best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood of the
+mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place over 100 miles
+nearer Zanzibar. This conclusion we arrived at from information given
+to us by a German trader whom we met upon the steamer at Aden. I think
+that he was the dirtiest German I ever knew; but he was a good fellow,
+and gave us a great deal of valuable information. “Lamu,” said he, “you
+goes to Lamu—oh ze beautiful place!” and he turned up his fat face and
+beamed with mild rapture. “One year and a half I live there and never
+change my shirt—never at all.”
+
+And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarked
+with all our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go, marched
+boldly up to the house of Her Majesty’s Consul, where we were most
+hospitably received.
+
+Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand out most
+clearly in my memory in connection with it are its exceeding dirtiness
+and its smells. These last are simply awful. Just below the Consulate
+is the beach, or rather a mud bank that is called a beach. It is left
+quite bare at low tide, and serves as a repository for all the filth,
+offal, and refuse of the town. Here it is, too, that the women come to
+bury coconuts in the mud, leaving them there till the outer husk is
+quite rotten, when they dig them up again and use the fibres to make
+mats with, and for various other purposes. As this process has been
+going on for generations, the condition of the shore can be better
+imagined than described. I have smelt many evil odours in the course of
+my life, but the concentrated essence of stench which arose from that
+beach at Lamu as we sat in the moonlit night—not under, but _on_ our
+friend the Consul’s hospitable roof—and sniffed it, makes the
+remembrance of them very poor and faint. No wonder people get fever at
+Lamu. And yet the place was not without a certain quaintness and charm
+of its own, though possibly—indeed probably—it was one which would
+quickly pall.
+
+“Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?” asked our friend the
+hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
+
+“We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,” answered
+Sir Henry. “Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about there being a
+white race up in the unknown territories beyond.”
+
+The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard something
+of that, too.
+
+“What have you heard?” I asked.
+
+“Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so ago I got a
+letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, ‘The
+Highlands’, is placed at the highest navigable point of the Tana River,
+in which he said something about it.”
+
+“Have you the letter?” I asked.
+
+“No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man had arrived
+at his station who declared that two months’ journey beyond Mt
+Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited—at least, so far as I
+know—he found a lake called Laga, and that then he went off to the
+north-east, a month’s journey, over desert and thorn veldt and great
+mountains, till he came to a country where the people are white and
+live in stone houses. Here he was hospitably entertained for a while,
+till at last the priests of the country set it about that he was a
+devil, and the people drove him away, and he journeyed for eight months
+and reached Mackenzie’s place, as I heard, dying. That’s all I know;
+and if you ask me, I believe that it is a lie; but if you want to find
+out more about it, you had better go up the Tana to Mackenzie’s place
+and ask him for information.”
+
+Sir Henry and I looked at each other. Here was something tangible.
+
+“I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie’s,” I said.
+
+“Well,” answered the Consul, “that is your best way, but I warn you
+that you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear that the Masai
+are about, and, as you know, they are not pleasant customers. Your best
+plan will be to choose a few picked men for personal servants and
+hunters, and to hire bearers from village to village. It will give you
+an infinity of trouble, but perhaps on the whole it will prove a
+cheaper and more advantageous course than engaging a caravan, and you
+will be less liable to desertion.”
+
+Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a party of Wakwafi Askari
+(soldiers). The Wakwafi, who are a cross between the Masai and the
+Wataveta, are a fine manly race, possessing many of the good qualities
+of the Zulu, and a great capacity for civilization. They are also great
+hunters. As it happened, these particular men had recently been on a
+long trip with an Englishman named Jutson, who had started from
+Mombasa, a port about 150 miles below Lamu, and journeyed right round
+Kilimanjaro, one of the highest known mountains in Africa. Poor fellow,
+he had died of fever when on his return journey, and within a day’s
+march of Mombasa. It does seem hard that he should have gone off thus
+when within a few hours of safety, and after having survived so many
+perils, but so it was. His hunters buried him, and then came on to Lamu
+in a dhow. Our friend the Consul suggested to us that we had better try
+and hire these men, and accordingly on the following morning we started
+to interview the party, accompanied by an interpreter.
+
+In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts of the town.
+Three of the men were sitting outside the hut, and fine frank-looking
+fellows they were, having a more or less civilized appearance. To them
+we cautiously opened the object of our visit, at first with very scant
+success. They declared that they could not entertain any such idea,
+that they were worn and weary with long travelling, and that their
+hearts were sore at the loss of their master. They meant to go back to
+their homes and rest awhile. This did not sound very promising, so by
+way of effecting a diversion I asked where the remainder of them were.
+I was told there were six, and I saw but three. One of the men said
+they slept in the hut, and were yet resting after their labours—“sleep
+weighed down their eyelids, and sorrow made their hearts as lead: it
+was best to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness. But the men
+should be awakened.”
+
+Presently they came out of the hut, yawning—the first two men being
+evidently of the same race and style as those already before us; but
+the appearance of the third and last nearly made me jump out of my
+skin. He was a very tall, broad man, quite six foot three, I should
+say, but gaunt, with lean, wiry-looking limbs. My first glance at him
+told me that he was no Wakwafi: he was a pure bred Zulu. He came out
+with his thin aristocratic-looking hand placed before his face to hide
+a yawn, so I could only see that he was a “Keshla” or ringed man,[1]
+and that he had a great three-cornered hole in his forehead. In another
+second he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zulu face,
+with a humorous mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged with grey, and a
+pair of brown eyes keen as a hawk’s. I knew my man at once, although I
+had not seen him for twelve years. “How do you do, Umslopogaas?” I said
+quietly in Zulu.
+
+ [1] Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a species
+ of black gum twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliant black,
+ when he has reached a certain dignity and age, or is the husband of a
+ sufficient number of wives. Till he is in a position to wear a ring he
+ is looked on as a boy, though he may be thirty-five years of age, or
+ even more.—A. Q.
+
+The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known as the
+“Woodpecker”, and also as the “Slaughterer”) started, and almost let
+the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fall in his
+astonishment. Next second he had recognized me, and was saluting me in
+an outburst of sonorous language which made his companions the Wakwafi
+stare.
+
+“Koos” (chief), he began, “Koos-y-Pagete! Koos-y-umcool! (Chief from of
+old—mighty chief) Koos! Baba! (father) Macumazahn, old hunter, slayer
+of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one! watchful one! brave one!
+quick one! whose shot never misses, who strikes straight home, who
+grasps a hand and holds it to the death (i.e. is a true friend) Koos!
+Baba! Wise is the voice of our people that says, ‘Mountain never meets
+with mountain, but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with
+man.’ Behold! a messenger came up from Natal, ‘Macumazahn is dead!’
+cried he. ‘The land knows Macumazahn no more.’ That is years ago. And
+now, behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn, my
+friend. There is no room for doubt. The brush of the old jackal has
+gone a little grey; but is not his eye as keen, and are not his teeth
+as sharp? Ha! ha! Macumazahn, mindest thou how thou didst plant the
+ball in the eye of the charging buffalo—mindest thou—”
+
+I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm was
+producing a marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi, who
+appeared to understand something of his talk; but now I thought it time
+to put a stop to it, for there is nothing that I hate so much as this
+Zulu system of extravagant praising—“bongering” as they call it.
+“Silence!” I said. “Has all thy noisy talk been stopped up since last I
+saw thee that it breaks out thus, and sweeps us away? What doest thou
+here with these men—thou whom I left a chief in Zululand? How is it
+that thou art far from thine own place, and gathered together with
+strangers?”
+
+Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe (which
+was nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handle of rhinoceros
+horn), and his grim face grew sad.
+
+“My Father,” he answered, “I have a word to tell thee, but I cannot
+speak it before these low people (umfagozana),” and he glanced at the
+Wakwafi Askari; “it is for thine own ear. My Father, this will I say,”
+and here his face grew stern again, “a woman betrayed me to the death,
+and covered my name with shame—ay, my own wife, a round-faced girl,
+betrayed me; but I escaped from death; ay, I broke from the very hands
+of those who came to slay me. I struck but three blows with this mine
+axe Inkosikaas—surely my Father will remember it—one to the right, one
+to the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead. And then
+I fled, and, as my Father knows, even now that I am old my feet are as
+the feet of the Sassaby,[2] and there breathes not the man who, by
+running, can touch me again when once I have bounded from his side. On
+I sped, and after me came the messengers of death, and their voice was
+as the voice of dogs that hunt. From my own kraal I flew, and, as I
+passed, she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring. I
+fleeted by her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smote with
+mine axe, and lo! her head fell: it fell into the water pan. Then I
+fled north. Day after day I journeyed on; for three moons I journeyed,
+resting not, stopping not, but running on towards forgetfulness, till I
+met the party of the white hunter who is now dead, and am come hither
+with his servants. And nought have I brought with me. I who was
+high-born, ay, of the blood of Chaka, the great king—a chief, and a
+captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi—am a wanderer in strange
+places, a man without a kraal. Nought have I brought save this mine
+axe; of all my belongings this remains alone. They have divided my
+cattle; they have taken my wives; and my children know my face no more.
+Yet with this axe”—and he swung the formidable weapon round his head,
+making the air hiss as he clove it—“will I cut another path to fortune.
+I have spoken.”
+
+ [2] One of the fleetest of the African antelopes.—A. Q.
+
+I shook my head at him. “Umslopogaas,” I said, “I know thee from of
+old. Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fear me that thou
+hast overreached thyself at last. Years ago, when thou wouldst have
+plotted against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warned thee, and thou didst
+listen. But now, when I was not by thee to stay thy hand, thou hast dug
+a pit for thine own feet to fall in. Is it not so? But what is done is
+done. Who can make the dead tree green, or gaze again upon last year’s
+light? Who can recall the spoken word, or bring back the spirit of the
+fallen? That which Time swallows comes not up again. Let it be
+forgotten!
+
+“And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warrior and a
+brave man, faithful to the death. Even in Zululand, where all the men
+are brave, they called thee the ‘Slaughterer’, and at night told
+stories round the fire of thy strength and deeds. Hear me now. Thou
+seest this great man, my friend”—and I pointed to Sir Henry; “he also
+is a warrior as great as thou, and, strong as thou art, he could throw
+thee over his shoulder. Incubu is his name. And thou seest this one
+also; him with the round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant
+face. Bougwan (glass eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true,
+being of a curious tribe who pass their life upon the water, and live
+in floating kraals.
+
+“Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo Egere,
+the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the unknown beyond.
+We know not what we shall find there; we go to hunt and seek
+adventures, and new places, being tired of sitting still, with the same
+old things around us. Wilt thou come with us? To thee shall be given
+command of all our servants; but what shall befall thee, that I know
+not. Once before we three journeyed thus, in search of adventure, and
+we took with us a man such as thou—one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him
+the king of a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), each of
+3,000 plumed warriors, waiting on his word. How it shall go with thee,
+I know not; mayhap death awaits thee and us. Wilt thou throw thyself to
+Fortune and come, or fearest thou, Umslopogaas?”
+
+The great man smiled. “Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,” he
+said; “I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition that led me
+to my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to say it, a fair
+woman’s face. Let it pass. So we are going to see something like the
+old times again, Macumazahn, when we fought and hunted in Zululand? Ay,
+I will come. Come life, come death, what care I, so that the blows fall
+fast and the blood runs red? I grow old, I grow old, and I have not
+fought enough! And yet am I a warrior among warriors; see my scars”—and
+he pointed to countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the
+skin of his chest and legs and arms. “See the hole in my head; the
+brains gushed out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, and live.
+Knowest thou how many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-hand combat,
+Macumazahn? See, here is the tale of them”—and he pointed to long rows
+of notches cut in the rhinoceros-horn handle of his axe. “Number them,
+Macumazahn—one hundred and three—and I have never counted but those
+whom I have ripped open,[3] nor have I reckoned those whom another man
+had struck.”
+
+ [3] Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a dead foe.
+ They have a superstition that, if this is not done, as the body of
+ their enemy swells up so will the bodies of those who killed him swell
+ up.—A. Q.
+
+“Be silent,” I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever on
+him; “be silent; well art thou called the ‘Slaughterer’. We would not
+hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comest with us, we fight
+not save in self-defence. Listen, we need servants. These men,” and I
+pointed to the Wakwafi, who had retired a little way during our
+“indaba” (talk), “say they will not come.”
+
+“Will not come!” shouted Umslopogaas; “where is the dog who says he
+will not come when my Father orders? Here, thou”—and with a single
+bound he sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first spoken, and,
+seizing him by the arm, dragged him towards us. “Thou dog!” he said,
+giving the terrified man a shake, “didst thou say that thou wouldst not
+go with my Father? Say it once more and I will choke thee”—and his long
+fingers closed round his throat as he said it—“thee, and those with
+thee. Hast thou forgotten how I served thy brother?”
+
+“Nay, we will come with the white man,” gasped the man.
+
+“White man!” went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a very
+little provocation would have made real enough; “of whom speakest thou,
+insolent dog?”
+
+“Nay, we will go with the great chief.”
+
+“So!” said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released his
+hold, so that the man fell backward. “I thought you would.”
+
+“That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency over his
+companions,” Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE BLACK HAND
+
+
+In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found ourselves
+at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having gone through many
+adventures which need not be recorded here. Amongst other things we
+visited a ruined city, of which there are many on this coast, and which
+must once, to judge from their extent and the numerous remains of
+mosques and stone houses, have been very populous places. These ruined
+cities are immeasurably ancient, having, I believe, been places of
+wealth and importance as far back as the Old Testament times, when they
+were centres of trade with India and elsewhere. But their glory has
+departed now—the slave trade has finished them—and where wealthy
+merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and
+bargained in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court at
+night, and instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager voices of
+the bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined corridors. At
+this particular place we discovered on a mound, covered up with rank
+growth and rubbish, two of the most beautiful stone doorways that it is
+possible to conceive. The carving on them was simply exquisite, and I
+only regret that we had no means of getting them away. No doubt they
+had once been the entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces
+were now to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising
+mound.
+
+Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like the nobles and
+the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities have had their
+day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris
+will one day be. Nothing may endure. That is the inexorable law. Men
+and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers,
+mountains, rivers, and unfathomed seas, worlds, spaces, and universes,
+all have their day, and all must go. In this ruined and forgotten place
+the moralist may behold a symbol of the universal destiny. For this
+system of ours allows no room for standing still—nothing can loiter on
+the road and check the progress of things upwards towards Life, or the
+rush of things downwards towards Death. The stern policeman Fate moves
+us and them on, on, uphill and downhill and across the level; there is
+no resting-place for the weary feet, till at last the abyss swallows
+us, and from the shores of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of
+the Eternal.
+
+At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers we
+had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort large
+extra payment from us. In the result he threatened to set the
+Masai—about whom more anon—on to us. That night he, with all our hired
+bearers, ran away, stealing most of the goods which had been entrusted
+to them to carry. Luckily, however, they had not happened to steal our
+rifles, ammunition, and personal effects; not because of any delicacy
+of feeling on their part, but owing to the fact that they chanced to be
+in the charge of the five Wakwafis. After that, it was clear to us that
+we had had enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we had not much
+left for a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?
+
+It was Good who solved the question. “Here is water,” he said, pointing
+to the Tana River; “and yesterday I saw a party of natives hunting
+hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie’s mission station
+is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoes and paddle up to it?”
+
+This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with
+acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes from
+the surrounding natives. I succeeded after a delay of three days in
+obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single log of some
+light wood, and capable of holding six people and baggage. For these
+two canoes we had to pay nearly all our remaining cloth, and also many
+other articles.
+
+On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected a
+start. In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three of our
+Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas, and the other two
+Wakwafis. As our course lay upstream, we had to keep four paddles at
+work in each canoe, which meant that the whole lot of us, except Good,
+had to row away like galley-slaves; and very exhausting work it was. I
+say, except Good, for, of course, the moment that Good got into a boat
+his foot was on his native heath, and he took command of the party. And
+certainly he worked us. On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered man,
+and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in a boat was
+a perfect demon. To begin with, he knew all about it, and we didn’t. On
+all nautical subjects, from the torpedo fittings of a man-of-war down
+to the best way of handling the paddle of an African canoe, he was a
+perfect mine of information, which, to say the least of it, we were
+not. Also his ideas of discipline were of the sternest, and, in short,
+he came the royal naval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid
+us out amply for all the chaff we were wont to treat him to on land;
+but, on the other hand, I am bound to say that he managed the boats
+admirably.
+
+After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some cloth and a
+couple of poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, which lightened
+our labours not a little. But the current ran very strong against us,
+and at the best we were not able to make more than twenty miles a day.
+Our plan was to start at dawn, and paddle along till about half-past
+ten, by which time the sun got too hot to allow of further exertion.
+Then we moored our canoes to the bank, and ate our frugal meal; after
+which we ate or otherwise amused ourselves till about three o’clock,
+when we again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown, when
+we called a halt for the night. On landing in the evening, Good would
+at once set to work, with the help of the Askari, to build a little
+“scherm”, or small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes, and to light a
+fire. I, with Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, would go out to shoot
+something for the pot. Generally this was an easy task, for all sorts
+of game abounded on the banks of the Tana. One night Sir Henry shot a
+young cow-giraffe, of which the marrow-bones were excellent; on another
+I got a couple of waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own
+intense satisfaction, Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile
+shot with a rifle) managed to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I
+had lent him. Sometimes we varied our food by shooting some
+guinea-fowl, or bush-bustard (paau)—both of which were numerous—with a
+shot-gun, or by catching a supply of beautiful yellow fish, with which
+the waters of the Tana swarmed, and which form, I believe, one of the
+chief food-supplies of the crocodiles.
+
+Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred. We were just
+drawing in to the bank to make our camp as usual for the night, when we
+caught sight of a figure standing on a little knoll not forty yards
+away, and intensely watching our approach. One glance was
+sufficient—although I was personally unacquainted with the tribe—to
+tell me that he was a Masai Elmoran, or young warrior. Indeed, had I
+had any doubts, they would have quickly been dispelled by the terrified
+ejaculation of “_Masai!_” that burst simultaneously from the lips of
+our Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, themselves
+bastard Masai.
+
+And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savage
+war-gear! Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life, I do not
+think that I have ever before seen anything quite so ferocious or
+awe-inspiring. To begin with, the man was enormously tall, quite as
+tall as Umslopogaas, I should say, and beautifully, though somewhat
+slightly, shaped; but with the face of a devil. In his right hand he
+held a spear about five and a half feet long, the blade being two and a
+half feet in length, by nearly three inches in width, and having an
+iron spike at the end of the handle that measured more than a foot. On
+his left arm was a large and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo
+hide, on which were painted strange heraldic-looking devices. On his
+shoulders was a huge cape of hawk’s feathers, and round his neck was a
+“naibere”, or strip of cotton, about seventeen feet long, by one and a
+half broad, with a stripe of colour running down the middle of it. The
+tanned goatskin robe, which formed his ordinary attire in times of
+peace, was tied lightly round his waist, so as to serve the purposes of
+a belt, and through it were stuck, on the right and left sides
+respectively, his short pear-shaped sime, or sword, which is made of a
+single piece of steel, and carried in a wooden sheath, and an enormous
+knobkerrie. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of his attire
+consisted of a headdress of ostrich-feathers, which was fixed on the
+chin, and passed in front of the ears to the forehead, and, being
+shaped like an ellipse, completely framed the face, so that the
+diabolical countenance appeared to project from a sort of feather
+fire-screen. Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair, and,
+projecting from the upper portion of the calves, to which they were
+attached, were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts of
+the beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey. Such was the
+elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watching the approach of
+our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen;
+only those who see it do not often live to describe it. Of course I
+could not make out all these details of his full dress on the occasion
+of this my first introduction, being, indeed, amply taken up with the
+consideration of the general effect, but I had plenty of subsequent
+opportunities of becoming acquainted with the items that went to make
+it up.
+
+Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drew himself up
+in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us, and, turning,
+vanished on the further side of the slope.
+
+“Hulloa!” holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; “our friend the
+caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the Masai after
+us. Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?”
+
+I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had
+no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we could eat raw,
+so it was difficult to know what to do. At last Umslopogaas simplified
+matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping
+off into the bush like a snake, while we hung off in the stream waiting
+for him. In half an hour he returned, and told us that there was not a
+Masai to be seen anywhere about, but that he had discovered a spot
+where they had recently been encamped, and that from various
+indications he judged that they must have moved on an hour or so
+before; the man we saw having, no doubt, been left to report upon our
+movements.
+
+Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded to cook and
+eat our evening meal. This done, we took the situation into our serious
+consideration. Of course, it was possible that the apparition of the
+Masai warrior had nothing to do with us, that he was merely one of a
+band bent upon some marauding and murdering expedition against another
+tribe. But when we recalled the threat of the caravan leader, and
+reflected on the ominous way in which the warrior had shaken his spear
+at us, this did not appear very probable. On the contrary, what did
+seem probable was that the party was after us and awaiting a favourable
+opportunity to attack us. This being so, there were two things that we
+could do—one of which was to go on, and the other to go back. The
+latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious that we
+should encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance; and,
+besides, we had made up our minds to journey onwards at any price.
+Under these circumstances, however, we did not consider it safe to
+sleep ashore, so we got into our canoes, and, paddling out into the
+middle of the stream, which was not very wide here, managed to anchor
+them by means of big stones fastened to ropes made of coconut-fibre, of
+which there were several fathoms in each canoe.
+
+Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined with
+anxiety as to our position, effectually prevented me from sleeping as
+the others were doing, notwithstanding the attacks of the aforesaid
+Tana mosquitoes. And so I lay awake, smoking and reflecting on many
+things, but, being of a practical turn of mind, chiefly on how we were
+to give those Masai villains the slip. It was a beautiful moonlight
+night, and, notwithstanding the mosquitoes, and the great risk we were
+running from fever from sleeping in such a spot, and forgetting that I
+had the cramp very badly in my right leg from squatting in a
+constrained position in the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was
+sleeping beside me smelt horribly, I really began to enjoy myself. The
+moonbeams played upon the surface of the running water that speeded
+unceasingly past us towards the sea, like men’s lives towards the
+grave, till it glittered like a wide sheet of silver, that is in the
+open where the trees threw no shadows. Near the banks, however, it was
+very dark, and the night wind sighed sadly in the reeds. To our left,
+on the further side of the river, was a little sandy bay which was
+clear of trees, and here I could make out the forms of numerous
+antelopes advancing to the water, till suddenly there came an ominous
+roar, whereupon they all made off hurriedly. Then after a pause I
+caught sight of the massive form of His Majesty the Lion, coming down
+to drink his fill after meat. Presently he moved on, then came a
+crashing of the reeds about fifty yards above us, and a few minutes
+later a huge black mass rose out of the water, about twenty yards from
+me, and snorted. It was the head of a hippopotamus. Down it went
+without a sound, only to rise again within five yards of where I sat.
+This was decidedly too near to be comfortable, more especially as the
+hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense curiosity to know what
+on earth our canoes were. He opened his great mouth, to yawn, I
+suppose, and gave me an excellent view of his ivories; and I could not
+help reflecting how easily he could crunch up our frail canoe with a
+single bite. Indeed, I had half a mind to give him a ball from my
+eight-bore, but on reflection determined to let him alone unless he
+actually charged the boat. Presently he sank again as noiselessly as
+before, and I saw no more of him. Just then, on looking towards the
+bank on our right, I fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure
+flitting between the tree trunks. I have very keen sight, and I was
+almost sure that I saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or
+man I could not say. At the moment, however, a dark cloud passed over
+the moon, and I saw no more of it. Just then, too, although all the
+other sounds of the forest had ceased, a species of horned owl with
+which I was well acquainted began to hoot with great persistency. After
+that, save for the rustling of trees and reeds when the wind caught
+them, there was complete silence.
+
+But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become
+nervous. There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond the
+ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller, and yet
+I undoubtedly was. If there is one thing more than another of which I
+have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief, it is of
+presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filled with and
+possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of approaching evil. I would
+not give way to it, however, although I felt the cold perspiration
+stand out upon my forehead. I would not arouse the others. Worse and
+worse I grew, my pulse fluttered like a dying man’s, my nerves thrilled
+with the horrible sense of impotent terror which anybody who is subject
+to nightmare will be familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my
+fears, and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the bow
+of the canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view of
+Umslopogaas and the two Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside of and
+beyond me.
+
+In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then the owl
+hooted again in a kind of unnatural screaming note,[4] and the wind
+began to moan plaintively through the trees, making a heart-chilling
+music. Above was the black bosom of the cloud, and beneath me swept the
+black flood of the water, and I felt as though I and Death were utterly
+alone between them. It was very desolate.
+
+ [4] No doubt this owl was a wingless bird. I afterwards learnt that
+ the hooting of an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes.—A.
+ Q.
+
+Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heart to stand
+still. Was it fancy, or were we moving? I turned my eyes to look for
+the other canoe which should be alongside of us. I could not see it,
+but instead I saw a lean and clutching black hand lifting itself above
+the gunwale of the little boat. Surely it was a nightmare! At the same
+instant a dim but devilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the
+water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife,
+and an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (the
+same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something warm
+spurted into my face. In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that
+it was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by swimming Masai.
+Snatching at the first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be
+Umslopogaas’ battleaxe, I struck with all my force in the direction in
+which I had seen the flash of the knife. The blow fell upon a man’s
+arm, and, catching it against the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe,
+completely severed it from the body just above the wrist. As for its
+owner, he uttered no sound or cry. Like a ghost he came, and like a
+ghost he went, leaving behind him a bloody hand still gripping a great
+knife, or rather a short sword, that was buried in the heart of our
+poor servant.
+
+Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied, rightly or
+wrongly, that I made out several dark heads gliding away towards the
+right-hand bank, whither we were rapidly drifting, for the rope by
+which we were moored had been severed with a knife. As soon as I had
+realised this fact, I also realised that the scheme had been to cut the
+boat loose so that it should drift on to the right bank (as it would
+have done with the natural swing of the current), where no doubt a
+party of Masai were waiting to dig their shovel-headed spears into us.
+Seizing one paddle myself, I told Umslopogaas to take another (for the
+remaining Askari was too frightened and bewildered to be of any use),
+and together we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the stream;
+and not an instant too soon, for in another minute we should have been
+aground, and then there would have been an end of us.
+
+As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoe
+upstream again to where the other was moored; and very hard and
+dangerous work it was in the dark, and with nothing but the notes of
+Good’s stentorian shouts, which he kept firing off at intervals like a
+fog-horn, to guide us. But at last we fetched up, and were thankful to
+find that they had not been molested at all. No doubt the owner of the
+same hand that severed our rope should have severed theirs also, but
+was led away from his purpose by an irresistible inclination to murder
+when he got the chance, which, while it cost us a man and him his hand,
+undoubtedly saved all the rest of us from massacre. Had it not been for
+that ghastly apparition over the side of the boat—an apparition that I
+shall never forget till my dying hour—the canoe would undoubtedly have
+drifted ashore before I realised what had happened, and this history
+would never have been written by me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+THE MISSION STATION
+
+
+We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, and sat
+waiting for the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon our merciful
+escape, which really seemed to result more from the special favour of
+Providence than from our own care or prowess. At last it came, and I
+have not often been more grateful to see the light, though so far as my
+canoe was concerned it revealed a ghastly sight. There in the bottom of
+the little boat lay the unfortunate Askari, the sime, or sword, in his
+bosom, and the severed hand gripping the handle. I could not bear the
+sight, so hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to the
+other canoe, we made it fast to the murdered man and dropped him
+overboard, and down he went to the bottom, leaving nothing but a train
+of bubbles behind him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him
+leave nothing but bubbles behind, to show that we have been, and the
+bubbles soon burst. The hand of his murderer we threw into the stream,
+where it slowly sank. The sword, of which the handle was ivory, inlaid
+with gold (evidently Arab work), I kept and used as a hunting-knife,
+and very useful it proved.
+
+Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once more started
+on in very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortable as to the
+future, but fondly hoping to arrive at the “Highlands” station by
+night. To make matters worse, within an hour of sunrise it came on to
+rain in torrents, wetting us to the skin, and even necessitating the
+occasional baling of the canoes, and as the rain beat down the wind we
+could not use the sails, and had to get along as best as we could with
+our paddles.
+
+At eleven o’clock we halted on an open piece of ground on the left bank
+of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managed to make a fire
+and catch and broil some fish. We did not dare to wander about to
+search for game. At two o’clock we got off again, taking a supply of
+broiled fish with us, and shortly afterwards the rain came on harder
+than ever. Also the river began to get exceedingly difficult to
+navigate on account of the numerous rocks, reaches of shallow water,
+and the increased force of the current; so that it soon became clear to
+us that we should not reach the Rev. Mackenzie’s hospitable roof that
+night—a prospect that did not tend to enliven us. Toil as we would, we
+could not make more than an average of a mile an hour, and at five
+o’clock in the afternoon (by which time we were all utterly worn out)
+we reckoned that we were still quite ten miles below the station. This
+being so, we set to work to make the best arrangements we could for the
+night. After our recent experience, we simply did not dare to land,
+more especially as the banks of the Tana were clothed with dense bush
+that would have given cover to five thousand Masai, and at first I
+thought that we were going to have another night of it in the canoes.
+Fortunately, however, we espied a little rocky islet, not more than
+fifteen miles or so square, situated nearly in the middle of the river.
+For this we paddled, and, making fast the canoes, landed and made
+ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, which was very
+uncomfortable indeed. As for the weather, it continued to be simply
+vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we were chilled to the
+marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a fire. There was,
+however, one consoling circumstance about this rain; our Askari
+declared that nothing would induce the Masai to make an attack in it,
+as they intensely disliked moving about in the wet, perhaps, as Good
+suggested, because they hate the idea of washing. We ate some insipid
+and sodden cold fish—that is, with the exception of Umslopogaas, who,
+like most Zulus, cannot bear fish—and took a pull of brandy, of which
+we fortunately had a few bottles left, and then began what, with one
+exception—when we same three white men nearly perished of cold on the
+snow of Sheba’s Breast in the course of our journey to Kukuanaland—was,
+I think, the most trying night I ever experienced. It seemed absolutely
+endless, and once or twice I feared that two of the Askari would have
+died of the wet, cold, and exposure. Indeed, had it not been for timely
+doses of brandy I am sure that they would have died, for no African
+people can stand much exposure, which first paralyses and then kills
+them. I could see that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas felt it
+keenly; though, in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who groaned and
+bemoaned their fate unceasingly, he never uttered a single complaint.
+To make matters worse, about one in the morning we again heard the
+owl’s ominous hooting, and had at once to prepare ourselves for another
+attack; though, if it had been attempted, I do not think that we could
+have offered a very effective resistance. But either the owl was a real
+one this time, or else the Masai were themselves too miserable to think
+of offensive operations, which, indeed, they rarely, if ever, undertake
+in bush veldt. At any rate, we saw nothing of them.
+
+At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreaths of
+ghostly mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; and then, out
+came the glorious sun, sucking up the mists and warming the chill air.
+Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselves to our feet, and
+went and stood in the bright rays, and were thankful for them. I can
+quite understand how it is that primitive people become sun
+worshippers, especially if their conditions of life render them liable
+to exposure.
+
+In half an hour more we were once again making fair progress with the
+help of a good wind. Our spirits had returned with the sunshine, and we
+were ready to laugh at difficulties and dangers that had been almost
+crushing on the previous day.
+
+And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o’clock. Just as we were
+thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shoot something to
+eat, a sudden bend in the river brought us in sight of a
+substantial-looking European house with a veranda round it, splendidly
+situated upon a hill, and surrounded by a high stone wall with a ditch
+on the outer side. Right against and overshadowing the house was an
+enormous pine, the top of which we had seen through a glass for the
+last two days, but of course without knowing that it marked the site of
+the mission station. I was the first to see the house, and could not
+restrain myself from giving a hearty cheer, in which the others,
+including the natives, joined lustily. There was no thought of halting
+now. On we laboured, for, unfortunately, though the house seemed quite
+near, it was still a long way off by river, until at last, by one
+o’clock, we found ourselves at the bottom of the slope on which the
+building stood. Running the canoes to the bank, we disembarked, and
+were just hauling them up on to the shore, when we perceived three
+figures, dressed in ordinary English-looking clothes, hurrying down
+through a grove of trees to meet us.
+
+“A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl,” ejaculated Good, after
+surveying the trio through his eyeglass, “walking in a civilized
+fashion, through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place. Hang me,
+if this isn’t the most curious thing we have seen yet!”
+
+Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place—more like a
+scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a real tangible fact; and
+the sense of unreality was not lessened when we heard ourselves
+addressed in good broad Scotch, which, however, I cannot reproduce.
+
+“How do you do, sirs,” said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angular man,
+with a kindly face and red cheeks; “I hope I see you very well. My
+natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes with white men in
+them coming up the river; so we have just come down to meet you.”
+
+“And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let me tell
+you,” put in the lady—a charming and refined-looking person.
+
+We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce
+ourselves.
+
+“And now,” said Mr Mackenzie, “you must all be hungry and weary; so
+come on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see you. The last
+white who visited us was Alphonse—you will see Alphonse presently—and
+that was a year ago.”
+
+Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower
+portion of which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fences and
+sometimes with rough stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, just now full of
+crops of mealies, pumpkins, potatoes, etc. In the corners of these
+gardens were groups of neat mushroom-shaped huts, occupied by Mr
+Mackenzie’s mission natives, whose women and children came pouring out
+to meet us as we walked. Through the centre of the gardens ran the
+roadway up which we were walking. It was bordered on each side by a
+line of orange trees, which, although they had only been planted ten
+years, had in the lovely climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the
+base of which is about 5,000 feet above the coastline level, already
+grown to imposing proportions, and were positively laden with golden
+fruit. After a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so—for the
+hillside was steep—we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered
+with fruit, which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of about four
+acres of ground that contained his private garden, house, church, and
+outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop. And what a garden it was!
+I have always loved a good garden, and I could have thrown up my hands
+for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie’s. First there were rows upon rows of
+standard European fruit-trees, all grafted; for on top of this hill the
+climate was so temperate that nearly all the English vegetables, trees,
+and flowers flourished luxuriantly, even including several varieties of
+the apple, which, generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and
+obstinately refuses to fruit. Then there were strawberries and tomatoes
+(such tomatoes!), and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of
+vegetable and fruit.
+
+“Well, you have something like a garden!” I said, overpowered with
+admiration not untouched by envy.
+
+“Yes,” answered the missionary, “it is a very good garden, and has well
+repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I have to thank. If you
+stick a peach-stone into the ground it will bear fruit the fourth year,
+and a rose-cutting will bloom in a year. It is a lovely clime.”
+
+Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full of water, on
+the other side of which was a loopholed stone wall eight feet high, and
+with sharp flints plentifully set in mortar on the coping.
+
+“There,” said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall, “this is my
+_magnum opus;_ at least, this and the church, which is the other side
+of the house. It took me and twenty natives two years to dig the ditch
+and build the wall, but I never felt safe till it was done; and now I
+can defy all the savages in Africa, for the spring that fills the ditch
+is inside the wall, and bubbles out at the top of the hill winter and
+summer alike, and I always keep a store of four months’ provision in
+the house.”
+
+Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in the wall, we
+entered into what Mrs Mackenzie called _her_ domain—namely, the flower
+garden, the beauty of which is really beyond my power to describe. I do
+not think I ever saw such roses, gardenias, or camellias (all reared
+from seeds or cuttings sent from England); and there was also a patch
+given up to a collection of bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss
+Flossie, Mr Mackenzie’s little daughter, from the surrounding country,
+some of which were surpassingly beautiful. In the middle of this
+garden, and exactly opposite the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear
+water bubbled up from the ground, and fell into a stone-work basin
+which had been carefully built to receive it, whence the overflow found
+its way by means of a drain to the moat round the outer wall, this moat
+in its turn serving as a reservoir, whence an unfailing supply of water
+was available to irrigate all the gardens below. The house itself, a
+massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of
+stone, and had a handsome veranda in front. It was built on three sides
+of a square, the fourth side being taken up by the kitchens, which
+stood separate from the house—a very good plan in a hot country. In the
+centre of this square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable
+object that we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a
+single tree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely on the
+highlands of this part of Africa. This splendid tree, which Mr
+Mackenzie informed us was a landmark for fifty miles round, and which
+we had ourselves seen for the last forty miles of our journey, must
+have been nearly three hundred feet in height, the trunk measuring
+about sixteen feet in diameter at a yard from the ground. For some
+seventy feet it rose a beautiful tapering brown pillar without a single
+branch, but at that height splendid dark green boughs, which, looked at
+from below, had the appearance of gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out
+horizontally from the trunk, projecting right over the house and
+flower-garden, to both of which they furnished a grateful proportion of
+shade, without—being so high up—offering any impediment to the passage
+of light and air.
+
+“What a beautiful tree!” exclaimed Sir Henry.
+
+“Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree. There is not another like
+it in all the country round, that I know of,” answered Mr Mackenzie. “I
+call it my watch tower. As you see, I have a rope ladder fixed to the
+lowest bough; and if I want to see anything that is going on within
+fifteen miles or so, all I have to do is to run up it with a spyglass.
+But you must be hungry, and I am sure the dinner is cooked. Come in, my
+friends; it is but a rough place, but well enough for these savage
+parts; and I can tell you what, we have got—a French cook.” And he led
+the way on to the veranda.
+
+As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he could mean by
+this, there suddenly appeared, through the door that opened on to the
+veranda from the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue
+cotton suit, with shoes made of tanned hide, and remarkable for a
+bustling air and most enormous black mustachios, shaped into an upward
+curve, and coming to a point for all the world like a pair of
+buffalo-horns.
+
+“Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved. Messieurs, my
+compliments;” then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who was loitering
+along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw up his hands in
+astonishment. “_Ah, mais quel homme!_” he ejaculated in French, “_quel
+sauvage affreux!_ Take but note of his huge choppare and the great pit
+in his head.”
+
+“Ay,” said Mr Mackenzie; “what are you talking about, Alphonse?”
+
+“Talking about!” replied the little Frenchman, his eyes still fixed
+upon Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate him;
+“why I talk of him”—and he rudely pointed—“of _ce monsieur noir_.”
+
+At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceiving that he
+was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he had a most lordly
+dislike of anything like a personal liberty.
+
+“_Parbleu!_” said Alphonse, “he is angered—he makes the grimace. I like
+not his air. I vanish.” And he did with considerable rapidity.
+
+Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which we indulged
+in. “He is a queer character—Alphonse,” he said. “By and by I will tell
+you his history; in the meanwhile let us try his cooking.”
+
+“Might I ask,” said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent
+dinner, “how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?”
+
+“Oh,” answered Mrs Mackenzie, “he arrived here of his own accord about
+a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service. He had got into
+some trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an
+application had been made by the French Government for his extradition.
+Whereupon he rushed off up-country, and fell in, when nearly starved,
+with our caravan of men, who were bringing us our annual supply of
+goods, and was brought on here. You should get him to tell you the
+story.”
+
+When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded to give
+our host a description of our journey up here, over which he looked
+very grave.
+
+“It is evident to me,” he said, “that those rascally Masai are
+following you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this house
+in safety. I do not think that they will dare to attack you here. It is
+unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men have gone down to the coast
+with ivory and goods. There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and
+the consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for
+defensive purposes in case they should attack us. But, still, I will
+just give a few orders;” and, calling a black man who was loitering
+about outside in the garden, he went to the window, and addressed him
+in a Swahili dialect. The man listened, and then saluted and departed.
+
+“I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamity upon
+you,” said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. “Rather than
+bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears, we will move on and
+take our chance.”
+
+“You will do nothing of the sort. If the Masai come, they come, and
+there is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty warm
+greeting. I would not show any man the door for all the Masai in the
+world.”
+
+“That reminds me,” I said, “the Consul at Lamu told me that he had had
+a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrived here who
+reported that he had come across a white people in the interior. Do you
+think that there was any truth in his story? I ask, because I have once
+or twice in my life heard rumours from natives who have come down from
+the far north of the existence of such a race.”
+
+Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned,
+bringing with him a most curious sword. It was long, and all the blade,
+which was very thick and heavy, was to within a quarter of an inch of
+the cutting edge worked into an ornamental pattern exactly as we work
+soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however, being invariably pierced
+in such a way as not to interfere with the strength of the sword. This
+in itself was sufficiently curious, but what was still more so was that
+all the edges of the hollow spaces cut through the substance of the
+blade were most beautifully inlaid with gold, which was in some way
+that I cannot understand welded on to the steel.[5]
+
+ [5] Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords,
+ but have never been able to discover how the gold plates were inlaid
+ in the fretwork. The armourers who make them in Zu-vendis bind
+ themselves by oath not to reveal the secret.—A. Q.
+
+“There,” said Mr Mackenzie, “did you ever see a sword like that?”
+
+We all examined it and shook our heads.
+
+“Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the man who said
+he had seen the white people brought with him, and because it does more
+or less give an air of truth to what I should otherwise have set down
+as a lie. Look here; I will tell you all that I know about the matter,
+which is not much. One afternoon, just before sunset, I was sitting on
+the veranda, when a poor, miserable, starved-looking man came limping
+up and squatted down before me. I asked him where he came from and what
+he wanted, and thereon he plunged into a long rambling narrative about
+how he belonged to a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was
+destroyed by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven
+still further north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, he made
+his way to another lake that lay up in the mountains, ‘a lake without a
+bottom’ he called it, and here his wife and brother died of an
+infectious sickness—probably smallpox—whereon the people drove him out
+of their villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over
+mountains for ten days, after which he got into dense thorn forest, and
+was one day found there by some _white men_ who were hunting, and who
+took him to a place where all the people were white and lived in stone
+houses. Here he remained a week shut up in a house, till one night a
+man with a white beard, whom he understood to be a ‘medicine-man’, came
+and inspected him, after which he was led off and taken through the
+thorn forest to the confines of the wilderness, and given food and this
+sword (at least so he said), and turned loose.”
+
+“Well,” said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathless
+interest, “and what did he do then?”
+
+“Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone through
+sufferings and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weeks on
+roots and berries, and such things as he could catch and kill. But
+somehow he did live, and at last by slow degrees made his way south and
+reached this place. What the details of his journey were I never
+learnt, for I told him to return on the morrow, bidding one of my
+headmen look after him for the night. The headman took him away, but
+the poor man had the itch so badly that the headman’s wife would not
+have him in the hut for fear of catching it, so he was given a blanket
+and told to sleep outside. As it happened, we had a lion hanging about
+here just then, and most unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer,
+and, springing on him, bit his head almost off without the people in
+the hut knowing anything about it, and there was an end of him and his
+story about the white people; and whether or no there is any truth in
+it is more than I can tell you. What do you think, Mr Quatermain?”
+
+I shook my head, and answered, “I don’t know. There are so many queer
+things hidden away in the heart of this great continent that I should
+be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to
+try and find out. We intend to journey to Lekakisera, and thence, if we
+live to get so far, to this Lake Laga; and, if there are any white
+people beyond, we will do our best to find them.”
+
+“You are very venturesome people,” said Mr Mackenzie, with a smile, and
+the subject dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+
+
+After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and grounds
+of the station, which I consider the most successful as well as the
+most beautiful place of the sort that I have seen in Africa. We then
+returned to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaas taking advantage of
+this favourable opportunity to clean all the rifles thoroughly. This
+was the only _work_ that he ever did or was asked to do, for as a Zulu
+chief it was beneath his dignity to work with his hands; but such as it
+was he did it very well. It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu
+sitting there upon the floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall
+behind him, whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily
+employed, delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism
+of the breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One—a double
+four-bore belonging to Sir Henry—was the Thunderer; another, my 500
+Express, which had a peculiarly sharp report, was “the little one who
+spoke like a whip”; the Winchester repeaters were “the women, who
+talked so fast that you could not tell one word from another”; the six
+Martinis were “the common people”; and so on with them all. It was very
+curious to hear him addressing each gun as he cleaned it, as though it
+were an individual, and in a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the
+same with his battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate
+friend, and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over all
+his old adventures with it—and dreadful enough some of them were. By a
+piece of grim humour, he had named this axe “Inkosi-kaas”, which is the
+Zulu word for chieftainess. For a long while I could not make out why
+he gave it such a name, and at last I asked him, when he informed me
+that the axe was very evidently feminine, because of her womanly habit
+of prying very deep into things, and that she was clearly a
+chieftainess because all men fell down before her, struck dumb at the
+sight of her beauty and power. In the same way he would consult
+“Inkosi-kaas” if in any dilemma; and when I asked him why he did so, he
+informed me it was because she must needs be wise, having “looked into
+so many people’s brains”.
+
+I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon. It was,
+as I have said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an
+enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet three inches long, about an
+inch and a quarter thick, and with a knob at the end as large as a
+Maltese orange, left there to prevent the hand from slipping. This horn
+haft, though so massive, was as flexible as cane, and practically
+unbreakable; but, to make assurance doubly sure, it was whipped round
+at intervals of a few inches with copper wire—all the parts where the
+hands grip being thus treated. Just above where the haft entered the
+head were scored a number of little nicks, each nick representing a man
+killed in battle with the weapon. The axe itself was made of the most
+beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though
+Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken it from the
+hand of a chief he had killed in battle many years before. It was not
+very heavy, the head weighing two and a half pounds, as nearly as I
+could judge. The cutting part was slightly concave in shape—not convex,
+as is generally the case with savage battle-axes—and sharp as a razor,
+measuring five and three-quarter inches across the widest part. From
+the back of the axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last
+two of which it was hollow, and shaped like a leather punch, with an
+opening for anything forced into the hollow at the punch end to be
+pushed out above—in fact, in this respect it exactly resembled a
+butcher’s pole-axe. It was with this punch end, as we afterwards
+discovered, that Umslopogaas usually struck when fighting, driving a
+neat round hole in his adversary’s skull, and only using the broad
+cutting edge for a circular sweep, or sometimes in a _mêlée_. I think
+he considered the punch a neater and more sportsmanlike tool, and it
+was from his habit of pecking at his enemy with it that he got his name
+of “Woodpecker”. Certainly in his hands it was a terribly efficient
+one.
+
+Such was Umslopogaas’ axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and fatal
+hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished as much
+as his own life. It scarcely ever left his hand except when he was
+eating, and then he always sat with it under his leg.
+
+Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie came up and
+took me off to see her collection of flowers, African liliums, and
+blooming shrubs, some of which are very beautiful, many of the
+varieties being quite unknown to me and also, I believe, to botanical
+science. I asked her if she had ever seen or heard of the “Goya” lily,
+which Central African explorers have told me they have occasionally met
+with and whose wonderful loveliness has filled them with astonishment.
+This lily, which the natives say blooms only once in ten years,
+flourishes in the most arid soil. Compared to the size of the bloom,
+the bulb is small, generally weighing about four pounds. As for the
+flower itself (which I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to
+impress its appearance fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe
+its beauty and splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its
+perfume. The flower—for it has only one bloom—rises from the crown of
+the bulb on a thick fleshy and flat-sided stem, the specimen that I saw
+measured fourteen inches in diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped
+like the bloom of an ordinary “longiflorum” set vertically. First there
+is the green sheath, which in its early stage is not unlike that of a
+water-lily, but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and
+curls back gracefully towards the stem. Then comes the bloom itself, a
+single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richest velvety
+crimson, from the heart of which rises a golden-coloured pistil. I have
+never seen anything to equal this bloom in beauty or fragrance, and as
+I believe it is but little known, I take the liberty to describe it at
+length. Looking at it for the first time I well remember that I
+realised how even in a flower there dwells something of the majesty of
+its Maker. To my great delight Miss Flossie told me that she knew the
+flower well and had tried to grow it in her garden, but without
+success, adding, however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of
+the year she thought that she could procure me a specimen.
+
+After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here among all
+these savage people and without any companions of her own age.
+
+“Lonely?” she said. “Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day is long,
+and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried
+in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could
+tell the difference! Here,” she said, giving her head a little toss, “I
+am _I;_ and every native for miles around knows the ‘Water-lily’,—for
+that is what they call me—and is ready to do what I want, but in the
+books that I have read about little girls in England it is not like
+that. Everybody thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their
+schoolmistress likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage
+like that and not to be free—free as the air.”
+
+“Would you not like to learn?” I asked.
+
+“So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.”
+
+“And are you never afraid among all these wild men?”
+
+“Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that
+I am ‘Ngai’ (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair hair.
+And look here,” and diving her little hand into the bodice of her dress
+she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, “I always
+carry that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him.
+Once I shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along.
+It frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead,
+and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!” she went on in an altered
+voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, “I
+said just now that I had companions; there is one of them.”
+
+I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight the glory of
+Mount Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always been hidden in mist, but
+now its radiant beauty was unveiled for many thousand feet, although
+the base was still wrapped in vapour so that the lofty peak or pillar,
+towering nearly twenty thousand feet into the sky, appeared to be a
+fairy vision, hanging between earth and heaven, and based upon the
+clouds. The solemn majesty and beauty of this white peak are together
+beyond the power of my poor pen to describe. There it rose straight and
+sheer—a glittering white glory, its crest piercing the very blue of
+heaven. As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my whole heart
+lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a moment great and
+wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, even as the arrows of
+the setting sun were breaking upon Kenia’s snows. Mr Mackenzie’s
+natives call the mountain the “Finger of God”, and to me it did seem
+eloquent of immortal peace and of the pure high calm that surely lies
+above this fevered world. Somewhere I had heard a line of poetry,
+
+A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
+
+and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughly
+understood what it meant. Base, indeed, would be the man who could look
+upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile— that white old tombstone of the
+years—and not feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatever name
+he calls Him, worship God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of
+the spirit; they throw wide the windows of the chamber of our small
+selfishness and let in a breath of that air that rushes round the
+rolling spheres, and for a while illumine our darkness with a far-off
+gleam of the white light which beats upon the Throne.
+
+Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I can well
+understand what little Flossie meant when she talked of Kenia as her
+companion. As Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu that he was, said when I
+pointed out to him the peak hanging in the glittering air: “A man might
+look thereon for a thousand years and yet be hungry to see.” But he
+gave rather another colour to his poetical idea when he added in a sort
+of chant, and with a touch of that weird imagination for which the man
+was remarkable, that when he was dead he should like his spirit to sit
+upon that snow-clad peak for ever, and to rush down the steep white
+sides in the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash of the lightning,
+and “slay, and slay, and slay”.
+
+“Slay what, you old bloodhound?” I asked.
+
+This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered—
+
+“The other shadows.”
+
+“So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?” I said.
+
+“I murder not,” he answered hotly; “I kill in fair fight. Man is born
+to kill. He who kills not when his blood is hot is a woman, and no man.
+The people who kill not are slaves. I say I kill in fair fight; and
+when I am ‘in the shadow’, as you white men say, I hope to go on
+killing in fair fight. May my shadow be accursed and chilled to the
+bone for ever if it should fall to murdering like a bushman with his
+poisoned arrows!” And he stalked away with much dignity, and left me
+laughing.
+
+Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morning to find
+out if there were any traces of our Masai friends about, returned, and
+reported that the country had been scoured for fifteen miles round
+without a single Elmoran being seen, and that they believed that those
+gentry had given up the pursuit and returned whence they came. Mr
+Mackenzie gave a sigh of relief when he heard this, and so indeed did
+we, for we had had quite enough of the Masai to last us for some time.
+Indeed, the general opinion was that, finding we had reached the
+mission station in safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the
+pursuit of us as a bad job. How ill-judged that view was the sequel
+will show.
+
+After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retired for
+the night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, and Sir Henry, who
+is a very good French scholar, got him to tell us how he came to visit
+Central Africa, which he did in a most extraordinary lingo, that for
+the most part I shall not attempt to reproduce.
+
+“My grandfather,” he began, “was a soldier of the Guard, and served
+under Napoleon. He was in the retreat from Moscow, and lived for ten
+days on his own leggings and a pair he stole from a comrade. He used to
+get drunk—he died drunk, and I remember playing at drums on his coffin.
+My father—”
+
+Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come to the
+point.
+
+“Bien, messieurs!” replied this comical little man, with a polite bow.
+“I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principle is not
+hereditary. My grandfather was a splendid man, six feet two high, broad
+in proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters. Also he was remarkable
+for his moustache. To me there remains the moustache and—nothing more.
+
+“I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles. In that dear
+town I spent my happy youth. For years and years I washed the dishes at
+the Hôtel Continental. Ah, those were golden days!” and he sighed. “I
+am a Frenchman. Need I say, messieurs, that I admire beauty? Nay, I
+adore the fair. Messieurs, we admire all the roses in a garden, but we
+pluck one. _I_ plucked one, and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger.
+She was a chambermaid, her name Annette, her figure ravishing, her face
+an angel’s, her heart—alas, messieurs, that I should have to own
+it!—black and slippery as a patent leather boot. I loved to
+desperation, I adored her to despair. She transported me—in every
+sense; she inspired me. Never have I cooked as I cooked (for I had been
+promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette, smiled on me.
+Never”—and here his manly voice broke into a sob—“never shall I cook so
+well again.” Here he melted into tears.
+
+“Come, cheer up!” said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartly on the
+back. “There’s no knowing what may happen, you know. To judge from your
+dinner today, I should say you were in a fair way to recovery.”
+
+Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back. “Monsieur,” he
+said, “doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy. To continue:
+we loved, and were happy in each other’s love. The birds in their
+little nest could not be happier than Alphonse and his Annette. Then
+came the blow—sapristi!—when I think of it. Messieurs will forgive me
+if I wipe away a tear. Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the
+conscription. Fortune would be avenged on me for having won the heart
+of Annette.
+
+“The evil moment came; I had to go. I tried to run away, but I was
+caught by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with the butt-end of
+muskets till my mustachios curled with pain. I had a cousin a
+linen-draper, well-to-do, but very ugly. He had drawn a good number,
+and sympathized when they thumped me. ‘To thee, my cousin,’ I said, ‘to
+thee, in whose veins flows the blue blood of our heroic grandparent, to
+thee I consign Annette. Watch over her whilst I hunt for glory in the
+bloody field.’
+
+“‘Make your mind easy,’ said he; ‘I will.’ As the sequel shows, he did!
+
+“I went. I lived in barracks on black soup. I am a refined man and a
+poet by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarse horror of my
+surroundings. There was a drill sergeant, and he had a cane. Ah, that
+cane, how it curled! Alas, never can I forget it!
+
+“One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin. The
+drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced. I—I made
+enquiries about Tonquin. They were not satisfactory. In Tonquin are
+savage Chinese who rip you open. My artistic tastes—for I am also an
+artist—recoiled from the idea of being ripped open. The great man makes
+up his mind quickly. I made up my mind. I determined not to be ripped
+open. I deserted.
+
+“I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man. I went to the house of
+my cousin—he in whom runs my grandfather’s heroic blood—and there sat
+Annette. It was the season of cherries. They took a double stalk. At
+each end was a cherry. My cousin put one into his mouth, Annette put
+the other in hers. Then they drew the stalks in till their eyes met—and
+alas, alas that I should have to say it!—they kissed. The game was a
+pretty one, but it filled me with fury. The heroic blood of my
+grandfather boiled up in me. I rushed into the kitchen. I struck my
+cousin with the old man’s crutch. He fell—I had slain him. Alas, I
+believe that I did slay him. Annette screamed. The gendarmes came. I
+fled. I reached the harbour. I hid aboard a vessel. The vessel put to
+sea. The captain found me and beat me. He took an opportunity. He
+posted a letter from a foreign port to the police. He did not put me
+ashore because I cooked so well. I cooked for him all the way to
+Zanzibar. When I asked for payment he kicked me. The blood of my heroic
+grandfather boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his face and vowed
+to have my revenge. He kicked me again. At Zanzibar there was a
+telegram. I cursed the man who invented telegraphs. Now I curse him
+again. I was to be arrested for desertion, for murder, and _que
+sais-je?_ I escaped from the prison. I fled, I starved. I met the men
+of Monsieur le Curé. They brought me here. I am full of woe. But I
+return not to France. Better to risk my life in these horrible places
+than to know the Bagne.”
+
+He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turn our faces
+away.
+
+“Ah! you weep, messieurs,” he said. “No wonder—it is a sad story.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said Sir Henry, “the heroic blood of your grandparent will
+triumph after all; perhaps you will still be great. At any rate we
+shall see. And now I vote we go to bed. I am dead tired, and we had not
+much sleep on that confounded rock last night.”
+
+And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white sheets
+seemed to us after our recent experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+
+
+Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was.
+
+“Well,” said her mother, “when I got up this morning I found a note put
+outside my door in which—But here it is, you can read it for yourself,”
+and she gave me the slip of paper on which the following was written:—
+
+“DEAREST M—,—It is just dawn, and I am off to the hills to get Mr Q—a
+bloom of the lily he wants, so don’t expect me till you see me. I have
+taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple of boys are coming with
+me—also something to eat, as I may be away all day, for I am determined
+to get the lily if I have to go twenty miles for it.—FLOSSIE.”
+
+“I hope she will be all right,” I said, a little anxiously; “I never
+meant her to trouble after the flower.”
+
+“Ah, Flossie can look after herself,” said her mother; “she often goes
+off in this way like a true child of the wilderness.” But Mr Mackenzie,
+who came in just then and saw the note for the first time, looked
+rather grave, though he said nothing.
+
+After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whether it
+would not be possible to send after the girl and get her back, having
+in view the possibility of there still being some Masai hanging about,
+at whose hands she might come to harm.
+
+“I fear it would be of no use,” he answered. “She may be fifteen miles
+off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken. There
+are the hills;” and he pointed to a long range of rising ground
+stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana,
+but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five miles
+short of the house.
+
+Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over the house and
+search the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie
+had given some orders to his people to try and follow Flossie’s spoor,
+we did.
+
+The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance, even
+with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up, at least to a
+landsman; but Good came up like a lamplighter.
+
+On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs sprang
+from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon a platform made
+of boards, nailed from one bough to another, and large enough to
+accommodate a dozen people. As for the view, it was simply glorious. In
+every direction the bush rolled away in great billows for miles and
+miles, as far as the glass would show, only here and there broken by
+the brighter green of patches of cultivation, or by the glittering
+surface of lakes. To the northwest, Kenia reared his mighty head, and
+we could trace the Tana river curling like a silver snake almost from
+his feet, and far away beyond us towards the ocean. It is a glorious
+country, and only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most
+productive one.
+
+But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and her donkey,
+so at last we had to come down disappointed. On reaching the veranda I
+found Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightly sharpening his axe
+with a small whetstone he always carried with him.
+
+“What doest thou, Umslopogaas?” I asked.
+
+“I smell blood,” was the answer; and I could get no more out of him.
+
+After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surrounding
+country with a spyglass, but without result. When we came down
+Umslopogaas was still sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she already had
+an edge like a razor. Standing in front of him, and regarding him with
+a mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse. And certainly he did
+seem an alarming object—sitting there, Zulu fashion, on his haunches, a
+wild look upon his intensely savage and yet intellectual face,
+sharpening, sharpening, sharpening at the murderous-looking axe.
+
+“Oh, the monster, the horrible man!” said the little French cook,
+lifting his hands in amazement. “See but the hole in his head; the skin
+beats on it up and down like a baby’s! Who would nurse such a baby?”
+and he burst out laughing at the idea.
+
+For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and a sort of
+evil light played in his dark eyes.
+
+“What does the little ‘buffalo-heifer’ [so named by Umslopogaas, on
+account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say? Let him be
+careful, or I will cut his horns. Beware, little man monkey, beware!”
+
+Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him, went on
+laughing at “_ce drôle d’un monsieur noir_”. I was about to warn him to
+desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded off the veranda on to the
+open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort
+of malicious enthusiasm, and began swinging the axe round and round
+over the Frenchman’s head.
+
+“Stand still,” I shouted; “do not move as you value your life—he will
+not hurt you;” but I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being, fortunately for
+himself, almost petrified with horror.
+
+Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or rather of
+axemanship, that I ever saw. First of all the axe went flying round and
+round over the top of Alphonse’s head, with an angry whirl and such
+extraordinary swiftness that it looked like a continuous band of steel,
+ever getting nearer and yet nearer to that unhappy individual’s skull,
+till at last it grazed it as it flew. Then suddenly the motion was
+changed, and it seemed to literally flow up and down his body and
+limbs, never more than an eighth of an inch from them, and yet never
+striking them. It was a wonderful sight to see the little man fixed
+there, having apparently realised that to move would be to run the risk
+of sudden death, while his black tormentor towered over him, and
+wrapped him round with the quick flashes of the axe. For a minute or
+more this went on, till suddenly I saw the moving brightness travel
+down the side of Alphonse’s face, and then outwards and stop. As it did
+so a tuft of something black fell to the ground; it was the tip of one
+of the little Frenchman’s curling mustachios.
+
+Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke into a
+long, low laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank into a sitting
+posture on the ground, while we stood astonished at this exhibition of
+almost superhuman skill and mastery of a weapon. “Inkosi-kaas is sharp
+enough,” he shouted; “the blow that clipped the ‘buffalo-heifer’s’ horn
+would have split a man from the crown to the chin. Few could have
+struck it but I; none could have struck it and not taken off the
+shoulder too. Look, thou little heifer! Am I a good man to laugh at,
+thinkest thou? For a space hast thou stood within a hair’s-breadth of
+death. Laugh not again, lest the hair’s-breadth be wanting. I have
+spoken.”
+
+“What meanest thou by such mad tricks?” I asked of Umslopogaas,
+indignantly. “Surely thou art mad. Twenty times didst thou go near to
+slaying the man.”
+
+“And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not. Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flew the spirit
+entered into me to end him, and send her crashing through his skull;
+but I did not. Nay, it was but a jest; but tell the ‘heifer’ that it is
+not well to mock at such as I. Now I go to make a shield, for I smell
+blood, Macumazahn—of a truth I smell blood. Before the battle hast thou
+not seen the vulture grow of a sudden in the sky? They smell the blood,
+Macumazahn, and my scent is more keen than theirs. There is a dry
+ox-hide down yonder; I go to make a shield.”
+
+“That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours,” said Mr Mackenzie, who
+had witnessed this extraordinary scene. “He has frightened Alphonse out
+of his wits; look!” and he pointed to the Frenchman, who, with a scared
+white face and trembling limbs, was making his way into the house. “I
+don’t think that he will ever laugh at ‘le monsieur noir’ again.”
+
+“Yes,” answered I, “it is ill jesting with such as he. When he is
+roused he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heart in his own
+fierce way. I remember years ago seeing him nurse a sick child for a
+week. He is a strange character, but true as steel, and a strong stick
+to rest on in danger.”
+
+“He says he smells blood,” said Mr Mackenzie. “I only trust he is not
+right. I am getting very fearful about my little girl. She must have
+gone far, or she would be home by now. It is half-past three o’clock.”
+
+I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likely would
+not in the ordinary course of events return till nightfall; but I
+myself felt very anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayed itself.
+
+Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent out to search
+for Flossie returned, stating that they had followed the spoor of the
+donkey for a couple of miles and had then lost it on some stony ground,
+nor could they discover it again. They had, however, scoured the
+country far and wide, but without success.
+
+After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening, there
+still being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew very keen. As for the
+poor mother, she was quite prostrated by her fears, and no wonder, but
+the father kept his head wonderfully well. Everything that could be
+done was done: people were sent out in all directions, shots were
+fired, and a continuous outlook kept from the great tree, but without
+avail.
+
+And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired little Flossie.
+
+At eight o’clock we had supper. It was but a sorrowful meal, and Mrs
+Mackenzie did not appear at it. We three also were very silent, for in
+addition to our natural anxiety as to the fate of the child, we were
+weighed down by the sense that we had brought this trouble on the head
+of our kind host. When supper was nearly at an end I made an excuse to
+leave the table. I wanted to get outside and think the situation over.
+I went on to the veranda and, having lit my pipe, sat down on a seat
+about a dozen feet from the right-hand end of the structure, which was,
+as the reader may remember, exactly opposite one of the narrow doors of
+the protecting wall that enclosed the house and flower garden. I had
+been sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thought I heard
+the door move. I looked in that direction and I listened, but, being
+unable to make out anything, concluded that I must have been mistaken.
+It was a darkish night, the moon not having yet risen.
+
+Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell with a soft
+but heavy thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda, and came
+bounding and rolling along past me. For a moment I did not rise, but
+sat wondering what it could be. Finally, I concluded it must have been
+an animal. Just then, however, another idea struck me, and I got up
+quick enough. The thing lay quite still a few feet beyond me. I put
+down my hand towards it and it did not move: clearly it was not an
+animal. My hand touched it. It was soft and warm and heavy. Hurriedly I
+lifted it and held it up against the faint starlight.
+
+_It was a newly severed human head!_
+
+I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastly
+sight made me feel sick. How had the thing come there? Whose was it? I
+put it down and ran to the little doorway. I could see nothing, hear
+nobody. I was about to go out into the darkness beyond, but remembering
+that to do so was to expose myself to the risk of being stabbed, I drew
+back, shut the door, and bolted it. Then I returned to the veranda, and
+in as careless a voice as I could command called Curtis. I fear,
+however, that my tones must have betrayed me, for not only Sir Henry
+but also Good and Mackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out.
+
+“What is it?” said the clergyman, anxiously.
+
+Then I had to tell them.
+
+Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin. We were standing
+opposite the hall door, and there was a light in it so that I could
+see. He snatched the head up by the hair and held it against the light.
+
+“It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie,” he said
+with a gasp. “Thank God it is not hers!”
+
+We all stood and stared at each other aghast. What was to be done?
+
+Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted, and a
+voice cried, “Open, my father, open!”
+
+The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man. He was one of the
+spies who had been sent out.
+
+“My father,” he cried, “the Masai are on us! A great body of them have
+passed round the hill and are moving towards the old stone kraal down
+by the little stream. My father, make strong thy heart! In the midst of
+them I saw the white ass, and on it sat the Water-lily [Flossie]. An
+Elmoran [young warrior] led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse
+weeping. The men who went with her in the morning I saw not.”
+
+“Was the child alive?” asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
+
+“She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passed quite
+close to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw her face against
+the sky.”
+
+“God help her and us!” groaned the clergyman.
+
+“How many are there of them?” I asked.
+
+“More than two hundred—two hundred and half a hundred.”
+
+Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done? Just then
+there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
+
+“Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald—a herald to speak
+with thee.” Thus cried the voice.
+
+Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms to the
+coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over.
+
+“I see but one man,” he said. “He is armed, and carries a basket in his
+hand.”
+
+“Open the door,” I said. “Umslopogaas, take thine axe and stand
+thereby. Let one man pass. If another follows, slay.”
+
+The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas, his
+axe raised above his head to strike. Just then the moon came out. There
+was a moment’s pause, and then in stalked a Masai Elmoran, clad in the
+full war panoply that I have already described, but bearing a large
+basket in his hand. The moonlight shone bright upon his great spear as
+he walked. He was physically a splendid man, apparently about
+thirty-five years of age. Indeed, none of the Masai that I saw were
+under six feet high, though mostly quite young. When he got opposite to
+us he halted, put down the basket, and stuck the spike of his spear
+into the ground, so that it stood upright.
+
+“Let us talk,” he said. “The first messenger we sent to you could not
+talk;” and he pointed to the head which lay upon the paving of the
+stoep—a ghastly sight in the moonlight; “but I have words to speak if
+ye have ears to hear. Also I bring presents;” and he pointed to the
+basket and laughed with an air of swaggering insolence that is
+perfectly indescribable, and yet which one could not but admire, seeing
+that he was surrounded by enemies.
+
+“Say on,” said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+“I am the ‘Lygonani’ [war captain] of a party of the Masai of the Guasa
+Amboni. I and my men followed these three white men,” and he pointed to
+Sir Henry, Good, and myself, “but they were too clever for us, and
+escaped hither. We have a quarrel with them, and are going to kill
+them.”
+
+“Are you, my friend?” said I to myself.
+
+“In following these men we this morning caught two black men, one black
+woman, a white donkey, and a white girl. One of the black men we
+killed—there is his head upon the pavement; the other ran away. The
+black woman, the little white girl, and the white ass we took and
+brought with us. In proof thereof have I brought this basket that she
+carried. Is it not thy daughter’s basket?”
+
+Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on.
+
+“Good! With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor do we wish to
+harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have already gathered, two
+hundred and forty head—a beast for every man’s father.”[6]
+
+ [6] The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so all
+ the booty they may win in battle belongs to their fathers alone.—A. Q.
+
+Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herd of
+cattle, which he bred with much care and trouble.
+
+“So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially,” he
+added frankly, glancing at the wall, “as this place would be a
+difficult one to take. But as to these men it is otherwise; we have
+followed them for nights and days, and must kill them. Were we to
+return to our kraal without having done so, all the girls would make a
+mock of us. So, however troublesome it may be, they must die.
+
+“Now I have a proposition for thee. We would not harm the little girl;
+she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit. Give us one of
+these three men—a life for a life—and we will let her go, and throw in
+the black woman with her also. This is a fair offer, white man. We ask
+but for one, not for the three; we must take another opportunity to
+kill the other two. I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer
+the big one,” pointing to Sir Henry; “he looks strong, and would die
+more slowly.”
+
+“And if I say I will not yield the man?” said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+“Nay, say not so, white man,” answered the Masai, “for then thy
+daughter dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hast no other
+child. Were she older I would take her for a servant; but as she is so
+young I will slay her with my own hand—ay, with this very spear. Thou
+canst come and see, an’ thou wilt. I give thee a safe conduct;” and the
+fiend laughed aloud at his brutal jest.
+
+Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies, and
+had come to the conclusion that I would exchange myself against
+Flossie. I scarcely like to mention the matter for fear it should be
+misunderstood. Pray do not let any one be misled into thinking that
+there was anything heroic about this, or any such nonsense. It was
+merely a matter of common sense and common justice. My life was an old
+and worthless one, hers was young and valuable. Her death would pretty
+well kill her father and mother also, whilst nobody would be much the
+worse for mine; indeed, several charitable institutions would have
+cause to rejoice thereat. It was indirectly through me that the dear
+little girl was in her present position. Lastly, a man was better
+fitted to meet death in such a peculiarly awful form than a sweet young
+girl. Not, however, that I meant to let these gentry torture me to
+death—I am far too much of a coward to allow that, being naturally a
+timid man; my plan was to see the girl safely exchanged and then to
+shoot myself, trusting that the Almighty would take the peculiar
+circumstances of the case into consideration and pardon the act. All
+this and more went through my mind in very few seconds.
+
+“All right, Mackenzie,” I said, “you can tell the man that I will
+exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that she shall be
+safely in this house before they kill me.”
+
+“Eh?” said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously. “That you don’t.”
+
+“No, no,” said Mr Mackenzie. “I will have no man’s blood upon my hands.
+If it please God that my daughter should die this awful death, His will
+be done. You are a brave man (which I am not by any means) and a noble
+man, Quatermain, but you shall not go.”
+
+“If nothing else turns up I shall go,” I said decidedly.
+
+“This is an important matter,” said Mackenzie, addressing the Lygonani,
+“and we must think it over. You shall have our answer at dawn.”
+
+“Very well, white man,” answered the savage indifferently; “only
+remember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will never grow
+into a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this,” and he
+touched the spear. “I should have thought that thou wouldst play a
+trick and attack us at night, but I know from the woman with the girl
+that your men are down at the coast, and that thou hast but twenty men
+here. It is not wise, white man,” he added with a laugh, “to keep so
+small a garrison for your ‘boma’ [kraal]. Well, good night, and good
+night to you also, other white men, whose eyelids I shall soon close
+once and for all. At dawn thou wilt bring me word. If not, remember it
+shall be as I have said.” Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the
+while been standing behind him and shepherding him as it were, “Open
+the door for me, fellow, quick now.”
+
+This was too much for the old chief’s patience. For the last ten
+minutes his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positively watering
+over the Masai Lygonani, and this he could not stand. Placing his long
+hand on the Elmoran’s shoulder he gripped it and gave him such a twist
+as brought him face to face with himself. Then, thrusting his fierce
+countenance to within a few inches of the Masai’s evil feather-framed
+features, he said in a low growling voice:—
+
+“Seest thou me?”
+
+“Ay, fellow, I see thee.”
+
+“And seest thou this?” and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes.
+
+“Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?”
+
+“Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of little girls,
+with this ‘toy’ will I hew thee limb from limb. Well for thee that thou
+art a herald, or even now would I strew thy members about the grass.”
+
+The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long as he
+answered, “I would that thou stoodst against me man to man, and we
+would see,” and again he turned to go still laughing.
+
+“Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid,” replied
+Umslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice. “Thou shalt stand face to
+face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of the people of the
+Amazulu, a captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi, as many have
+done before, and bow thyself to Inkosi-kaas, as many have done before.
+Ay, laugh on, laugh on! tomorrow night shall the jackals laugh as they
+crunch thy ribs.”
+
+When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening the basket he
+had brought as a proof that Flossie was really their prisoner. On
+lifting the lid it was found to contain a most lovely specimen of both
+bulb and flower of the Goya lily, which I have already described, in
+full bloom and quite uninjured, and what was more a note in Flossie’s
+childish hand written in pencil upon a greasy piece of paper that had
+been used to wrap up some food in:—
+
+“DEAREST FATHER AND MOTHER,” ran the note, “The Masai caught us when we
+were coming home with the lily. I tried to escape but could not. They
+killed Tom: the other man ran away. They have not hurt nurse and me,
+but say that they mean to exchange us against one of Mr Quatermain’s
+party. _I will have nothing of the sort_. Do not let anybody give his
+life for me. Try and attack them at night; they are going to feast on
+three bullocks they have stolen and killed. I have my pistol, and if no
+help comes by dawn I will shoot myself. They shall not kill me. If so,
+remember me always, dearest father and mother. I am very frightened,
+but I trust in God. I dare not write any more as they are beginning to
+notice. Goodbye.—FLOSSIE.”
+
+Scrawled across the outside of this was “Love to Mr Quatermain. They
+are going to take the basket, so he will get the lily.”
+
+When I read those words, written by that brave little girl in an hour
+of danger sufficiently near and horrible to have turned the brain of a
+strong man, I own I wept, and once more in my heart I vowed that she
+should not die while my life could be given to save her.
+
+Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussing the
+situation. Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzie negatived
+it, and Curtis and Good, like the true men that they are, vowed that,
+if I did, they would go with me, and die back to back with me.
+
+“It is,” I said at last, “absolutely necessary that an effort of some
+sort should be made before the morning.”
+
+“Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and take our
+chance,” said Sir Henry.
+
+“Ay, ay,” growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; “spoken like a man, Incubu.
+What is there to be afraid of? Two hundred and fifty Masai, forsooth!
+How many are we? The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] has twenty men, and
+thou, Macumazahn, hast five men, and there are also five white men—that
+is, thirty men in all—enough, enough. Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who
+art very clever and old in war. What says the maid? These men eat and
+make merry; let it be their funeral feast. What said the dog whom I
+hope to hew down at daybreak? That he feared no attack because we were
+so few. Knowest thou the old kraal where the men have camped? I saw it
+this morning; it is thus:” and he drew an oval on the floor; “here is
+the big entrance, filled up with thorn bushes, and opening on to a
+steep rise. Why, Incubu, thou and I with axes will hold it against an
+hundred men striving to break out! Look, now; thus shall the battle go.
+Just as the light begins to glint upon the oxen’s horns—not before, or
+it will be too dark, and not later, or they will be awakening and
+perceive us—let Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top end of the
+kraal, where the narrow entrance is. Let them silently slay the sentry
+there so that he makes no sound, and stand ready. Then, Incubu, let
+thee and me and one of the Askari—the one with the broad chest—he is a
+brave man—creep to the wide entrance that is filled with thorn bushes,
+and there also slay the sentry, and armed with battle-axes take our
+stand also one on each side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond
+to deal with such as pass the twain at the gate. It is there that the
+rush will come. That will leave sixteen men. Let these men be divided
+into two parties, with one of which shalt thou go, Macumazahn, and with
+one the ‘praying man’ [Mr Mackenzie], and, all armed with rifles, let
+them make their way one to the right side of the kraal and one to the
+left; and when thou, Macumazahn, lowest like an ox, all shall open fire
+with the guns upon the sleeping men, being very careful not to hit the
+little maid. Then shall Bougwan at the far end and his ten men raise
+the war-cry, and, springing over the wall, put the Masai there to the
+sword. And it shall happen that, being yet heavy with food and sleep,
+and bewildered by the firing of the guns, the falling of men, and the
+spears of Bougwan, the soldiers shall rise and rush like wild game
+towards the thorn-stopped entrance, and there the bullets from either
+side shall plough through them, and there shall Incubu and the Askari
+and I wait for those who break across. Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if
+thou hast a better, name it.”
+
+When he had done, I explained to the others such portions of his scheme
+as they had failed to understand, and they all joined with me in
+expressing the greatest admiration of the acute and skilful programme
+devised by the old Zulu, who was indeed, in his own savage fashion, the
+finest general I ever knew. After some discussion we determined to
+accept the scheme, as it stood, it being the only one possible under
+the circumstances, and giving the best chance of success that such a
+forlorn hope would admit of—which, however, considering the enormous
+odds and the character of our foe, was not very great.
+
+“Ah, old lion!” I said to Umslopogaas, “thou knowest how to lie in wait
+as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as where to hang on.”
+
+“Ay, ay, Macumazahn,” he answered. “For thirty years have I been a
+warrior, and have seen many things. It will be a good fight. I smell
+blood—I tell thee, I smell blood.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+
+
+As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire
+population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the stout
+stone wall, and were now to be seen—men, women, and countless
+children—huddled up together in little groups, and all talking at once
+in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners and customs, and of the
+fate that they had to expect if those bloodthirsty savages succeeded in
+getting over the stone wall.
+
+Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of action
+as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four sharp boys of
+from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatched them to various
+points where they could keep an outlook upon the Masai camp, with
+others to report from time to time what was going on. Other lads and
+even women were stationed at intervals along the wall in order to guard
+against the possibility of surprise.
+
+After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting force
+were summoned by our host into the square formed by the house, and
+there, standing by the bole of the great conifer, he earnestly
+addressed them and our four Askari. Indeed, it formed a very impressive
+scene—one not likely to be forgotten by anybody who witnessed it.
+Immediately by the tree stood the angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm
+outstretched as he talked, and the other resting against the giant
+bole, his hat off, and his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the
+anguish of his mind. Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a
+chair, had her face hidden in her hand. On the other side of her was
+Alphonse, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood the
+three of us, with Umslopogaas’ grim and towering form in the
+background, resting, as usual, on his axe. In front stood and squatted
+the group of armed men—some with rifles in their hands, and others with
+spears and shields—following with eager attention every word that fell
+from the speaker’s lips. The white light of the moon peering in beneath
+the lofty boughs threw a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst
+the melancholy soughing of the night wind passing through the millions
+of pine needles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already
+a sufficiently tragic occasion.
+
+“Men,” said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances of the
+case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them the proposed
+plan of our forlorn hope—“men, for years I have been a good friend to
+you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding you and yours from harm,
+and ye have prospered with me. Ye have seen my child—the Water-lily, as
+ye call her—grow year by year, from tenderest infancy to tender
+childhood, and from childhood on towards maidenhood. She has been your
+children’s playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have
+loved her.”
+
+“We have,” said a deep voice, “and we will die to save her.”
+
+“I thank you from my heart—I thank you. Sure am I that now, in this
+hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to be cut off
+by cruel and savage men—who of a truth ‘know not what they do’—ye will
+strive your best to save her, and to save me and her mother from broken
+hearts. Think, too, of your own wives and children. If she dies, her
+death will be followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even
+if we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your
+goods and cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a man of peace.
+Never in all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man’s blood; but
+now I say strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect our
+lives and homes. Swear to me,” he went on with added fervour—“swear to
+me that whilst a man of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost
+with me and with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody
+and cruel death.”
+
+“Say no more, my father,” said the same deep voice, that belonged to a
+stalwart elder of the Mission; “we swear it. May we and ours die the
+death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals and the kites, if
+we break the oath! It is a fearful thing to do, my father, so few to
+strike at so many, yet will we do it or die in the doing. We swear!”
+
+“Ay, thus say we all,” chimed in the others.
+
+“Thus say we all,” said I.
+
+“It is well,” went on Mr Mackenzie. “Ye are true men and not broken
+reeds to lean on. And now, friends—white and black together—let us
+kneel and offer up our humble supplication to the Throne of Power,
+praying that He in the hollow of Whose hand lie all our lives, Who
+giveth life and giveth death, may be pleased to make strong our arms
+that we may prevail in what awaits us at the morning’s light.”
+
+And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas,
+who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas. The
+fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unless it were his
+battleaxe.
+
+“Oh God of gods!” began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous with
+emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof; “Protector
+of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian of the helpless,
+hear Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Thee we come in supplication.
+Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one child hast Thou given us—an innocent
+child, nurtured in Thy knowledge—and now she lies beneath the shadow of
+the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men. Be
+with her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly Father! Oh
+God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to fight,
+in Whose strength are hid the destinies of men, be Thou with us in the
+hour of strife. When we go forth into the shadow of death, make Thou us
+strong to conquer. Breathe Thou upon our foes and scatter them; turn
+Thou their strength to water, and bring their high-blown pride to
+nought; compass us about with Thy protection; throw over us the shield
+of Thy power; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; help
+us now that the cruel man would dash our little ones against the
+stones! Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on
+earth in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy Presence on
+the Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away their
+offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits pass, oh
+receive Thou them into the haven of the just. Go forth, oh Father, go
+forth with us into the battle, as with the Israelites of old. Oh God of
+battle, hear Thou our prayer!”
+
+He ceased, and after a moment’s silence we all rose, and then began our
+preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop
+“talking” and get to business. The men who were to form each little
+party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely
+instructed as to what was to be done. After much consideration it was
+agreed that the ten men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the
+camp, were not to carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good
+himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword—the Masai “sime”
+which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered in
+the canoe. We feared that if they had firearms the result of three
+cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own people
+would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the work they had
+to do would best be carried out with cold steel—especially to
+Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great advocate of cold steel. We had
+with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a dozen
+Martinis. I armed myself with one of the repeaters—my own; an excellent
+weapon for this kind of work, where great rapidity of fire is
+desirable, and fitted with ordinary flap-sights instead of the
+cumbersome sliding mechanism which they generally have. Mr Mackenzie
+took another, and the two remaining ones were given to two of his men
+who understood the use of them and were noted shots. The Martinis and
+some rifles of Mr Mackenzie’s were served out, together with a
+plentiful supply of ammunition, to the other natives who were to form
+the two parties whose duty it was to be to open fire from separate
+sides of the kraal on the sleeping Masai, and who were fortunately all
+more or less accustomed to the use of a gun.
+
+As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed—with an axe. It may be
+remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of the Askari were to
+hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal against the anticipated
+rush of men striving to escape. Of course, for such a purpose as this
+guns were useless. Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm
+themselves in like fashion. It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his
+little store a selection of the very best and English-made
+hammer-backed axe-heads. Sir Henry selected one of these weighing about
+two and a half pounds and very broad in the blade, and the Askari took
+another a size smaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on
+these two axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which
+Mr Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock, made of a light but
+exceedingly tough native wood, something like English ash, only more
+springy. When two suitable helves had been selected with great care and
+the ends of the hafts notched to prevent the hand from slipping, the
+axe-heads were fixed on them as firmly as possible, and the weapons
+immersed in a bucket of water for half an hour. The result of this was
+to swell the wood in the socket in such a fashion that nothing short of
+burning would get it out again. When this important matter had been
+attended to by Umslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a
+little tin-lined deal case, which contained—what do you think?—nothing
+more or less than four mail shirts.
+
+It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had made in
+another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts of native make,
+and remembering this, I had suggested before we started on our present
+hazardous expedition that we should have some made to fit us. There was
+a little difficulty about this, as armour-making is pretty well an
+extinct art, but they can do most things in the way of steel work in
+Birmingham if they are put to it and you will pay the price, and the
+end of it was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts it is
+possible to see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the web being
+composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny rings of the
+best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved and high-necked
+jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but
+browned like the barrel of a gun; and mine weighed exactly seven pounds
+and fitted me so well that I found I could wear it for days next to my
+skin without being chafed. Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary make,
+viz. a jersey with little dependent flaps meant to afford some
+protection to the upper part of the thighs, and another of his own
+design fashioned on the pattern of the garments advertised as
+“combinations” and weighing twelve pounds. This combination shirt, of
+which the seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down
+to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to be
+laced up at the back and, of course, involved some extra weight. With
+these shirts were what looked like four brown cloth travelling caps
+with ear pieces. Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel
+links so as to afford a most valuable protection for the head.
+
+It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days of
+bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but where one
+has to do with savages, armed with cutting weapons such as assegais or
+battle-axes, they afford the most valuable protection, being, if well
+made, quite invulnerable to them. I have often thought that if only the
+English Government had in our savage wars, and more especially in the
+Zulu war, thought fit to serve out light steel shirts, there would be
+many a man alive today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten.
+
+To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in bringing
+these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had not been stolen
+by our rascally bearers when they ran away with our goods. As Curtis
+had two, and after considerable deliberation, had made up his mind to
+wear his combination one himself—the extra three or four pounds’ weight
+being a matter of no account to so strong a man, and the protection
+afforded to the thighs being a very important matter to a fighting man
+not armed with a shield of any kind—I suggested that he should lend the
+other to Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory of his
+post. He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who came bearing Sir
+Henry’s axe, which he had now fixed up to his satisfaction, with him.
+When we showed him the steel shirt, and explained to him that we wanted
+him to wear it, he at first declined, saying that he had fought in his
+own skin for thirty years, and that he was not going to begin now to
+fight in an iron one. Thereupon I took a heavy spear, and, spreading
+the shirt upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my
+strength, the weapon rebounding without leaving a mark upon the
+tempered steel. This exhibition half converted him; and when I pointed
+out to him how necessary it was that he should not let any
+old-fashioned prejudices he might possess stand in the way of a
+precaution which might preserve a valuable life at a time when men were
+scarce, and also that if he wore this shirt he might dispense with a
+shield, and so have both hands free, he yielded at once, and proceeded
+to invest his frame with the “iron skin”. And indeed, although made for
+Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu like a skin. The two men were
+almost of a height; and, though Curtis looked the bigger man, I am
+inclined to think that the difference was more imaginary than real, the
+fact being that, although he was plumper and rounder, he was not really
+bigger, except in the arm. Umslopogaas had, comparatively speaking,
+thin arms, but they were as strong as wire ropes. At any rate, when
+they both stood, axe in hand, invested in the brown mail, which clung
+to their mighty forms like a web garment, showing the swell of every
+muscle and the curve of every line, they formed a pair that any ten men
+might shrink from meeting.
+
+It was now nearly one o’clock in the morning, and the spies reported
+that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormous
+quantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round their
+watchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each opening of the
+kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting not far from the wall in the
+centre of the western side of the kraal, and by her were the nurse and
+the white donkey, which was tethered to a peg. Her feet were bound with
+a rope, and warriors were lying about all round her.
+
+As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then we all
+took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of hours. I could
+not help admiring the way in which old Umslopogaas flung himself upon
+the floor, and, unmindful of what was hanging over him, instantly sank
+into a deep sleep. I do not know how it was with the others, but I
+could not do as much. Indeed, as is usual with me on these occasions, I
+am sorry to say that I felt rather frightened; and, now that some of
+the enthusiasm had gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate
+what we had undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did not
+like it. We were but thirty men all told, a good many of whom were no
+doubt quite unused to fighting, and we were going to engage two hundred
+and fifty of the fiercest, bravest, and most formidable savages in
+Africa, who, to make matters worse, were protected by a stone wall. It
+was, indeed, a mad undertaking, and what made it even madder was the
+exceeding improbability of our being able to take up our positions
+without attracting the notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did
+that—and any slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun,
+might do it—we were done for, for the whole camp would be up in a
+second, and our only hope lay in surprise.
+
+The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflections was
+near an open window that looked on to the veranda, through which came
+an extraordinary sound of groaning and weeping. For a time I could not
+make out what it was, but at last I got up and, putting my head out of
+the window, stared about. Presently I saw a dim figure kneeling on the
+end of the veranda and beating his breast—in which I recognized
+Alphonse. Not being able to understand his French talk or what on earth
+he was at, I called to him and asked him what he was doing.
+
+“Ah, monsieur,” he sighed, “I do make prayer for the souls of those
+whom I shall slay tonight.”
+
+“Indeed,” I said, “then I wish that you would do it a little more
+quietly.”
+
+Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And so the time
+passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisper through the
+window, for of course everything had now to be done in the most
+absolute silence. “Three o’clock,” he said: “we must begin to move at
+half-past.”
+
+I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound to say
+that if it had not been that just then I had not got a laugh anywhere
+about me, I should have exploded at the sight he presented armed for
+battle. To begin with, he had on a clergyman’s black swallow-tail and a
+kind of broad-rimmed black felt hat, both of which he had donned on
+account, he said, of their dark colour. In his hand was the Winchester
+repeating rifle we had lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing
+belt, like those worn by English boys, were, first, a huge
+buckhorn-handled carving knife with a guard to it, and next a
+long-barrelled Colt’s revolver.
+
+“Ah, my friend,” he said, seeing me staring at his belt, “you are
+looking at my ‘carver’. I thought it might come in handy if we came to
+close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many is the pig I have
+killed with it.”
+
+By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light Norfolk
+jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy to hold my
+cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good did the same, but Sir
+Henry put on nothing except his mail shirt, steel-lined cap, and a pair
+of “veldt-schoons” or soft hide shoes, his legs being bare from the
+knees down. His revolver he strapped on round his middle outside the
+armoured shirt.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under the big
+tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly armed, etc. At
+the last moment we made one change. Finding that two of the men who
+were to have gone with the firing parties knew little or nothing of
+guns, but were good spearsmen, we took away their rifles, supplied them
+with shields and long spears of the Masai pattern, and took them off to
+join Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the Askari in holding the wide opening;
+it having become clear to us that three men, however brave and strong,
+were too few for the work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+
+
+Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent
+darkness waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the
+most trying time of all—that slow, slow quarter of an hour. The minutes
+seemed to drag along with leaden feet, and the quiet, the solemn hush,
+that brooded over all—big, as it were, with a coming fate, was most
+oppressive to the spirits. I once remember having to get up before dawn
+to see a man hanged, and I then went through a very similar set of
+sensations, only in the present instance my feelings were animated by
+that more vivid and personal element which naturally appertains rather
+to the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic spectator.
+The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the short passage of an
+hour would mean for some, and perhaps all of them, the last great
+passage to the unknown or oblivion; the bated whispers in which they
+spoke; even Sir Henry’s continuous and thoughtful examination of his
+woodcutter’s axe and the fidgety way in which Good kept polishing his
+eyeglass, all told the same tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to
+breaking-point. Only Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and
+taking an occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly
+and completely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
+
+The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer and
+nearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the world in
+darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern sky that palely
+heralded the dawn.
+
+Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm and
+striving to stifle her sobs.
+
+“Twenty minutes to four,” he said, “it ought to be light enough to
+attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better be moving,
+he will want three or four minutes’ start.”
+
+Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a jocular
+sort of way—which I could not help feeling it must have cost him
+something to muster up—and, ever polite, took off his steel-lined cap
+to Mrs Mackenzie and started for his position at the head of the kraal,
+to reach which he had to make a detour by some paths known to the
+natives.
+
+Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody in the
+Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who were walking up
+and down in front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fast
+asleep. Then the rest of us took the road. First came the guide, then
+Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi Askari, and Mr Mackenzie’s two
+mission natives armed with long spears and shields. I followed
+immediately after with Alphonse and five natives all armed with guns,
+and Mr Mackenzie brought up the rear with the six remaining natives.
+
+The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot of the
+hill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about eight
+hundred yards from the Mission buildings. The first five hundred yards
+of this distance we traversed quietly indeed, but at a good pace; after
+that we crept forward as silently as a leopard on his prey, gliding
+like ghosts from bush to bush and stone to stone. When I had gone a
+little way I chanced to look behind me, and saw the redoubtable
+Alphonse staggering along with white face and trembling knees, and his
+rifle, which was at full cock, pointed directly at the small of my
+back. Having halted and carefully put the rifle at “safety”, we started
+again, and all went well till we were within one hundred yards or so of
+the kraal, when his teeth began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
+
+“If you don’t stop that I will kill you,” I whispered savagely; for the
+idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering cook was
+too much for me. I began to fear that he would betray us, and heartily
+wished we had left him behind.
+
+“But, monsieur, I cannot help it,” he answered, “it is the cold.”
+
+Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the pocket of
+the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that I had used some
+time before to clean a gun with. “Put this in your mouth,” I whispered
+again, giving him the rag; “and if I hear another sound you are a dead
+man.” I knew that that would stifle the clatter of his teeth. I must
+have looked as if I meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and
+continued his journey in silence.
+
+Then we crept on again.
+
+At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us and it was
+an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa bush and a couple
+of tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in
+fairly thick bush. It was beginning to grow light. The stars had paled
+and a sickly gleam played about the east and was reflected on the
+earth. We could see the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could
+also make out the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai
+camp-fires. We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at
+the opening. Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly up
+and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped
+to catch him napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide
+awake. If we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were
+lost. There we crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was
+a few paces ahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw
+him go down on his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity
+when the sentry’s head was turned, begin to work his way through the
+grass without a sound.
+
+The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas
+crept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived and
+there waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently he turned
+and looked over the wall into the camp. Instantly the human snake who
+was stalking him glided on ten yards and got behind one of the tussocks
+of the thistle-like plant, reaching it as the Elmoran turned again. As
+he did so his eye fell upon this patch of thistles, and it seemed to
+strike him that it did not look quite right. He advanced a pace towards
+it—halted, yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw it
+at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the armour
+shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us. Luckily, too,
+the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which would certainly have
+been detected. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing wrong, he
+then gave over his investigations and contented himself with leaning on
+his spear and standing gazing idly at the tuft. For at least three
+minutes did he stand thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and
+there we lay in the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment
+that we should be discovered or that some untoward accident would
+happen. I could hear Alphonse’s teeth going like anything on the oiled
+rag, and turning my head round made an awful face at him. But I am
+bound to state that my own heart was at much the same game as the
+Frenchman’s castanets, while the perspiration was pouring from my body,
+causing the wash-leather-lined shirt to stick to me unpleasantly, and
+altogether I was in the pitiable state known by schoolboys as a “blue
+fright”.
+
+At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at the east, and
+appeared to note with satisfaction that his period of duty was coming
+to an end—as indeed it was, once and for all—for he rubbed his hands
+and began to walk again briskly to warm himself.
+
+The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again,
+and reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces
+of his return beat.
+
+Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterly
+unconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it. Had he looked
+down he could scarcely have failed to see, but he did not do so.
+
+He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and with
+outstretched hand followed in his tracks.
+
+A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the great
+Zulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could see his long lean
+hands close round the Masai’s throat. Then followed a convulsive
+twining of the two dark bodies, and in another second I saw the Masai’s
+head bent back, and heard a sharp crack, something like that of a dry
+twig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground, his limbs moving
+spasmodically.
+
+Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the warrior’s
+neck.
+
+For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat till
+he was sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he
+rose and beckoned to us to advance, which we did on all fours, like a
+colony of huge apes. On reaching the kraal we saw that the Masai had
+still further choked this entrance, which was about ten feet wide—no
+doubt in order to guard against attack—by dragging four or five tops of
+mimosa trees up to it. So much the better for us, I reflected; the more
+obstruction there was the slower would they be able to come through.
+Here we separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadow
+of the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas took their
+stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmen and the
+Askari lying down in front of it. I and my men crept on up the right
+side of the kraal, which was about fifty paces long.
+
+When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances of
+four paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however.
+Then I peeped for the first time over the wall. It was getting fairly
+light now, and the first thing I saw was the white donkey, exactly
+opposite to me, and close by it I could make out the pale face of
+little Flossie, who was sitting as the lad had described, some ten
+paces from the wall. Round her lay many warriors, sleeping. At
+distances all over the surface of the kraal were the remains of fires,
+round each of which slept some five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part
+gorged with food. Now and then a man would raise himself, yawn, and
+look at the east, which was turning primrose; but none got up. I
+determined to wait another five minutes, both to allow the light to
+increase, so that we could make better shooting, and to give Good and
+his party—of whom we could see or hear nothing—every opportunity to
+make ready.
+
+The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain and
+forest and river—mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence of eternal snows,
+looked out across the earth—till presently a beam from the unrisen sun
+lit upon his heaven-kissing crest and purpled it with blood; the sky
+above grew blue, and tender as a mother’s smile; a bird began to pipe
+his morning song, and a little breeze passing through the bush shook
+down the dewdrops in millions to refresh the waking world. Everywhere
+was peace and the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in the
+heart of cruel man!
+
+Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having already
+selected my man on whom I meant to open fire—a great fellow sprawling
+on the ground within three feet of little Flossie—Alphonse’s teeth
+began to chatter again like the hoofs of a galloping giraffe, making a
+great noise in the silence. The rag had dropped out in the agitation of
+his mind. Instantly a Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting
+up, gazed about him, looking for the cause of the sound. Moved beyond
+myself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pit of the
+Frenchman’s stomach. This stopped his chattering; but, as he doubled
+up, he managed to let off his gun in such a manner that the bullet
+passed within an inch of my head.
+
+There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraal broke
+out a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing with a
+snap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he was jumping up.
+Then from the top end of the kraal there rang an awful yell, in which I
+rejoiced to recognize Good’s piercing notes rising clear and shrill
+above the din, and in another second followed such a scene as I have
+never seen before nor shall again. With an universal howl of terror and
+fury the brawny crowd of savages within the kraal sprang to their feet,
+many of them to fall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead
+before they had moved a yard. For a moment they stood undecided, and
+then hearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the top
+end of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they as by
+one impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they
+went we kept pouring our fire with terrible effect into the thickening
+mob as fast as we could load. I had emptied my repeater of the ten
+shots it contained and was just beginning to slip in some more when I
+bethought me of little Flossie. Looking up, I saw that the white donkey
+was lying kicking, having been knocked over either by one of our
+bullets or a Masai spear-thrust. There were no living Masai near, but
+the black nurse was on her feet and with a spear cutting the rope that
+bound Flossie’s feet. Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and
+began to climb over it, an example which the little girl followed. But
+Flossie was evidently very stiff and cramped, and could only go slowly,
+and as she went two Masai flying down the kraal caught sight of her and
+rushed towards her to kill her. The first fellow came up just as the
+poor little girl, after a desperate effort to climb the wall, fell back
+into the kraal. Up flashed the great spear, and as it did so a bullet
+from my rifle found its home in the holder’s ribs, and over he went
+like a shot rabbit. But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had
+only that one cartridge in the magazine! Flossie had scrambled to her
+feet and was facing the second man, who was advancing with raised
+spear. I turned my head aside and felt sick as death. I could not bear
+to see him stab her. Glancing up again, to my surprise I saw the
+Masai’s spear lying on the ground, while the man himself was staggering
+about with both hands to his head. Suddenly I saw a puff of smoke
+proceeding apparently from Flossie, and the man fell down headlong.
+Then I remembered the Derringer pistol she carried, and saw that she
+had fired both barrels of it at him, thereby saving her life. In
+another instant she had made an effort, and assisted by the nurse, who
+was lying on the top, had scrambled over the wall, and I knew that she
+was, comparatively speaking, safe.
+
+All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took more
+than fifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazine of the repeater
+filled again with cartridges, and once more opened fire, not on the
+seething black mass which was gathering at the end of the kraal, but on
+fugitives who bethought them to climb the wall. I picked off several of
+these men, moving down towards the end of the kraal as I did so, and
+arriving at the corner, or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see,
+and by means of my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took
+place there.
+
+By this time some two hundred Masai—allowing that we had up to the
+present accounted for fifty—had gathered together in front of the
+thorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spears of Good’s men,
+whom they doubtless supposed were a large force instead of being but
+ten strong. For some reason it never occurred to them to try and rush
+the wall, which they could have scrambled over with comparative ease;
+they all made for the fence, which was really a strongly interwoven
+fortification. With a bound the first warrior went at it, and even
+before he touched the ground on the other side I saw Sir Henry’s great
+axe swing up and fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, and
+he sank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell and a crash
+they began to break through as they might, and ever as they came the
+great axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead one by one,
+each man thus helping to build up a barrier against his fellows. Those
+who escaped the axes of the pair fell at the hands of the Askari and
+the two Mission Kaffirs, and those who passed scatheless from them were
+brought low by my own and Mackenzie’s fire.
+
+Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai would spring
+upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of the
+axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts,
+the result was always the same. Presently there was a great swing of
+the axe, a crashing sound, and another dead Masai. That is, if the man
+was engaged with Sir Henry. If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with
+the result indeed would be the same, but it would be differently
+attained. It was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing
+double-handed stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap
+continually at his adversary’s head, pecking at it with the pole-axe
+end of the axe as a woodpecker[7] pecks at rotten wood. Presently a
+peck would go home, and his enemy would drop down with a neat little
+circular hole in his forehead or skull, exactly similar to that which a
+cheese-scoop makes in a cheese. He never used the broad blade of the
+axe except when hard pressed, or when striking at a shield. He told me
+afterwards that he did not consider it sportsmanlike.
+
+ [7] As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas’s Zulu names
+ was the “Woodpecker”. I could never make out why he was called so
+ until I saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at once recognized
+ the resemblance.—A. Q.
+
+Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had to cease
+firing into the mass for fear of killing some of them (as it was, one
+of them was slain in this way). Mad and desperate with fear, the Masai
+by a frantic effort burst through the thorn fence and piled-up dead,
+and, sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the other three before them,
+into the open. And now it was that we began to lose men fast. Down went
+our poor Askari who was armed with the axe, a great spear standing out
+a foot behind his back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood
+with him went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others of our
+party shared their fate. For a moment I feared the fight was
+lost—certainly it trembled in the balance. I shouted to my men to cast
+down their rifles, and to take spears and throw themselves into the
+_mêlée_. They obeyed, their blood being now thoroughly up, and Mr
+Mackenzie’s people followed their example.
+
+This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung in the
+balance.
+
+Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the dark mass
+of Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And ever above
+the din rose Good’s awful yell of encouragement as he plunged to
+wherever the fight was thickest; and ever, with an almost machine-like
+regularity, the two axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablement
+at every stroke. But I could see that the strain was beginning to tell
+upon Sir Henry, who was bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breath
+was coming in gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blue
+and knotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, was hard
+pressed. I noticed that he had given up “woodpecking”, and was now
+using the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, “browning” his enemy wherever he
+could hit him, instead of drilling scientific holes in his head. I
+myself did not go into the _mêlée_, but hovered outside like the swift
+“back” in a football scrimmage, putting a bullet through a Masai
+whenever I got a chance. I was more use so. I fired forty-nine
+cartridges that morning, and I did not miss many shots.
+
+Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise
+against us. We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left
+now, and the Masai had at least fifty. Of course if they had kept their
+heads, and shaken themselves together, they could soon have made an end
+of the matter; but that is just what they did not do, not having yet
+recovered from their start, and some of them having actually fled from
+their sleeping-places without their weapons. Still by now many
+individuals were fighting with their normal courage and discretion, and
+this alone was sufficient to defeat us. To make matters worse just
+then, when Mackenzie’s rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a
+“sime”, or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his
+gun, and drawing his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver
+had dropped out in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle.
+Presently, locked in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on
+the ground behind the wall, and for some time I, being amply occupied
+with my own affairs, and in keeping my skin from being pricked,
+remained in ignorance of his fate or how the duel had ended.
+
+To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex of a
+human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for us. Just
+then, however, a fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either by
+accident or design, broke out of the ring and engaged a warrior at some
+few paces from it. As he did so, another man ran up and struck him with
+all his force between his shoulders with his great spear, which,
+falling on the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it and rebounded.
+For a moment the man stared aghast—protective armour being unknown
+among these tribes—and then he yelled out at the top of his voice—
+
+“_They are devils—bewitched, bewitched!_” And seized by a sudden panic,
+he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cut short his career with
+a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic spread to
+the others.
+
+“_Bewitched, bewitched!_” they cried, and tried to escape in every
+direction, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most part
+even throwing down their shields and spears.
+
+On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It was a
+slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked or given. One
+incident, however, is worth detailing. Just as I was hoping that it was
+all done with, suddenly from under a heap of slain where he had been
+hiding, an unwounded warrior sprang up, and, clearing the piles of
+dying dead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards
+the spot where I was standing at the moment. But he was not alone, for
+Umslopogaas came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like
+motion for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in
+the Masai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, run as he
+would, his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and turned round
+to give battle. Umslopogaas also pulled up.
+
+“Ah, ah,” he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, “it is thou whom I
+talked with last night—the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer of little
+girls—he who would kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to stand man
+to man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe of the
+Maquilisini, of the people of the Amazulu? Behold, thy prayer is
+granted! And I didst swear to hew thee limb from limb, thou insolent
+dog. Behold, I will do it even now!”
+
+The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu with his
+spear. As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swinging
+Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad
+blade down with such fearful force from behind upon the Masai’s
+shoulder just where the neck is set into the frame, that its razor edge
+shore right through bone and flesh and muscle, almost severing the head
+and one arm from the body.
+
+“_Ou!_” ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe; “I
+have kept my word. It was a good stroke.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+
+
+And so the fight was ended. On returning from the shocking scene it
+suddenly struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse since the
+moment, some twenty minutes before—for though this fight has taken a
+long while to describe, it did not take long in reality—when I had been
+forced to hit him in the wind with the result of nearly getting myself
+shot. Fearing that the poor little man had perished in the battle, I
+began to hunt among the dead for his body, but, not being able either
+to see or hear anything of it, I concluded that he must have survived,
+and walked down the side of the kraal where we had first taken our
+stand, calling him by name. Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal
+wall stood a very ancient tree of the banyan species. So ancient was it
+that all the inside had in the course of ages decayed away, leaving
+nothing but a shell of bark.
+
+“Alphonse,” I called, as I walked down the wall. “Alphonse!”
+
+“Oui, monsieur,” answered a voice. “Here am I.”
+
+I looked round but could see nobody. “Where?” I cried.
+
+“Here am I, monsieur, in the tree.”
+
+I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of the banyan
+about five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face and a pair of large
+mustachios, one clipped short and the other as lamentably out of curl
+as the tail of a newly whipped pug. Then, for the first time, I
+realised what I had suspected before—namely, that Alphonse was an
+arrant coward. I walked up to him. “Come out of that hole,” I said.
+
+“Is it finished, monsieur?” he asked anxiously; “quite finished? Ah,
+the horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!”
+
+“Come out, you little wretch,” I said, for I did not feel amiable; “it
+is all over.”
+
+“So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed? I emerge,” and he did.
+
+As we were walking down together to join the others, who were gathered
+in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which now resembled a
+veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped so far and been
+hiding under a bush, suddenly sprang up and charged furiously at us.
+Off went Alphonse with a howl of terror, and after him flew the Masai,
+bent upon doing some execution before he died. He soon overtook the
+poor little Frenchman, and would have finished him then and there had I
+not, just as Alphonse made a last agonized double in the vain hope of
+avoiding the yard of steel that was flashing in his immediate rear,
+managed to plant a bullet between the Elmoran’s broad shoulders, which
+brought matters to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman
+was concerned. But just then he tripped and fell flat, and the body of
+the Masai fell right on the top of him, moving convulsively in the
+death struggle. Thereupon there arose such a series of piercing howls
+that I concluded that before he died the savage must have managed to
+stab poor Alphonse. I ran up in a hurry and pulled the Masai off, and
+there beneath him lay Alphonse covered with blood and jerking himself
+about like a galvanized frog. Poor fellow! thought I, he is done for,
+and kneeling down by him I began to search for his wound as well as his
+struggles would allow.
+
+“Oh, the hole in my back!” he yelled. “I am murdered. I am dead. Oh,
+Annette!”
+
+I searched again, but could see no wound. Then the truth dawned on
+me—the man was frightened, not hurt.
+
+“Get up!” I shouted, “Get up. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You are
+not touched.”
+
+Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse. “But, monsieur, I thought I
+was,” he said apologetically; “I did not know that I had conquered.”
+Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick, he ejaculated triumphantly,
+“Ah, dog of a black savage, thou art dead; what victory!”
+
+Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself, which he
+did by following me like a shadow, and proceeded to join the others by
+the large entrance. The first thing that I saw was Mackenzie, seated on
+a stone with a handkerchief twisted round his thigh, from which he was
+bleeding freely, having, indeed, received a spear-thrust that passed
+right through it, and still holding in his hand his favourite carving
+knife now bent nearly double, from which I gathered that he had been
+successful in his rough and tumble with the Elmoran.
+
+“Ah, Quatermain!” he sang out in a trembling, excited voice, “so we
+have conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;” and then
+breaking into broad Scotch and glancing at the bent knife in his hand,
+“It fashes me sair to have bent my best carver on the breastbone of a
+savage,” and he laughed hysterically. Poor fellow, what between his
+wound and the killing excitement he had undergone his nerves were much
+shaken, and no wonder! It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart
+to be called upon to join in such a gruesome business. But there, fate
+puts us sometimes into very comical positions!
+
+At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one. The slaughter was
+over by now, and the wounded men had been put out of their pain, for no
+quarter had been given. The bush-closed entrance was trampled flat, and
+in place of bushes it was filled with the bodies of dead men. Dead men,
+everywhere dead men—they lay about in knots, they were flung by ones
+and twos in every position upon the open spaces, for all the world like
+the people on the grass in one of the London parks on a particularly
+hot Sunday in August. In front of this entrance, on a space which had
+been cleared of dead and of the shields and spears which were scattered
+in all directions as they had fallen or been thrown from the hands of
+their owners, stood and lay the survivors of the awful struggle, and at
+their feet were four wounded men. We had gone into the fight thirty
+strong, and of the thirty but fifteen remained alive, and five of them
+(including Mr Mackenzie) were wounded, two mortally. Of those who held
+the entrance, Curtis and the Zulu alone remained. Good had lost five
+men killed, I had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out
+of the six with him. As for the survivors they were, with the exception
+of myself who had never come to close quarters, red from head to
+foot—Sir Henry’s armour might have been painted that colour—and utterly
+exhausted, except Umslopogaas, who, as he grimly stood on a little
+mound above a heap of dead, leaning as usual upon his axe, did not seem
+particularly distressed, although the skin over the hole in his head
+palpitated violently.
+
+“Ah, Macumazahn!” he said to me as I limped up, feeling very sick, “I
+told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has. Never have I seen
+a better, or one more bravely fought. As for this iron shirt, surely it
+is ‘tagati’ [bewitched]; nothing could pierce it. Had it not been for
+the garment I should have been _there_,” and he nodded towards the
+great pile of dead men beneath him.
+
+“I give it thee; thou art a brave man,” said Sir Henry, briefly.
+
+“Koos!” answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift and the
+compliment. “Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as a man, but I must
+give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dost waste thy strength.”
+
+Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatly
+relieved when one of the men said he had seen her flying towards the
+house with the nurse. Then bearing such of the wounded as could be
+moved at the moment with us, we slowly made our way towards the
+Mission-house, spent with toil and bloodshed, but with the glorious
+sense of victory against overwhelming odds glowing in our hearts. We
+had saved the life of the little maid, and taught the Masai of those
+parts a lesson that they will not forget for ten years—but at what a
+cost!
+
+Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little more than an
+hour before, we had descended under such different circumstances. At
+the gate of the wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us. When her eyes
+fell upon us, however, she shrieked out, and covered her face with her
+hands, crying, “Horrible, horrible!” Nor were her fears allayed when
+she discovered her worthy husband being borne upon an improvised
+stretcher; but her doubts as to the nature of his injury were soon set
+at rest. Then when in a few brief words I had told her the upshot of
+the struggle (of which Flossie, who had arrived in safety, had been
+able to explain something) she came up to me and solemnly kissed me on
+the forehead.
+
+“God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child’s life,” she
+said simply.
+
+Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds; I am
+glad to say I had none, and Sir Henry’s and Good’s were, thanks to
+those invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmless nature, and
+to be dealt with by means of a few stitches and sticking-plaster.
+Mackenzie’s, however, were serious, though fortunately the spear had
+not severed any large artery. After that we had a bath, and what a
+luxury it was! And having clad ourselves in ordinary clothes, proceeded
+to the dining-room, where breakfast was set as usual. It was curious
+sitting down there, drinking tea and eating toast in an ordinary
+nineteenth-century sort of way just as though we had not employed the
+early hours in a regular primitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind of
+struggle. As Good said, the whole thing seemed more as though one had
+had a bad nightmare just before being called, than as a deed done. When
+we were finishing our breakfast the door opened, and in came little
+Flossie, very pale and tottery, but quite unhurt. She kissed us all and
+thanked us. I congratulated her on the presence of mind she had shown
+in shooting the Masai with her Derringer pistol, and thereby saving her
+own life.
+
+“Oh, don’t talk of it!” she said, beginning to cry hysterically; “I
+shall never forget his face as he went turning round and round, never—I
+can see it now.”
+
+I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did, and awoke
+in the evening quite recovered, so far as her strength was concerned.
+It struck me as an odd thing that a girl who could find the nerve to
+shoot a huge black ruffian rushing to kill her with a spear should have
+been so affected at the thought of it afterwards; but it is, after all,
+characteristic of the sex. Poor Flossie! I fear that her nerves will
+not get over that night in the Masai camp for many a long year. She
+told me afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful, having
+to sit there hour after hour through the livelong night utterly
+ignorant as to whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescue her.
+She said that on the whole she did not expect it, knowing how few of
+us, and how many of the Masai—who, by the way, came continually to
+stare at her, most of them never having seen a white person before, and
+handled her arms and hair with their filthy paws. She said also that
+she had made up her mind that if she saw no signs of succour by the
+time the first rays of the rising sun reached the kraal she would kill
+herself with the pistol, for the nurse had heard the Lygonani say that
+they were to be tortured to death as soon as the sun was up if one of
+the white men did not come in their place. It was an awful resolution
+to have to take, but she meant to act on it, and I have little doubt
+but what she would have done so. Although she was at an age when in
+England girls are in the schoolroom and come down to dessert, this
+“child of the wilderness” had more courage, discretion, and power of
+mind than many a woman of mature age nurtured in idleness and luxury,
+with minds carefully drilled and educated out of any originality or
+self-resource that nature may have endowed them with.
+
+When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep, only
+getting up in time for dinner; after which meal we once more adjourned,
+together with all the available population—men, women, youths, and
+girls—to the scene of the morning’s slaughter, our object being to bury
+our own dead and get rid of the Masai by flinging them into the Tana
+River, which ran within fifty yards of the kraal. On reaching the spot
+we disturbed thousands upon thousands of vultures and a sort of brown
+bush eagle, which had been flocking to the feast from miles and miles
+away. Often have I watched these great and repulsive birds, and
+marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arrive on a scene
+of slaughter. A buck falls to your rifle, and within a minute high in
+the blue ether appears a speck that gradually grows into a vulture,
+then another, and another. I have heard many theories advanced to
+account for the wonderful power of perception nature has given these
+birds. My own, founded on a good deal of observation, is that the
+vultures, gifted as they are with powers of sight greater than those
+given by the most powerful glass, quarter out the heavens among
+themselves, and hanging in mid-air at a vast height—probably from two
+to three miles above the earth—keep watch, each of them, over an
+enormous stretch of country. Presently one of them spies food, and
+instantly begins to sink towards it. Thereon his next neighbour in the
+airy heights sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at a distance
+perhaps of some miles, follows his example, knowing that food has been
+sighted. Down he goes, and all the vultures within sight of him follow
+after, and so do all those in sight of them. In this way the vultures
+for twenty miles round can be summoned to the feast in a few minutes.
+
+We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to read the
+Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie, confined to
+bed), as he was generally allowed to possess the best voice and most
+impressive manner. It was melancholy in the extreme, but, as Good said,
+it might have been worse, for we might have had “to bury ourselves”. I
+pointed out that this would have been a difficult feat, but I knew what
+he meant.
+
+Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been brought round
+from the Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, having first
+collected the spears, shields, and other arms. We loaded the wagon five
+times, about fifty bodies to the load, and emptied it into the Tana.
+From this it was evident that very few of the Masai could have escaped.
+The crocodiles must have been well fed that night. One of the last
+bodies we picked up was that of the sentry at the upper end. I asked
+Good how he managed to kill him, and he told me that he had crept up
+much as Umslopogaas had done, and stabbed him with his sword. He
+groaned a good deal, but fortunately nobody heard him. As Good said, it
+was a horrible thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly like
+cold-blooded murder.
+
+And so with the last body that floated away down the current of the
+Tana ended the incident of our attack on the Masai camp. The spears and
+shields and other arms we took up to the Mission, where they filled an
+outhouse. One incident, however, I must not forget to mention. As we
+were returning from performing the obsequies of our Masai friends we
+passed the hollow tree where Alphonse had secreted himself in the
+morning. It so happened that the little man himself was with us
+assisting in our unpleasant task with a far better will than he had
+shown where live Masai were concerned. Indeed, for each body that he
+handled he found an appropriate sarcasm. Alphonse throwing Masai into
+the Tana was a very different creature from Alphonse flying for dear
+life from the spear of a live Masai. He was quite merry and gay, he
+clapped his hands and warbled snatches of French songs as the grim dead
+warriors went “splash” into the running waters to carry a message of
+death and defiance to their kindred a hundred miles below. In short,
+thinking that he wanted taking down a peg, I suggested holding a
+court-martial on him for his conduct in the morning.
+
+Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, and
+proceeded to sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining to him in the
+very best French the unheard-of cowardice and enormity of his conduct,
+more especially in letting the oiled rag out of his mouth, whereby he
+nearly aroused the Masai camp with teeth-chattering and brought about
+the failure of our plans: ending up with a request for an explanation.
+
+But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him to open shame
+we were destined to be disappointed. He bowed and scraped and smiled,
+and acknowledged that his conduct might at first blush appear strange,
+but really it was not, inasmuch as his teeth were not chattering from
+fear—oh, dear no! oh, certainly not! he marvelled how the “messieurs”
+could think of such a thing—but from the chill air of the morning. As
+for the rag, if monsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being
+compounded indeed of a mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and
+gunpowder, monsieur himself would have spat it out. But he did nothing
+of the sort; he determined to keep it there till, alas! his stomach
+“revolted”, and the rag was ejected in an access of involuntary
+sickness.
+
+“And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?” asked
+Sir Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty.
+
+“But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it was thus: I
+stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieur hit me in
+the stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battle began. I watched
+whilst recovering myself from monsieur’s cruel blow; then, messieurs, I
+felt the heroic blood of my grandfather boil up in my veins. The sight
+made me mad. I ground my teeth! Fire flashed from my eyes! I shouted
+‘En avant!’ and longed to slay. Before my eyes there rose a vision of
+my heroic grandfather! In short, I was mad! I was a warrior indeed! But
+then in my heart I heard a small voice: ‘Alphonse,’ said the voice,
+‘restrain thyself, Alphonse! Give not way to this evil passion! These
+men, though black, are brothers! And thou wouldst slay them? Cruel
+Alphonse!’ The voice was right. I knew it; I was about to perpetrate
+the most horrible cruelties: to wound! to massacre! to tear limb from
+limb! And how restrain myself? I looked round; I saw the tree, I
+perceived the hole. ‘Entomb thyself,’ said the voice, ‘and hold on
+tight! Thou wilt thus overcome temptation by main force!’ It was
+bitter, just when the blood of my heroic grandfather boiled most
+fiercely; but I obeyed! I dragged my unwilling feet along; I entombed
+myself! Through the hole I watched the battle! I shouted curses and
+defiance on the foe! I noted them fall with satisfaction! Why not? I
+had not robbed them of their lives. Their gore was not upon my head.
+The blood of my heroic—”
+
+“Oh, get along with you, you little cur!” broke out Sir Henry, with a
+shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick which sent him
+flying off with a rueful face.
+
+In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who was suffering
+a good deal from his wounds, which Good, who was a skilful though
+unqualified doctor, was treating him for. He told me that this
+occurrence had taught him a lesson, and that, if he recovered safely,
+he meant to hand over the Mission to a younger man, who was already on
+his road to join him in his work, and return to England.
+
+“You see, Quatermain,” he said, “I made up my mind to it, this very
+morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages. ‘If we
+live through this and rescue Flossie alive,’ I said to myself, ‘I will
+go home to England; I have had enough of savages.’ Well, I did not
+think that we should live through it at the time; but thanks be to God
+and you four, we have lived through it, and I mean to stick to my
+resolution, lest a worse thing befall us. Another such time would kill
+my poor wife. And besides, Quatermain, between you and me, I am well
+off; it is thirty thousand pounds I am worth today, and every farthing
+of it made by honest trade and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for
+living here costs me next to nothing. So though it will be hard to
+leave this place, which I have made to blossom like a rose in the
+wilderness, and harder still to leave the people I have taught, I shall
+go.”
+
+“I congratulate you on your decision,” answered I, “for two reasons.
+The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter, and more
+especially to the latter, who should receive some education and mix
+with girls of her own race, otherwise she will grow up wild, shunning
+her kind. The other is, that as sure as I am standing here, sooner or
+later the Masai will try to avenge the slaughter inflicted on them
+today. Two or three men are sure to have escaped the confusion who will
+carry the story back to their people, and the result will be that a
+great expedition will one day be sent against you. It might be delayed
+for a year, but sooner or later it will come. Therefore, if only for
+that reason, I should go. When once they have learnt that you are no
+longer here they may perhaps leave the place alone.”[8]
+
+ [8] By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr
+ Quatermain, the Masai have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and
+ his wife—Mr and Mrs Houghton—on this very Tana River, and at the spot
+ described. These are, I believe, the first white people who are known
+ to have fallen victims to this cruel tribe.—Editor.
+
+“You are quite right,” answered the clergyman. “I will turn my back
+upon this place in a month. But it will be a wrench, it will be a
+wrench.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+INTO THE UNKNOWN
+
+
+A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in the Mission
+dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits, for the reason
+that we were going to say goodbye to our kind friends, the Mackenzies,
+and depart upon our way at dawn on the morrow. Nothing more had been
+seen or heard of the Masai, and save for a spear or two which had been
+overlooked and was rusting in the grass, and a few empty cartridges
+where we had stood outside the wall, it would have been difficult to
+tell that the old cattle kraal at the foot of the slope had been the
+scene of so desperate a struggle. Mackenzie was, thanks chiefly to his
+being so temperate a man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and could
+get about on a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, one
+had died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery. Mr
+Mackenzie’s caravan of men had also returned from the coast, so that
+the station was now amply garrisoned.
+
+Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing as were the
+invitations for us to stay, that it was time to move on, first to Mount
+Kenia, and thence into the unknown in search of the mysterious white
+race which we had set our hearts on discovering. This time we were
+going to progress by means of the humble but useful donkey, of which we
+had collected no less than a dozen, to carry our goods and chattels,
+and, if necessary, ourselves. We had now but two Wakwafis left for
+servants, and found it quite impossible to get other natives to venture
+with us into the unknown parts we proposed to explore—and small blame
+to them. After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was odd that three men,
+each of whom possessed many of those things that are supposed to make
+life worth living—health, sufficient means, and position, etc.—should
+from their own pleasure start out upon a wild-goose chase, from which
+the chances were they never would return. But then that is what
+Englishmen are, adventurers to the backbone; and all our magnificent
+muster-roll of colonies, each of which will in time become a great
+nation, testify to the extraordinary value of the spirit of adventure
+which at first sight looks like a mild form of lunacy. “Adventurer”—he
+that goes out to meet whatever may come. Well, that is what we all do
+in the world one way or another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud
+of the title, because it implies a brave heart and a trust in
+Providence. Besides, when many and many a noted Croesus, at whose feet
+the people worship, and many and many a time-serving and word-coining
+politician are forgotten, the names of those grand-hearted old
+adventurers who have made England what she is, will be remembered and
+taught with love and pride to little children whose unshaped spirits
+yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be. Not that we three can
+expect to be numbered with such as these, yet have we done
+something—enough, perhaps, to throw a garment over the nakedness of our
+folly.
+
+That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smoking a pipe
+before turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse, and, with a
+magnificent bow, announce his wish for an interview. Being requested to
+“fire away”, he explained at some length that he was anxious to attach
+himself to our party—a statement that astonished me not a little,
+knowing what a coward the little man was. The reason, however, soon
+appeared. Mr Mackenzie was going down to the coast, and thence on to
+England. Now, if he went down country, Alphonse was persuaded that he
+would be seized, extradited, sent to France, and to penal servitude.
+This was the idea that haunted him, as King Charles’s head haunted Mr
+Dick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggerated the
+danger ten times. As a matter of fact, the probability is that his
+offence against the laws of his country had long ago been forgotten,
+and that he would have been allowed to pass unmolested anywhere except
+in France; but he could not be got to see this. Constitutional coward
+as the little man was, he infinitely preferred to face the certain
+hardships and great risks and dangers of such an expedition as ours,
+than to expose himself, notwithstanding his intense longing for his
+native land, to the possible scrutiny of a police officer—which is
+after all only another exemplification of the truth that, to the
+majority of men, a far-off foreseen danger, however shadowy, is much
+more terrible than the most serious present emergency. After listening
+to what he had to say, we consulted among ourselves, and finally
+agreed, with Mr Mackenzie’s knowledge and consent, to accept his offer.
+To begin with, we were very short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick,
+active fellow, who could turn his hand to anything, and cook—ah, he
+_could_ cook! I believe that he would have made a palatable dish of
+those gaiters of his heroic grandfather which he was so fond of talking
+about. Then he was a good-tempered little man, and merry as a monkey,
+whilst his pompous, vainglorious talk was a source of infinite
+amusement to us; and what is more, he never bore malice. Of course, his
+being so pronounced a coward was a great drawback to him, but now that
+we knew his weakness we could more or less guard against it. So, after
+warning him of the undoubted risks he was exposing himself to, we told
+him that we would accept his offer on condition that he would promise
+implicit obedience to our orders. We also promised to give him wages at
+the rate of ten pounds a month should he ever return to a civilized
+country to receive them. To all of this he agreed with alacrity, and
+retired to write a letter to his Annette, which Mr Mackenzie promised
+to post when he got down country. He read it to us afterwards, Sir
+Henry translating, and a wonderful composition it was. I am sure the
+depth of his devotion and the narration of his sufferings in a
+barbarous country, “far, far from thee, Annette, for whose adored sake
+I endure such sorrow,” ought to have touched the feelings of the
+stoniest-hearted chambermaid.
+
+Well, the morrow came, and by seven o’clock the donkeys were all
+loaded, and the time of parting was at hand. It was a melancholy
+business, especially saying goodbye to dear little Flossie. She and I
+were great friends, and often used to have talks together—but her
+nerves had never got over the shock of that awful night when she lay in
+the power of those bloodthirsty Masai. “Oh, Mr Quatermain,” she cried,
+throwing her arms round my neck and bursting into tears, “I can’t bear
+to say goodbye to you. I wonder when we shall meet again?”
+
+“I don’t know, my dear little girl,” I said, “I am at one end of life
+and you are at the other. I have but a short time before me at best,
+and most things lie in the past, but I hope that for you there are many
+long and happy years, and everything lies in the future. By-and-by you
+will grow into a beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild life will
+be like a far-off dream to you; but I hope, even if we never do meet
+again, that you will think of your old friend and remember what I say
+to you now. Always try to be good, my dear, and to do what is right,
+rather than what happens to be pleasant, for in the end, whatever
+sneering people may say, what is good and what is happy are the same.
+Be unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping hand to others—for
+the world is full of suffering, my dear, and to alleviate it is the
+noblest end that we can set before us. If you do that you will become a
+sweet and God-fearing woman, and make many people’s lives a little
+brighter, and then you will not have lived, as so many of your sex do,
+in vain. And now I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so
+I am going to give you something to sweeten it with. You see this
+little piece of paper. It is what is called a cheque. When we are gone
+give it to your father with this note—not before, mind. You will marry
+one day, my dear little Flossie, and it is to buy you a wedding present
+which you are to wear, and your daughter after you, if you have one, in
+remembrance of Hunter Quatermain.”
+
+Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of her bright
+hair in return, which I still have. The cheque I gave her was for a
+thousand pounds (which being now well off, and having no calls upon me
+except those of charity, I could well afford), and in the note I
+directed her father to invest it for her in Government security, and
+when she married or came of age to buy her the best diamond necklace he
+could get for the money and accumulated interest. I chose diamonds
+because I think that now that King Solomon’s Mines are lost to the
+world, their price will never be much lower than it is at present, so
+that if in after-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, she
+will be able to turn them into money.
+
+Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving, and also
+farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weeping copiously (for he
+has a warm heart) at parting with his master and mistress; and I was
+not sorry for it at all, for I hate those goodbyes. Perhaps the most
+affecting thing of all was to witness Umslopogaas’ distress at parting
+with Flossie, for whom the grim old warrior had conceived a strong
+affection. He used to say that she was as sweet to see as the only star
+on a dark night, and was never tired of loudly congratulating himself
+on having killed the Lygonani who had threatened to murder her. And
+that was the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house—a true oasis in
+the desert—and of European civilization. But I often think of the
+Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, and if they are now
+safe and well in England, and will ever see these words. Dear little
+Flossie! I wonder how she fares there where there are no black folk to
+do her imperious bidding, and no sky-piercing snow-clad Kenia for her
+to look at when she gets up in the morning. And so goodbye to Flossie.
+
+After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparatively
+unmolested, past the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call “Donyo
+Egere”, or the “speckled mountain”, on account of the black patches of
+rock that appear upon its mighty spire, where the sides are too
+precipitous to allow of the snow lying on them; then on past the lonely
+lake Baringo, where one of our two remaining Askari, having
+unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died of snake-bite, in spite of
+all our efforts to save him. Thence we proceeded a distance of about a
+hundred and fifty miles to another magnificent snow-clad mountain
+called Lekakisera, which has never, to the best of my belief, been
+visited before by a European, but which I cannot now stop to describe.
+There we rested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless
+and uninhabited forest of a vast district called Elgumi. In this forest
+alone there are more elephants than I ever met with or heard of before.
+The mighty mammals literally swarm there entirely unmolested by man,
+and only kept down by the natural law that prevents any animals
+increasing beyond the capacity of the country they inhabit to support
+them. Needless to say, however, we did not shoot many of them, first
+because we could not afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock was
+getting perilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept away
+in fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could not carry
+away the ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sake of
+slaughter. So we let the great beasts be, only shooting one or two in
+self-protection. In this district, the elephants, being unacquainted
+with the hunter and his tender mercies, would allow one to walk up to
+within twenty yards of them in the open, while they stood, with their
+great ears cocked for all the world like puzzled and gigantic
+puppy-dogs, and stared at that new and extraordinary phenomenon—man.
+Occasionally, when the inspection did not prove satisfactory, the
+staring ended in a trumpet and a charge, but this did not often happen.
+When it did we had to use our rifles. Nor were elephants the only wild
+beasts in the great Elgumi forest. All sorts of large game abounded,
+including lions—confound them! I have always hated the sight of a lion
+since one bit my leg and lamed me for life. As a consequence, another
+thing that abounded was the dreadful tsetse fly, whose bite is death to
+domestic animals. Donkeys have, together with men, hitherto been
+supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity from its attacks; but all I have
+to say, whether it was on account of their poor condition, or because
+the tsetse in those parts is more poisonous than usual, I do not know,
+but ours succumbed to its onslaught. Fortunately, however, that was not
+till two months or so after the bites had been inflicted, when
+suddenly, after a two days’ cold rain, they all died, and on removing
+the skins of several of them I found the long yellow streaks upon the
+flesh which are characteristic of death from bites from the tsetse,
+marking the spot where the insect had inserted his proboscis. On
+emerging from the great Elgumi forest, we, still steering northwards,
+in accordance with the information Mr Mackenzie had collected from the
+unfortunate wanderer who reached him only to die so tragically, struck
+the base in due course of the large lake, called Laga by the natives,
+which is about fifty miles long by twenty broad, and of which, it may
+be remembered, he made mention. Thence we pushed on nearly a month’s
+journey over great rolling uplands, something like those in the
+Transvaal, but diversified by patches of bush country.
+
+All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of about one
+hundred feet every ten miles. Indeed the country was on a slope which
+appeared to terminate at a mass of snow-tipped mountains, for which we
+were steering, and where we learnt the second lake of which the
+wanderer had spoken as the lake without a bottom was situated. At
+length we arrived there, and, having ascertained that there _was_ a
+large lake on top of the mountains, ascended three thousand feet more
+till we came to a precipitous cliff or edge, to find a great sheet of
+water some twenty miles square lying fifteen hundred feet below us, and
+evidently occupying an extinct volcanic crater or craters of vast
+extent. Perceiving villages on the border of this lake, we descended
+with great difficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed
+the precipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by the
+people, a simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or even heard of a
+white man before, and treated us with great reverence and kindness,
+supplying us with as much food and milk as we could eat and drink. This
+wonderful and beautiful lake lay, according to our aneroid, at a height
+of no less than 11,450 feet above sea-level, and its climate was quite
+cold, and not at all unlike that of England. Indeed, for the first
+three days of our stay there we saw little or nothing of the scenery on
+account of an unmistakable Scotch mist which prevailed. It was this
+rain that set the tsetse poison working in our remaining donkeys, so
+that they all died.
+
+This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had now no
+means of transport whatever, though on the other hand we had not much
+to carry. Ammunition, too, was very short, amounting to but one hundred
+and fifty rounds of rifle cartridges and some fifty shot-gun
+cartridges. How to get on we did not know; indeed it seemed to us that
+we had about reached the end of our tether. Even if we had been
+inclined to abandon the object of our search, which, shadow as it was,
+was by no means the case, it was ridiculous to think of forcing our way
+back some seven hundred miles to the coast in our present plight; so we
+came to the conclusion that the only thing to be done was to stop where
+we were—the natives being so well disposed and food plentiful—for the
+present, and abide events, and try to collect information as to the
+countries beyond.
+
+Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enough to hold
+us all and our baggage, from the headman of the village we were staying
+in, presenting him with three empty cold-drawn brass cartridges by way
+of payment, with which he was perfectly delighted, we set out to make a
+tour of the lake in order to find the most favourable place to make a
+camp. As we did not know if we should return to this village, we put
+all our gear into the canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water-buck,
+which when young is delicious eating, and off we set, natives having
+already gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitants of the
+other villages of our approach.
+
+As we were paddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the
+extraordinary deep blue colour of the water, and said that he
+understood from the natives, who were great fishermen—fish, indeed,
+being their principal food—that the lake was supposed to be wonderfully
+deep, and to have a hole at the bottom through which the water escaped
+and put out some great fire that was raging below.
+
+I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legend
+arising from a tradition among the people which dated back to the time
+when one of the extinct parasitic volcanic cones was in activity. We
+saw several round the borders of the lake which had no doubt been
+working at a period long subsequent to the volcanic death of the
+central crater which now formed the bed of the lake itself. When it
+finally became extinct the people would imagine that the water from the
+lake had run down and put out the big fire below, more especially as,
+though it was constantly fed by streams running from the snow-tipped
+peaks about, there was no visible exit to it.
+
+The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, to consist
+of a vast perpendicular wall of rock, which held the water without any
+intermediate sloping bank, as elsewhere. Accordingly we paddled
+parallel with this precipice, at a distance of about a hundred paces
+from it, shaping our course for the end of the lake, where we knew that
+there was a large village.
+
+As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floating
+rushes, weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Good
+supposed, to this spot by some current, which he was much puzzled to
+account for. Whilst we were speculating about this, Sir Henry pointed
+out a flock of large white swans, which were feeding on the drift some
+little way ahead of us. Now I had already noticed swans flying about
+this lake, and, having never come across them before in Africa, was
+exceedingly anxious to obtain a specimen. I had questioned the natives
+about them, and learnt that they came from over the mountain, always
+arriving at certain periods of the year in the early morning, when it
+was very easy to catch them, on account of their exhausted condition. I
+also asked them what country they came from, when they shrugged their
+shoulders, and said that on the top of the great black precipice was
+stony inhospitable land, and beyond that were mountains with snow, and
+full of wild beasts, where no people lived, and beyond the mountains
+were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, so thick that even the
+elephants could not get through it, much less men. Next I asked them if
+they had ever heard of white people like ourselves living on the
+farther side of the mountains and the thorn forest, whereat they
+laughed. But afterwards a very old woman came and told me that when she
+was a little girl her grandfather had told her that in his youth _his_
+grandfather had crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the
+thorn forest, and seen a white people who lived in stone kraals beyond.
+Of course, as this took the tale back some two hundred and fifty years,
+the information was very indefinite; but still there it was again, and
+on thinking it over I grew firmly convinced that there was some truth
+in all these rumours, and equally firmly determined to solve the
+mystery. Little did I guess in what an almost miraculous way my desire
+was to be gratified.
+
+Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing, as they
+fed, nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at last we pushed the
+canoe under shelter of a patch of drift within forty yards of them. Sir
+Henry had the shot-gun, loaded with No. 1, and, waiting for a chance,
+got two in a line, and, firing at their necks, killed them both. Up
+rose the rest, thirty or more of them, with a mighty splashing; and, as
+they did so, he gave them the other barrel. Down came one fellow with a
+broken wing, and I saw the leg of another drop and a few feathers start
+out of his back; but he went on quite strong. Up went the swans,
+circling ever higher till at last they were mere specks level with the
+top of the frowning precipice, when I saw them form into a triangle and
+head off for the unknown north-east. Meanwhile we had picked up our two
+dead ones, and beautiful birds they were, weighing not less than about
+thirty pounds each, and were chasing the winged one, which had
+scrambled over a mass of driftweed into a pool of clear water beyond.
+Finding a difficulty in forcing the canoe through the rubbish, I told
+our only remaining Wakwafi servant, whom I knew to be an excellent
+swimmer, to jump over, dive under the drift, and catch him, knowing
+that as there were no crocodiles in this lake he could come to no harm.
+Entering into the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was
+dodging about after the winged swan in fine style, getting gradually
+nearer to the rock wall, against which the water washed as he did so.
+
+Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cry out that
+he was being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that, though he was
+swimming with all his strength towards us, he was being drawn slowly to
+the precipice. With a few desperate strokes of our paddles we pushed
+the canoe through the crust of drift and rowed towards the man as hard
+as we could, but, fast as we went, he was drawn faster to the rock.
+Suddenly I saw that before us, just rising eighteen inches or so above
+the surface of the lake, was what looked like the top of the arch of a
+submerged cave or railway tunnel. Evidently, from the watermark on the
+rock several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged; but
+there had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented the snow from
+melting as freely as usual; so the lake was low and the arch showed.
+Towards this arch our poor servant was being sucked with frightful
+rapidity. He was not more than ten fathoms from it, and we were about
+twenty when I saw it, and with little help from us the canoe flew along
+after him. He struggled bravely, and I thought that we should have
+saved him, when suddenly I perceived an expression of despair come upon
+his face, and there before our eyes he was sucked down into the cruel
+swirling blue depths, and vanished. At the same moment I felt our canoe
+seized as with a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force
+towards the rock.
+
+We realised our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiously in
+our attempt to get out of the vortex. In vain; in another second we
+were flying straight for the arch like an arrow, and I thought that we
+were lost. Luckily I retained sufficient presence of mind to shout out,
+instantly setting the example by throwing myself into the bottom of the
+canoe, “Down on your faces—down!” and the others had the sense to take
+the hint. In another instant there was a grinding noise, and the boat
+was pushed down till the water began to trickle over the sides, and I
+thought that we were gone. But no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we
+could again feel the canoe flying along. I turned my head a little—I
+dared not lift it—and looked up. By the feeble light that yet reached
+the canoe, I could make out that a dense arch of rock hung just over
+our heads, and that was all. In another minute I could not even see as
+much as that, for the faint light had merged into shadow, and the
+shadows had been swallowed up in darkness, utter and complete.
+
+For an hour or so we lay there, not daring to lift our heads for fear
+lest the brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcely able to
+speak even, on account of the noise of the rushing water which drowned
+our voices. Not, indeed, that we had much inclination to speak, seeing
+that we were overwhelmed by the awfulness of our position and the
+imminent fear of instant death, either by being dashed against the
+sides of the cavern, or on a rock, or being sucked down in the raging
+waters, or perhaps asphyxiated by want of air. All of these and many
+other modes of death presented themselves to my imagination as I lay at
+the bottom of the canoe, listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters
+which ran whither we knew not. One only other sound could I hear, and
+that was Alphonse’s intermittent howl of terror coming from the centre
+of the canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural. Indeed, the
+whole thing overpowered my brain, and I began to believe that I was the
+victim of some ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+THE ROSE OF FIRE
+
+
+On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticed that
+the sound of the water was not half so deafening as it had been, and
+concluded that this must be because there was more room for the echoes
+to disperse in. I could now hear Alphonse’s howls much more distinctly;
+they were made up of the oddest mixture of invocations to the Supreme
+Power and the name of his beloved Annette that it is possible to
+conceive; and, in short, though their evident earnestness saved them
+from profanity, were, to say the least, very remarkable.[9] Taking up a
+paddle I managed to drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking that
+the end had come, howled louder than ever. Then I slowly and cautiously
+raised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, but could
+touch no roof. Next I took the paddle and lifted it above my head as
+high as I could, but with the same result. I also thrust it out
+laterally to the right and left, but could touch nothing except water.
+Then I bethought me that there was in the boat, amongst our other
+remaining possessions, a bull’s-eye lantern and a tin of oil. I groped
+about and found it, and having a match on me carefully lit it, and as
+soon as the flame had got a hold of the wick I turned it on down the
+boat. As it happened, the first thing the light lit on was the white
+and scared face of Alphonse, who, thinking that it was all over at
+last, and that he was witnessing a preliminary celestial phenomenon,
+gave a terrific yell and was with difficulty reassured with the paddle.
+As for the other three, Good was lying on the flat of his back, his
+eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and gazing blankly into the upper
+darkness. Sir Henry had his head resting on the thwarts of the canoe,
+and with his hand was trying to test the speed of the water. But when
+the beam of light fell upon old Umslopogaas I could really have
+laughed. I think I have said that we had put a roast quarter of
+water-buck into the canoe. Well, it so happened that when we all
+prostrated ourselves to avoid being swept out of the boat and into the
+water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas’s head had come down uncommonly
+near this roast buck, and so soon as he had recovered a little from the
+first shock of our position it occurred to him that he was hungry.
+Thereupon he coolly cut off a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now
+employed in eating it with every appearance of satisfaction. As he
+afterwards explained, he thought that he was going “on a long journey”,
+and preferred to start on a full stomach. It reminded me of the people
+who are going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in the
+English daily papers to have made “an excellent breakfast”.
+
+ [9] Sir Henry afterwards wrote down one of Alphonse’s prayers as he
+ overheard it. It ran thus: “Oh, save me! lake me out of this hole! I
+ will promise never to go exploring again! Oh, Annette, why did I leave
+ thee? Oh, my false cousin! Oh, deliver me from this horrible main
+ drain! Never mind the others! Let them drown; they are more used to it
+ than I am, and they cannot cook! Oh Annette! Annette [_cresendo_]!
+ Annette [_fortissimo_]!”
+
+As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp, we
+bundled Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with a threat which
+calmed him down wonderfully, that if he would insist upon making the
+darkness hideous with his cries we would put him out of suspense by
+sending him to join the Wakwafi and wait for Annette in another sphere,
+and began to discuss the situation as well as we could. First, however,
+at Good’s suggestion, we bound two paddles mast-fashion in the bows so
+that they might give us warning against any sudden lowering of the roof
+of the cave or waterway. It was clear to us that we were in an
+underground river or, as Alphonse defined it, “main drain”, which
+carried off the superfluous waters of the lake. Such rivers are well
+known to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not often been
+the evil fortune of explorers to travel by them. That the river was
+wide we could clearly see, for the light from the bull’s-eye lantern
+failed to reach from shore to shore, although occasionally, when the
+current swept us either to one side or the other, we could distinguish
+the rock wall of the tunnel, which, as far as we could make out,
+appeared to arch about twenty-five feet above our heads. As for the
+current itself, it ran, Good estimated, at least eight knots, and,
+fortunately for us, was, as is usual, fiercest in the middle of the
+stream. Still, our first act was to arrange that one of us, with the
+lantern and a pole there was in the canoe, should always be in the bows
+ready, if possible, to prevent us from being stove in against the side
+of the cave or any projecting rock. Umslopogaas, having already dined,
+took the first turn. This was absolutely, with one exception, all that
+we could do towards preserving our safety. The exception was that
+another of us took up a position in the stern with a paddle by means of
+which it was possible to steer the canoe more or less and to keep her
+from the sides of the cave. These matters attended to, we made a
+somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck’s meat (for we did not know how
+long it might have to last us), and then feeling in rather better
+spirits I gave my opinion that, serious as it undoubtedly was, I did
+not consider our position altogether without hope, unless, indeed, the
+natives were right, and the river plunged straight down into the bowels
+of the earth. If not, it was clear that it must emerge somewhere,
+probably on the other side of the mountains, and in that case all we
+had to think of was to keep ourselves alive till we got there, wherever
+“there” might be. But, of course, as Good lugubriously pointed out, on
+the other hand we might fall victims to a hundred unsuspected
+horrors—or the river might go on winding away inside the earth till it
+dried up, in which case our fate would indeed be an awful one.
+
+“Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for the worst,”
+said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited—a very tower
+of strength in the time of trouble. “We have come out of so many queer
+scrapes together, that somehow I almost fancy we shall come out of
+this,” he added.
+
+This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each in our
+separate way—that is, except Alphonse, who had by now sunk into a sort
+of terrified stupor. Good was at the helm and Umslopogaas in the bows,
+so there was nothing left for Sir Henry and myself to do except to lie
+down in the canoe and think. It certainly was a curious, and indeed
+almost a weird, position to be placed in—rushing along, as we were,
+through the bowels of the earth, borne on the bosom of a Stygian river,
+something after the fashion of souls being ferried by Charon, as Curtis
+said. And how dark it was! The feeble ray from our little lamp did but
+serve to show the darkness. There in the bows sat old Umslopogaas, like
+Pleasure in the poem,[10] watchful and untiring, the pole ready to his
+hand, and behind in the shadow I could just make out the form of Good
+peering forward at the ray of light in order to make out how to steer
+with the paddle that he held and now and again dipped into the water.
+
+ [10] Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes—Pleasure sat at the helm.—Editor.
+
+“Well, well,” thought I, “you have come in search of adventures, Allan
+my boy, and you have certainly got them. At your time of life, too! You
+ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehow you are not, and, awful as
+it all is, perhaps you will pull through after all; and if you don’t,
+why, you cannot help it, you see! And when all’s said and done an
+underground river will make a very appropriate burying-place.”
+
+At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon the nerves
+was very great. It is trying to the coolest and most experienced person
+not to know from one hour to another if he has five minutes more to
+live, but there is nothing in this world that one cannot get accustomed
+to, and in time we began to get accustomed even to that. And, after
+all, our anxiety, though no doubt natural, was, strictly speaking,
+illogical, seeing that we never know what is going to happen to us the
+next minute, even when we sit in a well-drained house with two
+policemen patrolling under the window—nor how long we have to live. It
+is all arranged for us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?
+
+It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, and we had
+set our watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreed that it
+should be of a duration of five hours. At seven o’clock, accordingly,
+Sir Henry and I went on, Sir Henry at the bow and I at the stern, and
+the other two lay down and went to sleep. For three hours all went
+well, Sir Henry only finding it necessary once to push us off from the
+side; and I that but little steering was required to keep us straight,
+as the violent current did all that was needed, though occasionally the
+canoe showed a tendency which had to be guarded against to veer and
+travel broadside on. What struck me as the most curious thing about
+this wonderful river was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and
+thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even
+remarkably unpleasant. The only explanation that I can suggest is that
+the water of the lake had sufficient air in it to keep the atmosphere
+of the tunnel from absolute stagnation, this air being given out as it
+proceeded on its headlong way. Of course I only give the solution of
+the mystery for what it is worth, which perhaps is not much.
+
+When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began to notice a
+decided change in the temperature, which was getting warmer. At first I
+took no notice of it, but when, at the expiration of another half-hour,
+I found that it was getting hotter and hotter, I called to Sir Henry
+and asked him if he noticed it, or if it was only my imagination.
+“Noticed it!” he answered; “I should think so. I am in a sort of
+Turkish bath.” Just about then the others woke up gasping, and were
+obliged to begin to discard their clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the
+advantage, for he did not wear any to speak of, except a moocha.
+
+Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely breathe,
+and the perspiration poured out of us. Half an hour more, and though we
+were all now stark naked, we could hardly bear it. The place was like
+an antechamber of the infernal regions proper. I dipped my hand into
+the water and drew it out almost with a cry; it was nearly boiling. We
+consulted a little thermometer we had—the mercury stood at 123 degrees.
+From the surface of the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse
+groaned out that we were already in purgatory, which indeed we were,
+though not in the sense that he meant it. Sir Henry suggested that we
+must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanic fire, and I
+am inclined to think, especially in the light of what subsequently
+occurred, that he was right. Our sufferings for some time after this
+really pass my powers of description. We no longer perspired, for all
+the perspiration had been sweated out of us. We simply lay in the
+bottom of the boat, which we were now physically incapable of
+directing, feeling like hot embers, and I fancy undergoing very much
+the same sensations that the poor fish do when they are dying on
+land—namely, that of slow suffocation. Our skins began to crack, and
+the blood to throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine.
+
+This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the river turned a
+little, and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bows in a hoarse,
+startled voice, and, looking up, saw a most wonderful and awful thing.
+About half a mile ahead of us, and a little to the left of the centre
+of the stream—which we could now see was about ninety feet broad—a huge
+pillar-like jet of almost white flame rose from the surface of the
+water and sprang fifty feet into the air, when it struck the roof and
+spread out some forty feet in diameter, falling back in curved sheets
+of fire shaped like the petals of a full-blown rose. Indeed this awful
+gas jet resembled nothing so much as a great flaming flower rising out
+of the black water. Below was the straight stalk, a foot or more thick,
+and above the dreadful bloom. And as for the fearfulness of it and its
+fierce and awesome beauty, who can describe it? Certainly I cannot.
+Although we were now some five hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding
+the steam, lit up the whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see
+that the roof was here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly
+smooth with water. The rock was black, and here and there I could make
+out long shining lines of ore running through it like great veins, but
+of what metal they were I know not.
+
+On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercer than
+any furnace ever lit by man.
+
+“Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain—to the right,” shouted Sir
+Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless.
+Alphonse had already gone. Good was the next to go. There they lay as
+though dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses. We were within
+fifty yards of it now, and I saw the Zulu’s head fall forward on his
+hands. He had gone too, and I was alone. I could not breathe; the
+fierce heat dried me up. For yards and yards round the great rose of
+fire the rock-roof was red-hot. The wood of the boat was almost
+burning. I saw the feathers on one of the dead swans begin to twist and
+shrivel up; but I would not give in. I knew that if I did we should
+pass within three or four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably. I
+set the paddle so as to turn the canoe as far from it as possible, and
+held on grimly.
+
+My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed lids
+I could see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now; it roared
+like all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiously around it.
+Five seconds more. We were past; I heard the roar behind me.
+
+Then I too fell senseless. The next thing that I recollect is feeling a
+breath of air upon my face. My eyes opened with great difficulty. I
+looked up. Far, far above me there was light, though around me was
+great gloom. Then I remembered and looked. The canoe still floated down
+the river, and in the bottom of it lay the naked forms of my
+companions. “Were they dead?” I wondered. “Was I left alone in this
+awful place?” I knew not. Next I became conscious of a burning thirst.
+I put my hand over the edge of the boat into the water and drew it up
+again with a cry. No wonder: nearly all the skin was burnt off the back
+of it. The water, however, was cold, or nearly so, and I drank pints
+and splashed myself all over. My body seemed to suck up the fluid as
+one may see a brick wall suck up rain after a drought; but where I was
+burnt the touch of it caused intense pain. Then I bethought myself of
+the others, and, dragging myself towards them with difficulty, I
+sprinkled them with water, and to my joy they began to
+recover—Umslopogaas first, then the others. Next they drank, absorbing
+water like so many sponges. Then, feeling chilly—a queer contrast to
+our recent sensations—we began as best we could to get into our
+clothes. As we did so Good pointed to the port side of the canoe: it
+was all blistered with heat, and in places actually charred. Had it
+been built like our civilized boats, Good said that the planks would
+certainly have warped and let in enough water to sink us; but
+fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a single great
+tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottom four inches thick.
+What that awful flame was we never discovered, but I suppose that there
+was at this spot a crack or hole in the bed of the river through which
+a vast volume of gas forced its way from its volcanic home in the
+bowels of the earth towards the upper air. How it first became ignited
+is, of course, impossible to say—probably, I should think, from some
+spontaneous explosion of mephitic gases.
+
+As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselves
+together a little, we set to work to make out where we were now. I have
+said that there was light above, and on examination we found that it
+came from the sky. Our river that was, Sir Henry said, a literal
+realization of the wild vision of the poet,[11] was no longer
+underground, but was running on its darksome way, not now through
+“caverns measureless to man”, but between two frightful cliffs which
+cannot have been less than two thousand feet high. So high were they,
+indeed, that though the sky was above us, where we were was dense
+gloom—not darkness indeed, but the gloom of a room closely shuttered in
+the daytime. Up on either side rose the great straight cliffs, grim and
+forbidding, till the eye grew dizzy with trying to measure their sheer
+height. The little space of sky that marked where they ended lay like a
+thread of blue upon their soaring blackness, which was unrelieved by
+any tree or creeper. Here and there, however, grew ghostly patches of a
+long grey lichen, hanging motionless to the rock as the white beard to
+the chin of a dead man. It seemed as though only the dregs or heavier
+part of the light had sunk to the bottom of this awful place. No
+bright-winged sunbeam could fall so low: they died far, far above our
+heads.
+
+ [11]
+In Kubla Khan a river ran
+Through caverns measureless to man
+Down to a sunless sea
+
+By the river’s edge was a little shore formed of round fragments of
+rock washed into this shape by the constant action of water, and giving
+the place the appearance of being strewn with thousands of fossil
+cannon balls. Evidently when the water of the underground river is high
+there is no beach at all, or very little, between the border of the
+stream and the precipitous cliffs; but now there was a space of seven
+or eight yards. And here, on this beach, we determined to land, in
+order to rest ourselves a little after all that we had gone through and
+to stretch our limbs. It was a dreadful place, but it would give an
+hour’s respite from the terrors of the river, and also allow of our
+repacking and arranging the canoe. Accordingly we selected what looked
+like a favourable spot, and with some little difficulty managed to
+beach the canoe and scramble out on to the round, inhospitable pebbles.
+
+“My word,” called out Good, who was on shore the first, “what an awful
+place! It’s enough to give one a fit.” And he laughed.
+
+Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying them a
+hundred times. “_Give one a fit—Ho! ho! ho!”—“A fit, Ho! ho! ho!_”
+answered another voice in wild accents from far up the cliff—_a fit! a
+fit! a fit!_ chimed in voice after voice—each flinging the words to and
+fro with shouts of awful laughter to the invisible lips of the other
+till the whole place echoed with the words and with shrieks of fiendish
+merriment, which at last ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
+
+“Oh, mon Dieu!” yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of such
+self-command as he possessed.
+
+“_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_” the Titanic echoes thundered,
+shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone.
+
+“Ah,” said Umslopogaas calmly, “I clearly perceive that devils live
+here. Well, the place looks like it.”
+
+I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub was a very
+remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
+
+“Ah,” he said, “I know an echo when I hear one. There was one lived
+opposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] used to talk
+with it. But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mine at home can
+only have been a baby. No, no—they are devils up there. But I don’t
+think much of them, though,” he added, taking a pinch of snuff. “They
+can copy what one says, but they don’t seem to be able to talk on their
+own account, and they dare not show their faces,” and he relapsed into
+silence, and apparently paid no further attention to such contemptible
+fiends.
+
+After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation down to a
+whisper—for it was really unbearable to have every word one uttered
+tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipice called to precipice.
+
+But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurs till at
+last they died away in long-drawn sighs of sound. Echoes are delightful
+and romantic things, but we had more than enough of them in that
+dreadful gulf.
+
+As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones, we
+went on to wash and dress our burns as well as we could. As we had but
+a little oil for the lantern, we could not spare any for this purpose,
+so we skinned one of the swans, and used the fat off its breast, which
+proved an excellent substitute. Then we repacked the canoe, and finally
+began to take some food, of which I need scarcely say we were in need,
+for our insensibility had endured for many hours, and it was, as our
+watches showed, midday. Accordingly we seated ourselves in a circle,
+and were soon engaged in discussing our cold meat with such appetite as
+we could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much, as I felt
+sick and faint after my sufferings of the previous night, and had
+besides a racking headache. It was a curious meal. The gloom was so
+intense that we could scarcely see the way to cut our food and convey
+it to our mouths. Still we got on pretty well, till I happened to look
+behind me—my attention being attracted by a noise of something crawling
+over the stones, and perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear
+a huge species of black freshwater crab, only it was five times the
+size of any crab I ever saw. This hideous and loathsome-looking animal
+had projecting eyes that seemed to glare at one, very long and flexible
+antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws. Nor was I especially favoured
+with its company. From every quarter dozens of these horrid brutes were
+creeping up, drawn, I suppose, by the smell of the food, from between
+the round stones and out of holes in the precipice. Some were already
+quite close to us. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and
+as I did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and give
+the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up with a howl,
+and set the “wild echoes flying” in sober earnest. Just then, too,
+another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse’s leg, and declined to
+part with it, and, as may be imagined, a considerable scene ensued.
+Umslopogaas took his axe and cracked the shell of one with the flat of
+it, whereon it set up a horrid screaming which the echoes multiplied a
+thousandfold, and began to foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew
+hundreds more of its friends out of unsuspected holes and corners.
+Those on the spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like
+creditors on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with
+their huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the
+fragments to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy, such as
+stones or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters—whose numbers
+were increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose stench was overpowering.
+So fast as we cracked their armour others seized the injured ones and
+devoured them, foaming at the mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor
+did the brutes stop at that. When they could they nipped hold of us—and
+awful nips they were—or tried to steal the meat. One enormous fellow
+got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to drag it off. Instantly
+a score of others flung themselves upon the prey, and then began a
+ghastly and disgusting scene. How the monsters foamed and screamed, and
+rent the flesh, and each other! It was a sickening and unnatural sight,
+and one that will haunt all who saw it till their dying day—enacted as
+it was in the deep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of
+the many-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it may seem to say so,
+there was something so shockingly human about these fiendish
+creatures—it was as though all the most evil passions and desires of
+man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and gone mad. They were
+so dreadfully courageous and intelligent, and they looked as if they
+_understood_. The whole scene might have furnished material for another
+canto of Dante’s “Inferno”, as Curtis said.
+
+“I say, you fellows, let’s get out of this or we shall all go off our
+heads,” sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the hint. Pushing
+the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling by hundreds and
+making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks, we bundled into it and
+got out into mid-stream, leaving behind us the fragments of our meal
+and the screaming, foaming, stinking mass of monsters in full
+possession of the ground.
+
+“Those are the devils of the place,” said Umslopogaas with the air of
+one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt almost inclined
+to agree with him.
+
+Umslopogaas’ remarks were like his axe—very much to the point.
+
+“What’s to be done next?” said Sir Henry blankly.
+
+“Drift, I suppose,” I answered, and we drifted accordingly. All the
+afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in the gloom beneath
+the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing when day ended and night
+began, for down in that vast gulf the difference was not marked, till
+at length Good pointed out a star hanging right above us, which, having
+nothing better to do, we observed with great interest. Suddenly it
+vanished, the darkness became intense, and a familiar murmuring sound
+filled the air. “Underground again,” I said with a groan, holding up
+the lamp. Yes, there was no doubt about it. I could just make out the
+roof. The chasm had come to an end and the tunnel had recommenced. And
+then there began another long, long night of danger and horror. To
+describe all its incidents would be too wearisome, so I will simply say
+that about midnight we struck on a flat projecting rock in mid-stream
+and were as nearly as possible overturned and drowned. However, at last
+we got off, and went upon the uneven tenor of our way. And so the hours
+passed till it was nearly three o’clock. Sir Henry, Good, and Alphonse
+were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at the bow with the
+pole, and I was steering, when I perceived that the rate at which we
+were travelling had perceptibly increased. Then, suddenly, I heard
+Umslopogaas make an exclamation, and next second came a sound as of
+parting branches, and I became aware that the canoe was being forced
+through hanging bushes or creepers. Another minute, and the breath of
+sweet open air fanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged from the
+tunnel and were floating upon clear water. I say felt, for I could see
+nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it often is just
+before the dawn. But even this could scarcely damp my joy. We were out
+of that dreadful river, and wherever we might have got to this at least
+was something to be thankful for. And so I sat down and inhaled the
+sweet night air and waited for the dawn with such patience as I could
+command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+THE FROWNING CITY
+
+
+For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile gone to
+sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge misty shapes
+moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten
+dawns. They were the vapours rising from their watery bed to greet the
+sun. Then the grey turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red.
+Next, glorious bars of light sprang up across the eastern sky, and
+through them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon
+their arrowy way, scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking the
+mountains with a kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude
+to longitude. Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the
+sun himself came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and
+glory and a flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night
+and covered her with brightness, and it was day.
+
+But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for
+over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole
+surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees,
+however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we were
+afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make
+out the shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there
+stretched as far as the eye could reach a range of precipitous hills
+that formed a retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that
+it was through some entrance in these hills that the subterranean river
+found its way into the open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained
+this to be the fact, and it will be some indication of the
+extraordinary strength and directness of the current of the mysterious
+river that the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering to it.
+Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just then,
+discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it was.
+Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my
+attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe
+to the spot, whereupon we discovered that the object was the body of a
+man floating face downwards. This was bad enough, but imagine my horror
+when Umslopogaas having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we
+recognized in the sunken features the lineaments of—whom do you
+suppose? None other than our poor servant who had been sucked down two
+days before in the waters of the subterranean river. It quite
+frightened me. I thought that we had left him behind for ever, and
+behold! borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us,
+and with us had reached the end. His appearance also was dreadful, for
+he bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire—one arm being
+completely shrivelled up and all his hair being burnt off. The features
+were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they preserved upon them that
+awful look of despair that I had seen upon his living face as the poor
+fellow was sucked down. Really the sight unnerved me, weary and shaken
+as I felt with all that we had gone through, and I was heartily glad
+when suddenly and without any warning the body began to sink just as
+though it had had a mission, which having been accomplished, it
+retired; the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its back
+allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went to the transparent
+depths—fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at last a
+long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other to the
+surface, alone remained where it had passed. At length these, too, were
+gone, and that was an end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully
+watched the body vanish.
+
+“What did he follow us for?” he asked. “’Tis an ill omen for thee and
+me, Macumazahn.” And he laughed.
+
+I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions. If
+people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keep them to
+themselves. I detest individuals who make on the subject of their
+disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream that they saw one
+hanged as a common felon, or some such horror, will insist upon telling
+one all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do
+it.
+
+Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly
+at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more
+beneath the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions as
+to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was that, as we
+were excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoever left to eat except
+a few scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that
+remained of our provisions to those horrible freshwater crabs, we
+determined to make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did
+not know where the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs
+through which the subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing
+but a wide expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that
+the long flights of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we
+concluded that they were advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore
+to pass the day in the lake, and accordingly headed the boat towards
+the quarter whence they came, and began to paddle. Before long,
+however, a stiffish breeze sprang up, blowing directly in the direction
+we wanted, so we improvised a sail with a blanket and the pole, which
+took us along merrily. This done, we devoured the remnants of our
+biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and then lit our pipes
+and awaited whatever might turn up.
+
+When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the
+horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he saw
+land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour of the water,
+he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a river. In another
+minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul’s,
+piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the
+world it could be, Good reported another and still more important
+discovery, namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing towards us.
+This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our
+own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of
+this unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to
+suggest that they possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more
+minutes it became evident that the occupant or occupants of the
+advancing boat had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the
+wind as though in doubt, and then came tacking towards us with great
+swiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we
+saw that she was a neat little boat—not a canoe “dug out”, but built
+more or less in the European fashion with planks, and carrying a
+singularly large sail for her size. But our attention was soon diverted
+from the boat to her crew, which consisted of a man and a woman,
+_nearly as white as ourselves_.
+
+We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be
+mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but
+the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished
+from a black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It
+was a patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by
+a Power beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I
+could have shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder
+of the thing; and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each
+other on the unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I
+heard rumours of a white race that existed in the highlands of this
+vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw
+it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the
+old Roman was right when he wrote “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi”,
+which he tells me means that out of Africa there always comes some new
+thing.
+
+The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique,
+and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an
+intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something
+like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt
+of the same material. The legs and feet were bare. Round the right arm
+and left leg he wore thick rings of yellow metal that I judged to be
+gold. The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and
+curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the
+man’s, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen
+under-garment that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long
+strip of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound
+round the body in graceful folds and finally flung over the left
+shoulder so that the end, which was dyed blue or purple or some other
+colour, according to the social standing of the wearer, hung down in
+front, the right arm and breast being, however, left quite bare. A more
+becoming dress, especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was
+young and pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. Good (who has an
+eye for such things) was greatly struck with it, and so indeed was I.
+It was so simple and yet so effective.
+
+Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and
+woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for
+the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for a
+while hovered round our canoe, but would not approach. At last,
+however, he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a
+language that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we could
+not understand one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin,
+Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native
+dialects that I am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand
+any of these tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the
+lady, she was busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was
+returning the compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a
+proceeding that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length,
+the man, being unable to make anything of us, suddenly turned his boat
+round and began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming
+away before the wind like a swallow. As she passed across our bows the
+man turned to attend to the large sail, and Good promptly took the
+opportunity to kiss his hand to the young lady. I was horrified at this
+proceeding, both on general grounds and because I feared that she might
+take offence, but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round
+and seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was
+engaged, she promptly kissed hers back.
+
+“Ah!” said I. “It seems that we have at last found a language that the
+people of this country understand.”
+
+“In which case,” said Sir Henry, “Good will prove an invaluable
+interpreter.”
+
+I frowned, for I do not approve of Good’s frivolities, and he knows it,
+and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. “It is very
+clear to me,” I said, “that the man will be back before long with a
+host of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we are
+going to receive them.”
+
+“The question is how will they receive us?” said Sir Henry.
+
+As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin
+case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under a pile of
+baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with Good about this tin case,
+inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never
+given any very explicit account as to its contents; but he had insisted
+on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very useful
+one day.
+
+“What on earth are you going to do, Good?” asked Sir Henry.
+
+“Do—why dress, of course! You don’t expect me to appear in a new
+country in these things, do you?” and he pointed to his soiled and worn
+garments, which were however, like all Good’s things, very tidy, and
+with every tear neatly mended.
+
+We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless interest.
+His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly competent in
+such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the most approved fashion.
+I think that if he had had some hot water and a cake of soap at hand he
+would have shaved off the latter; but he had not. This done, he
+suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all take a
+bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and astonishment of Alphonse,
+who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were indeed a
+wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred
+Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of
+swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild
+amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water,
+and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced
+first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had left a London steam
+laundry, and then some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white,
+and finally in silver paper. We watched this undoing with the tenderest
+interest and much speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks
+that hid their splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece
+of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its
+golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy’s
+full-dress uniform—dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots
+and all. We literally gasped.
+
+“_What!_” we said, “_what!_ Are you going to put those things on?”
+
+“Certainly,” he answered composedly; “you see so much depends upon a
+first impression, especially,” he added, “as I observe that there are
+ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.”
+
+We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we
+considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the contents of
+that box for all these months. Only one suggestion did we make—namely,
+that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he
+feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the
+sun to take the creases out, but finally consented to this
+precautionary measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however,
+was to see old Umslopogaas’s astonishment and Alphonse’s delight at
+Good’s transformation. When at last he stood up in all his glory, even
+down to the medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still
+waters of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient
+history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love with his
+own shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings.
+
+“Oh, Bougwan!” he said. “Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee an ugly
+little man, and fat—fat as the cows at calving time; and now thou art
+like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts
+my eyes to look at thee.”
+
+Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell the
+truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had brought him
+down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased at Umslopogaas’s
+admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted.
+
+“Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air—the air of the warrior. It is
+the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is
+complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand—”
+
+Here we stopped Alphonse.
+
+As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of
+emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves up as
+well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to do was to
+array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes, of which we
+each had several, all the fine clothes in the world could never make it
+otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but Sir Henry looked what he
+is, a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit, gaiters, and boots.
+Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn to his
+enormous moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way
+given to the vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the
+lantern and a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it
+shone like Good’s patent leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt
+Sir Henry had given him and his “moocha”, and, having cleaned up
+Inkosi-kaas a little, stood forth complete.
+
+All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had
+finished bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or,
+rather, for the mouth of a great river. Presently—in all about an hour
+and a half after the little boat had left us—we saw emerging from the
+river or harbour a large number of boats, ranging up to ten or twelve
+tons burden. One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most
+of the rest sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the
+row-boat was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort
+of uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of
+venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword
+strapped to his side, who was evidently the commander of the craft. The
+other boats were apparently occupied by people brought out by
+curiosity, and were rowing or sailing towards us as quickly as they
+could.
+
+“Now for it,” said I. “What is the betting? Are they going to be
+friendly or to put an end to us?”
+
+Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike
+appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little
+anxious.
+
+Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about two
+hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to
+impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them
+if possible. This, unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and
+accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore rifles, for which we
+still had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action. There were
+four of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three
+parts grown. We got up to them without difficulty, the great animals
+contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again
+a few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as
+being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards
+away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown
+young one. The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and,
+crashing through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leaving a long
+train of blood behind it. At the same moment I fired at the cow, and
+Good at the old bull. My shot took effect, but not fatally, and down
+went the hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only to rise again
+presently blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round
+her crimson, when I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who is an
+execrable shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet
+merely cutting the side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after
+I had fired my second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen
+among were evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the
+consternation caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was
+prodigious. Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear;
+others turned and made off as hard as they could; and even the old
+gentleman with the sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted
+his big row-boat. We had, however, but little time for observation, for
+just then the old bull, rendered furious by the wound he had received,
+rose fair within forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and
+hit him in various places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity
+now began to overcome the fear of the onlookers, and some of them
+sailed on up close to us, amongst these being the man and woman whom we
+had first seen a couple of hours or so before, who drew up almost
+alongside. Just then the great brute rose again within ten yards of
+their base, and instantly with a roar of fury made at it open-mouthed.
+The woman shrieked, and the man tried to give the boat way, but without
+success. In another second I saw the huge red jaws and gleaming ivories
+close with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous mouthful out
+of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its occupants
+struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could do anything
+towards saving them, the huge and furious creature was up again and
+making open-mouthed at the poor girl, who was struggling in the water.
+Lifting my rifle just as the grinding jaws were about to close on her,
+I fired over her head right down the hippopotamus’s throat. Over he
+went, and commenced turning round and round, snorting, and blowing red
+streams of blood through his nostrils. Before he could recover himself,
+however, I let him have the other barrel in the side of the throat, and
+that finished him. He never moved or struggled again, but instantly
+sank. Our next effort was directed towards saving the girl, the man
+having swum off towards another boat; and in this we were fortunately
+successful, pulling her into the canoe (amidst the shouts of the
+spectators) considerably exhausted and frightened, but otherwise
+unhurt.
+
+Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and we could
+see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened, were
+consulting what to do. Without giving them time for further
+consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to ourselves,
+we instantly took our paddles and advanced towards them, Good standing
+in the bow and taking off his cocked hat politely in every direction,
+his amiable features suffused by a bland but intelligent smile. Most of
+the craft retreated as we advanced, but a few held their ground, while
+the big row-boat came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and I
+could see that our appearance—and especially Good’s and
+Umslopogaas’s—filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment,
+not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the same fashion as the man
+we first met, except that his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of
+pure white linen hemmed with purple. The kilt, however, was identical,
+and so were the thick rings of gold around the arm and beneath the left
+knee. The rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to the
+waist. Good took off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra
+flourish, and inquired after his health in the purest English, to which
+he replied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand
+horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a moment, which
+we took as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed some
+remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished our first
+interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did not understand by
+shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse,
+being to the manner born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way
+that nobody could take any offence. Then we came to a standstill, till
+I, being exceedingly hungry, thought I might as well call attention to
+the fact, and did so first by opening my mouth and pointing down it,
+and then rubbing my stomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly
+understood, for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed towards the
+harbour; and at the same time one of the men on his boat threw us a
+line and motioned to us to make it fast, which we did. The row-boat
+then took us in tow, and went with great rapidity towards the mouth of
+the river, accompanied by all the other boats. In about twenty minutes
+more we reached the entrance to the harbour, which was crowded with
+boats full of people who had come out to see us. We observed that all
+the occupants were more or less of the same type, though some were
+fairer than others. Indeed, we noticed certain ladies whose skin was of
+a most dazzling whiteness; and the darkest shade of colour which we saw
+was about that of a rather swarthy Spaniard. Presently the wide river
+gave a sweep, and when it did so an exclamation of astonishment and
+delight burst from our lips as we caught our first view of the place
+that we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning City (from the
+prefix _mi_, which means city, and _losis_, a frown).
+
+At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river’s bank rose a
+sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in height, which had
+no doubt once formed the bank itself—the intermediate space of land now
+utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by draining, and
+deepening and embanking the stream.
+
+On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same
+granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the
+fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its
+base by a little door. This imposing place we afterwards discovered was
+the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens. At the back of the
+palace the town sloped gently upwards to a flashing building of white
+marble, crowned by the golden dome which we had already observed. The
+city was, with the exception of this one building, entirely built of
+red granite, and laid out in regular blocks with splendid roadways
+between. So far as we could see also the houses were all one-storied
+and detached, with gardens round them, which gave some relief to the
+eye wearied with the vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a
+road of extraordinary width stretched away up the hill for a distance
+of a mile and a half or so, and appeared to terminate at an open space
+surrounding the gleaming building that crowned the hill. But right in
+front of us was the wonder and glory of Milosis—the great staircase of
+the palace, the magnificence of which took our breath away. Let the
+reader imagine, if he can, a splendid stairway, sixty-five feet from
+balustrade to balustrade, consisting of two vast flights, each of one
+hundred and twenty-five steps of eight inches in height by three feet
+broad, connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and
+running from the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet
+a waterway or canal cut to its foot from the river. This marvellous
+staircase was supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which
+the resting-place between the two flights formed the crown; that is,
+the connecting open space lay upon it. From this archway sprang a
+subsidiary flying arch, or rather something that resembled a flying
+arch in shape, such as none of us had seen in any other country, and of
+which the beauty and wonder surpassed all that we had ever imagined.
+Three hundred feet from point to point, and no less than five hundred
+and fifty round the curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it
+supported for a space of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built
+into the parent archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of
+the side of the precipice.
+
+This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which any
+living man might have been proud, both on account of its magnitude and
+its surpassing beauty. Four times, as we afterwards learnt, did the
+work, which was commenced in remote antiquity, fail, and was then
+abandoned for three centuries when half-finished, till at last there
+rose a youthful engineer named Rademas, who said that he would complete
+it successfully, and staked his life upon it. If he failed he was to be
+hurled from the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded,
+he was to be rewarded by the hand of the king’s daughter. Five years
+was given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of
+labour and material. Three times did his arch fall, till at last,
+seeing failure to be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on the
+morrow of the third collapse. That night, however, a beautiful woman
+came to him in a dream and touched his forehead, and of a sudden he saw
+a vision of the completed work, and saw too through the masonry and how
+the difficulties connected with the flying arch that had hitherto
+baffled his genius were to be overcome. Then he awoke and once more
+commenced the work, but on a different plan, and behold! he achieved
+it, and on the last day of the five years he led the princess his bride
+up the stair and into the palace. And in due course he became king by
+right of his wife, and founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is
+to this day called the “House of the Stairway”, thus proving once more
+how energy and talent are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And
+to commemorate his triumph he fashioned a statue of himself dreaming,
+and of the fair woman who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in
+the great hall of the palace, and there it stands to this day.
+
+Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond. No
+wonder they named it the “Frowning City”, for certainly those mighty
+works in solid granite did seem to frown down upon our littleness in
+their sombre splendour. This was so even in the sunshine, but when the
+storm-clouds gathered on her imperial brow Milosis looked more like a
+supernatural dwelling-place, or some imagining of a poet’s brain, than
+what she is—a mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations
+out of the red silence of the mountain side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+THE SISTER QUEENS
+
+
+The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almost to the
+foot of the vast stairway, and then halted at a flight of steps leading
+to the landing-place. Here the old gentleman disembarked, and invited
+us to do so likewise, which, having no alternative, and being nearly
+starved, we did without hesitation—taking our rifles with us, however.
+As each of us landed, our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and
+bowed deeply, at the same time ordering back the crowds which had
+assembled to gaze on us. The last to leave the canoe was the girl we
+had picked out of the water, for whom her companion was waiting. Before
+she went away she kissed my hand, I suppose as a token of gratitude for
+having saved her from the fury of the hippopotamus; and it seemed to me
+that she had by this time quite got over any fear she might have had of
+us, and was by no means anxious to return in such a hurry to her lawful
+owners. At any rate, she was going to kiss Good’s hand as well as mine,
+when the young man interfered and led her off. As soon as we were on
+shore, a number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possession
+of our few goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendid
+staircase, our guide indicating to us by means of motions that the
+things were perfectly safe. This done, he turned to the right and led
+the way to a small house, which was, as I afterwards discovered, an
+inn. Entering into a good-sized room, we saw that a wooden table was
+already furnished with food, presumably in preparation for us. Here our
+guide motioned us to be seated on a bench that ran the length of the
+table. We did not require a second invitation, but at once fell to
+ravenously on the viands before us, which were served on wooden
+platters, and consisted of cold goat’s-flesh, wrapped up in some kind
+of leaf that gave it a delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling
+lettuces, brown bread, and red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs.
+This wine was peculiarly soft and good, having something of the flavour
+of Burgundy. Twenty minutes after we sat down at that hospitable board
+we rose from it, feeling like new men. After all that we had gone
+through we needed two things, food and rest, and the food of itself was
+a great blessing to us. Two girls of the same charming cast of face as
+the first whom we had seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely
+they did it. They were also dressed in the same fashion namely, in a
+white linen petticoat coming to the knee, and with the toga-like
+garment of brown cloth, leaving bare the right arm and breast. I
+afterwards found out that this was the national dress, and regulated by
+an iron custom, though of course subject to variations. Thus, if the
+petticoat was pure white, it signified that the wearer was unmarried;
+if white, with a straight purple stripe round the edge, that she was
+married and a first or legal wife; if with a black stripe, that she was
+a widow. In the same way the toga, or “kaf”, as they call it, was of
+different shades of colour, from pure white to the deepest brown,
+according to the rank of the wearer, and embroidered at the end in
+various ways. This also applies to the “shirts” or tunics worn by the
+men, which varied in material and colour; but the kilts were always the
+same except as regards quality. One thing, however, every man and woman
+in the country wore as the national insignia, and that was the thick
+band of gold round the right arm above the elbow, and the left leg
+beneath the knee. People of high rank also wore a torque of gold round
+the neck, and I observed that our guide had one on.
+
+So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor, who had
+been standing all the while, regarding us with inquiring eyes, and our
+guns with something as like fear as his pride would allow him to show,
+bowed towards Good, whom he evidently took for the leader of the party
+on account of the splendour of his apparel, and once more led the way
+through the door and to the foot of the great staircase. Here we paused
+for a moment to admire two colossal lions, each hewn from a single
+block of pure black marble, and standing rampant on the terminations of
+the wide balustrades of the staircase. These lions are magnificently
+executed, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the great prince
+who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt, to judge from
+the many beautiful examples of his art that we saw afterwards, one of
+the finest sculptors who ever lived, either in this or any other
+country. Then we climbed almost with a feeling of awe up that splendid
+stair, a work executed for all time and that will, I do not doubt, be
+admired thousands of years hence by generations unborn unless an
+earthquake should throw it down. Even Umslopogaas, who as a general
+rule made it a point of honour not to show astonishment, which he
+considered undignified, was fairly startled out of himself, and asked
+if the “bridge had been built by men or devils”, which was his vague
+way of alluding to any supernatural power. But Alphonse did not care
+about it. Its solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous little
+Frenchman, who said that it was all “tres magnifique, mais triste—ah,
+triste!” and went on to suggest that it would be improved if the
+balustrades were _gilt_.
+
+On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps, across
+the broad platform joining it to the second flight, where we paused to
+admire the glorious view of one of the most beautiful stretches of
+country that the world can show, edged by the blue waters of the lake.
+Then we passed on up the stair till at last we reached the top, where
+we found a large standing space to which there were three entrances,
+all of small size. Two of these opened on to rather narrow galleries or
+roadways cut in the face of the precipice that ran round the palace
+walls and led to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were used
+by the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks. These were
+defended by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwards learnt, it was
+possible to let down a portion of the roadways themselves by
+withdrawing certain bolts, and thus render it quite impracticable for
+an enemy to pass. The third entrance consisted of a flight of ten
+curved black marble steps leading to a doorway cut in the palace wall.
+This wall was in itself a work of art, being built of huge blocks of
+granite to the height of forty feet, and so fashioned that its face was
+concave, whereby it was rendered practically impossible for it to be
+scaled. To this doorway our guide led us. The door, which was massive,
+and made of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed; but
+on our approach it was thrown wide, and we were met by the challenge of
+a sentry, who was armed with a heavy triangular-bladed spear, not
+unlike a bayonet in shape, and a cutting sword, and protected by breast
+and back plates of skilfully prepared hippopotamus hide, and a small
+round shield fashioned of the same tough material. The sword instantly
+attracted our attention; it was practically identical with the one in
+the possession of Mr Mackenzie which he had obtained from the
+ill-starred wanderer. There was no mistaking the gold-lined fretwork
+cut in the thickness of the blade. So the man had told the truth after
+all. Our guide instantly gave a password, which the soldier
+acknowledged by letting the iron shaft of his spear fall with a ringing
+sound upon the pavement, and we passed on through the massive wall into
+the courtyard of the palace. This was about forty yards square, and
+laid out in flower-beds full of lovely shrubs and plants, many of which
+were quite new to me. Through the centre of this garden ran a broad
+walk formed of powdered shells brought from the lake in the place of
+gravel. Following this we came to another doorway with a round heavy
+arch, which is hung with thick curtains, for there are no doors in the
+palace itself. Then came another short passage, and we were in the
+great hall of the palace, and once more stood astonished at the simple
+and yet overpowering grandeur of the place.
+
+The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet long
+by eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved wood. Down
+the entire length of the building there are on either side, and at a
+distance of twenty feet from the wall, slender shafts of black marble
+springing sheer to the roof, beautifully fluted, and with carved
+capitals. At one end of this great place which these pillars support is
+the group of which I have already spoken as executed by the King
+Rademas to commemorate his building of the staircase; and really, when
+we had time to admire it, its loveliness almost struck us dumb. The
+group, of which the figures are in white, and the rest is black marble,
+is about half as large again as life, and represents a young man of
+noble countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One arm is
+carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his head reposes
+upon the other, its curling locks partially hiding it. Bending over
+him, her hand resting on his forehead, is a draped female form of such
+white loveliness as to make the beholder’s breath stand still. And as
+for the calm glory that shines upon her perfect face—well, I can never
+hope to describe it. But there it rests like the shadow of an angel’s
+smile; and power, love, and divinity all have their part in it. Her
+eyes are fixed upon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most
+extraordinary thing about this beautiful work is the success with which
+the artist has succeeded in depicting on the sleeper’s worn and weary
+face the sudden rising of a new and spiritual thought as the spell
+begins to work within his mind. You can see that an inspiration is
+breaking in upon the darkness of the man’s soul as the dawn breaks in
+upon the darkness of night. It is a glorious piece of statuary, and
+none but a genius could have conceived it. Between each of the black
+marble columns is some such group of figures, some allegorical, and
+some representing the persons and wives of deceased monarchs or great
+men; but none of them, in our opinion, comes up to the one I have
+described, although several are from the hand of the sculptor and
+engineer, King Rademas.
+
+In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marble about
+the size of a baby’s arm-chair, which it rather resembled in
+appearance. This, as we afterwards learnt, was the sacred stone of this
+remarkable people, and on it their monarchs laid their hand after the
+ceremony of coronation, and swore by the sun to safeguard the interests
+of the empire, and to maintain its customs, traditions, and laws. This
+stone was evidently exceedingly ancient (as indeed all stones are), and
+was scored down its sides with long marks or lines, which Sir Henry
+said proved it to have been a fragment that at some remote period in
+its history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers. There was a
+curious prophecy about this block of marble, which was reported among
+the people to have fallen from the sun, to the effect that when it was
+shattered into fragments a king of alien race should rule over the
+land. As the stone, however, looked remarkably solid, the native
+princes seemed to have a fair chance of keeping their own for many a
+long year.
+
+At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, on which two
+thrones are set side by side. These thrones are shaped like great
+chairs, and made of solid gold. The seats are richly cushioned, but the
+backs are left bare, and on each is carved the emblem of the sun,
+shooting out his fiery rays in all directions. The footstools are
+golden lions couchant, with yellow topazes set in them for eyes. There
+are no other gems about them.
+
+The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed high up,
+cut on the principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancient castles,
+but innocent of glass, which was evidently unknown here.
+
+Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which we now found
+ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledge of it. On
+this occasion we had but little time for observation, for when we
+entered we perceived that a large number of men were gathered together
+in front of the two thrones, which were unoccupied. The principal among
+them were seated on carved wooden chairs ranged to the right and the
+left of the thrones, but not in front of them, and were dressed in
+white tunics, with various embroideries and different coloured edgings,
+and armed with the usual pierced and gold-inlaid swords. To judge from
+the dignity of their appearance, they seemed one and all to be
+individuals of very great importance. Behind each of these great men
+stood a small knot of followers and attendants.
+
+Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne, were
+six men of a different stamp. Instead of wearing the ordinary kilt,
+they were clothed in long robes of pure white linen, with the same
+symbol of the sun that is to be seen on the back of the chairs,
+emblazoned in gold thread upon the breast. This garment was girt up at
+the waist with a simple golden curb-like chain, from which hung long
+elliptic plates of the same metal, fashioned in shiny scales like those
+of a fish, that, as their wearers moved, jingled and reflected the
+light. They were all men of mature age and of a severe and impressive
+cast of features, which was rendered still more imposing by the long
+beards they wore.
+
+The personality of one individual among them, however, impressed us at
+once. He seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuse to be
+overlooked. He was very old—eighty at least—and extremely tall, with a
+long snow-white beard that hung nearly to his waist. His features were
+aquiline and deeply cut, and his eyes were grey and cold-looking. The
+heads of the others were bare, but this man wore a round cap entirely
+covered with gold embroidery, from which we judged that he was a person
+of great importance; and indeed we afterwards discovered that he was
+Agon, the High Priest of the country. As we approached, all these men,
+including the priests, rose and bowed to us with the greatest courtesy,
+at the same time placing the two fingers across the lips in salutation.
+Then soft-footed attendants advanced from between the pillars, bearing
+seats, which were placed in a line in front of the thrones. We three
+sat down, Alphonse and Umslopogaas standing behind us. Scarcely had we
+done so when there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to the
+right, and a similar blare from the left. Next a man with a long white
+wand of ivory appeared just in front of the right-hand throne, and
+cried out something in a loud voice, ending with the word _Nyleptha_,
+repeated three times; and another man, similarly attired, called out a
+similar sentence before the other throne, but ending with the word
+_Sorais_, also repeated thrice. Then came the tramp of armed men from
+each side entrance, and in filed about a score of picked and
+magnificently accoutred guards, who formed up on each side of the
+thrones, and let their heavy iron-handled spears fall simultaneously
+with a clash upon the black marble flooring. Another double blare of
+trumpets, and in from either side, each attended by six maidens, swept
+the two Queens of Zu-Vendis, everybody in the hall rising to greet them
+as they came.
+
+I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer thrown into
+transports at the sight of a pretty face; but language fails me when I
+try to give some idea of the blaze of loveliness that then broke upon
+us in the persons of these sister Queens. Both were young—perhaps
+five-and-twenty years of age—both were tall and exquisitely formed; but
+there the likeness stopped. One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling
+fairness; her right arm and breast bare, after the custom of her
+people, showed like snow even against her white and gold-embroidered
+“kaf”, or toga. And as for her sweet face, all I can say is, that it
+was one that few men could look on and forget. Her hair, a veritable
+crown of gold, clustered in short ringlets over her shapely head, half
+hiding the ivory brow, beneath which eyes of deep and glorious grey
+flashed out in tender majesty. I cannot attempt to describe her other
+features, only the mouth was most sweet, and curved like Cupid’s bow,
+and over the whole countenance there shone an indescribable look of
+loving-kindness, lit up by a shadow of delicate humour that lay upon
+her face like a touch of silver on a rosy cloud.
+
+She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usual
+torques of gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; and her dress
+was of pure white linen of excessive fineness, plentifully embroidered
+with gold and with the familiar symbols of the sun.
+
+Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type of beauty.
+Her hair was wavy like Nyleptha’s but coal-black, and fell in masses on
+her shoulders; her complexion was olive, her eyes large, dark, and
+lustrous; the lips were full, and I thought rather cruel. Somehow her
+face, quiet and even cold as it is, gave an idea of passion in repose,
+and caused one to wonder involuntarily what its aspect would be if
+anything occurred to break the calm. It reminded me of the deep sea,
+that even on the bluest days never loses its visible stamp of power,
+and in its murmuring sleep is yet instinct with the spirit of the
+storm. Her figure, like her sister’s, was almost perfect in its curves
+and outlines, but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was absolutely
+the same.
+
+As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones, amid the
+deep attentive silence of the Court, I was bound to confess to myself
+that they did indeed fulfil my idea of royalty. Royal they were in
+every way—in form, in grace, and queenly dignity, and in the barbaric
+splendour of their attendant pomp. But methought that they needed no
+guards or gold to proclaim their power and bind the loyalty of wayward
+men. A glance from those bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips,
+and while the red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as these
+will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
+
+But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and
+therefore not devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seats I saw
+both of them glance swiftly in our direction. I saw, too, that their
+eyes passed by me, seeing nothing to charm them in the person of an
+insignificant and grizzled old man. Then they looked with evident
+astonishment on the grim form of old Umslopogaas, who raised his axe in
+salutation. Attracted next by the splendour of Good’s apparel, for a
+second their glance rested on him like a humming moth upon a flower,
+then off it darted to where Sir Henry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a
+window playing upon his yellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the
+outlines of his massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat
+gloomy hall. He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha’s full,
+and thus for the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has
+ever been my lot to see looked one upon another. And why it was I know
+not, but I saw the swift blood run up Nyleptha’s skin as the pink
+lights run up the morning sky. Red grew her fair bosom and shapely arm,
+red the swanlike neck; the rounded cheeks blushed red as the petals of
+a rose, and then the crimson flood sank back to whence it came and left
+her pale and trembling.
+
+I glanced at Sir Henry. He, too, had coloured up to the eyes.
+
+“Oh, my word!” thought I to myself, “the ladies have come on the stage,
+and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.” And I sighed and
+shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a woman is like the beauty of
+the lightning—a destructive thing and a cause of desolation. By the
+time that I had finished my reflections both the Queens were on the
+thrones, for all this had happened in about six seconds. Once more the
+unseen trumpets blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen
+Sorais motioned to us to do likewise.
+
+Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward our
+guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding by the hand
+the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescued from the
+hippopotamus. Having made obeisance he proceeded to address the Queens,
+evidently describing to them the way and place where we had been found.
+It was most amusing to watch the astonishment, not unmixed with fear,
+reflected upon their faces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they
+could not understand how we had reached the lake and been found
+floating on it, and were inclined to attribute our presence to
+supernatural causes. Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the
+frequent appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we
+had shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there was
+something very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history was
+frequently interrupted by indignant exclamations from the little group
+of white-robed priests and even from the courtiers, while the two
+Queens listened with an amazed expression, especially when our guide
+pointed to the rifles in our hands as being the means of destruction.
+And here, to make matters clear, I may as well explain at once that the
+inhabitants of Zu-Vendis are sun-worshippers, and that for some reason
+or another the hippopotamus is sacred among them. Not that they do not
+kill it, because at a certain season of the year they slaughter
+thousands—which are specially preserved in large lakes up the
+country—and use their hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not
+prevent them from considering these animals as sacred to the sun.[12]
+Now, as ill luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we had shot
+were a family of tame animals that were kept in the mouth of the port
+and daily fed by priests whose special duty it was to attend to them.
+When we shot them I thought that the brutes were suspiciously tame, and
+this was, as we afterwards ascertained, the cause of it. Thus it came
+about that in attempting to show off we had committed sacrilege of a
+most aggravated nature.
+
+ [12] Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is common
+ for animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beasts they
+ adore. See Herodotus, ii. 45.—Editor.
+
+When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long beard
+and round cap, whose appearance I have already described, and who was,
+as I have said, the High Priest of the country, and known by the name
+of Agon, rose and commenced an impassioned harangue. I did not like the
+look of his cold grey eye as he fixed it on us. I should have liked it
+still less had I known that in the name of the outraged majesty of his
+god he was demanding that the whole lot of us should be offered up as a
+sacrifice by means of being burnt alive.
+
+After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him in a soft
+and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his gestures of dissent,
+to be putting the other side of the question before him. Then Nyleptha
+spoke in liquid accents. Little did we know that she was pleading for
+our lives. Finally, she turned and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of
+middle age with a black beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as we
+afterwards learnt, was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the
+country; apparently appealing to him for support. Now when Sir Henry
+had caught her eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that the
+incident had not escaped this man’s notice, and, what is more, that it
+was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lip and his hand
+tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learnt that he was an
+aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage, which accounted for
+it. This being so, Nyleptha could not have appealed to a worse person,
+for, speaking in slow, heavy tones, he appeared to confirm all that the
+High Priest Agon had said. As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her
+knee, and, resting her chin on her hand, looked at him with a
+suppressed smile upon her lips, as though she saw through the man, and
+was determined to be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek
+flushed, her eyes flashed, and she did indeed look lovely. Finally she
+turned to Agon and seemed to give some sort of qualified assent, for he
+bowed at her words; and as she spoke she moved her hands as though to
+emphasize what she said; while all the time Sorais kept her chin on her
+hand and smiled. Then suddenly Nyleptha made a sign, the trumpets blew
+again, and everybody rose to leave the hall save ourselves and the
+guards, whom she motioned to stay.
+
+When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly,
+partially by signs and partially by exclamations made it clear to us
+that she was very anxious to know where we came from. The difficulty
+was how to explain, but at last an idea struck me. I had my large
+pocket-book in my pocket and a pencil. Taking it out, I made a little
+sketch of a lake, and then as best I could I drew the underground river
+and the lake at the other end. When I had done this I advanced to the
+steps of the throne and gave it to her. She understood it at once and
+clapped her hands with delight, and then descending from the throne
+took it to her sister Sorais, who also evidently understood. Next she
+took the pencil from me, and after examining it with curiosity
+proceeded to make a series of delightful little sketches, the first
+representing herself holding out both hands in welcome, and a man
+uncommonly like Sir Henry taking them. Next she drew a lovely little
+picture of a hippopotamus rolling about dying in the water, and of an
+individual, in whom we had no difficulty in recognizing Agon the High
+Priest, holding up his hands in horror on the bank. Then followed a
+most alarming picture of a dreadful fiery furnace and of the same
+figure, Agon, poking us into it with a forked stick. This picture
+perfectly horrified me, but I was a little reassured when she nodded
+sweetly and proceeded to make a fourth drawing—a man again uncommonly
+like Sir Henry, and of two women, in whom I recognized Sorais and
+herself, each with one arm around him, and holding a sword in
+protection over him. To all of these Sorais, who I saw was employed in
+carefully taking us all in—especially Curtis—signified her approval by
+nodding.
+
+At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicating that
+she must go, and that we should meet on the following morning; whereat
+Sir Henry looked so disappointed that she saw it, and, I suppose by way
+of consolation, extended her hand to him to kiss, which he did with
+pious fervour. At the same time Sorais, off whom Good had never taken
+his eyeglass during the whole indaba [interview], rewarded him by
+giving him her hand to kiss, though, while she did so, her eyes were
+fixed upon Sir Henry. I am glad to say that I was not implicated in
+these proceedings; neither of them gave _me_ her hand to kiss.
+
+Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to be in
+command of the bodyguard, apparently from her manner and his frequent
+obeisances, giving him very stringent and careful orders; after which,
+with a somewhat coquettish nod and smile, she left the hall, followed
+by Sorais and most of the guards.
+
+When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressed came
+forward and with many tokens of deep respect led us from the hall
+through various passages to a sumptuous set of apartments opening out
+of a large central room lighted with brazen swinging lamps (for it was
+now dusk) and richly carpeted and strewn with couches. On a table in
+the centre of the room was set a profusion of food and fruit, and, what
+is more, flowers. There was a delicious wine also in ancient-looking
+sealed earthenware flagons, and beautifully chased golden and ivory
+cups to drink it from. Servants, male and female, also were there to
+minister to us, and whilst we ate, from some recess outside the
+apartment
+
+“The silver lute did speak between
+The trumpet’s lordly blowing;”
+
+and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradise which
+was only disturbed by the vision of that disgusting High Priest who
+intended to commit us to the flames. But so very weary were we with our
+labours that we could scarcely keep ourselves awake through the
+sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was over we indicated that we desired
+to sleep. As a further precaution against surprise we left Umslopogaas
+with his axe to sleep in the main chamber near the curtained doorways
+leading to the apartments which we occupied respectively, Good and I in
+the one, and Sir Henry and Alphonse in the other. Then throwing off our
+clothes, with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered it
+safer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxurious
+couches, and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us.
+
+In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused by Good’s
+voice.
+
+“I say, Quatermain,” he said, “did you ever see such eyes?”
+
+“Eyes!” I said, crossly; “what eyes?”
+
+“Why, the Queen’s, of course! Sorais, I mean—at least I think that is
+her name.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t know,” I yawned; “I didn’t notice them much: I suppose
+they are good eyes,” and again I dropped off.
+
+Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened.
+
+“I say, Quatermain,” said the voice.
+
+“Well,” I answered testily, “what is it now?”
+
+“Did you notice her ankle? The shape—”
+
+This was more than I could stand. By my bed stood the veldtschoons I
+had been wearing. Moved quite beyond myself, I took them up and threw
+them straight at Good’s head—and hit it.
+
+Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleep it
+must be. As for Good, I don’t know if he went to sleep or if he
+continued to pass Sorais’ beauties in mental review, and, what is more,
+I don’t care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+
+
+And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in this
+novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should except
+Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in
+her bed of state encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, and
+all the other people and appurtenances that surround a throne, and yet
+not able to slumber for thinking of the strangers who had visited a
+country where no such strangers had ever come before, and wondering, as
+she lay awake, who they were and what their past has been, and if she
+was ugly compared to the women of their native place. I, however, not
+being poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some
+account of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needless
+to state, from information which we subsequently collected.
+
+The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis, from
+Zu, “yellow”, and Vendis, “place or country”. Why it is called the
+Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor do
+the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given,
+each of which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the
+name owes its origin to the great quantity of gold that is found in the
+land. Indeed, in this respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the
+precious metal being extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is
+collected from purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently
+inspected, and which are situated within a day’s journey from Milosis,
+being mostly found in pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce up
+to six or seven pounds in weight. But other diggings of a similar
+nature are known to exist, and I have besides seen great veins of
+gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendis gold is a much commoner metal than
+silver, and thus it has curiously enough come to pass that silver is
+the legal tender of the country.
+
+The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year the
+native grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as
+yellow as ripe corn; and the third arises from a tradition that the
+people were originally yellow skinned, but grew white after living for
+many generations upon these high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about
+the size of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every
+side cut off from the surrounding territory by illimitable forests of
+impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of miles of
+morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, high
+tableland rising up in the centre of the dark continent, much as in
+southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the
+surrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a
+level of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the land
+is even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, I
+believe, about eleven thousand feet. As a consequence the climate is,
+comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar to that of
+southern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however,
+exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits and
+timber to perfection; and in the lower-lying parts even produces a
+hardy variety of sugar-cane. Coal is found in great abundance, and in
+many places crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both
+black and white. The same may be said of almost every metal except
+silver, which is scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of
+mountains in the north.
+
+Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery,
+including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western
+boundary beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other
+piercing the country from north to south, and passing at a distance of
+about eighty miles from Milosis, from which town its higher peaks are
+distinctly visible. This range forms the chief watershed of the land.
+There are also three large lakes—the biggest, namely that whereon we
+emerged, and which is named Milosis after the city, covering some two
+hundred square miles of country—and numerous small ones, some of them
+salt.
+
+The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense,
+numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almost
+purely agricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes as in
+civilized countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerable
+middle class, formed principally of merchants, officers of the army,
+etc.; but the great bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who live
+upon the lands of the lords, from whom they hold under a species of
+feudal tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think I
+have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance;
+but the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any negro
+or other African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no
+certain information. Their written records, which extend back for about
+a thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does
+indeed, in alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talk
+of it as having probably originally “come down with the people from the
+coast”, but that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of
+the Zu-Vendi is lost in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what
+race they are no man knows. Their architecture and some of their
+sculptures suggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin; but it
+is well known that their present remarkable style of building has only
+sprung up within the last eight hundred years, and they certainly
+retain no traces of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their
+appearance and some of their habits are rather Jewish; but here again
+it seems hardly conceivable that they should have utterly lost all
+traces of the Jewish religion. Still, for aught I know, they may be one
+of the lost ten tribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over
+the world, or they may not. I do not know, and so can only describe
+them as I find them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they
+can out of it, if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which
+is exceedingly doubtful.
+
+And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard a
+theory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young
+lady said in mitigation of her baby. This theory is founded on a legend
+which I have heard among the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the
+effect that “more than two thousand years ago” there were troubles in
+the country which was known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde
+of Persians came down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven
+by the north-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, according
+to the legend, “the sun and fire worshippers” fell into conflict with
+the belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on the east coast,
+and finally broke their way through them, and, vanishing into the
+interior, were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at least possible
+that the Zu-Vendi people are the descendants of these “sun and fire
+worshippers” who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a matter of
+fact, there is a good deal in their characters and customs that tallies
+with the somewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we
+have no books of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory
+does not fail him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500
+BC, whereon a vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is
+a well-established fact that there have been many separate emigrations
+of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to as
+lately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on
+the east coast, still in good repair, which bear dates showing them to
+be just seven hundred years old.[13]
+
+ [13] There is another theory which might account for the origin of the
+ Zu-Vendi which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr Quatermain
+ and his companions, and that is, that they are descendants of the
+ Phœnicians. The cradle of the Phœnician race is supposed to have been
+ on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Thence, as there is good
+ evidence to show, they emigrated in two streams, one of which took
+ possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is supposed by
+ savants to have immigrated down the coast of Eastern Africa where,
+ near Mozambique, signs and remains of their occupation are not
+ wanting. Indeed, it would have been very extraordinary if they did
+ not, when leaving the Persian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast,
+ seeing that the north-east monsoon blows for six months in the year
+ dead in that direction, while for the other six months it blows back
+ again. And, by the way of illustrating the probability, I may add that
+ to this day a very extensive trade is carried on between the Persian
+ Gulf and Lamu and other East African ports as far south as Madagascar,
+ which is of course the ancient Ebony Isle of the “Arabian
+ Nights”.—Editor.
+
+In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly
+enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the exigencies of
+their position make war upon other nations, they fight among each other
+like the famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the population
+never outgrows the power of the country to support it. This habit of
+theirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country.
+The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it is
+tempered by the power of the priests and the informal council of the
+great lords; but, as in many other institutions, the king’s writ does
+not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land. In
+short, the whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdom
+or slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally from the
+throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the
+power of life and death, waging war against and making peace with their
+neighbours as the whim or their interests lead them, and even on
+occasion rising in open rebellion against their royal master or
+mistress, and, safely shut up in their castles and fenced cities, as
+far from the seat of government, successfully defying them for years.
+
+Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that will
+be well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have
+sat upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which
+took its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the
+purple after a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the
+country things were a little better than they had been for some
+centuries, the last king, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having
+been an exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence,
+he kept down the power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two
+years before we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children,
+were, following an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an
+attempt to exclude either would instantly have provoked a sanguinary
+civil war; but it was generally felt in the country that this measure
+was a most unsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be
+permanent. Indeed, as it was, the various intrigues that were set on
+foot by ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or other of the
+queens in marriage had disquieted the country, and the general opinion
+was that there would be bloodshed before long.
+
+I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which is
+nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced and highly
+developed character. Around this sun-worship is grouped the entire
+social system of the Zu-Vendi. It sends its roots through every
+institution and custom of the land. From the cradle to the grave the
+Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying. As an infant he
+is solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to “the symbol of good,
+the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity”, the ceremony
+answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point
+out the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god,
+and he worships it at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when still
+quite small, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother’s
+“kaf” (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and
+there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the golden
+central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the
+white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees the
+people fall down to adore, and then, amidst the blowing of the golden
+trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneath
+the altar. Here he comes again to be declared “a man” by the priests,
+and consecrated to war and to good works; here before the solemn altar
+he leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise,
+he divorces her.
+
+And so on, down life’s long pathway till the last mile is travelled,
+and he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man.
+Here they bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling brazen doors
+before the eastern altar, and when the last ray from the setting sun
+falls upon his white face the bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the
+raging furnace beneath and is ended.
+
+The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as young men
+specially devoted to the work by their parents and supported by the
+State. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood lies with
+the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed, and
+it is scarcely too much to say that they really rule the land. To begin
+with, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so that an
+order issued by the High Priest at Milosis will be instantly and
+unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little country
+town three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the land,
+criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of the
+district, and from him to the king; and they have, of course,
+practically unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offences,
+together with a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of
+more highly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, their
+rights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here
+that the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and do not
+push things too far. It is but very seldom that they go to extremes
+against anybody, being more inclined to exercise the prerogative of
+mercy than run the risk of exasperating the powerful and
+vigorous-minded people on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it
+should rise and break it off altogether.
+
+Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopoly
+of learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, which
+enables them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipses
+and even comets. In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can read
+and write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and are
+therefore looked upon as learned men.
+
+The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs in
+several respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law of
+England is much more severe upon offences against property than against
+the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. A man
+may half kick his wife to death or inflict horrible sufferings upon his
+children at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound for
+the theft of a pair of old boots. In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for
+there they rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of more
+consequence than goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort
+of necessary appendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is
+death, for treason death, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for
+sacrilege, and for attempting to quit the country (which is looked on
+as a sacrilege) death. In each case the method of execution is the
+same, and a rather awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the
+fiery furnace beneath one of the altars to the Sun. For all other
+offences, including the offence of idleness, the punishment is forced
+labour upon the vast national buildings which are always going on in
+some part of the country, with or without periodical floggings,
+according to the crime.
+
+The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to the
+individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customs of
+the country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of them have
+only one wife on account of the expense. By law a man is bound to
+provide a separate establishment for each wife. The first wife also is
+the legal wife, and her children are said to be “of the house of the
+Father”. The children of the other wives are of the houses of their
+respective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon either
+mother or children. Again, a first wife can, on entering into the
+married state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other
+wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the great
+upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus
+numbers but gives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus
+practically the head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as
+primarily a civil contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a
+proper provision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both
+contracting parties, the divorce, or “unloosing”, being formally and
+ceremoniously accomplished by going through certain portions of the
+marriage ceremony backwards.
+
+The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and
+light-hearted people. They are not great traders and care little about
+money, only working to earn enough to support themselves in that class
+of life in which they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and
+look with disfavour upon changes. Their legal tender is silver, cut
+into little squares of different weights; gold is the baser coin, and
+is about of the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized
+for its beauty, and largely used for ornaments and decorative purposes.
+Most of the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter,
+payment being made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of the
+country, and is really well understood and carried out, most of the
+available acreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also
+given to the breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being
+unsurpassed by any I have ever seen either in Europe or Africa.
+
+The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to the
+great lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on down to
+the little peasant farmer who works his forty “reestu” (acres) on a
+system of half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact the whole
+system is, as I have said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much
+to meet with such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa.
+
+The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man’s total
+earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on the remainder. But
+on the other hand, if a man through any cause falls into _bona fide_
+misfortune the State supports him in the position of life to which he
+belongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Government
+undertakings, and the State looks after his wives and children. The
+State also makes all the roads and builds all town houses, about which
+great care is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. It
+also keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and
+provides watchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the priests
+attend to the service of the temples, carry out all religious
+ceremonies, and keep schools, where they teach whatever they think
+desirable, which is not very much. Some of the temples also possess
+private property, but priests as individuals cannot hold property.
+
+And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are
+the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the
+one, sometimes the other. In some branches of art they have attained
+the very highest proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and
+their statuary. I do not think that the latter can be equalled either
+in beauty or imaginative power anywhere in the world, and as for the
+former it may have been rivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that
+it has never been since. But, on the other hand, they are totally
+ignorant of many other arts. Till Sir Henry, who happened to know
+something about it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime,
+they could not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather
+primitive. A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed,
+ours delighted them exceedingly. They know nothing about steam,
+electricity, or gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about
+printing or the penny post. Thus they are spared many evils, for of a
+truth our age has learnt the wisdom of the old-world saying, “He who
+increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.”
+
+As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative people
+who know no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to the sun
+and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannot justly be called
+elevating or spiritual. It is true that they do sometimes speak of the
+sun as the “garment of the Spirit”, but it is a vague term, and what
+they really adore is the fiery orb himself. They also call him the
+“hope of eternity”, but here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if
+the phrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds. Some of
+them do indeed believe in a future life for the good—I know Nyleptha
+does firmly—but it is a private faith arising from the promptings of
+the spirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the whole I cannot
+say that I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicative of a
+civilized people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or
+however moral and high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of
+whom, I am sure, have their own opinions on the whole subject; though
+of course they have nothing but praise for a system which provides them
+with so many of the good things of this world.
+
+There are now only two more matters to which I need allude—namely, the
+language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it is
+soft-sounding, and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it
+sounds something like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection
+with it. It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a
+peculiar quality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the
+sound of the words adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long
+before we mastered the language, we could frequently make out what was
+meant by the ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the
+language lends itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these
+remarkable people are very fond. The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry
+says, to be derived, like every other known system of letters, from a
+Phœnician source, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient
+Egyptian hieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not
+being learned in such matters. All I know about it is that their
+alphabet consists of twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B,
+E, and O, are not very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however,
+clumsy and puzzling.[14] But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to
+the writing of novels, or of anything except business documents and
+records of the briefest character, it answers their purpose well
+enough.
+
+ [14] There are twenty-two letters in the Phœnician alphabet (_see_
+ Appendix, Maspero’s _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient_, etc.)
+ Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives us no specimen of the Zu-Vendi
+ writing, but what he here states seems to go a long way towards
+ substantiating the theory advanced in the note on p. 139.—Editor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+
+
+It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning following
+our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly twelve hours, and I
+must say that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is
+sleep! and what a difference twelve hours of it or so makes to us after
+days and nights of toil and danger. It is like going to bed one man and
+getting up another.
+
+I sat up upon my silken couch—never had I slept upon such a bed
+before—and the first thing that I saw was Good’s eyeglass fixed on me
+from the recesses of his silken couch. There was nothing else of him to
+be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew from the look of it that he was
+awake, and waiting till I woke up to begin.
+
+“I say, Quatermain,” he commenced sure enough, “did you observe her
+skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.”
+
+“Now look here, Good,” I remonstrated, when there came a sound at the
+curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary, who signified
+by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented,
+and were conducted to a delightful marble chamber, with a pool of
+running crystal water in the centre of it, into which we gaily plunged.
+When we had bathed, we returned to our apartment and dressed, and then
+went into the central room where we had supped on the previous evening,
+to find a morning meal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it
+was, though I should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfast
+we lounged round and admired the tapestries and carpets and some pieces
+of statuary that were placed about, wondering the while what was going
+to happen next. Indeed, by this time our minds were in such a state of
+complete bewilderment that we were, as a matter of fact, ready for
+anything that might arrive. As for our sense of astonishment, it was
+pretty well obliterated. Whilst we were still thus engaged, our friend
+the captain of the guard presented himself, and with many obeisances
+signified that we were to follow him, which we did, not without doubts
+and heart-searchings—for we guessed that the time had come when we
+should have to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with
+our cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However, there was no help
+for it, and personally I took great comfort in the promise of the
+protection of the sister Queens, knowing that if ladies have a will
+they can generally find a way; so off we started as though we liked it.
+A minute’s walk through a passage and an outer court brought us to the
+great double gates of the palace that open on to the wide highway which
+runs uphill through the heart of Milosis to the Temple of the Sun a
+mile away, and thence down the slope on the farther side of the temple
+to the outer wall of the city.
+
+These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily
+beautiful work in metal. Between them—for one set is placed at the
+entrance to an interior, and one at that of the exterior wall—is a
+fosse, forty-five feet in width. This fosse is filled with water and
+spanned by a drawbridge, which when lifted makes the palace nearly
+impregnable to anything except siege guns. As we came, one half of the
+wide gates were flung open, and we passed over the drawbridge and
+presently stood gazing up one of the most imposing, if not the most
+imposing, roadways in the world. It is a hundred feet from curb to
+curb, and on either side, not cramped and crowded together, as is our
+European fashion, but each standing in its own grounds, and built
+equidistant from and in similar style to the rest, are a series of
+splendid, single-storied mansions, all of red granite. These are the
+town houses of the nobles of the Court, and stretch away in unbroken
+lines for a mile or more till the eye is arrested by the glorious
+vision of the Temple of the Sun that crowns the hill and heads the
+roadway.
+
+As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there
+suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn by two
+white horses. These chariots are two-wheeled, and made of wood. They
+are fitted with a stout pole, the weight of which is supported by
+leathern girths that form a portion of the harness. The wheels are made
+with four spokes only, are tired with iron, and quite innocent of
+springs. In the front of the chariot, and immediately over the pole, is
+a small seat for the driver, railed round to prevent him from being
+jolted off. Inside the machine itself are three low seats, one at each
+side, and one with the back to the horses, opposite to which is the
+door. The whole vehicle is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owing to
+the grace of the curves, though primitive, not half so ugly as might be
+expected.
+
+But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses did not.
+They were simply splendid, not very large but strongly built, and well
+ribbed up, with small heads, remarkably large and round hoofs, and a
+great look of speed and blood. I have often wondered whence this breed,
+which presents many distinct characteristics, came, but like that of
+its owners, its history is obscure. Like the people the horses have
+always been there. The first and last of these chariots were occupied
+by guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the driver, and to
+these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into the first, and Sir
+Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind, and then suddenly off
+we went. And we did go! Among the Zu-Vendi it is not usual to trot
+horses either riding or driving, especially when the journey to be made
+is a short one—they go at full gallop. As soon as we were seated the
+driver called out, the horses sprang forward, and we were whirled away
+at a speed sufficient to take one’s breath, and which, till I got
+accustomed to it, kept me in momentary fear of an upset. As for the
+wretched Alphonse, he clung with a despairing face to the side of what
+he called this “devil of a fiacre”, thinking that every moment was his
+last. Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going, and I
+told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were going to be
+sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his face as he grasped the
+side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror.
+
+But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flying
+steeds and shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, bore away the
+sound of Alphonse’s lamentations.
+
+And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling
+loveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun—the peculiar pride of the
+Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon’s, or rather Herod’s, Temple was
+to the Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour of generations had been
+given to the building of this wonderful place, which had been only
+finally completed within the last fifty years. Nothing was spared that
+the country could produce, and the result was indeed worthy of the
+effort, not so much on account of its size—for there are larger fanes
+in the world—as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and
+beauty of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building
+(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden ground
+on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places of the priests) is
+built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-covered central hall,
+from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts, each dedicated to one of
+the twelve months, and serving as the repositories of statues reared in
+memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle beneath the
+dome is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred
+feet, and the length of the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the
+height of their roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the
+central dome exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great
+raised heart. Thus the exact measurement from the centre of the central
+altar to the extreme point of any one of the rounded rays would be
+three hundred feet (the width of the circle itself), or a total of six
+hundred feet from the rounded extremity of one ray or petal to the
+extremity of the opposite one.[15]
+
+ [15] These are internal measurements.—A. Q.
+
+The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, which shows
+out in marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowning city, on
+whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diadem upon the forehead
+of a dusky queen. The outer surface of the dome and of the twelve petal
+courts is covered entirely with thin sheets of beaten gold; and from
+the extreme point of the roof of each of these petals a glorious golden
+form with a trumpet in its hand and widespread wings is figured in the
+very act of soaring into space. I really must leave whoever reads this
+to imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashing when
+the sun strikes—flashing like a thousand fires aflame on a mountain of
+polished marble—so fiercely that the reflection can be clearly seen
+from the great peaks of the range a hundred miles away.
+
+It is a marvellous sight—this golden flower upborne upon the cool white
+marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such another. What
+makes the whole effect even more gorgeous is that a belt of a hundred
+and fifty feet around the marble wall of the temple is planted with an
+indigenous species of sunflower, which were at the time when we first
+saw them a sheet of golden bloom.
+
+The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two
+northernmost of the rays or petal courts, and is protected first by the
+usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully
+carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid with gold. When these are
+passed there is only the thickness of the wall, which is, however,
+twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi build for all time), and another
+slight wall also of white marble, introduced in order to avoid causing
+a visible gap in the inner skin of the wall, and you stand in the
+circular hall under the great dome. Advancing to the central altar you
+look upon as beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive.
+You are in the middle of the holy place, and above you the great white
+marble dome (for the inner skin, like the outer, is of polished marble
+throughout) arches away in graceful curves something like that of St
+Paul’s in London, only at a slighter angle, and from the funnel-like
+opening at the exact apex a bright beam of light pours down upon the
+golden altar. At the east and the west are other altars, and other
+beams of light stab the sacred twilight to the heart. In every
+direction, “white, mystic, wonderful”, open out the ray-like courts,
+each pierced through by a single arrow of light that serves to illumine
+its lofty silence and dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead.[16]
+
+ [16] Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of
+ the dome and in the roof.—A. Q.
+
+Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which
+thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty’s eyes, you turn to the
+central golden altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it
+now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned with curls of faint
+blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with pure gold, in shape round
+like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference.
+Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar, are twelve petals of
+beaten gold. All night and, except at one hour, all day also, these
+petals are closed over the altar itself exactly as the petals of a
+water-lily close over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the
+sun at midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon
+the golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only
+to close again when the ray has passed.
+
+Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distances from each
+other on the north and south of the sacred place are ten golden angels,
+or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped and draped. These figures,
+which are slightly larger than life-size, stand with bent heads in an
+attitude of adoration, their faces shadowed by their wings, and are
+most imposing and of exceeding beauty.
+
+There is but one thing further which calls for description in this
+altar, which is, that to the east the flooring in front of it is not of
+pure white marble, as elsewhere throughout the building, but of solid
+brass, and this is also the case in front of the other two altars.
+
+The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape, and
+placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and
+are not enfolded in golden petals. They are, however, also of gold, the
+sacred fire burns on each, and a golden-winged figure stands on either
+side of them. Two great golden rays run up the wall behind them, but
+where the third or middle one should be is an opening in the wall, wide
+on the outside, but narrow within, like a loophole turned inwards.
+Through the eastern loophole stream the first beams of the rising sun,
+and strike right across the circle, touching the folded petals of the
+great gold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the western
+altar. In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest
+for a while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It
+is the promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening to the dawn.
+
+With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures about
+them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly empty and
+devoid of ornamentation—a circumstance that to my fancy adds greatly to
+its splendour.
+
+Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to
+the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their complete
+simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so
+it is useless talking more about it. But when I compare this great work
+of genius to some of the tawdry buildings and tinsel ornamentation
+produced in these latter days by European ecclesiastical architects, I
+feel that even highly civilized art might learn something from the
+Zu-Vendi masterpieces. I can only say that the exclamation which sprang
+to my lips as soon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light
+of that glorious building, and its white and curving beauties, perfect
+and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by one,
+was, “Well! a dog would feel religious here.” It is vulgarly put, but
+perhaps it conveys my meaning more clearly than any polished utterance.
+
+At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers, who
+appeared to be under the orders of a priest; and by them we were
+conducted into one of the ray or “petal” courts, as the priests call
+them, and there left for at least half-an-hour. Here we conferred
+together, and realizing that we stood in great danger of our lives,
+determined, if any attempt should be made upon us, to sell them as
+dearly as we could—Umslopogaas announcing his fixed intention of
+committing sacrilege on the person of Agon, the High Priest, by
+splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas. From where we stood we could
+perceive that an immense multitude were pouring into the temple,
+evidently in expectation of some unusual event, and I could not help
+fearing that we had to do with it. And here I may explain that every
+day, when the sunlight falls upon the central altar, and the trumpets
+sound, a burnt sacrifice is offered to the Sun, consisting generally of
+the carcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn. This event
+comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly at that hour, but
+as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line, although—being so high
+above the sea it is very temperate—midday and the falling of the
+sunlight on the altar were generally simultaneous. Today the sacrifice
+was to take place at about eight minutes past twelve.
+
+Just at twelve o’clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, and the
+officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected to advance,
+which we did with the best grace that we could muster, all except
+Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly began to chatter. In a
+few seconds we were out of the court and looking at a vast sea of human
+faces stretching away to the farthest limits of the great circle, all
+straining to catch a glimpse of the mysterious strangers who had
+committed sacrilege; the first strangers, mind you, who, to the
+knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis since such
+time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
+
+As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd that went
+echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush of
+excitement grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink light on a
+stretch of pale cloud, and a very curious effect it was. On we passed
+down a lane cut through the heart of the human mass, till presently we
+stood upon the brazen patch of flooring to the east of the central
+altar, and immediately facing it. For some thirty feet around the
+golden-winged figures the space was roped off, and the multitudes stood
+outside the ropes. Within were a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured
+priests holding long golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in
+front of us was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap
+upon his head. His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage.
+We took our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing what was
+prepared for us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissing sound
+proceeding apparently from the floor for which I could not account.
+Then came a pause, and I looked around to see if there was any sign of
+the two Queens, Nyleptha and Sorais, but they were not there. To the
+right of us, however, was a bare space that I guessed was reserved for
+them.
+
+We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high up in
+the dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long
+lane, leading to the open space to our right, we saw the two Queens
+walking side by side. Behind them were some nobles of the Court, among
+whom I recognized the great lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of
+about fifty guards. These last I was very glad to see. Presently they
+had all arrived and taken their stand, the two Queens in the front, the
+nobles to the right and left, and the guards in a double semicircle
+behind them.
+
+Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caught my eye; it
+seemed to me that there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it
+narrowly. From my eye it travelled down to the brazen flooring, on the
+outer edge of which we stood. Then followed a slight and almost
+imperceptible sidelong movement of the head. I did not understand it,
+and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off
+the brazen floor. One more glance and I was sure of it—there was danger
+in standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one side of me,
+Umslopogaas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straight before me, I
+whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English, to draw slowly
+back inch by inch till half their feet were resting on the marble
+flooring where the brass ceased. Sir Henry whispered on to Good and
+Alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shifted backwards; so slowly
+that nobody, except Nyleptha and Sorais, who saw everything, seemed to
+notice the movement. Then I glanced again at Nyleptha, and saw that, by
+an almost imperceptible nod, she indicated approval. All the while
+Agon’s eyes were fixed upon the altar before him apparently in an
+ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small of his
+back in another sort of ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and
+in a solemn and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for
+convenience’ sake I append a rough, a _very_ rough, translation here,
+though, of course, I did not then comprehend its meaning. It was an
+invocation to the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows:—
+
+There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof!
+Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird;
+The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness,
+Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star,
+The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire;
+The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted.
+She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes,
+And stretches her pale hands to the East.
+
+Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light;
+The Earth seeth and lifts herself. She looks out from beneath
+the hollow of her hand.
+Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun,
+They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up.
+They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones;
+Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night;
+They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man,
+And behold! Thy glory comes, oh Sun!
+
+Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire.
+The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o’er them as a chariot.
+The Earth is thy bride. Thou dost embrace her and
+she brings forth children;
+Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase.
+Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun.
+The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness;
+The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength.
+Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!
+
+When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face;
+Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows.
+Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed;
+They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder:
+They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain;
+They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing.
+The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale;
+The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place
+When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!
+
+Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour—
+Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror?
+When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending?
+Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit.[17]
+None did place Thee on high, for Thou wast the Beginning.
+Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten;
+Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal.
+Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and
+measurest out the centuries.
+Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!
+
+ [17] This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions to be
+ found in the Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independent of
+ the material splendour of the orb they worship. “_Ptia_”, the word
+ used here, has a very indeterminate meaning, and signifies _essence,
+ vital principle, spirit_, or even _God_.
+
+He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough thing
+after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive in the
+original; and then, after a moment’s pause, he glanced up towards the
+funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added—
+
+Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!
+
+As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened. Down from on
+high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving the twilight like
+a sword of fire. Full upon the closed petals it fell and ran shimmering
+down their golden sides, and then the glorious flower opened as though
+beneath the bright influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals
+fell wide and revealed the golden altar on which the fire ever burns,
+the priests blew a blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people
+there rose a shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came
+echoing down the marble walls. And now the flower altar was open, and
+the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beat it
+down, so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow recesses
+whence it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes of the trumpets rolled
+out once more. Again the old priest flung up his hands and called
+aloud—
+
+We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!
+
+Once more I caught Nyleptha’s eye; it was fixed upon the brazen
+flooring.
+
+“Look out,” I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bend forward
+and touch something on the altar. As he did so, the great white sea of
+faces around us turned red and then white again, and a deep breath went
+up like a universal sigh. Nyleptha leant forward, and with an
+involuntary movement covered her eyes with her hand. Sorais turned and
+whispered to the officer of the royal bodyguard, and then with a
+rending sound the whole of the brazen flooring slid from before our
+feet, and there in its place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble
+shaft terminating in a most awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big
+enough and hot enough to heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war.
+
+With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched
+Alphonse, who was paralysed with fear, and would have fallen into the
+fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had not Sir Henry caught
+him in his strong hand as he was vanishing and dragged him back.
+
+Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got back to
+back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle in his
+attempts to take shelter under our legs. We all had our revolvers
+on—for though we had been politely disarmed of our guns on leaving the
+palace, of course these people did not know what a revolver was.
+Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of which no effort had been made to
+deprive him, and now he whirled it round his head and sent his piercing
+Zulu war-shout echoing up the marble walls in fine defiant fashion.
+Next second, the priests, baffled of their prey, had drawn swords from
+beneath their white robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a
+stag at bay. I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or
+be lost, so as the first man came bounding along—and a great tall
+fellow he was—I sent a heavy revolver ball through him, and down he
+fell at the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking frantically, into
+the fiery gulf that had been prepared for us.
+
+Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect of
+the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests halted,
+paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come on again Sorais had
+called out something, and we, together with the two Queens and most of
+the courtiers, were being surrounded with a wall of armed men. In a
+moment it was done, and still the priests hesitated, and the people
+hung in the balance like a herd of startled buck as it were, making no
+sign one way or the other.
+
+The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had
+finished him, and a great silence fell upon the place.
+
+Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face of a
+devil. “Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,” he cried to the Queens. “Has
+not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers, and would ye, as
+Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over evildoers? Are not the
+creatures sacred to the Sun dead? And is not a priest of the Sun also
+dead, but now slain by the magic of these strangers, who come as the
+winds out of heaven, whence we know not, and who are what we know not?
+Beware, oh Queens, how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God,
+even before His high altar! There is a Power that is more than your
+power; there is a Justice that is higher than your justice. Beware how
+ye lift an impious hand against it! Let the sacrifice be sacrificed, oh
+Queens.”
+
+Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that always seemed to
+me to have a suspicion of mockery about them, however serious the
+theme: “Oh, Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy desire, and thou
+hast spoken truth. But it is thou who wouldst lift an impious hand
+against the justice of thy God. Bethink thee the midday sacrifice is
+accomplished; the Sun hath claimed his priest as a sacrifice.”
+
+This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it.
+
+“Bethink thee what are these men? They are strangers found floating on
+the bosom of a lake. Who brought them here? How came they here? How
+know you that they also are not servants of the Sun? Is this the
+hospitality that ye would have our nation show to those whom chance
+brings to them, to throw them to the flames? Shame on you! Shame on
+you! What is hospitality? To receive the stranger and show him favour.
+To bind up his wounds, and find a pillow for his head, and food for him
+to eat. But thy pillow is the fiery furnace, and thy food the hot
+savour of the flame. Shame on thee, I say!”
+
+She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the
+multitude, and seeing that it was favourable, changed her tone from one
+of remonstrance to one of command.
+
+“Ho! place there,” she cried; “place, I say; make way for the Queens,
+and those whom the Queens cover with their ‘kaf’ (mantle).”
+
+“And if I refuse, oh Queen?” said Agon between his teeth.
+
+“Then will I cut a path with my guards,” was the proud answer; “ay,
+even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodies of thy
+priests.”
+
+Agon turned livid with baffled fury. He glanced at the people as though
+meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly that their sympathies
+were all the other way. The Zu-Vendi are a very curious and sociable
+people, and great as was their sense of the enormity that we had
+committed in shooting the sacred hippopotami, they did not like the
+idea of the only real live strangers they had seen or heard of being
+consigned to a fiery furnace, thereby putting an end for ever to their
+chance of extracting knowledge and information from, and gossiping
+about us. Agon saw this and hesitated, and then for the first time
+Nyleptha spoke in her soft sweet voice.
+
+“Bethink thee, Agon,” she said, “as my sister Queen has said, these men
+may also be servants of the Sun. For themselves they cannot speak, for
+their tongues are tied. Let the matter be adjourned till such time as
+they have learnt our language. Who can be condemned without a hearing?
+When these men can plead for themselves, then it will be time to put
+them to the proof.”
+
+Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive old priest
+took it, little as he liked it.
+
+“So be it, oh Queens,” he said. “Let the men go in peace, and when they
+have learnt our tongue then let them speak. And I, even I, will make
+humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence fall on the land by
+cause of the sacrilege.”
+
+These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in another
+minute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal
+guards.
+
+But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact substance
+of what had passed, and how hardly our lives had been wrung out of the
+cruel grip of the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in the face of which even the
+Queens were practically powerless. Had it not been for their strenuous
+efforts to protect us we should have been slain even before we set foot
+in the Temple of the Sun. The attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery
+pit as an offering was a last artifice to attain this end when several
+others quite unsuspected by us had already failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+SORAIS’ SONG
+
+
+After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to our
+quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two Queens, the
+nobles and the people vied with each other in doing us honour and
+showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little incident of the
+hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were quite content to leave
+it. Every day deputations and individuals waited on us to examine our
+guns and clothing, our chain shirts, and our instruments, especially
+our watches, with which they were much delighted. In short, we became
+quite the rage, so much so that some of the fashionable young swells
+among the Zu-Vendi began to copy the cut of some of our clothes,
+notably Sir Henry’s shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation
+waited on us and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the
+occasion. This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to
+those who generally came to visit us. They were little insignificant
+men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour; and their
+attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing the details of
+Good’s full-dress uniform, of which they took copious notes and
+measurements. Good was much flattered at the time, not suspecting that
+he had to deal with the six leading tailors of Milosis. A fortnight
+afterwards, however, when on attending court as usual he had the
+pleasure of seeing some seven or eight Zu-Vendi “mashers” arrayed in
+all the glory of a very fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he
+changed his mind. I shall never forget his face of astonishment and
+disgust. It was after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because
+our clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up, that we resolved
+to adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable one we found it,
+though I am bound to say that I looked sufficiently ridiculous in it,
+and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas would have none of these things;
+when his moocha was worn out the fierce old Zulu made him a new one,
+and went about unconcerned, as grim and naked as his own battleaxe.
+
+Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made very
+good progress. On the morning following our adventure in the temple,
+three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves armed with
+manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and indicated that they
+had been sent to teach us. So, with the exception of Umslopogaas, we
+all buckled to with a will, doing four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas,
+he would have none of that either. He did not wish to learn that
+“woman’s talk”, not he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him
+with a book and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild
+persuasive way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory
+bag under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang up
+with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes of our
+learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt to teach _him_
+Zu-Vendi.
+
+Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more and
+more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were given up to
+recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one to the gold mines and
+another to the marble quarries both of which I wish I had space and
+time to describe; and sometimes we went out hunting buck with dogs
+trained for that purpose, and a very exciting sport it is, as the
+country is full of agricultural enclosures and our horses were
+magnificent. This is not to be wondered at, seeing that the royal
+stables were at our command, in addition to which we had four splendid
+saddle horses given to us by Nyleptha.
+
+Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great favour
+among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a species of
+partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and strength of its
+flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird appears to lose its head,
+and, instead of seeking cover, flies high into the sky, thus offering
+wonderful sport. I have seen one of these partridges soar up almost out
+of sight when followed by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a
+variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is
+plentiful in this country, and which is flown at with a very small,
+agile, and highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging
+of the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and
+movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful one.
+Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of a very small
+species of antelope with trained eagles; and it certainly is a
+marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and soar till he is nothing
+but a black speck in the sunlight, and then suddenly come dashing down
+like a cannon-ball upon some cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of
+grass from everything but that piercing eye. Still finer is the
+spectacle when the eagle takes the buck running.
+
+On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of the
+great lords’ beautiful fortified places, and the villages clustering
+beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields and
+well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them as filled me with
+delight, for I do love a good tree. There it stands so strong and
+sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type of the best sort of man. How
+proudly it lifts its bare head to the winter storms, and with what a
+full heart it rejoices when the spring has come again! How grand its
+voice is, too, when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps
+cannot equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day
+it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus
+passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through the centuries,
+come storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of
+its mother earth, and as the slow years roll by, learning the great
+mysteries of growth and of decay. And so on and on through generations,
+outliving individuals, customs, dynasties—all save the landscape it
+adorns and human nature—till the appointed day when the wind wins the
+long battle and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last
+stroke to his fungus-fingered work.
+
+Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
+
+In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself to
+dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties—not every night, indeed, but
+about three or four times a week, whenever they had not much company,
+or the affairs of state would allow of it. And I am bound to say that
+those little suppers were quite the most charming things of their sort
+that I ever had to do with. How true is the saying that the very
+highest in rank are always the most simple and kindly. It is from your
+half-and-half sort of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the
+difference between the two being very much what one sees every day in
+England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family, and
+the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and “take the place”. I
+really think that Nyleptha’s greatest charm is her sweet simplicity,
+and her kindly genuine interest even in little things. She is the
+simplest woman I ever knew, and where her passions are not involved,
+one of the sweetest; but she can look queenly enough when she likes,
+and be as fierce as any savage too.
+
+For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the first time
+was sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It came about in this
+way—all through Good’s weakness for ladies’ society. When we had been
+employed for some three months in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master
+Good that he was getting rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us
+the honour to lead us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded,
+without saying a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a
+peculiar fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the
+deeper intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by
+ladies—young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country, he
+pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking and most
+charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers who
+happened to come that way, etc.
+
+All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There was, they
+admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation of the
+beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain porosity of
+mind similar to that produced upon the physical body by the healthful
+influences of sun and air. Consequently it was probable that we might
+absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little faster if suitable teachers could
+be found. Another thing was that, as the female sex was naturally
+loquacious, good practice would be gained in the _viva voce_ department
+of our studies.
+
+To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
+departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our
+wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views should be met.
+
+Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I trust and
+believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where we were accustomed
+to carry on our studies the following morning, we found, instead of our
+usual venerable tutors, three of the best-looking young women whom
+Milosis could produce—and that is saying a good deal—who blushed and
+smiled and curtseyed, and gave us to understand that they were there to
+carry on our instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in
+bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his
+memory before—but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous
+evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
+should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and appealed
+to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.
+
+“Well,” he said, “you see the ladies are here, ain’t they? If we sent
+them away, don’t you think it might hurt their feelings, eh? One
+doesn’t like to be rough, you see; and they look regular _blues_, don’t
+they, eh?”
+
+By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest of
+the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything went very
+well: the young ladies were certainly very clever, and they only smiled
+when we blundered. I never saw Good so attentive to his books before,
+and even Sir Henry appeared to tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest.
+“Ah,” thought I, “will it always be thus?”
+
+Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed
+with questions about our native country, what the ladies were like
+there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could in Zu-Vendi,
+and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness was to the
+beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which she replied with a
+little toss of the head, that she was a plain teaching woman and
+nothing else, and that it was not kind “to deceive a poor girl so”.
+Then we had a little singing that was really charming, so natural and
+unaffected. The Zu-Vendi love-songs are most touching. On the third day
+we were all quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love
+affairs to his fair teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs
+mingled with his own. I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl,
+upon Zu-Vendian art, and never saw that she was waiting for an
+opportunity to drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back,
+whilst in the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared, so far as I
+could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the great
+educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq., though in a
+very modified or rather spiritualized form. The lady softly repeated
+the Zu-Vendi word for “hand”, and he took hers; “eyes”, and he gazed
+deep into her brown orbs; “lips”, and—but just at that moment _my_
+young lady dropped the cockroach down my back and ran away laughing.
+Now if there is one thing I loathe more than another it is cockroaches,
+and moved quite beyond myself, and yet laughing at her impudence, I
+took up the cushion she had been sitting on and threw it after her.
+Imagine then my shame—my horror, and my distress—when the door opened,
+and, attended by two guards only, in walked _Nyleptha_. The cushion
+could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the guards on
+the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried to look as though I
+had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing, and began to murder
+Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir Henry whistled and looked
+silly. As for the poor girls, they were utterly dumbfounded.
+
+And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower even
+above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red, and then
+pale as death.
+
+“Guards,” she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair
+but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, “slay me that woman.”
+
+The men hesitated, as well they might.
+
+“Will ye do my bidding,” she said again in the same voice, “or will ye
+not?”
+
+Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this time Sir
+Henry had recovered himself, and saw that the comedy was likely to turn
+into a tragedy.
+
+“Stand back,” he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time getting
+in front of the terrified girl. “Shame on thee, Nyleptha—shame! Thou
+shalt not kill her.”
+
+“Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou couldst
+hardly do less in honour,” answered the infuriated Queen; “but she
+shall die—she shall die,” and she stamped her little foot.
+
+“It is well,” he answered; “then will I die with her. I am thy servant,
+oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.” And he bowed towards her, and
+fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
+
+“I could wish to slay thee too,” she answered; “for thou dost make a
+mock of me;” and then feeling that she was mastered, and I suppose not
+knowing what else to do, she burst into such a storm of tears and
+looked so royally lovely in her passionate distress, that, old as I am,
+I must say I envied Curtis his task of supporting her. It was rather
+odd to see him holding her in his arms considering what had just
+passed—a thought that seemed to occur to herself, for presently she
+wrenched herself free and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
+
+Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message to the
+girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city and return to
+their homes in the country, and that no further harm would come to
+them; and accordingly they went, one of them remarking philosophically
+that it could not be helped, and that it was a satisfaction to know
+that they had taught us a little serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an
+exceedingly nice girl, and, overlooking the cockroach, I made her a
+present of my favourite lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went
+away. After that our former masters resumed their course of
+instruction, needless to say to my great relief.
+
+That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal supper
+table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache. That
+headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth she was present
+at supper as usual, and with the most gracious and sweet smile gave Sir
+Henry her hand to lead her to the table. No allusion was made to the
+little affair described above beyond her saying, with a charming air of
+innocence, that when she came to see us at our studies the other day
+she had been seized with a giddiness from which she had only now
+recovered. She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was
+common to her, that it was the sight of people working so hard which
+had affected her.
+
+In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not look
+quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those quick
+glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of a man must have
+gone through him like a knife, and the subject dropped entirely.
+Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended to put us through
+an examination to see what we had learnt, and to express herself well
+satisfied with the results. Indeed, she proceeded to give us,
+especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her own account, and very interesting
+we found it.
+
+And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and laughed,
+Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and look at us and
+read us all like a book, only from time to time saying a few words, and
+smiling that quick ominous smile of hers which was more like a flash of
+summer lightning on a dark cloud than anything else. And as near to her
+as he dared would sit Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he
+really was getting seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom,
+speaking personally, I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and
+soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at
+heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, and the
+discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she _also_ was
+growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not be sure; it
+is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman; but I noticed one or
+two little things, and, as elephant hunters know, dried grass shows
+which way the wind has set.
+
+And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had all
+attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi language, which
+is an easy one to learn. And as the time went on we became great
+favourites with the people, and even with the courtiers, gaining an
+enormous reputation for cleverness, because, as I think I have said,
+Sir Henry was able to show them how to make glass, which was a national
+want, and also, by the help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with
+us, to predict various heavenly combinations which were quite
+unsuspected by the native astronomers. We even succeeded in
+demonstrating the principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the
+learned men, who were filled with amazement; and several other things
+of the same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made up
+their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out of the
+country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if we had
+wished it), and we were advanced to great honour and made officers to
+the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent quarters were
+assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was asked upon questions
+of national policy.
+
+But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on the
+horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotami,
+but it is not on that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was
+forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful priesthood headed by
+Agon appeased. On the contrary, it was burning the more fiercely
+because it was necessarily suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in
+bigotry was ending in downright direct hatred born of jealousy.
+Hitherto, the priests had been the wise men of the land, and were on
+this account, as well as from superstitious causes, looked on with
+peculiar veneration. But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and
+our strange inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious
+blow to this state of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went
+far towards destroying the priestly prestige. A still worse affront to
+them, however, was the favour with which we were regarded, and the
+trust that was reposed in us. All these things tended to make us
+excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan, the most powerful
+because the most united faction in the kingdom.
+
+Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of
+the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to us had at best
+been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to break out into open
+flame. Nasta had for some years been a candidate for Nyleptha’s hand in
+marriage, and when we appeared on the scene I fancy, from all I could
+gather, that though there were still many obstacles in his path,
+success was by no means out of his reach. But now all this had changed;
+the coy Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow
+to guess the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to
+Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain side.
+With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on
+him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the thirty thousand wild
+swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding through the northern
+mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with
+our heads.
+
+But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt and to
+demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the formal annual
+ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the
+Queens during the year.
+
+Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and
+with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us of it as we
+sat at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony of the
+law-giving.
+
+Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly
+showed his agitation.
+
+“And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the great Lord?”
+asked I, in a jesting manner.
+
+“Answer, Macumazahn” (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names in
+Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder. “Nay,
+I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the wooer has thirty
+thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?” And from under her long
+lashes she glanced at Curtis.
+
+Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
+“Quatermain, a word, quick,” said Sir Henry to me. “Listen. I have
+never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love Nyleptha.
+What am I to do?”
+
+Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
+consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the
+wisest to me.
+
+“You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,” I said. “Now is your time, now or
+never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her, and whisper to
+her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue at the end of the
+great hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis.”
+
+We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her hands
+before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way
+off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured tones.
+
+The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according
+to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir Henry had had no
+chance of saying a word in private: indeed, though we saw much of the
+royal sisters, it was by no means easy to see them alone. I racked my
+brains, and at last an idea came to me.
+
+“Will the Queen be pleased,” I said, bowing low before Sorais, “to sing
+to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh Lady
+of the Night” (Sorais’ favourite name among the people).
+
+“My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart, yet
+will I sing if it pleases thee,” she answered; and she rose and went a
+few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither, and
+struck a few wandering chords.
+
+Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her rounded
+voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so eerie and sad a
+refrain, that it made the very blood stand still. Up, up soared the
+golden notes, that seemed to melt far away, and then to grow again and
+travel on, laden with all the sorrow of the world and all the despair
+of the lost. It was a marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to
+it properly. However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a
+translation of its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at
+all.
+
+SORAIS’ SONG
+
+As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,
+As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death’s sickle is swinging,
+So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.
+
+As the nightingale’s song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,
+As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
+So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.
+
+As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,
+As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are
+rending,
+So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.
+
+So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,
+A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
+Till Death’s dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o’ertake us.
+
+Refrain
+
+Oh, the world is fair at the dawning—dawning—dawning,
+But the red sun sinks in blood—the red sun sinks in blood.
+
+I only wish that I could write down the music too.
+
+“Now, Curtis, now,” I whispered, when she began the second verse, and
+turned my back.
+
+“Nyleptha,” he said—for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I
+could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais’
+divine notes—“Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this night, upon my life
+I must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!”
+
+“How can I speak with thee?” she answered, looking fixedly before her;
+“Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched.”
+
+“Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas in the
+great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can pass in.
+Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him the Zulu. Oh come,
+my Queen, deny me not.”
+
+“It is not seemly,” she murmured, “and tomorrow—”
+
+Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and
+Sorais slowly turned her round.
+
+“I will be there,” said Nyleptha, hurriedly; “on thy life see that thou
+fail me not.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+BEFORE THE STATUE
+
+
+It was night—dead night—and the silence lay on the Frowning City like a
+cloud.
+
+Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself
+threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the
+great Throne Chamber. Once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge
+of the sentry. I gave the countersign, and the man grounded his spear
+and let us pass. Also we were officers of the Queens’ bodyguard, and in
+that capacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
+
+We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even
+when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty
+walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven
+roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that
+once they trod.
+
+It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw
+great pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings
+in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the
+marble floor, like white flowers on a coffin. One of these silver
+arrows fell upon the statue of the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel
+form bent over him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a
+soft clear light, reminding me of that with which Catholics illumine
+the altars of their cathedrals.
+
+Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I close
+together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could
+only just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an
+axe.
+
+So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the cold
+marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick
+catching breath. Then from far away there came a little sound as though
+the statues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some
+message of the ages.
+
+It was the faint sweep of a lady’s dress. Nearer it grew, and nearer
+yet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and
+even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw the
+black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and
+Nyleptha was before us.
+
+Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the
+circle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her
+white bosom heaved beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf was
+loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus
+rendering it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a
+certain extent upon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it
+is half hid. There she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet
+so sweet. It was but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with
+her myself, and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked
+more like an angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal
+woman. Low we bowed before her, and then she spoke.
+
+“I have come,” she whispered, “but it was at great risk. Ye know not
+how I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those
+great eyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me
+too. Oh, let him be careful!” and she stamped her foot. “Let him be
+careful; I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a
+Queen, too, and can still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in
+place of giving him my hand I take his head,” and she ended the
+outburst with a little sob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and
+laughed.
+
+“Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu” (Curtis had taught her
+to call him so). “Doubtless it is about business of the State, for I
+know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare
+and my people’s. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I
+greatly fear the dark alone,” and again she laughed and gave him a
+glance from her grey eyes.
+
+At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets “of the
+State” should not be made public property; but she would not let me go
+far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she
+feared surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard
+all that passed.
+
+“Thou knowest, Nyleptha,” said Sir Henry, “that it was for none of
+these things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place.
+Nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for—I
+love thee.”
+
+As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change.
+The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light
+of love which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marble
+angel overhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a
+touch of prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas limn, in
+the features of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a
+likeness of his own descendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and
+been struck by the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha’s
+face, he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back
+again at his beloved.
+
+“Thou sayest thou dost love me,” she said in a low voice, “and thy
+voice rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the truth?”
+
+“Though,” she went on with proud humility, and in the stately third
+person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, “I be as nothing in
+the eyes of my lord,” and she curtseyed towards him, “who comes from
+among a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here
+am I a queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred
+thousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down
+the path of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in
+the eyes of my lord,” and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed
+again, “yet here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever
+since I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel
+concerning me, as though forsooth,” she added with a flash of passion,
+“I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to
+be sold to the highest bidder. Let my lord pardon me if I weary my
+lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, Nyleptha, a
+Queen of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say that though my love
+and my hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.”
+
+“Oh!” she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and
+modifying her dignified mode of address. “Oh, how can I know that thou
+lovest but me? How can I know that thou wilt not weary of me and seek
+thine own place again, leaving me desolate? Who is there to tell me but
+that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but
+who yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight?
+Tell me _how_ am I to know?” And she clasped her hands and stretched
+them out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
+
+“Nyleptha,” answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of speech; “I
+have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how much I love
+thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that
+I have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say that
+I love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love thee
+now and shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe
+beyond my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music
+to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art
+there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as though
+the light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and now
+for thy dear sake I will forget my people and my father’s house, yea, I
+renounce them all. By thy side will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side
+will I die.”
+
+He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a
+lily, and said never a word.
+
+“Look!” he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight
+played so brightly. “Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand
+upon the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch
+his soul flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at
+the touch of the fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast
+awakened my soul and called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not
+mine, not mine, but _thine_ and thine only. There is no more for me to
+say; in thy hands is my life.” And he leaned back against the pedestal
+of the statue, looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and
+handsome as a god.
+
+Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all
+alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though
+to read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly
+as a silver bell.
+
+“Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be the
+day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I have
+believed a lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here
+from far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand
+upon thy hand thus, and thus I, whose lips have never kissed before, do
+kiss thee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy
+kiss, ay, by my people’s weal and by my throne that like enough I shall
+lose for thee—by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by
+the eternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live and
+die. And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till death, ay,
+and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will
+shall be my will, and thy ways my ways.
+
+“Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; I,
+who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;”
+and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on
+the cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know, for I
+could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a
+little of old Umslopogaas’ society, leaving them to settle it their own
+way, and a very long time they were about it.
+
+I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveying
+the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
+
+“Ah, Macumazahn,” he said, “I suppose it is because I am getting old,
+but I don’t think that I shall ever learn to understand the ways of you
+white people. Look there now, I pray thee, they are a pretty pair of
+doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn? He wants a wife, and
+she wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down[18] like a
+man and have done with it? It would save a deal of trouble, and we
+should have had our night’s sleep. But there they go, talk, talk, talk,
+and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!”
+
+ [18] Alluding to the Zulu custom.—A. Q.
+
+Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the “pair of doves” came
+strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and Nyleptha
+remarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on the
+marble. Then, for she was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand and
+said that I was “her Lord’s” dear friend, and therefore most dear to
+her—not a word for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas’
+axe, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that
+he might soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
+
+After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance
+at her lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
+
+When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtis
+asked me jocularly what I was thinking about.
+
+“I am wondering,” I answered, “on what principle it is arranged that
+some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with them,
+while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and I am also
+wondering how many brave men’s lives this night’s work will cost.” It
+was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings do not
+evaporate with age, and I could not help being a little jealous of my
+old friend’s luck. Vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
+
+On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence,
+and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about
+the mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond,
+till they flowed over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet
+smiles go. The fact of the matter, however, was that not only was Good
+rejoiced about the thing on its own merits but also for personal
+reasons. He adored Sorais quite as earnestly as Sir Henry adored
+Nyleptha, and his adoration had not altogether prospered. Indeed, it
+had seemed to him and to me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen
+favoured Curtis in her own curious inscrutable way much more than Good.
+Therefore it was a relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival
+was permanently and satisfactorily attached in another direction. His
+face fell a little, however, when he was told that the whole thing was
+to be kept as secret as the dead, above all from Sorais for the
+present, inasmuch as the political convulsion which would follow such
+an announcement at the moment would be altogether too great to face and
+would very possibly, if prematurely made, shake Nyleptha from her
+throne.
+
+That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could not help
+smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting
+that, if walls could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
+
+What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in
+her blazoned “kaf” or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when
+Sir Henry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an
+officer of her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely
+acknowledged his salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly
+aside. It was a very large Court, for not only did the signing of the
+laws attract many outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but
+also the rumour that Nasta was going to publicly ask the hand of
+Nyleptha in marriage had gone abroad, with the result that the great
+hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. There were our friends the
+priests in force, headed by Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive
+eye; and a most imposing band they were, with their long white
+embroidered robes girt with a golden chain from which hung the
+fish-like scales. There, too, were a number of the lords, each with a
+band of brilliantly attired attendants, and prominent among them was
+Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and looking unusually
+pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight, especially when the
+officer after having read out each law handed them to the Queens to
+sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the Queens’ guard grounded
+their spears with a crash in salute. This reading and signing of the
+laws took a long time, but at length it came to an end, the last one
+reciting that “whereas distinguished strangers, etc.”, and proceeding
+to confer on the three of us the rank of “lords”, together with certain
+military commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen. When it was
+read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual, but I
+saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, while Nasta
+ground his teeth. They did not like the favour that was shown to us,
+which under all the circumstances was not perhaps unnatural.
+
+Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly,
+though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of the
+Queen Nyleptha.
+
+Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the
+“well-beloved lord” to speak on, whereon in a few straightforward
+soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
+
+Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest Agon took
+up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out
+the many advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate
+the kingdom, for Nasta’s dominions, of which he was virtually king,
+were to Zu-Vendis much what Scotland used to be to England; how it
+would gratify the wild mountaineers and be popular among the soldiery,
+for Nasta was a famous general; how it would set her dynasty firmly on
+the throne, and would gain the blessing and approval of the “Sun”,
+_i.e._, of the office of the High Priest, and so on. Many of his
+arguments were undoubtedly valid, and there was, looking at it from a
+political point of view, everything to be said for the marriage. But
+unfortunately it is difficult to play the game of politics with the
+persons of young and lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies
+of themselves on a chessboard. Nyleptha’s face, while Agon spouted
+away, was a perfect study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it
+set like a stone, and her eyes began to flash ominously.
+
+At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Before she did
+so, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficiently
+loud for me to catch what she said, “Bethink thee well, my sister, ere
+thou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy
+words.”
+
+Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais leant back
+again and listened.
+
+“Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,” she said, “that my
+poor hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that Agon
+here should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the Sun upon my
+union. Methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere
+the bride had said her say. Nasta, I thank thee, and I will bethink me
+of thy words, but now as yet I have no mind for marriage, that is a cup
+of which none know the taste until they begin to drink it. Again I
+thank thee, Nasta,” and she made as though she would rise.
+
+The great lord’s face turned almost as black as his beard with fury,
+for he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
+
+“Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,” he said, restraining
+himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, “my heart
+shall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon, namely, the
+royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north till
+such time as the Queen shall say my suit nay or yea. Mayhap,” he added,
+with a sneer, “the Queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to
+bring with her these stranger lords,” and he scowled darkly towards us.
+“It is but a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of
+mountaineers, and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to
+shout a welcome to her.”
+
+This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was received
+in complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered it with
+spirit.
+
+“Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my train, and
+for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bring
+two from the lowlands who call me Queen, and we will see which is the
+staunchest breed. Till then farewell.”
+
+The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly broke
+up in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with a heavy
+heart foreseeing civil war.
+
+After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queen did
+not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the true
+relation in which they stood to each other to leak out; but do what
+they would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room,
+and yet quite as audible, began to hum round and round, and at last to
+settle on her throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+THE STORM BREAKS
+
+
+And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but a cloud as
+large as a man’s hand began to loom very black and big upon our
+horizon, namely, Sorais’ preference for Sir Henry. I saw the storm
+drawing nearer and nearer; and so, poor fellow, did he. The affection
+of so lovely and highly-placed a woman was not a thing that could in a
+general way be considered a calamity by any man, but, situated as
+Curtis was, it was a grievous burden to bear.
+
+To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it must be
+admitted, of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimes apt to
+visit on her lover’s head her indignation at the marks of what Alphonse
+would have called the “distinguished consideration” with which her
+royal sister favoured him. Then the enforced secrecy of his relation to
+Nyleptha prevented Curtis from taking some opportunity of putting a
+stop, or trying to put a stop, to this false condition of affairs, by
+telling Sorais, in a casual but confidential way, that he was going to
+marry her sister. A third sting in Sir Henry’s honey was that he knew
+that Good was honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking
+but most attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed, poor Bougwan was wasting
+himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her, his face
+getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick in it; while
+she, with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave him encouragement
+enough to keep him going, thinking, no doubt, that he might be useful
+as a stalking-horse. I tried to give him a hint, in as delicate a way
+as I could, but he flew into a huff and would not listen to me, so I
+was determined to let ill alone, for fear of making it worse. Poor
+Good, he really was very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all
+sorts of absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit.
+One of them was the writing—with the assistance of one of the grave and
+revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatever may have been the
+measure of his erudition, did not understand how to scan a line—of a
+most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song, of which the continually
+recurring refrain was something about “I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will
+kiss thee!” Now among the Zu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless
+thing for young men to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do
+in the southern countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical
+songs to them. The young men may or may not be serious; but no offence
+is meant and none is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank, who
+accept the whole thing as an English girl would a gracefully-turned
+compliment.
+
+Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that he would
+serenade Sorais, whose private apartments, together with those of her
+maidens, were exactly opposite our own, on the further side of a narrow
+courtyard which divided one section of the great palace from another.
+Accordingly, having armed himself with a native zither, on which, being
+an adept with the light guitar, he had easily learned to strum, he
+proceeded at midnight—the fashionable hour for this sort of
+caterwauling—to make night hideous with his amorous yells. I was fast
+asleep when they began, but they soon woke me up—for Good possesses a
+tremendous voice and has no notion of time—and I ran to my window-place
+to see what was the matter. And there, standing in the full moonlight
+in the courtyard, I perceived Good, adorned with an enormous ostrich
+feather head-dress and a flowing silken cloak, which it is the right
+thing to wear upon these occasions, and shouting out the abominable
+song which he and the old gentleman had evolved, to a jerky, jingling
+accompaniment. From the direction of the quarters of the maids of
+honour came a succession of faint sniggerings; but the apartments of
+Sorais herself—whom I devoutly pitied if she happened to be there—were
+silent as the grave. There was absolutely no end to that awful song,
+with its eternal “I will kiss thee!” and at last neither I nor Sir
+Henry, whom I had summoned to enjoy the sight, could stand it any
+longer; so, remembering the dear old story, I put my head to the window
+opening, and shouted, “For Heaven’s sake, Good, don’t go on talking
+about it, but _kiss_ her and let’s all go to sleep!” That choked him
+off, and we had no more serenading.
+
+The whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business. How
+deeply thankful we ought to be that even the most serious matters have
+generally a silver lining about them in the shape of a joke, if only
+people could see it. The sense of humour is a very valuable possession
+in life, and ought to be cultivated in the Board schools—especially in
+Scotland.
+
+Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, as is not
+uncommon in such cases, till at last things got very queer indeed.
+Evidently she was, by some strange perversity of mind, quite blinded to
+the true state of the case; and I, for one, greatly dreaded the moment
+of her awakening. Sorais was a dangerous woman to be mixed up with,
+either with or without one’s consent. At last the evil moment came, as
+I saw it must come. One fine day, Good having gone out hawking, Sir
+Henry and I were sitting quietly talking over the situation, especially
+with reference to Sorais, when a Court messenger arrived with a written
+note, which we with some difficulty deciphered, and which was to the
+effect that “the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance of the Lord
+Incubu in her private apartments, whither he would be conducted by the
+bearer”.
+
+“Oh my word!” groaned Sir Henry. “Can’t you go instead, old fellow?”
+
+“Not if I know it,” I said with vigour. “I had rather face a wounded
+elephant with a shot-gun. Take care of your own business, my boy. If
+you will be so fascinating you must take the consequences. I would not
+be in your place for an empire.”
+
+“You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school and the
+other boys came to console me,” he said gloomily. “What right has this
+Queen to command my attendance, I should like to know? I won’t go.”
+
+“But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obey her, and
+she knows it. And after all it will soon be over.”
+
+“That’s just what they used to say,” he said again. “I only hope she
+won’t put a knife into me. I believe that she is quite capable of it.”
+And off he started very faintheartedly, and no wonder.
+
+I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minutes he
+returned, looking a good deal worse than when he went.
+
+“Give me something to drink,” he said hoarsely.
+
+I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter.
+
+“What is the matter? Why if ever there was trouble there’s trouble now.
+You know when I left you? Well, I was shown straight into Sorais’
+private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and there she sat, quite
+alone, upon a silken couch at the end of the room, playing gently upon
+that zither of hers. I stood before her, and for a while she took no
+notice of me, but kept on playing and singing a little, and very sweet
+music it was. At last she looked up and smiled.
+
+“‘So thou art come,’ she said. ‘I thought perchance thou hadst gone
+about the Queen Nyleptha’s business. Thou art ever on her business, and
+I doubt not a good servant and a true.’
+
+“To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive the Queen’s
+word.
+
+“‘Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated. It wearies me to
+look so high,’ and she made room for me beside her on the couch,
+placing herself with her back against the end, so as to have a view of
+my face.
+
+“‘It is not meet,’ I said, ‘that I should make myself equal with the
+Queen.’
+
+“‘I said be seated,’ was her answer, so I sat down, and she began to
+look at me with those dark eyes of hers. There she sat like an
+incarnate spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and when she did,
+very low, but all the while looking at me. There was a white flower in
+her black hair, and I tried to keep my eyes on it and count the petals,
+but it was of no use. At last, whether it was her gaze, or the perfume
+in her hair, or what I do not know, but I almost felt as though I was
+being mesmerized. At last she roused herself.
+
+“‘Incubu,’ she said, ‘lovest thou power?’
+
+“I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another.
+
+“‘Thou shalt have it,’ she said. ‘Lovest thou wealth?’
+
+“I said I liked wealth for what it brought.
+
+“‘Thou shalt have it,’ she said. ‘And lovest thou beauty?’
+
+“To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture,
+or something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and there was a
+pause. By this time my nerves were on such a stretch that I was shaking
+like a leaf. I knew that something awful was going to happen, but she
+held me under a kind of spell, and I could not help myself.
+
+“‘Incubu,’ she said at length, ‘wouldst thou be a king? Listen, wouldst
+thou be a king? Behold, stranger, I am minded to make thee king of all
+Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night. Nay, peace and hear
+me. To no man among my people had I thus opened out my secret heart,
+but thou art an outlander and therefore I speak without shame, knowing
+all I have to offer and how hard it had been thee to ask. See, a crown
+lies at thy feet, my lord Incubu, and with that fortune a woman whom
+some have wished to woo. Now mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft
+shall thy words fall upon mine ears.’
+
+“‘Oh Sorais,’ I said, ‘I pray thee speak not thus’—you see I had not
+time to pick and choose my words—‘for this thing cannot be. I am
+betrothed to thy sister Nyleptha, oh Sorais, and I love her and her
+alone.’
+
+“Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, and I looked
+up to see the results. When I spoke, Sorais’ face was hidden in her
+hands, and as my words reached her she slowly raised it, and I shrank
+back dismayed. It was ashy white, and her eyes were flaming. She rose
+to her feet and seemed to be choking, but the awful thing was that she
+was so quiet about it all. Once she looked at a side table, on which
+lay a dagger, and from it to me, as though she thought of killing me;
+but she did not take it up. At last she spoke one word, and one only—
+
+“‘_Go!_’
+
+“And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and here I am.
+Give me another cup of wine, there’s a good fellow, and tell me, what
+is to be done?”
+
+I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious. As one of the poets
+says,
+
+“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,”
+
+more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeed I
+feared the very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves.
+
+“Nyleptha had better be told of this at once,” I said, “and perhaps I
+had better tell her; she might receive your account with suspicion.”
+
+“Who is captain of her guard tonight?” I went on.
+
+“Good.”
+
+“Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at. Don’t
+look surprised. I don’t think that her sister would stick at that. I
+suppose one must tell Good of what has happened.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t know,” said Sir Henry. “It would hurt his feelings, poor
+fellow! You see, he takes a lively personal interest in Sorais.”
+
+“That’s true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him. He
+will find out the truth soon enough. Now, you mark my words, Sorais
+will throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in the North there,
+and there will be such a war as has not been known in Zu-Vendis for
+centuries. Look there!” and I pointed to two Court messengers, who were
+speeding away from the door of Sorais’ private apartments. “Now follow
+me,” and I ran up a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the
+roof of our quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over
+the palace wall. The first thing we saw was one of the messengers
+speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the Queen’s
+word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched in vain.
+Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously through the
+northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized the other messenger.
+
+“Ah!” I said, “Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting at once, and
+will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her, my boy, and the
+blood will flow in rivers before the stain is washed away, and yours
+with it, if she can get hold of you. Well, I’m off to Nyleptha. Just
+you stop where you are, old fellow, and try to get your nerves straight
+again. You’ll need them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed
+human nature in the rough for fifty years for nothing.” And off I went
+accordingly.
+
+I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expecting
+Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured face
+instead.
+
+“Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits not upon
+me? Say, is he sick?”
+
+I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I
+plunged into my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh, what a
+rage she flew into! It was a sight to see her, she looked so lovely.
+
+“How darest thou come to me with such a tale?” she cried. “It is a lie
+to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.”
+
+“Pardon me, oh Queen,” I answered, “I said that Sorais was making love
+to thy lord.”
+
+“Spin me no spiders’ webs of words. Is not the thing the same thing?
+The one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes, and what matters
+it which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, I hate her—Sorais is a queen
+and my sister. She had not stooped so low had he not shown the way. Oh,
+truly hath the poet said that man is like a snake, whom to touch is
+poison, and whom none can hold.”
+
+“The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread the
+poet. Nyleptha,” I went on, “thou knowest well that thy words are empty
+foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.”
+
+“How darest thou?” she broke in, stamping her foot. “Hast my false lord
+sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou, stranger, that thou
+shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after this sort? How darest thou?”
+
+“Yea, I dare. Listen. The moments which thou dost waste in idle anger
+may well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives. Already Sorais’
+horsemen go forth and call to arms. In three days’ time Nasta will
+rouse himself in his fastnesses like a lion in the evening, and his
+growling will be heard throughout the North. The ‘Lady of the Night’
+(Sorais) hath a sweet voice, and she will not sing in vain. Her banner
+will be borne from range to range and valley to valley, and warriors
+will spring up in its track like dust beneath a whirlwind; half the
+army will echo her war-cry; and in every town and hamlet of this wide
+land the priests will call out against the foreigner and will preach
+her cause as holy. I have spoken, oh Queen!”
+
+Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; and putting
+off the character of a lovely headstrong lady, with a rapidity and
+completeness that distinguished her, she put on that of a queen and a
+woman of business. The transformation was sudden but entire.
+
+“Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn. Forgive me my folly. Ah, what a
+Queen I should be if only I had no heart! To be heartless—that is to
+conquer all. Passion is like the lightning, it is beautiful, and it
+links the earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!
+
+“And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war upon me. So be
+it. She shall not prevail against me. I, too, have my friends and my
+retainers. There are many, I say, who will shout ‘Nyleptha!’ when my
+pennon runs up on peak and pinnacle, and the light of my beacon fires
+leaps tonight from crag to crag, bearing the message of my war. I will
+break her strength and scatter her armies. Eternal night shall be the
+portion of Sorais of the Night. Give me that parchment and the ink. So.
+Now summon the officer in the ante-room. He is a trusty man.”
+
+I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-looking gentleman
+of the guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low.
+
+“Take this parchment,” said Nyleptha; “it is thy warrant; and guard
+every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of my sister Sorais,
+the ‘Lady of the Night’, and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. Let none come in
+and none go out, or thy life shall pay the cost.”
+
+The man looked startled, but he merely said, “The Queen’s word be
+done,” and departed. Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to Sir Henry, and
+presently he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable. I thought that
+another outburst was about to follow, but wonderful are the ways of
+woman; she said not a word about Sorais and his supposed inconstancy,
+greeting him with a friendly nod, and stating simply that she required
+his advice upon high matters. All the same there was a look in her eye,
+and a sort of suppressed energy in her manner towards him, that makes
+me think that she had not forgotten the affair, but was keeping it for
+a private occasion.
+
+Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reported that
+Sorais was _gone_. The bird had flown to the Temple, stating that she
+was going, as was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendi ladies of rank,
+to spend the night in meditation before the altar. We looked at each
+other significantly. The blow had fallen very soon.
+
+Then we set to work.
+
+Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters, and as
+much of the State affairs as was thought desirable was told to each,
+strict injunctions being given to them to get all their available force
+together. The same was done with such of the more powerful lords as
+Nyleptha knew she could rely on, several of whom left that very day for
+distant parts of the country to gather up their tribesmen and
+retainers. Sealed orders were dispatched to the rulers of far-off
+cities, and some twenty messengers were sent off before nightfall with
+instructions to ride early and late till they reached the distant
+chiefs to whom their letters were addressed: also many spies were set
+to work. All the afternoon and evening we laboured, assisted by some
+confidential scribes, Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind
+that astonished me, and it was eight o’clock before we got back to our
+quarters. Here we heard from Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved because
+our non-return had spoilt his dinner (for he had turned cook again
+now), that Good had come back from his hawking and gone on duty. As
+instructions had already been given to the officer of the outer guard
+to double the sentries at the gate, and as we had no reason to fear any
+immediate danger, we did not think it worth while to hunt him up and
+tell him anything of what had passed, which at best was, under the
+peculiar circumstances of the case, one of those tasks that one prefers
+to postpone, so after swallowing our food we turned in to get some
+much-needed rest. Before we did so, however, it occurred to Curtis to
+tell old Umslopogaas to keep a look-out in the neighbourhood of
+Nyleptha’s private apartments. Umslopogaas was now well known about the
+place, and by the Queen’s order allowed to pass whither he would by the
+guards, a permission of which he often availed himself by roaming about
+the palace during the still hours in a nocturnal fashion that he
+favoured, and which is by no means uncommon amongst black men
+generally. His presence in the corridors would not, therefore, be
+likely to excite remark. Without any comment the Zulu took up his axe
+and departed, and we also departed to bed.
+
+I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakened by a
+peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I felt that somebody was in the room
+and looking at me, and instantly sat up, to see to my surprise that it
+was already dawn, and that there, standing at the foot of my couch and
+looking peculiarly grim and gaunt in the grey light, was Umslopogaas
+himself.
+
+“How long hast thou been there?” I asked testily, for it is not
+pleasant to be aroused in such a fashion.
+
+“Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn. I have a word for thee.”
+
+“Speak on,” I said, now wide enough awake.
+
+“As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queen and hid
+myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyond which is the
+sleeping-place of the Queen. Bougwan (Good) was in the first anteroom
+alone, and outside the curtain of that room was a sentry, but I had a
+mind to see if I could pass in unseen, and I did, gliding behind them
+both. There I waited for many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark
+figure coming secretly towards me. It was the figure of a woman, and in
+her hand she held a dagger. Behind that figure crept another unseen by
+the woman. It was Bougwan following in her tracks. His shoes were off,
+and for so fat a man he followed very well. The woman passed me, and
+the starlight shone upon her face.”
+
+“Who was it?” I asked impatiently.
+
+“The face was the face of the ‘Lady of the Night’, and of a truth she
+is well named.
+
+“I waited, and Bougwan passed me also. Then I followed. So we went
+slowly and without a sound up the long chamber. First the woman, then
+Bougwan, and then I; and the woman saw not Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not
+me. At last the ‘Lady of the Night’ came to the curtains that shut off
+the sleeping place of the White Queen, and put out her left hand to
+part them. She passed through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I. At the
+far end of the room is the bed of the Queen, and on it she lay very
+fast asleep. I could hear her breathe, and see one white arm lying on
+the coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry grass. The ‘Lady of the
+Night’ doubled herself thus, and with the long knife lifted crept
+towards the bed. So straight did she gaze thereat that she never
+thought to look behind her. When she was quite close Bougwan touched
+her on the arm, and she caught her breath and turned, and I saw the
+knife flash, and heard it strike. Well was it for Bougwan that he had
+the skin of iron on him, or he had been pierced. Then for the first
+time he saw who the woman was, and without a word he fell back
+astonished, and unable to speak. She, too, was astonished, and spoke
+not, but suddenly she laid her finger on her lip, thus, and walked
+towards and through the curtain, and with her went Bougwan. So close
+did she pass to me that her dress touched me, and I was nigh to slaying
+her as she went. In the first outer room she spoke to Bougwan in a
+whisper and, clasping her hands thus, she pleaded with him, but what
+she said I know not. And so they passed on to the second outer room,
+she pleading and he shaking his head, and saying, ‘Nay, nay, nay’. And
+it seemed to me that he was about to call the guard, when she stopped
+talking and looked at him with great eyes, and I saw that he was
+bewitched by her beauty. Then she stretched out her hand and he kissed
+it, whereon I gathered myself together to advance and take her, seeing
+that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no longer knew the good from
+the evil, when behold! she was gone.”
+
+“Gone!” I ejaculated.
+
+“Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one asleep,
+and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came away also.”
+
+“Art thou sure, Umslopogaas,” said I, “that thou hast not been a
+dreamer this night?”
+
+In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inches of a
+blade of a dagger of the finest steel. “If I be, Macumazahn, behold
+what the dream left with me. The knife broke upon Bougwan’s bosom and
+as I passed I picked this up in the sleeping-place of the White Queen.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+WAR! RED WAR!
+
+
+Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went off
+with him to Sir Henry’s room, where the Zulu repeated his story word
+for word. It was a sight to watch Curtis’ face as he heard it.
+
+“Great Heavens!” he said: “here have I been sleeping away while
+Nyleptha was nearly murdered—and all through me, too. What a fiend that
+Sorais must be! It would have served her well if Umslopogaas had cut
+her down in the act.”
+
+“Ay,” said the Zulu. “Fear not; I should have slain her ere she struck.
+I was but waiting the moment.”
+
+I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand
+doomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais the
+fate she meant for her sister. And, as the issue proved, I was right.
+
+After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedly to get
+his morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking.
+
+At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was no longer
+to be trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escape by some
+secret stair when it was his duty to have handed her over to justice.
+Indeed, he spoke in the most unmeasured terms on the matter. I let him
+run on awhile, reflecting to myself how easy we find it to be hard on
+the weaknesses of others, and how tender we are to our own.
+
+“Really, my dear fellow,” I said at length, “one would never think, to
+hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interview with this
+same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficult to resist her
+fascinations, notwithstanding your ties to one of the loveliest and
+most loving women in the world. Now suppose it was Nyleptha who had
+tried to murder Sorais, and _you_ had caught her, and she had pleaded
+with you, would you have been so very eager to hand her over to an open
+shame, and to death by fire? Just look at the matter through Good’s
+eyeglass for a minute before you denounce an old friend as a
+scoundrel.”
+
+He listened to this jobation submissively, and then frankly
+acknowledged that he had spoken hardly. It is one of the best points in
+Sir Henry’s character that he is always ready to admit it when he is in
+the wrong.
+
+But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to the fact that,
+however natural his behaviour might be, it was obvious that he was
+being involved in a very awkward and disgraceful complication. A foul
+and wicked murder had been attempted, and he had let the murderess
+escape, and thereby, among other things, allowed her to gain a complete
+ascendency over himself. In fact, he was in a fair way to become her
+tool—and no more dreadful fate can befall a man than to become the tool
+of an unscrupulous woman, or indeed of any woman. There is but one end
+to it: when he is broken, or has served her purpose, he is thrown
+away—turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect. Whilst
+I was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done—for the whole
+subject was a thorny one—I suddenly heard a great clamour in the
+courtyard outside, and distinguished the voice of Umslopogaas and
+Alphonse, the former cursing furiously, and the latter yelling in
+terror.
+
+Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicrous
+sight. The little Frenchman was running up the courtyard at an
+extraordinary speed, and after him sped Umslopogaas like a great
+greyhound. Just as I came out he caught him, and, lifting him right off
+his legs, carried him some paces to a beautiful but very dense
+flowering shrub which bore a flower not unlike the gardenia, but was
+covered with short thorns. Next, despite his howls and struggles, he
+with one mighty thrust plunged poor Alphonse head first into the bush,
+so that nothing but the calves of his legs and heels remained in
+evidence. Then, satisfied with what he had done, the Zulu folded his
+arms and stood grimly contemplating the Frenchman’s kicks, and
+listening to his yells, which were awful.
+
+“What art thou doing?” I said, running up. “Wouldst thou kill the man?
+Pull him out of the bush!”
+
+With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonse by the
+ankle, and with a jerk that must have nearly dislocated it, tearing him
+out of the heart of the shrub. Never did I see such a sight as he
+presented, his clothes half torn off his back, and bleeding as he was
+in every direction from the sharp thorns. There he lay and yelled and
+rolled, and there was no getting anything out of him.
+
+At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me, cursed
+old Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowing by the blood of
+his heroic grandfather that he would poison him, and “have his
+revenge”.
+
+At last I got to the truth of the matter. It appeared that Alphonse
+habitually cooked Umslopogaas’s porridge, which the latter ate for
+breakfast in the corner of the courtyard, just as he would have done at
+home in Zululand, from a gourd, and with a wooden spoon. Now
+Umslopogaas had, like many Zulus, a great horror of fish, which he
+considered a species of water-snake; so Alphonse, who was as fond of
+playing tricks as a monkey, and who was also a consummate cook,
+determined to make him eat some. Accordingly he grated up a quantity of
+white fish very finely, and mixed it with the Zulu’s porridge, who
+swallowed it nearly all down in ignorance of what he was eating. But,
+unfortunately for Alphonse, he could not restrain his joy at this
+sight, and came capering and peering round, till at last Umslopogaas,
+who was very clever in his way, suspected something, and, after a
+careful examination of the remains of his porridge, discovered “the
+buffalo heifer’s trick”, and, in revenge, served him as I have said.
+Indeed, the little man was fortunate not to get a broken neck for his
+pains; for, as one would have thought, he might have learnt from the
+episode of his display of axemanship that “le Monsieur noir” was an ill
+person to play practical jokes upon.
+
+This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrate it
+because it led to serious consequences. As soon as he had stanched the
+bleeding from his scratches and washed himself, Alphonse went off still
+cursing, to recover his temper, a process which I knew from experience
+would take a very long time. When he had gone I gave Umslopogaas a
+jobation and told him that I was ashamed of his behaviour.
+
+“Ah, well, Macumazahn,” he said, “you must be gentle with me, for here
+is not my place. I am weary of it, weary to death of eating and
+drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage. I love not this soft life
+in stone houses that takes the heart out of a man, and turns his
+strength to water and his flesh to fat. I love not the white robes and
+the delicate women, the blowing of trumpets and the flying of hawks.
+When we fought the Masai at the kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth
+the living, but here is never a blow struck in anger, and I begin to
+think I shall go the way of my fathers and lift Inkosi-kaas no more,”
+and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow.
+
+“Ah,” I said, “that is thy complaint, is it? Thou hast the
+blood-sickness, hast thou? And the Woodpecker wants a tree. And at thy
+age, too. Shame on thee! Umslopogaas.”
+
+“Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and more honest
+than some. Better is it to slay a man in fair fight than to suck out
+his heart’s blood in buying and selling and usury after your white
+fashion. Many a man have I slain, yet is there never a one that I
+should fear to look in the face again, ay, many are there who once were
+friends, and whom I should be right glad to snuff with. But there!
+there! thou hast thy ways, and I mine: each to his own people and his
+own place. The high-veldt ox will die in the fat bush country, and so
+is it with me, Macumazahn. I am rough, I know it, and when my blood is
+warm I know not what to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the night
+swallows me and I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thou
+lovest me, my father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be nought but a
+broken-down Zulu war-dog—a chief for whom there is no room in his own
+kraal, an outcast and a wanderer in strange places: ay, I love thee,
+Macumazahn, for we have grown grey together, and there is that between
+us that cannot be seen, and yet is too strong for breaking;” and he
+took his snuff-box, which was made of an old brass cartridge, from the
+slit in his ear where he always carried it, and handed it to me for me
+to help myself.
+
+I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion. It was quite true, I was
+much attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian. I do not know what was
+the charm of his character, but it had a charm; perhaps it was its
+fierce honesty and directness; perhaps one admired his almost
+superhuman skill and strength, or it may have been simply that he was
+so absolutely unique. Frankly, with all my experience of savages, I
+never knew a man quite like him, he was so wise and yet such a child
+with it all; and though it seems laughable to say so, like the hero of
+the Yankee parody, he “had a tender heart”. Anyway, I was very fond of
+him, though I should never have thought of telling him so.
+
+“Ay, old wolf,” I said, “thine is a strange love. Thou wouldst split me
+to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow.”
+
+“Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came in the way of
+duty, but I should love thee all the same when the blow had gone fairly
+home. Is there any chance of some fighting here, Macumazahn?” he went
+on in an insinuating voice. “Methought that what I saw last night did
+show that the two great Queens were vexed one with another. Else had
+the ‘Lady of the Night’ not brought that dagger with her.”
+
+I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique and irritation
+existed between the ladies, and told him how things stood, and that
+they were quarrelling over Incubu.
+
+“Ah, is it so?” he exclaimed, springing up in delight; “then will there
+be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains—war to the end. Women
+love the last blow as well as the last word, and when they fight for
+love they are pitiless as a wounded buffalo. See thou, Macumazahn, a
+woman will swim through blood to her desire, and think nought of it.
+With these eyes have I seen it once, and twice also. Ah, Macumazahn, we
+shall see this fine place of houses burning yet, and hear the battle
+cries come ringing up the street. After all, I have not wandered for
+nothing. Can this folk fight, think ye?”
+
+Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from another
+direction, looking very pale and hollow-eyed. The moment Umslopogaas
+saw the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him.
+
+“Ah, Bougwan,” he cried, “greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou art surely
+weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?” Then, without waiting for
+an answer, he went on—
+
+“Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a woman,
+therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
+
+“There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a woman who loved
+the man’s brother and was beloved of the man. But the man’s brother had
+a favourite wife and loved not the woman, and he made a mock of her.
+Then the woman, being very cunning and fierce-hearted for revenge, took
+counsel with herself and said to the man, ‘I love thee, and if thou
+wilt make war upon thy brother I will marry thee.’ And he knew it was a
+lie, yet because of his great love of the woman, who was very fair, did
+he listen to her words and made war. And when many people had been
+killed his brother sent to him, saying, ‘Why slayest thou me? What hurt
+have I done unto thee? From my youth up have I not loved thee? When
+thou wast little did I not nurture thee, and have we not gone down to
+war together and divided the cattle, girl by girl, ox by ox, and cow by
+cow? Why slayest thou me, my brother, son of my own mother?’
+
+“Then the man’s heart was heavy, and he knew that his path was evil,
+and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased to make war on
+his brother, and lived at peace in the same kraal with him. And after a
+time the woman came to him and said, ‘I have lost the past, I will be
+thy wife.’ And in his heart he knew that it was a lie and that she
+thought the evil thing, yet because of his love did he take her to
+wife.
+
+“And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plunged into a
+deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe from his hand and
+creep into the hut of his brother and slay him in his rest. Then did
+she slink back like a gorged lioness and place the thong of the red axe
+back upon his wrist and go her ways.
+
+“And at the dawning the people came shouting, ‘Lousta is slain in the
+night,’ and they came unto the hut of the man, and there he lay asleep
+and by him was the red axe. Then did they remember the war and say,
+‘Lo! he hath of a surety slain his brother,’ and they would have taken
+and killed him, but he rose and fled swiftly, and as he fleeted by he
+slew the woman.
+
+“But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on him rested
+the weight of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcast and his name a
+scorn among his own people; for on him, and him only, resteth the
+burden of her who betrayed. And, therefore, does he wander afar,
+without a kraal and without an ox or a wife, and therefore will he die
+afar like a stricken buck and his name be accursed from generation to
+generation, in that the people say that he slew his brother, Lousta, by
+treachery in the night-time.”
+
+The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by his own
+story. Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed to his breast,
+and went on:
+
+“I was the man, Bougwan. Ou! _I_ was that man, and now hark thou! Even
+as I am so wilt thou be—a tool, a plaything, an ox of burden to carry
+the evil deeds of another. Listen! When thou didst creep after the
+‘Lady of the Night’ _I_ was hard upon thy track. When she struck thee
+with the knife in the sleeping place of the White Queen _I_ was there
+also; when thou didst let her slip away like a snake in the stones _I_
+saw thee, and I knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man
+had abandoned the truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had
+taken a crooked way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but
+out of a full heart are they spoken. See her no more, so shalt thou go
+down with honour to the grave. Else because of the beauty of a woman
+that weareth as a garment of fur shalt thou be even as I am, and
+perchance with more cause. I have said.”
+
+Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly
+silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his own
+case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passed between
+him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently much distressed. And
+now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone of humility quite foreign
+to him.
+
+“I must say,” he said, with a bitter little laugh, “that I scarcely
+thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but it just
+shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can understand how
+humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it is that I deserve it
+all. Of course I should have handed Sorais over to the guard, but I
+could not, and that is a fact. I let her go and I promised to say
+nothing, more is the shame to me. She told me that if I would side with
+her she would marry me and make me king of this country, but thank
+goodness I did find the heart to say that even to marry her I could not
+desert my friends. And now you can do what you like, I deserve it all.
+All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a woman with
+all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her,” and he turned to
+go.
+
+“Look here, old fellow,” said Sir Henry, “just stop a minute. I have a
+little tale to tell you too.” And he went on to narrate what had taken
+place on the previous day between Sorais and himself.
+
+This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasant to any man
+to learn that he has been made a tool of, but when the circumstances
+are as peculiarly atrocious as in the present case, it is about as
+bitter a pill as anybody can be called on to swallow.
+
+“Do you know,” he said, “I think that between you, you fellows have
+about worked a cure,” and he turned and walked away, and I for one felt
+very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would always carefully avoid the
+candle, how few burnt wings there would be!
+
+That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great hall and
+received petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and so forth, and
+thither we adjourned shortly afterwards. On our way we were joined by
+Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed.
+
+When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne and
+proceeding with business as usual, surrounded by councillors,
+courtiers, lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard. It was,
+however, easy to see from the air of excitement and expectation on the
+faces of everybody present that nobody was paying much attention to
+ordinary affairs, the fact being that the knowledge that civil war was
+imminent had now got abroad. We saluted Nyleptha and took our
+accustomed places, and for a little while things went on as usual, when
+suddenly the trumpets began to call outside the palace, and from the
+great crowd that was gathered there in anticipation of some unusual
+event there rose a roar of “_Sorais! Sorais!_”
+
+Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the great
+curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide and through them
+entered the “Lady of the Night” herself. Nor did she come alone.
+Preceding her was Agon, the High Priest, arrayed in his most gorgeous
+vestments, and on either side were other priests. The reason for their
+presence was obvious—coming with them it would have been sacrilege to
+attempt to detain her. Behind her were a number of the great lords, and
+behind them a small body of picked guards. A glance at Sorais herself
+was enough to show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in
+place of her gold embroidered “kaf” she wore a shining tunic formed of
+golden scales, and on her head a little golden helmet. In her hand,
+too, she bore a toy spear, beautifully made and fashioned of solid
+silver. Up the hall she came, looking like a lioness in her conscious
+pride and beauty, and as she came the spectators fell back bowing and
+made a path for her. By the sacred stone she halted, and laying her
+hand on it, she cried out with a loud voice to Nyleptha on the throne,
+“Hail, oh Queen!”
+
+“All hail, my royal sister!” answered Nyleptha. “Draw thou near. Fear
+not, I give thee safe conduct.”
+
+Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the hall till she
+stood right before the thrones.
+
+“A boon, oh Queen!” she cried again.
+
+“Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee who hath half
+our kingdom?”
+
+“Thou canst tell me a true word—me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art
+thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,” and she
+pointed to Sir Henry with her toy spear, “to be a husband to thee, and
+share thy bed and throne?”
+
+Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to her in a low
+voice, “Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names than wolf to
+call me by, oh Queen!” and I saw her bite her lips as, like a danger
+flag, the blood flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is
+nothing if not original, she, seeing that the thing was out, and that
+there was nothing further to be gained by concealment, answered the
+question in a novel and effectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly
+believe, by coquetry and a desire to triumph over her rival.
+
+Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all the glory of
+her royal grace on to where her lover stood. There she stopped and
+untwined the golden snake that was wound around her arm. Then she bade
+him kneel, and he dropped on one knee on the marble before her, and
+next, taking the golden snake with both her hands, she bent the pure
+soft metal round his neck, and when it was fast, deliberately kissed
+him on the brow and called him her “dear lord”.
+
+“Thou seest,” she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators had
+died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, “I have
+put my collar round the ‘wolf’s’ neck, and behold! he shall be my
+watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen Sorais, my sister, and
+to those with thee. Fear not,” she went on, smiling sweetly on her
+lover, and pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his
+massive throat, “if my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it
+shall not gall thee.”
+
+Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud tone,
+“Ay, Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here gathered
+together, by this sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in
+the face of you all. What, am I a Queen, and yet not free to choose the
+man whom I will love? Then should I be lower than the meanest girl in
+all my provinces. Nay, he hath won my heart, and with it goes my hand,
+and throne, and all I have—ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great
+lord fairer and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and
+knowledge of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so
+being what he is!” And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and
+holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her
+sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful she
+looked standing hand in hand there at her lover’s side, so sure of him
+and of herself, and so ready to risk all things and endure all things
+for him, that most of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one
+of them will ever forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy
+colour from her blushing face, and cheered her like wild things. It was
+a bold stroke for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but
+human nature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and
+not afraid to break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible to
+appeals to its poetical side.
+
+And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the Night
+stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her
+sister’s triumph, which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to
+win, and in the awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned
+white like an aspen in the wind. I think I have said somewhere of her
+that she reminded me of the sea on a calm day, having the same aspect
+of sleeping power about her. Well, it was all awake now, and like the
+face of the furious ocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really
+handsome woman in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such
+beauty and such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only say
+that the effect produced was well worthy of the two.
+
+She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple rings
+beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak and thrice she
+failed, but at last her voice came. Raising her silver spear, she shook
+it, and the light gleamed from it and from the golden scales of her
+cuirass.
+
+“And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,” she said in notes which pealed through
+the great hall like a clarion, “thinkest thou that I, Sorais, a Queen
+of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander shall sit upon my
+father’s throne and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great
+House of the Stairway? Never! never! while there is life in my bosom
+and a man to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my side?
+Who?
+
+“Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither to prey
+with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly
+sin against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War—red War! Ay, I say
+to thee that the path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing
+of thy towns and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On
+thy head rest the burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans
+of the dying and the cries of the widows and those who are left
+fatherless for ever and for ever.
+
+“I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from thy
+throne, and that thou shalt be hurled—ay, hurled even from the topmost
+stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered
+the name of the House of him who built it with black shame. And I tell
+ye strangers—all save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service
+I will save alive if thou wilt leave these men and follow me” (here
+poor Good shook his head vigorously and ejaculated “Can’t be done” in
+English)—“that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alive
+in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly
+east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the
+Temple, so that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for
+thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not
+tell thee now.”
+
+She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm,
+and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through
+the hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:
+
+“Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak as
+thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou
+wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against thee, for if my
+hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron when it grips thine
+armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee not. I weep for that which
+thou wilt bring upon our people and on thyself, but for myself I say—I
+fear thee not. Yet thou, who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover
+and my lord from me, whom today thou dost call a ‘foreign wolf’, to be
+_thy_ lover and _thy_ lord” (here there was an immense sensation in the
+hall), “thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst
+enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place—ay, even by
+a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay
+asleep—”
+
+“It is false, it is false!” rang out Agon’s and a score of other
+voices.
+
+“It is _not_ false,” said I, producing the broken point of the dagger
+and holding it up. “Where is the haft from which this flew, oh Sorais?”
+
+“It is not false,” cried Good, determined at last to act like a loyal
+man. “I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen’s bed, and on my
+breast the dagger broke.”
+
+“Who is on my side?” cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she
+saw that public sympathy was turning against her. “What, Bougwan, thou
+comest not?” she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her,
+in a low, concentrated voice. “Thou pale-souled fool, for a reward thou
+shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou
+mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold _thee_ in
+chains that cannot be broken.
+
+“_War! war! war!_” she cried. “Here, with my hand upon the sacred stone
+that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the Zu-Vendi set their
+necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows
+Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?”
+
+Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable
+confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the “Lady
+of the Night”, but some came from her following to us. Amongst the
+former was an under officer of Nyleptha’s own guard, who suddenly
+turned and made a run for the doorway through which Sorais’ people were
+already passing. Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole
+scene in, seeing with admirable presence of mind that if this soldier
+got away others would follow his example, seized the man, who drew his
+sword and struck at him. Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild
+shout, and, avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his
+terrible axe, till in a few seconds the man’s fate overtook him and he
+fell with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
+
+This was the first blood spilt in the war.
+
+“Shut the gates,” I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch
+Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing
+sacrilege. But the order came too late, her guards were already passing
+through them, and in another minute the streets echoed with the furious
+galloping of horses and the rolling of her chariots.
+
+So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing like a
+whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her headquarters at
+M’Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north
+of Milosis.
+
+And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments
+and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once more
+began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening
+Inkosi-kaas’s razor edge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+A STRANGE WEDDING
+
+
+One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before the
+gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had
+every reason to believe, was Sorais’ great ally, and the heart and soul
+of her party. This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us
+for those hippopotami, or rather that was what he said. What he meant
+was that he would never brook the introduction of our wider ways of
+thought and foreign learning and influence while there was a
+possibility of stamping us out. Also he knew that we possessed a
+different system of religion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our
+attempting to introduce it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we
+had any religion in our country, and I told him that so far as I could
+remember we had ninety-five different ones. You might have knocked him
+down with a feather, and really it is difficult not to pity a high
+priest of a well-established cult who is haunted by the possible
+approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.
+
+When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I discussed
+what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating him, but
+Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous
+effect throughout the country. “Ah!” she added, with a stamp of her
+foot, “if I win and am once really Queen, I will break the power of
+those priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.” I
+only wished that old Agon could have heard her, it would have
+frightened him.
+
+“Well,” said Sir Henry, “if we are not to imprison him, I suppose that
+we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.”
+
+Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry
+little voice, “Thinkest thou so, my lord?”
+
+“Eh?” said Curtis. “No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.”
+
+She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy
+as it was sweet.
+
+Then at last he understood.
+
+“Forgive me, Nyleptha,” he said, rather tremulously. “Dost thou mean
+that thou wilt marry me, even now?”
+
+“Nay, I know not; let my lord say,” was her rapid answer; “but if my
+lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there”—pointing to the
+entrance to a private chapel—“and am I not ready to do the will of my
+lord? Listen, oh my lord! In eight days or less thou must leave me and
+go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in war—men sometimes
+fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if
+only for memory’s sake;” and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and
+rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of a
+rose.
+
+“Mayhap, too,” she went on, “I shall lose my crown, and with my crown
+my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very bitter, and if
+she prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future? Happiness is
+the world’s White Bird, that alights seldom, and flies fast and far
+till one day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold him
+fast if by any chance he rests for a little space upon our hand. It is
+not wise to neglect the present for the future, for who knows what the
+future will be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on
+them, for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others
+bloom that we shall never see.” And she lifted her sweet face to him
+and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a curious pang of
+jealousy and turned and went away. They never took much notice of
+whether I was there or not, thinking, I suppose, that I was an old
+fool, and that it did not matter one way or the other, and really I
+believe that they were right.
+
+So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general,
+and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window as a
+vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox.
+
+And in about an hour’s time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking very
+radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and even
+Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at a real
+wedding. Of course we said yes, and off we went to the chapel, where we
+found Agon looking as sulky as any High Priest possibly could, and no
+wonder. It appeared that he and Nyleptha had a slight difference of
+opinion about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate
+it, or to allow any of his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became
+very angry and told him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and
+meant to be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the
+Eighth to perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be married,
+she would be married, and that he should marry her.[19]
+
+ [19] In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married by
+ the High Priest or a formally appointed deputy.—A. Q.
+
+He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched her
+argument thus—
+
+“Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
+prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his
+subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars down on
+Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I _can_ leave him to contemplate the altar
+of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is his natural
+vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon! thou shalt be placed
+before the altar yonder with nought but a little water till such time
+as thou hast reconsidered the matter.”
+
+Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning without
+his breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so he presently
+modified his views and consented to marry them, saying at the same time
+that he washed his hands of all responsibility in the matter.
+
+So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite
+maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and downcast
+eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any sort, as seems
+to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries of the world.
+She did not wear a single ornament, even her gold circlets were
+removed, and I thought that if possible she looked more lovely than
+ever without them, as really superbly beautiful women do.
+
+She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand and led
+him up before the altar, and after a little pause, in a slow, clear
+voice uttered the following words, which are customary in Zu-Vendis if
+the bride desires and the man consents:—
+
+“Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman to wife
+unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?”
+
+“I swear it,” answered Sir Henry; adding in English, “One is quite
+enough for me.”
+
+Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, came
+forward and gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate that I
+could not follow it, but it appeared to be an invocation to the Sun to
+bless the union and make it fruitful. I observed that Nyleptha listened
+very closely to every word, and afterwards discovered that she was
+afraid lest Agon should play her a trick, and by going through the
+invocations backwards divorce them instead of marry them. At the end of
+the invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they took each
+other for husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each
+other before the altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites
+were concerned. But it seemed to me that there was yet something
+wanting, and so I produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together with the
+“Ingoldsby Legends”, that I often read when I lie awake at night,
+accompanied me in all my later wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy
+Harry years ago, and after his death I found it among his things and
+took it back again.
+
+“Curtis,” I said, “I am not a clergyman, and I do not know if what I am
+going to propose is allowable—I know it is not legal—but if you and the
+Queen have no objection I should like to read the English marriage
+service over you. It is a solemn step which you are taking, and I think
+that you ought, so far as circumstances will allow, to give it the
+sanction of your own religion.”
+
+“I have thought of that,” he said, “and I wish you would. I do not feel
+half married yet.”
+
+Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husband
+wished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailing in
+his own country, and so I set to work and read the service, from
+“Dearly beloved” to “amazement”, as well as I could; and when I came to
+“I, Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,” I translated, and also “I, Nyleptha,
+take thee, Henry,” which she repeated after me very well. Then Sir
+Henry took a plain gold ring from his little finger and placed it on
+hers, and so on to the end. The ring had been Curtis’ mother’s
+wedding-ring, and I could not help thinking how astonished the dear old
+Yorkshire lady would have been if she could have foreseen that her
+wedding-ring was to serve a similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of
+the Zu-Vendi.
+
+As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this second
+ceremony was going on, for he at once understood that it was religious
+in its nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five new
+faiths which loomed so ominously in his eyes. Indeed, he at once set me
+down as a rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly. However, in the
+end off he went, positively bristling with indignation, and I knew that
+we might look out for danger from his direction.
+
+And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving the happy
+pair to themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriages are supposed to
+be cheerful things, but my experience is that they are very much the
+reverse to everybody, except perhaps the two people chiefly interested.
+They mean the breaking-up of so many old ties as well as the
+undertaking of so many new ones, and there is always something sad
+about the passing away of the old order. Now to take this case for
+instance: Sir Henry Curtis is the best and kindest fellow and friend in
+the world, but he has never been quite the same since that little scene
+in the chapel. It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that—Nyleptha,
+in short, from morning till night in one way or another, either
+expressed or understood. And as for the old friends—well, of course
+they have taken the place that old friends ought to take, and which
+ladies are as a rule very careful to see they do take when a man
+marries, and that is, the second place. Yes, he would be angry if
+anybody said so, but it is a fact for all that. He is not quite the
+same, and Nyleptha is very sweet and very charming, but I think that
+she likes him to understand that she has married _him_, and not
+Quatermain, Good, and Co. But there! what is the use of grumbling? It
+is all very right and proper, as any married lady would have no
+difficulty in explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous old man, though I
+hope I never show it.
+
+So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in an extra
+fine flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and presently one
+of our attendants came and told a story that gave us something to think
+about.
+
+It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel with
+Umslopogaas, Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper to sulk
+over his scratches. Well, it appears that he walked right past the
+Temple to the Sun, down the wide road on the further side of the slope
+it crowns, and thence on into the beautiful park, or pleasure gardens,
+which are laid out just beyond the outer wall. After wandering about
+there for a little he started to return, but was met near the outer
+gate by Sorais’ train of chariots, which were galloping furiously along
+the great northern road. When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais
+halted her train and called to him. On approaching he was instantly
+seized and dragged into one of the chariots and carried off, “crying
+out loudly”, as our informant said, and as from my general knowledge of
+him I can well believe.
+
+At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais could have had
+in carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She could hardly stoop so
+low as to try to wreak her fury on one whom she knew was only a
+servant. At last, however, an idea occurred to me. We three were, as I
+think I have said, much revered by the people of Zu-Vendis at large,
+both because we were the first strangers they had ever seen, and
+because we were supposed to be the possessors of almost supernatural
+wisdom. Indeed, though Sorais’ cry against the “foreign wolves”—or, to
+translate it more accurately, “foreign hyenas”—was sure to go down very
+well with the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely
+to be particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The
+Zu-Vendi people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seeking for some
+new thing, and just because we were so new our presence was on the
+whole acceptable to them. Again, Sir Henry’s magnificent personal
+appearance made a deep impression upon a race who possess a greater
+love of beauty than any other I have ever been acquainted with. Beauty
+may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendis it is almost
+worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuary shows. The people
+said openly in the market-places that there was not a man in the
+country to touch Curtis in personal appearance, as with the exception
+of Sorais there was no woman who could compete with Nyleptha, and that
+therefore it was meet that they should marry; and that he had been sent
+by the Sun as a husband for their Queen. Now, from all this it will be
+seen that the outcry against us was to a considerable extent
+fictitious, and nobody knew it better than Sorais herself. Consequently
+it struck me that it might have occurred to her that down in the
+country and among the country people, it would be better to place the
+reason of her conflict with her sister upon other and more general
+grounds than Nyleptha’s marriage with the stranger. It would be easy in
+a land where there had been so many civil wars to rake out some old cry
+that would stir up the recollection of buried feuds, and, indeed, she
+soon found an effectual one. This being so, it was of great importance
+to her to have one of the strangers with her whom she could show to the
+common people as a great Outlander, who had been so struck by the
+justice of her cause that he had elected to leave his companions and
+follow her standard.
+
+This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold of Good,
+whom she would have used till he ceased to be of service and then cast
+off. But Good having drawn back she grasped at the opportunity of
+securing Alphonse, who was not unlike him in personal appearance though
+smaller, no doubt with the object of showing him off in the cities and
+country as the great Bougwan himself. I told Good that I thought that
+that was her plan, and his face was a sight to see—he was so horrified
+at the idea.
+
+“What,” he said, “dress up that little wretch to represent me? Why, I
+shall have to get out of the country! My reputation will be ruined for
+ever.”
+
+I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant to be
+personated all over a strange country by an arrant little coward, and I
+can quite sympathize with his vexation.
+
+Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitary grandeur,
+feeling very much as though we had just returned from burying a friend
+instead of marrying one, and next morning the work began in good
+earnest. The messages and orders which had been despatched by Nyleptha
+two days before now began to take effect, and multitudes of armed men
+came pouring into the city. We saw, as may be imagined, but very little
+of Nyleptha and not too much of Curtis during those next few days, but
+Good and I sat daily with the council of generals and loyal lords,
+drawing up plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the
+distribution of commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came
+in freely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosis were
+spotted with the banners of lords arriving from their distant places to
+rally round Nyleptha.
+
+After the first few days it became clear that we should be able to take
+the field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty thousand
+cavalry, a very respectable force considering how short was the time we
+had to collect it, and that about half the regular army had elected to
+follow Sorais.
+
+But if our force was large, Sorais’ was, according to the reports
+brought in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had taken up her
+headquarters at a very strong town called M’Arstuna, situated, as I
+have said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countryside was
+flocking to her standard. Nasta had poured down from his highlands and
+was on his way to join her with no less than twenty-five thousand of
+his mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to face in all Zu-Vendis.
+Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who lived in the great
+horse-breeding district, had come in with twelve thousand cavalry, and
+so on. Indeed, what between one thing and another, it seemed certain
+that she would gather a fully armed host of nearly one hundred thousand
+men.
+
+And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up her camp and
+march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the country as she came.
+Thereon arose the question whether it would be best to meet her at
+Milosis or to go out and give her battle. When our opinion was asked
+upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatingly gave it in favour of an
+advance. If we were to shut ourselves up in the city and wait to be
+attacked, it seemed to us that our inaction would be set down to fear.
+It is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very
+little will suffice to turn men’s opinions one way or the other, to be
+up and doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate if the
+cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore we cast our
+vote for moving out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting
+till we were drawn from our walls like a badger from a hole.
+
+Sir Henry’s opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to say, did
+that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready to flash out
+fire. A great map of the country was brought and spread out before her.
+About thirty miles this side of M’Arstuna, where Sorais lay, and ninety
+odd miles from Milosis, the road ran over a neck of land some two and a
+half miles in width, and flanked on either side by forest-clad hills
+which, without being lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite
+impracticable for a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked
+earnestly at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in
+some women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger upon this
+neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband, said, with a proud
+air of confidence and a toss of the golden head—
+
+“Here shalt thou meet Sorais’ armies. I know the spot, here shalt thou
+meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before the storm.”
+
+But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+
+
+It was on the third morning after this incident of the map that Sir
+Henry and I started. With the exception of a small guard, all the great
+host had moved on the night before, leaving the Frowning City very
+silent and empty. Indeed, it was found impossible to leave any garrison
+with the exception of a personal guard for Nyleptha, and about a
+thousand men who from sickness or one cause or another were unable to
+proceed with the army; but as Milosis was practically impregnable, and
+as our enemy was in front of and not behind us, this did not so much
+matter.
+
+Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nyleptha
+accompanied Sir Henry and myself to the city gates, riding a
+magnificent white horse called Daylight, which was supposed to be the
+fleetest and most enduring animal in Zu-Vendis. Her face bore traces of
+recent weeping, but there were no tears in her eyes now, indeed she was
+bearing up bravely against what must have been a bitter trial to her.
+At the gate she reined in her horse and bade us farewell. On the
+previous day she had reviewed and addressed the officers of the great
+army, speaking to them such high, eloquent words, and expressing so
+complete a confidence in their valour and in their ultimate victory,
+that she quite carried their hearts away, and as she rode from rank to
+rank they cheered her till the ground shook. And now today the same
+mood seemed to be on her.
+
+“Fare thee well, Macumazahn!” she said. “Remember, I trust to thy wits,
+which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared to those of my people,
+to save us from Sorais. I know that thou wilt do thy duty.”
+
+I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fear lest I
+should lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turned to Curtis.
+
+“Fare thee well, my lord!” she said. “Come back with victory, and as a
+king, or on thy soldiers’ spears.”[20]
+
+ [20] Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers on a
+ framework of spears.
+
+Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps he had a
+bit of a lump in his throat. One gets over it afterwards, but these
+sort of partings are trying when one has only been married a week.
+
+“Here,” added Nyleptha, “will I greet thee when ye return in triumph.
+And now, my lords, once more, farewell!”
+
+Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yards or so,
+we turned and perceived her still sitting on her horse at the same
+spot, and looking out after us beneath her hand, and that was the last
+we saw of her. About a mile farther on, however, we heard galloping
+behind us, and looking round, saw a mounted soldier coming towards us,
+leading Nyleptha’s matchless steed—Daylight.
+
+“The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to her Lord
+Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetest and most
+enduring horse in all the land,” said the soldier, bending to his
+saddle-bow before us.
+
+At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying that he was
+too good for such rough work, but I persuaded him to do so, thinking
+that Nyleptha would be hurt if he did not. Little did I guess at the
+time what service that noble horse would render in our sorest need. It
+is curious to look back and realise upon what trivial and apparently
+coincidental circumstances great events frequently turn as easily and
+naturally as a door on its hinges.
+
+Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfect pleasure
+to see him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetings and thanks,
+we proceeded on our journey.
+
+By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of which Sir
+Henry then formally took over the command. It was a heavy
+responsibility, and it oppressed him very much, but the Queen’s
+injunctions on the point were such as did not admit of being trifled
+with. He was beginning to find out that greatness has its
+responsibilities as well as its glories.
+
+Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almost indeed
+without seeing anybody, for the populations of the towns and villages
+along our route had for the most part fled, fearing lest they should be
+caught between the two rival armies and ground to powder like grain
+between the upper and the nether stones.
+
+On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so great a
+multitude was necessarily slow, we camped two miles this side of the
+neck or ridge I have spoken of, and our outposts brought us word that
+Sorais with all her power was rolling down upon us, and had pitched her
+camp that night ten miles the farther side of the neck.
+
+Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalry to
+seize the position. Scarcely had they occupied it, however, before they
+were attacked by about as many of Sorais’ horsemen, and a very smart
+little cavalry fight ensued, with a loss to us of about thirty men
+killed. On the advance of our supports, however, Sorais’ force drew
+off, carrying their dead and wounded with them.
+
+The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time, and I
+must say that Nyleptha’s judgment had not failed her, it was an
+admirable place to give battle in, especially to a superior force.
+
+The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken to admit of
+the handling of any considerable force, till it reached the crest of a
+great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentle slope to the banks
+of a little stream, and then rolled away again up a still gentler slope
+to the plain beyond, the distance from the crest of the land-wave down
+to the stream being a little over half a mile, and from the stream up
+to the plain beyond a trifle less. The length of this wave of land at
+its highest point, which corresponded exactly with the width of the
+neck of the land between the wooded hills, was about two miles and a
+quarter, and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky, bush-clad
+ground, that afforded a most valuable cover to the flanks of the army
+and rendered it almost impossible for them to be turned.
+
+It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encamped
+his army in the same formation that he had, after consultation with the
+various generals, Good, and myself, determined that they should occupy
+in the great pitched battle which now appeared to be imminent.
+
+Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, divided as
+follows. In the centre was a dense body of twenty thousand
+foot-soldiers, armed with spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hide
+shields, breast and back plates.[21] These formed the chest of the
+army, and were supported by five thousand foot, and three thousand
+horse in reserve. On either side of this chest were stationed seven
+thousand horse arranged in deep, majestic squadrons; and beyond and on
+either side but slightly in front of them again were two bodies, each
+numbering about seven thousand five hundred spearmen, forming the right
+and left wings of the army, and each supported by a contingent of some
+fifteen hundred cavalry. This makes in all sixty thousand men.
+
+ [21] The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows.—A. Q.
+
+Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousand horse
+between the chest and right wing, which was commanded by Good, and the
+other battalions and squadrons were entrusted to Zu-Vendis generals.
+
+Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais’ vast army began
+to swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front of us, till the
+whole place seemed alive with the multitude of her spearpoints, and the
+ground shook with the tramp of her battalions. It was evident that the
+spies had not exaggerated; we were outnumbered by at least a third. At
+first we expected that Sorais was going to attack us at once, as the
+clouds of cavalry which hung upon her flanks executed some threatening
+demonstrations, but she thought better of it, and there was no fight
+that day. As for the formation of her great forces I cannot now
+describe it with accuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I
+did, but I may say, generally, that in its leading features it
+resembled our own, only her reserve was much greater.
+
+Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais’ left wing, was a great
+army of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shield only,
+which, I was informed, was composed of Nasta’s twenty-five thousand
+savage hillsmen.
+
+“My word, Good,” said I, when I saw them, “you will catch it tomorrow
+when those gentlemen charge!” whereat Good not unnaturally looked
+rather anxious.
+
+All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at last night
+fell, and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on the slopes, to
+wane and die one by one like the stars they resembled. As the hours
+wore on, the silence gradually gathered more deeply over the opposing
+hosts.
+
+It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endless things
+that had to be attended to, there was our gnawing suspense to reckon
+with. The fray which tomorrow would witness would be so vast, and the
+slaughter so awful, that stout indeed must the heart have been that was
+not overwhelmed at the prospect. And when I thought of all that hung
+upon it, I own I felt ill, and it made me very sad to reflect that
+these mighty forces were gathered for destruction, simply to gratify
+the jealous anger of a woman. This was the hidden power which was to
+send those dense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts
+across the plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as clouds
+when hurricane meets hurricane. It was a dreadful thought, and set one
+wondering about the responsibilities of the great ones of the earth.
+Deep into the night we sat, with pale faces and heavy hearts, and took
+counsel, whilst the sentries tramped up and down, down and up, and the
+armed and plumed generals came and went, grim and shadow-like.
+
+And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for the coming
+slaughter; and I lay down and thought, and tried to get a little rest,
+but could not sleep for fear of the morrow—for who could say what the
+morrow would bring forth? Misery and death, this was certain; beyond
+that we knew not, and I confess I was very much afraid. But as I
+realised then, it is useless to question that eternal Sphinx, the
+future. From day to day she reads aloud the riddles of the yesterday,
+of which the puzzled wordlings of all ages have not answered one, nor
+ever will, guess they never so wildly or cry they never so loud.
+
+And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly to leave the
+issue in the balancing hands of Providence and the morrow.
+
+And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke with a clash,
+and a roar, and gathered themselves together for battle. It was a
+beautiful and awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas, leaning on his
+axe, contemplated it with grim delight.
+
+“Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never,” he said. “The battles
+of my people are as the play of children to what this will be. Thinkest
+thou that they will fight it out?”
+
+“Ay,” I answered sadly, “to the death. Content thyself, ‘Woodpecker’,
+for once shalt thou peck thy fill.”
+
+Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack. A force of
+cavalry crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along our front,
+evidently taking stock of our position and numbers. With this we did
+not attempt to interfere, as our decision was to stand strictly on the
+defensive, and not to waste a single man. The men breakfasted and stood
+to their arms, and the hours wore on. About midday, when the men were
+eating their dinner, for we thought they would fight better on full
+stomachs, a shout of “_Sorais, Sorais_” arose like thunder from the
+enemy’s extreme right, and taking the glass, I was able to clearly
+distinguish the “Lady of the Night” herself, surrounded by a glittering
+staff, and riding slowly down the lines of her battalions. And as she
+went, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before her like the
+rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the ocean when the
+gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to the listener’s ears,
+till the earth shook, and the air was full of the majesty of sound.
+
+Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle, we
+remained still and made ready.
+
+We had not long to wait. Suddenly, like flame from a cannon’s mouth,
+out shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, and came charging
+down the slope towards the little stream, slowly at first, but
+gathering speed as they came. Before they got to the stream, orders
+reached me from Sir Henry, who evidently feared that the shock of such
+a charge, if allowed to fall unbroken upon our infantry, would be too
+much for them, to send five thousand sabres to meet the force opposite
+to me, at the moment when it began to mount the stiffest of the rise
+about four hundred yards from our lines. This I did, remaining behind
+myself with the rest of my men.
+
+Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-like form, and
+I must say that the general in command handled them very ably. Starting
+at a hand gallop, for the first three hundred yards he rode straight at
+the tip of the tongue-shaped mass of cavalry which, numbering, so far
+as I could judge, about eight thousand sabres, was advancing to charge
+us. Then he suddenly swerved to the right and put on the pace, and I
+saw the great wedge curl round, and before the foe could check himself
+and turn to meet it, strike him about halfway down his length, with a
+crashing rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vast sheets of
+ice. In sank the great wedge, into his heart, and as it cut its way
+hundreds of horsemen were thrown up on either side of it, just as the
+earth is thrown up by a ploughshare, or more like still, as the foaming
+water curls over beneath the bows of a rushing ship. In, yet in, vainly
+does the tongue twist its ends round in agony, like an injured snake,
+and strive to protect its centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right
+through, and so, amid cheer after cheer from our watching thousands,
+back again upon the severed ends, beating them down, driving them as a
+gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the rushing of hundreds of
+riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the victorious clamour of
+their pursuers, the great force crumples up like an empty glove, then
+turns and gallops pell-mell for safety back to its own lines.
+
+I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strong as it
+went out ten minutes before. The lines which were now advancing to the
+attack, opened and swallowed them up, and my force returned, having
+only suffered a loss of about five hundred men—not much, I thought,
+considering the fierceness of the struggle. I could also see that the
+opposing bodies of cavalry on our left wing were drawing back, but how
+the fight went with them I do not quite know. It is as much as I can do
+to describe what took place immediately around me.
+
+By this time the dense masses of the enemy’s left, composed almost
+entirely of Nasta’s swordsmen, were across the little stream, and with
+alternate yells of “Nasta” and “Sorais”, with dancing banners and
+gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us like ants.
+
+Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and also the
+main advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalry
+charges, and this I did to the best of my ability, by continually
+sending squadrons of about a thousand sabres out against them. These
+squadrons did the enemy much damage, and it was a glorious sight to see
+them flash down the hillside, and bury themselves like a living knife
+in the heart of the foe. But, also, we lost many men, for after the
+experience of a couple of these charges, which had drawn a sort of
+bloody St Andrew’s cross of dead and dying through the centre of
+Nasta’s host, our foes no longer attempted to offer an unyielding front
+to their irresistible weight, but opened out to let the rush go
+through, throwing themselves on the ground and hamstringing hundreds of
+horses as they passed.
+
+And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drew nearer,
+till at last he hurled himself upon Good’s force of seven thousand five
+hundred regulars, who were drawn up to receive them in three strong
+squares. About the same time, too, an awful and heartshaking roar told
+me that the main battle had closed in on the centre and extreme left. I
+raised myself in my stirrups and looked down to my left; so far as the
+eye could see there was a long dazzling shimmer of steel as the sun
+glanced upon falling sword and thrusting spear.
+
+To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle, now
+giving way, now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusion of
+attack and defence. But it was as much as I could do to keep count of
+what was happening to our own wing; and, as for the moment the cavalry
+had fallen back under cover of Good’s three squares, I had a fair view
+of this.
+
+Nasta’s wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves against the
+sullen rock-like squares. Time after time did they yell out their
+war-cries, and hurl themselves furiously against the long triple ridges
+of spear points, only to be rolled back as billows are when they meet
+the cliff.
+
+And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without a pause, and
+at the end of that time, if we had gained nothing we had lost nothing.
+Two attempts to turn our left flank by forcing a way through the wood
+by which it was protected had been defeated; and as yet Nasta’s
+swordsmen had, notwithstanding their desperate efforts, entirely failed
+to break Good’s three squares, though they had thinned their numbers by
+quite a third.
+
+As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staff and
+Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had held its own with
+honour, and the same may be said of our left battle.
+
+At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais’ army drew back, having, I
+began to think, had enough of it. On this point, however, I was soon
+undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparatively small
+squadrons, she charged us furiously with them, all along the line, and
+then once more sullenly rolled her tens of thousands of sword and
+spearmen down upon our weakened squares and squadrons; Sorais herself
+directing the movement, as fearless as a lioness heading the main
+attack. On they came like an avalanche—I saw her golden helm gleaming
+in the van—our counter charges of cavalry entirely failing to check
+their forward sweep. Now they had struck us, and our centre bent in
+like a bow beneath the weight of their rush—it parted, and had not the
+ten thousand men in reserve charged down to its support it must have
+been utterly destroyed. As for Good’s three squares, they were swept
+backwards like boats upon an incoming tide, and the foremost one was
+burst into and lost half its remaining men. But the effort was too
+fierce and terrible to last. Suddenly the battle came, as it were, to a
+turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still.
+
+Then it began to move towards Sorais’ camp. Just then, too, Nasta’s
+fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either because they were
+disheartened by their losses or by way of a ruse, fell back, and the
+remains of Good’s gallant squares, leaving the positions they had held
+for so many hours, cheered wildly, and rashly followed them down the
+slope, whereon the swarms of swordsmen turned to envelop them, and once
+more flung themselves upon them with a yell. Taken thus on every side,
+what remained of the first square was quickly destroyed, and I
+perceived that the second, in which I could see Good himself mounted on
+a large horse, was on the point of annihilation. A few more minutes and
+it was broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sight of Good in
+the confused and hideous slaughter that ensued.
+
+Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-white mane and
+tail burst from the ruins of the square and came rushing past me
+riderless and with wide streaming reins, and in it I recognized the
+charger that Good had been riding. Then I hesitated no longer, but
+taking with me half my effective cavalry force, which now amounted to
+between four and five thousand men, I commended myself to God, and,
+without waiting for orders, I charged straight down upon Nasta’s
+swordsmen. Seeing me coming, and being warned by the thunder of my
+horses’ hoofs, the majority of them faced round, and gave us a right
+warm welcome. Not an inch would they yield; in vain did we hack and
+trample them down as we ploughed a broad red furrow through their
+thousands; they seemed to re-arise by hundreds, driving their terrible
+sharp swords into our horses, or severing their hamstrings, and then
+hacking the troopers who came to the ground with them almost into
+pieces. My horse was speedily killed under me, but luckily I had a
+fresh one, my own favourite, a coal-black mare Nyleptha had given me,
+being held in reserve behind, and on this I afterwards mounted.
+Meanwhile I had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well
+lost sight of by my men in the mad confusion of the moment. My voice,
+of course, could not be heard in the midst of the clanging of steel and
+the shrieks of rage and agony. Presently I found myself mixed up with
+the remnants of the square, which had formed round its leader Good, and
+was fighting desperately for existence. I stumbled against somebody,
+and glancing down, caught sight of Good’s eyeglass. He had been beaten
+to his knee. Over him was a great fellow swinging a heavy sword.
+Somehow I managed to run the man through with the sime I had taken from
+the Masai whose hand I had cut off; but as I did so, he dealt me a
+frightful blow on the left side and breast with the sword, and though
+my chain shirt saved my life, I felt that I was badly hurt. For a
+minute I fell on to my hands and knees among the dead and dying, and
+turned sick and faint. When I came to again I saw that Nasta’s
+spearmen, or rather those of them who remained, were retreating back
+across the stream, and that Good was there by me smiling sweetly.
+
+“Near go that,” he shouted; “but all’s well that ends well.”
+
+I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not ended well for
+me. I was sorely hurt.
+
+Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on our extreme
+right and left, and which were now reinforced by the three thousand
+sabres which we had held in reserve, flash out like arrows from their
+posts and fall upon the disordered flanks of Sorais’ forces, and that
+charge decided the issue of the battle. In another minute or two the
+enemy was in slow and sullen retreat across the little stream, where
+they once more re-formed. Then came another lull, during which I
+managed to get a second horse, and received my orders to advance from
+Sir Henry, and then with one fierce deep-throated roar, with a waving
+of banners and a wide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took
+the offensive and began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly
+from the positions they had so gallantly held all day.
+
+At last it was our turn to attack.
+
+On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and were
+approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary
+sight. Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly clasped around his
+horse’s neck, against which his blanched cheek was tightly pressed, was
+a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendi general, but in whom,
+as he came nearer, I recognized none other than our lost Alphonse. It
+was impossible even then to mistake those curling mustachios. In a
+minute he was tearing through our ranks and narrowly escaped being cut
+down, till at last somebody caught his horse’s bridle, and he was
+brought to me just as a momentary halt occurred in our advance to allow
+what remained of our shattered squares to form into line.
+
+“Ah, monsieur,” he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulate
+with fright, “grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have endured! But
+you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the lâches. But listen,
+monsieur—I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered tomorrow
+at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards will leave
+their posts, and the priests are going to kill her. Ah yes! they little
+thought it, but I was ensconced beneath a banner, and I heard it all.”
+
+“What?” I said, horror-struck; “what do you mean?”
+
+“What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last night to
+settle the affair with the Archbishop [Agon]. The guard will leave open
+the little gate leading from the great stair and go away, and Nasta and
+Agon’s priests will come in and kill her. Themselves they would not
+kill her.”
+
+“Come with me,” I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer next to me
+to take over the command, I snatched his bridle and galloped as hard as
+I could for the spot, between a quarter and half a mile off, where I
+saw the royal pennon flying, and where I knew that I should find Curtis
+if he were still alive. On we tore, our horses clearing heaps of dead
+and dying men, and splashing through pools of blood, on past the long
+broken lines of spearmen to where, mounted on the white stallion
+Nyleptha had sent to him as a parting gift, I saw Sir Henry’s form
+towering above the generals who surrounded him.
+
+Just as we reached him the advance began again. A bloody cloth was
+bound around his head, but I saw that his eye was as bright and keen as
+ever. Beside him was old Umslopogaas, his axe red with blood, but
+looking quite fresh and uninjured.
+
+“What’s wrong, Quatermain?” he shouted.
+
+“Everything. There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow at dawn.
+Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheard it all,”
+and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman had told me.
+
+Curtis’ face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped.
+
+“At dawn,” he gasped, “and it is now sunset; it dawns before four and
+we are nearly a hundred miles off—nine hours at the outside. What is to
+be done?”
+
+An idea entered into my head. “Is that horse of yours fresh?” I said.
+
+“Yes, I have only just got on to him—when my last was killed, and he
+has been fed.”
+
+“So is mine. Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he can ride well.
+We will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not—well, we cannot
+help it. No, no; it is impossible for you to leave now. You would be
+seen, and it would turn the fate of the battle. It is not half won yet.
+The soldiers would think you were making a bolt of it. Quick now.”
+
+In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang into the
+empty saddle.
+
+“Now farewell,” I said. “Send a thousand horsemen with remounts after
+us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general to the left wing to
+take over the command and explain my absence.”
+
+“You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?” he said in a broken
+voice.
+
+“Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.”
+
+He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped off to
+join the advance, which by this time was fording the little brook that
+now ran red with the blood of the fallen.
+
+As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as arrows
+leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out of the sight of
+slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoil and shouting, which only
+came to our ears as a faint, far-off roaring like the sound of distant
+breakers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+AWAY! AWAY!
+
+
+At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses;
+and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it
+was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red,
+looked from where we were more like some wild titanic picture than an
+actual hand-to-hand combat. The distinguishing scenic effect from that
+distance was the countless distinct flashes of light reflected from the
+swords and spears, otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might
+have been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle
+was being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and
+the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what was
+tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant when viewed
+from the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings
+of our race about which we blow the loud trumpet and make such a fuss
+and worry? How utterly antlike, and morally and physically
+insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyes that watch them from the
+arching depths above!
+
+“We win the day, Macumazahn,” said old Umslopogaas, taking in the whole
+situation with a glance of his practised eye. “Look, the Lady of the
+Night’s forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in them,
+they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But
+alas! the battle will in a manner be drawn, for the darkness gathers,
+and the regiments will not be able to follow and slay!”—and he shook
+his head sadly. “But,” he added, “I do not think that they will fight
+again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have
+lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.”
+
+By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I
+told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the
+lives that had been lost that day would have been lost in vain.
+
+“Ah!” he said, “nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to
+be there before the dawn! Well—away! away! man can but try, Macumazahn;
+and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old ‘witch-finder’s’
+[Agon’s] skull for him. Once he wanted to burn us, the old
+‘rain-maker’, did he? And now he would set a snare for my mother
+[Nyleptha], would he? Good! So sure as my name is the name of the
+Woodpecker, so surely, be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to
+the beard. Ay, by T’Chaka’s head I swear it!” and he shook Inkosi-kaas
+as he galloped. By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately
+there would be a moon later, and the road was good.
+
+On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
+had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide steady
+stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the side
+of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot of
+far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were
+travelling up their steeps, and now we were over and passing towards
+others that sprang up like visions in the far, faint distance beyond.
+
+On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet of the
+night, that was set like a song to the falling music of our horses’
+hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some forgotten starving
+dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, past lonely moated dwellings; on,
+through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom
+of the earth, as though there was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee,
+for hour after hour!
+
+We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious
+horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they filled
+their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round
+hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside me,
+mounted upon the great white horse, like Death in the Revelation of St
+John, as now and again lifting his fierce set face he gazed out along
+the road, and pointed with his axe towards some distant rise or house.
+
+And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
+
+At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning
+to give out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were
+considerably more than half way. On the top of a rise was a little
+spring, which I remembered because I had slept by it a few nights
+before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaas to pull up, having
+determined to give the horses and ourselves ten minutes to breathe in.
+He did so, and we dismounted—that is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then
+helped me off, for what with fatigue, stiffness, and the pain of my
+wound, I could not do so for myself; and then the gallant horses stood
+panting there, resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat
+fell drip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds
+in the still night air.
+
+Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and
+drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful
+of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up,
+though my fatigue was too great to allow me to feel hungry. Then,
+having laved my fevered head and hands, I returned, and the Zulu went
+and drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a couple of mouthfuls
+each—no more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts
+away from the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in
+hobbling up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting
+the condition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though she was,
+was evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her eye looked
+sick and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha’s glorious horse—who, if he is
+served aright, should, like the steeds who saved great Rameses in his
+need, feed for the rest of his days out of a golden manger—was still
+comparatively speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had
+by far the heavier weight to carry. He was “tucked up”, indeed, and his
+legs were weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his
+shapely head up and gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that
+seemed to say that whoever failed _he_ was good for those
+five-and-forty miles that yet lay between us and Milosis. Then
+Umslopogaas helped me into the saddle and—vigorous old savage that he
+was!—vaulted into his own without touching a stirrup, and we were off
+once more, slowly at first, till the horses got into their stride, and
+then more swiftly. So we passed over another ten miles, and then came a
+long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three times did my
+poor black mare nearly come to the ground with me. But on the top she
+seemed to gather herself together, and rattled down the slope with
+long, convulsive strides, breathing in gasps. We did that three or four
+miles more swiftly than any since we had started on our wild ride, but
+I felt it to be a last effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse
+took the bit between her teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of
+level ground for some three or four hundred yards, and then, with two
+or three jerky strides, pulled herself up and fell with a crash right
+on to her head, I rolling myself free as she did so. As I struggled to
+my feet the brave beast raised her head and looked at me with piteous
+bloodshot eyes, and then her head dropped with a groan and she was
+dead. Her heart was broken.
+
+Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him in
+dismay. There were still more than twenty miles to do by dawn, and how
+were we to do it with one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had
+forgotten the old Zulu’s extraordinary running powers.
+
+Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to hoist me
+into it.
+
+“What wilt thou do?” I asked.
+
+“Run,” he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
+
+Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief it
+was to me to get that change of horses! Anybody who has ever ridden
+against time will know what it meant.
+
+Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the gaunt
+Zulu a lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thing to see old
+Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightly parted and his
+nostrils agape like the horse’s. Every five miles or so we stopped for
+a few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again.
+
+“Canst thou go farther,” I said at the third of these stoppages, “or
+shall I leave thee to follow me?”
+
+He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of
+the Sun, now not more than five miles away.
+
+“I reach it or I die,” he gasped.
+
+Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my
+legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all.
+I was exhausted with toil, want of food and sleep, and also suffering
+very much from the blow I had received on my left side; it seemed as
+though a piece of bone or something was slowly piercing into my lung.
+Poor Daylight, too, was pretty nearly finished, and no wonder. But
+there was a smell of dawn in the air, and we might not stay; better
+that all three of us should die upon the road than that we should
+linger while there was life in us. The air was thick and heavy, as it
+sometimes is before the dawn breaks, and—another infallible sign in
+certain parts of Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand—hundreds of little
+spiders pendant on the end of long tough webs were floating about in
+it. These early-rising creatures, or rather their webs, caught upon the
+horse’s and our own forms by scores, and, as we had neither the time
+nor the energy to brush them off, we rushed along covered with hundreds
+of long grey threads that streamed out a yard or more behind us—and a
+very strange appearance they must have given us.
+
+And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wall of the
+Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me: What if they
+will not let us in?
+
+“_Open! open!_” I shout imperiously, at the same time giving the royal
+password. “_Open! open!_ a messenger, a messenger with tidings of the
+war!”
+
+“What news?” cried the guard. “And who art thou that ridest so madly,
+and who is that whose tongue lolls out”—and it actually did—“and who
+runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?”
+
+“It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog.
+_Open! open!_ I bring tidings.”
+
+The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge fell with
+a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one and over the other.
+
+“What news, my lord, what news?” cried the guard.
+
+“Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,” I answered, and was
+gone.
+
+One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!
+
+So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen short
+minutes more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both live for ever in the
+annals of the land.
+
+On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passing the Flower
+Temple now—one mile more, only one little mile—hold on, keep your life
+in thee, see the houses run past of themselves. Up, good horse, up,
+there—but fifty yards now. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on
+gallantly.
+
+“Thank God, the palace at last!” and see, the first arrows of the dawn
+are striking on the Temple’s golden dome.[22] But shall I get in here,
+or is the deed done and the way barred?
+
+ [22] Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught the
+ light some time before the breaking of the dawn.—A. Q.
+
+Once more I give the password and shout “_Open! open!_”
+
+No answer, and my heart grows very faint.
+
+Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my joy I
+recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of Nyleptha’s
+guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light—indeed, the same whom
+Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on the day she fled to the temple.
+
+“Is it thou, Kara?” I cry; “I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard let down the
+bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!”
+
+Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length the
+bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got into the
+courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneath me, as I
+thought, dead. Except Kara, there was nobody to be seen, and his look
+was wild, and his garments were all torn. He had opened the gate and
+let down the bridge alone, and was now getting them up and shut again
+(as, owing to a very ingenious arrangement of cranks and levers, one
+man could easily do, and indeed generally did do).
+
+“Where are the guard?” I gasped, fearing his answer as I never feared
+anything before.
+
+“I know not,” he answered; “two hours ago, as I slept, was I seized and
+bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very moment, have I
+freed myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly fear, that we are
+betrayed.”
+
+His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered,
+followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man,
+through the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent as the
+grave, towards the Queen’s sleeping-place.
+
+We reached the first ante-room—no guards; the second, still no guards.
+Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after all, too late!
+The silence and solitude of those great chambers was dreadful, and
+weighed me down like an evil dream. On, right into Nyleptha’s chamber
+we rushed and staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst; we saw
+there was a light in it, ay, and a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank
+God, it is the White Queen herself, the Queen unharmed! There she
+stands in her night gear, roused, by the clatter of our coming, from
+her bed, the heaviness of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of
+fear and shame mantling her lovely breast and cheek.
+
+“Who is it?” she cries. “What means this? Oh, Macumazahn, is it thou?
+Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearing evil tidings—and
+my lord—oh, tell me not my lord is dead—not dead!” she wailed, wringing
+her white hands.
+
+“I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais last
+night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten
+back all along her lines, and thy arms prevail.”
+
+“I knew it,” she cried in triumph. “I knew that he would win; and they
+called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads when I gave him the
+command! Last night at sundown, sayest thou, and it is not yet dawn?
+Surely—”
+
+“Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,” I broke in, “and give us wine to
+drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst save thyself
+alive. Nay, stay not.”
+
+Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towards some room
+beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick cloak, by which
+time a dozen or so of half-dressed women were pouring into the room.
+
+“Follow us and be silent,” I said to them as they gazed with wondering
+eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into the first ante-room.
+
+“Now,” I said, “give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it, for we
+are near to death.”
+
+The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and
+from a cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold flesh were brought
+forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life flow back into our
+veins as the good red wine went down.
+
+“Hark to me, Nyleptha,” I said, as I put down the empty tankard. “Hast
+thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of discretion?”
+
+“Ay,” she said, “surely.”
+
+“Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom thou
+canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them come armed,
+with all honest folk that they can gather, to rescue thee from death.
+Nay, question not; do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the
+maids.”
+
+She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated the
+words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the names of the men
+to whom each should run.
+
+“Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives,” I added.
+
+In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin us at
+the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway as soon as
+he had made fast behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made
+our way, followed by the Queen and her women. As we went we tore off
+mouthfuls of food, and between them I told her what I knew of the
+danger which encompassed her, and how we found Kara, and how all the
+guards and men-servants were gone, and she was alone with her women in
+that great place; and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread
+through the town that our army had been utterly destroyed, and that
+Sorais was marching in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence
+thereof all men had fallen away from her.
+
+Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been but six or
+seven minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding that the golden roof
+of the temple being very lofty was ablaze with the rays of the rising
+sun, it was not yet dawn, nor would be for another ten minutes. We were
+in the courtyard now, and here my wound pained me so that I had to take
+Nyleptha’s arm, while Umslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he
+went.
+
+Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway through the
+palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair.
+
+I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The door was gone,
+and so were the outer gates of bronze—entirely gone. They had been
+taken from their hinges, and as we afterwards found, hurled from the
+stairway to the ground two hundred feet beneath. There in front of us
+was the semicircular standing-space, about twice the size of a large
+oval dining-table, and the ten curved black marble steps leading on to
+the main stair—and that was all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+
+
+We looked at one another.
+
+“Thou seest,” I said, “they have taken away the door. Is there aught
+with which we may fill the place? Speak quickly for they will be on us
+ere the daylight.” I spoke thus, because I knew that we must hold this
+place or none, as there were no inner doors in the palace, the rooms
+being separated one from another by curtains. I also knew that if we
+could by any means defend this doorway the murderers could get in
+nowhere else; for the palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since
+the secret door by which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of
+attempted murder had, by Nyleptha’s order, been closed up with masonry.
+
+“I have it,” said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the
+emergency in a wonderful way. “On the farther side of the courtyard are
+blocks of cut marble—the workmen brought them there for the bed of the
+new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block the door with them.”
+
+I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remaining
+maidens down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance from
+the docks below, where her father, who was a great merchant employing
+many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another to watch through the
+doorway, we made our way back across the courtyard to where the hewn
+marble lay; and here we met Kara returning from despatching the first
+two messengers. There were the marble blocks, sure enough, broad,
+massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing about eighty pounds
+each, and there, too, were a couple of implements like small
+stretchers, that the workmen used to carry them on. Without delay we
+got some of the blocks on to the stretchers, and four of the girls
+carried them to the doorway.
+
+“Listen, Macumazahn,” said Umslopogaas, “if those low fellows come, it
+is I who will hold the stair against them till the door is built up.
+Nay, nay, it will be a man’s death: gainsay me not, old friend. It has
+been a good day, let it now be good night. See, I throw myself down to
+rest on the marble there; when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me,
+not before, for I need my strength,” and without a word he went outside
+and flung himself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep.
+
+At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down by the
+doorway, and content myself with directing operations. The girls
+brought the block, while Kara and Nyleptha built them up across the
+six-foot-wide doorway, a triple row of them, for less would be useless.
+But the marble had to be brought forty yards and then there were forty
+yards to run back, and though the girls laboured gloriously, even
+staggering along alone, each with a block in her arms, it was slow
+work, dreadfully slow.
+
+The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we heard a
+commotion at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faint clinking of
+armed men. As yet the wall was only two feet high, and we had been
+eight minutes at the building of it. So they had come. Alphonse had
+heard aright.
+
+The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of the dawning
+we could make out long files of men, some fifty or so in all, slowly
+creeping up the stair. They were now at the half-way standing place
+that rested on the great flying arch; and here, perceiving that
+something was going on above, they, to our great gain, halted for three
+or four minutes and consulted, then slowly and cautiously advanced
+again.
+
+We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and it was
+almost three feet high.
+
+Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and
+swung Inkosi-kaas round his head.
+
+“It is well,” he said. “I feel as a young man once more. My strength
+has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before it dies. Fear
+not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new
+heart into me.
+
+“Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and I stood
+together on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast as a
+spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy flesh, but I could not
+see what was the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us,
+old hunter. So be it: we have had our time, but I would that in it I
+had seen some more such fights as yesterday’s.
+
+“Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set
+my eyes towards Zululand;” and he took my hand and shook it, and then
+turned to face the advancing foe.
+
+Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered over
+our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his
+stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did so.
+
+“What, comest thou too?” laughed out the old warrior. “Welcome—a
+welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can die like a man;
+ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are ready. We
+wet our beaks like eagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our
+assegais, and are hungry to fight. Who comes to give greeting to the
+Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit
+is death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I,
+Umslopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu,
+a captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the son
+of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal
+blood of T’Chaka, I of the King’s House, I the Ringed Man, I the
+Induna, I call to them as a buck calls, I challenge them, I await them.
+Ow! it is thou, it is thou!”
+
+As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed men, among
+whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta and Agon, came
+streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big fellow, armed with a
+heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircular steps ahead of his comrades
+and struck at the great Zulu with the spear. Umslopogaas moved his body
+but not his legs, so that the blow missed him, and next instant
+Inkosi-kaas crashed through headpiece, hair and skull, and the man’s
+corpse was rattling down the steps. As he dropped, his round
+hippopotamus-hide shield fell from his hand on to the marble, and the
+Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so.
+
+In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then began
+a scene the like of which has not been known to me.
+
+Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as
+they came, the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down they rolled
+again, dead or dying. And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu’s
+eye seemed to get quicker and his arm stronger. He shouted out his
+war-cries and the names of chiefs whom he had slain, and the blows of
+his awful axe rained straight and true, shearing through everything
+they fell on. There was none of the scientific method he was so fond of
+about this last immortal fight of his; he had no time for it, but
+struck with his full strength, and at every stroke a man sank in his
+tracks, and went rattling down the marble steps.
+
+They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding him in a
+dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the shield protected
+his head and the chain-shirt his vitals, and for minute after minute,
+aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair.
+
+At last Kara’s sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled
+down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the brave man that
+he was.
+
+Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned. Shouting
+out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and
+another, till at last they drew back from the slippery blood-stained
+steps, and stared at him with amazement, thinking that he was no mortal
+man.
+
+The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hope rose in
+my heart as I leaned there against it a miserable helpless log, and
+ground my teeth, and watched that glorious struggle. I could do no more
+for I had lost my revolver in the battle.
+
+And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint as he
+was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them “women”—the grand old
+warrior, standing there one against so many! And for a breathing space
+none would come against him, notwithstanding Nasta’s exhortations, till
+at last old Agon, who, to do him justice, was a brave man, mad with
+baffled rage, and seeing that the wall would soon be built and his
+plans defeated, shook the great spear he held, and rushed up the
+dripping steps.
+
+“Ah, ah!” shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest’s flowing white
+beard, “it is thou, old ‘witch-finder’! Come on! I await thee, white
+‘medicine man’; come on! come on! I have sworn to slay thee, and I ever
+keep my faith.”
+
+On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear with such
+force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough shield and
+pierced him in the neck. The Zulu cast down the transfixed shield, and
+that moment was Agon’s last, for before he could free his spear and
+strike again, with a shout of “_There’s for thee, Rain-maker!_”
+Umslopogaas gripped Inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled on high and
+drave her right on to his venerable head, so that Agon rolled down dead
+among the corpses of his fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him
+and his plots altogether. And even as he fell, a great cry rose from
+the foot of the stair, and looking out through the portion of the
+doorway that was yet unclosed, we saw armed men rushing up to the
+rescue, and called an answer to their shouts. Then the would-be
+murderers who yet remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw
+several priests, turned to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were
+butchered as they fled. Only one man stayed, and he was the great lord
+Nasta, Nyleptha’s suitor, and the father of the plot. For a moment the
+black-bearded Nasta stood with bowed face leaning on his long sword as
+though in despair, and then, with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at
+the Zulu, and, swinging the glittering sword around his head, dealt him
+such a mighty blow beneath his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy
+blade bit right through the chain armour and deep into Umslopogaas’
+side, for a moment paralysing him and causing him to drop his axe.
+
+Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an end of him,
+but little he knew his foe. With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu
+gathered himself together and sprang straight at Nasta’s throat, as I
+have sometimes seen a wounded lion spring. He struck him full as his
+foot was on the topmost stair, and his long arms closing round him like
+iron bands, down they rolled together struggling furiously. Nasta was a
+strong man and a desperate, but he could not match the strongest man in
+Zululand, sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as the
+strength of a bull. In a minute the end came. I saw old Umslopogaas
+stagger to his feet—ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing
+up the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight
+over the parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to powder on the rocks
+two hundred feet below.
+
+The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passed down the
+stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, and the loud shouts
+which reached us from the outer gates told us that the town was also
+aroused, and the men awakened by the women were calling to be admitted.
+Some of Nyleptha’s brave ladies, who in their night-shifts and with
+their long hair streaming down their backs, just as they had been
+aroused from rest, went off to admit them at the side entrance, whilst
+others, assisted by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down
+the marble blocks they had placed there with so much labour.
+
+Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followed by a
+crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a
+glorious figure. The man was a mass of wounds, and a glance at his wild
+eye told me that he was dying. The “keshla” gum-ring upon his head was
+severed in two places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in
+his skull, and the blood poured down his face from the gashes. Also on
+the right side of his neck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by Agon;
+there was a deep cut on his left arm just below where the mail
+shirt-sleeve stopped, and on the right side of his body the armour was
+severed by a gash six inches long, where Nasta’s mighty sword had
+bitten through it and deep into its wearer’s vitals.
+
+On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid savage,
+and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and cheered
+him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With
+outstretched arms and tottering gait he pursued his way, followed by us
+all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ran through the courtyard,
+past the spot where the blocks of marble lay, through the round arched
+doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it, down the short
+passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with
+hastily-armed men, who poured through the side entrance. Straight up
+the hall he went, leaving behind him a track of blood on the marble
+pavement, till at last he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the
+centre of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped
+and leaned upon his axe. Then suddenly he lifted up his voice and cried
+aloud—
+
+“I die, I die—but it was a kingly fray. Where are they who came up the
+great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou
+gone before to wait for me in the dark whither I go? The blood blinds
+me—the place turns round—I hear the voice of waters.”
+
+Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red axe and
+kissed the blade.
+
+“Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,” he cried. “Nay, nay, we will go together; we
+cannot part, thou and I. We have lived too long one with another, thou
+and I.
+
+“One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke! a strong
+stroke!” and, drawing himself to his full height, with a wild
+heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl the axe round
+his head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly,
+with awful force he brought it down straight on to the crown of the
+mass of sacred stone. A shower of sparks flew up, and such was the
+almost superhuman strength of the blow, that the massive marble split
+with a rending sound into a score of pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas
+there remained but some fragments of steel and a fibrous rope of
+shattered horn that had been the handle. Down with a crash on to the
+pavement fell the fragments of the holy stone, and down with a crash on
+to them, still grasping the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old
+Zulu—_dead_. And thus the hero died.
+
+A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessed the
+extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, “_The prophecy! the
+prophecy!_ He has shattered the sacred stone!” and at once a murmuring
+arose.
+
+“Ay,” said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishes her. “Ay,
+my people, he has shattered the stone, and behold the prophecy is
+fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis. Incubu, my lord,
+hath beat Sorais back, and I fear her no more, and to him who hath
+saved the Crown it shall surely be. And this man,” she said, turning to
+me and laying her hand upon my shoulder, “wot ye that, though wounded
+in the fight of yesterday, he rode with that old warrior who lies
+there, one hundred miles “twixt sun set and rise to save me from the
+plots of cruel men. Ay, and he has saved me, by a very little, and
+therefore because of the deeds that they have done—deeds of glory such
+as our history cannot show the like—therefore I say that the name of
+Macumazahn and the name of dead Umslopogaas, ay, and the name of Kara,
+my servant, who aided him to hold the stair, shall be blazoned in
+letters of gold above my throne, and shall be glorious for ever while
+the land endures. I, the Queen, have said it.”
+
+This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said that after
+all we had only done our duty, as it is the fashion of both Englishmen
+and Zulus to do, and there was nothing to make an outcry about; at
+which they cheered still more, and then I was supported across the
+outer courtyard to my old quarters, in order that I might be put to
+bed. As I went, my eyes lit upon the brave horse Daylight that lay
+there, his white head outstretched on the pavement, exactly as he had
+fallen on entering the yard; and I bade those who supported me take me
+near him, that I might look on the good beast once more before he was
+dragged away. And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyes
+and, lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly. I could have shouted
+for joy to find that he was not dead, only unfortunately I had not a
+shout left in me; but as it was, grooms were sent for and he was lifted
+up and wine poured down his throat, and in a fortnight he was as well
+and strong as ever, and is the pride and joy of all the people of
+Milosis, who, whenever they see him, point him out to the little
+children as the “horse which saved the White Queen’s life”.
+
+Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had my mail shirt
+removed. They hurt me a great deal in getting it off, and no wonder,
+for on my left breast and side was a black bruise the size of a saucer.
+
+The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outside the
+palace wall, some ten hours later. I raised myself and asked what was
+the news, and they told me that a large body of cavalry sent by Curtis
+to assist the Queen had arrived from the scene of the battle, which
+they had left two hours after sundown. When they left, the wreck of
+Sorais’ army was in full retreat upon M’Arstuna, followed by all our
+effective cavalry. Sir Henry was encamping the remains of his worn-out
+forces on the site (such is the fortune of war) that Sorais had
+occupied the night before, and proposed marching to M’Arstuna on the
+morrow. Having heard this, I felt that I could die with a light heart,
+and then everything became a blank.
+
+When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc of a
+sympathetic eyeglass, behind which was Good.
+
+“How are you getting on, old chap?” said a voice from the neighbourhood
+of the eyeglass.
+
+“What are you doing here?” I asked faintly. “You ought to be at
+M’Arstuna—have you run away, or what?”
+
+“M’Arstuna,” he replied cheerfully. “Ah, M’Arstuna fell last
+week—you’ve been unconscious for a fortnight, you see—with all the
+honours of war, you know—trumpets blowing, flags flying, just as though
+they had had the best of it; but for all that, weren’t they glad to go.
+Israel made for his tents, I can tell you—never saw such a sight in my
+life.”
+
+“And Sorais?” I asked.
+
+“Sorais—oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the scoundrels,” he
+added, with a change of tone—“sacrificed the Queen to save their skins,
+you see. She is being brought up here, and I don’t know what will
+happen to her, poor soul!” and he sighed.
+
+“Where is Curtis?” I asked.
+
+“He is with Nyleptha. She rode out to meet us today, and there was a
+grand to-do, I can tell you. He is coming to see you tomorrow; the
+doctors (for there is a medical ‘faculty’ in Zu-Vendis as elsewhere)
+thought that he had better not come today.”
+
+I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstanding
+the doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when a man is
+newly married and has just gained a great victory, he is apt to listen
+to the advice of doctors, and quite right too.
+
+Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that “Monsieur must now
+couch himself,” and looking up perceived Alphonse’s enormous black
+mustachios curling away in the distance.
+
+“So you are here?” I said.
+
+“Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instincts are
+satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur.”
+
+I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse’s
+failings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up to the level
+of his heroic grandfather in this particular, showing thereby how true
+is the saying that it is a bad thing to be overshadowed by some great
+ancestral name), a better or kinder nurse never lived. Poor Alphonse! I
+hope he will always think of me as kindly as I think of him.
+
+On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he told me the
+whole history of what had happened since Umslopogaas and I galloped
+wildly away from the battle to save the life of the Queen. It seemed to
+me that he had managed the thing exceedingly well, and showed great
+ability as a general. Of course, however, our loss had been dreadfully
+heavy—indeed, I am afraid to say how many perished in the desperate
+battle I have described, but I know that the slaughter has appreciably
+affected the male population of the country. He was very pleased to see
+me, dear fellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in his eyes for
+the little that I had been able to do. I saw him, however, start
+violently when his eyes fell upon my face.
+
+As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that “her dear lord”
+had come back with no other injury than an ugly scar on his forehead. I
+do not believe that she allowed all the fearful slaughter that had
+taken place to weigh ever so little in the balance against this one
+fact, or even to greatly diminish her joy; and I cannot blame her for
+it, seeing that it is the nature of loving woman to look at all things
+through the spectacles of her love, and little does she reck of the
+misery of the many if the happiness of the _one_ be assured. That is
+human nature, which the Positivists tell us is just perfection; so no
+doubt it is all right.
+
+“And what art thou going to do with Sorais?” I asked her.
+
+Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown.
+
+“Sorais,” she said, with a little stamp of the foot; “ah, but Sorais!”
+
+Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject.
+
+“You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow,” he said.
+
+I shook my head and laughed.
+
+“Don’t deceive yourselves,” I said. “I may be about for a little, but I
+shall never be all right again. I am a dying man, Curtis. I may die
+slow, but die I must. Do you know I have been spitting blood all the
+morning? I tell you there is something working away into my lung; I can
+feel it. There, don’t look distressed; I have had my day, and am ready
+to go. Give me the mirror, will you? I want to look at myself.”
+
+He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and at last he
+handed me one of the discs of polished silver set in a wooden frame
+like a hand-screen, which serve as looking-glasses in Zu-Vendis. I
+looked and put it down.
+
+“Ah,” I said quietly, “I thought so; and you talk of my getting all
+right!” I did not like to let them see how shocked I really was at my
+own appearance. My grizzled stubby hair was turned snow-white, and my
+yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman’s and had two deep purple
+rings painted beneath the eyes.
+
+Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject,
+telling me that the artists had taken a cast of the dead body of old
+Umslopogaas, and that a great statue in black marble was to be erected
+of him in the act of splitting the sacred stone, which was to be
+matched by another statue in white marble of myself and the horse
+Daylight as he appeared when, at the termination of that wild ride, he
+sank beneath me in the courtyard of the palace. I have since seen these
+statues, which at the time of writing this, six months after the
+battle, are nearly finished; and very beautiful they are, especially
+that of Umslopogaas, which is exactly like him. As for that of myself,
+it is good, but they have idealized my ugly face a little, which is
+perhaps as well, seeing that thousands of people will probably look at
+it in the centuries to come, and it is not pleasant to look at ugly
+things.
+
+Then they told me that Umslopogaas’ last wish had been carried out, and
+that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, after the usual custom
+here, he had been tied up, Zulu fashion, with his knees beneath his
+chin, and, having been wrapped in a thin sheet of beaten gold, entombed
+in a hole hollowed out of the masonry of the semicircular space at the
+top of the stair he defended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we
+can judge, almost exactly towards Zululand. There he sits, and will sit
+for ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in an
+air-tight stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spot he held
+alone against a multitude; and the people say that at night his ghost
+rises and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas at phantom foes.
+Certainly they fear during the dark hours to pass the place where the
+hero is buried.
+
+Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the land in
+that unaccountable way in which such things do arise among barbarous
+and semi-civilized people, blowing, like the wind, no man knows whence.
+According to this saying, so long as the old Zulu sits there, looking
+down the stairway he defended when alive, so long will the New House of
+the Stairway, springing from the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha,
+endure and flourish; but when he is taken from thence, or when, ages
+after, his bones at last crumble into dust, the House will fall, and
+the Stairway shall fall, and the Nation of the Zu-Vendi shall cease to
+be a Nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+It was a week after Nyleptha’s visit, when I had begun to get about a
+little in the middle of the day, that a message came to me from Sir
+Henry to say that Sorais would be brought before them in the Queen’s
+first antechamber at midday, and requesting my attendance if possible.
+Accordingly, greatly drawn by curiosity to see this unhappy woman once
+more, I made shift, with the help of that kind little fellow Alphonse,
+who is a perfect treasure to me, and that of another waiting-man, to
+reach the antechamber. I got there, indeed, before anybody else, except
+a few of the great Court officials who had been bidden to be present,
+but I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in by a
+party of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever, but with a
+worn expression on her proud face. She was, as usual, dressed in her
+royal “kaf”, emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun, and in her right
+hand she still held the toy spear of silver. A pang of admiration and
+pity went through me as I looked at her, and struggling to my feet I
+bowed deeply, at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not
+able, owing to my condition, to remain standing before her.
+
+She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. “Thou dost forget,
+Macumazahn,” she said, “I am no more a Queen, save in blood; I am an
+outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should scorn, and none show
+deference to.”
+
+“At least,” I replied, “thou art still a lady, and therefore one to
+whom deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it
+is doubly due.”
+
+“Ah!” she answered, with a little laugh, “thou dost forget that I would
+have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the angel’s
+trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.”
+
+“No,” I answered, “I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed, I often
+thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass was
+turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and I am still here,
+though perchance not for long, so why talk of it now?”
+
+“Ah!” she went on, “the battle! the battle! Oh, would that I were once
+more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would take such a
+vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need; that it
+should only be spoken of in whispers; those women, those pigeon-hearted
+half-breeds who suffered themselves to be overcome!” and she choked in
+her wrath.
+
+“Ay, and that little coward beside thee,” she went on, pointing at
+Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very uncomfortable;
+“he escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried to make a general of him,
+telling the soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him”
+(here Alphonse shivered at some unhappy recollection), “but it was of
+no avail. He hid beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my
+plans. I would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
+
+“And thou, Macumazahn, I have heard of what thou didst; thou art brave,
+and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he was _a man_. I
+would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.”
+
+“Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,” I said; “I pray thee now plead with
+the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy unto thee.”
+
+She laughed out loud. “_I_ plead for mercy!” she said and at that
+moment the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took
+her seat with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely
+ill at ease.
+
+“Greeting, Sorais!” said Nyleptha, after a short pause. “Thou hast rent
+the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of my people to the
+sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder,
+thou hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from
+the Stairway. What hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die? Speak, O
+Sorais!”
+
+“Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the
+indictment,” answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. “It runs thus:
+‘Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu.’ It is for this
+crime that my sister will slay me, not because I levied war. It is
+perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love
+too late.
+
+“Listen,” she went on, raising her voice. “I have nought to say save
+that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou with me even as thou
+wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there” (pointing to Sir
+Henry)—“for now will he be King—carry out the sentence, as it is meet
+he should, for as he is the beginning of the evil, let him also be the
+end.” And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her
+deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear.
+
+Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could
+not catch, and then the Queen spoke.
+
+“Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our father died,
+and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit
+upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gave my voice for thee
+and said, ‘Nay, let her sit. She is twin with me; we were born at a
+birth; wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?’ And so
+has it ever been “twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in
+what sort thou hast repaid me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is
+forfeit, Sorais. And yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me,
+and we played together when we were little and loved each other much,
+and at night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the
+other’s neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out to thee,
+Sorais.
+
+“But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence has been too
+heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy even to the ground.
+Also, while thou dost live the land will never be at peace.
+
+“Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hath begged
+thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as a marriage gift
+give I it to him, to do with even as he wills, knowing that, though
+thou dost love him, he loves thee not, Sorais, for all thy beauty. Nay,
+though thou art lovely as the night in all her stars, O Lady of the
+Night, yet it is me his wife whom he loves, and not thee, and therefore
+do I give thy life to him.”
+
+Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do not think that
+I ever saw a man look more miserable than did Sir Henry at that moment.
+Somehow, Nyleptha’s way of putting the thing, though true and forcible
+enough, was not altogether pleasant.
+
+“I understood,” stammered Curtis, looking at Good, “I understood that
+you were attached—eh—attached to—to the Queen Sorais. I am—eh—not aware
+what the—in short, the state of your feelings may be just now; but if
+they happened to be that way inclined, it has struck me that—in short,
+it might put a satisfactory end to an unpleasant business. The lady
+also has ample private estates, where I am sure she would be at liberty
+to live unmolested as far as we are concerned, eh, Nyleptha? Of course,
+I only suggest.”
+
+“So far as I am concerned,” said Good, colouring up, “I am quite
+willing to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinks me
+worth the taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes, and try
+to make her a good husband.”
+
+All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that same slow smile
+upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the first time that I ever
+saw her. She paused a little while, and cleared her throat, and then
+thrice she curtseyed low, once to Nyleptha, once to Curtis, and once to
+Good, and began to speak in measured tones.
+
+“I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for the
+loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especially in
+that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate as a gift to
+the Lord Incubu—the King that is to be. May prosperity, peace and
+plenty deck the life-path of one so merciful and so tender, even as
+flowers do. Long mayst thou reign, O great and glorious Queen, and hold
+thy husband’s love in both thy hands, and many be the sons and
+daughters of thy beauty. And I thank thee, my Lord Incubu—the King that
+is to be—I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleased
+to accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on to thy comrade in arms
+and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan. Surely the act is worthy of thy
+greatness, my Lord Incubu. And now, lastly, I thank thee also, my Lord
+Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deigned to accept me and my poor beauty.
+I thank thee a thousand times, and I will add that thou art a good and
+honest man, and I put my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that
+I could say thee ‘yea’. And now that I have rendered thanks to all in
+turn”—and again she smiled—“I will add one short word.
+
+“Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords, if ye
+know not that for me there is no middle path; that I scorn your pity
+and hate you for it; that I cast off your forgiveness as though it were
+a serpent’s sting; and that standing here, betrayed, deserted,
+insulted, and alone, I yet triumph over you, mock you, and defy you,
+one and all, and _thus_ I answer ye.” And then, of a sudden, before
+anybody guessed what she intended to do, she drove the little silver
+spear she carried in her hand into her side with such a strong and
+steady aim that the keen point projected through her back, and she fell
+prone upon the pavement.
+
+Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight, while the
+rest of us rushed towards her. But Sorais of the Night lifted herself
+upon her hand, and for a moment fixed her glorious eyes intently on
+Curtis’ face, as though there were some message in the glance, then
+dropped her head and sighed, and with a sob her dark but splendid
+spirit passed.
+
+Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her.
+
+It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that a great
+ceremony was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis was formally
+declared King-Consort of Zu-Vendis. I was too ill to go myself; and
+indeed, I hate all that sort of thing, with the crowds and the
+trumpet-blowing and banner-waving; but Good, who was there (in his
+full-dress uniform), came back much impressed, and told me that
+Nyleptha had looked lovely, and Curtis had borne himself in a right
+royal fashion, and had been received with acclamations that left no
+doubt as to his popularity. Also he told me that when the horse
+Daylight was led along in the procession, the populace had shouted
+“_Macumazahn, Macumazahn!_” till they were hoarse, and would only be
+appeased when he, Good, rose in his chariot and told them that I was
+too ill to be present.
+
+Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me, looking
+very tired, and vowing that he had never been so bored in his life; but
+I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration. It is not in human
+nature that a man should be altogether bored on such an extraordinary
+occasion; and, indeed, as I pointed out to him, it was a marvellous
+thing that a man, who but little more than one short year before had
+entered a great country as an unknown wanderer, should today be married
+to its beautiful and beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst public
+rejoicings, to its throne. I even went the length to exhort him in the
+future not to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute power,
+but always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian
+gentleman, and next a public servant, called by Providence to a great
+and almost unprecedented trust. These remarks, which he might fairly
+have resented, he was so good as to receive with patience, and even to
+thank me for making them.
+
+It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to be moved
+to the house where I am now writing. It is a very pleasant country
+seat, situated about two miles from the Frowning City, on to which it
+looks. That was five months ago, during the whole of which time I have,
+being confined to a kind of couch, employed my leisure in compiling
+this history of our wanderings from my journal and from our joint
+memories. It is probable that it will never be read, but it does not
+much matter whether it is or not; at any rate, it has served to while
+away many hours of suffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain
+lately. Thank God, however, there will not be much more of it.
+
+It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my pen for the
+last time, for I know that the end is at hand. My brain is still clear
+and I can manage to write, though with difficulty. The pain in my lung,
+which has been very bad during the last week, has suddenly quite left
+me, and been succeeded by a feeling of numbness of which I cannot
+mistake the meaning. And just as the pain has gone, so with it all fear
+of that end has departed, and I feel only as though I were going to
+sink into the arms of an unutterable rest. Happily, contentedly, and
+with the same sense of security with which an infant lays itself to
+sleep in its mother’s arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of the
+Angel Death. All the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which have
+haunted me through a life that seems long as I look back upon it, have
+left me now; the storms have passed, and the Star of our Eternal Hope
+shines clear and steady on the horizon that seems so far from man, and
+yet is so very near to me tonight.
+
+And so this is the end of it—a brief space of troubling, a few
+restless, fevered, anguished years, and then the arms of that great
+Angel Death. Many times have I been near to them, and now it is my turn
+at last, and it is well. Twenty-four hours more and the world will be
+gone from me, and with it all its hopes and all its fears. The air will
+close in over the space that my form filled and my place know me no
+more; for the dull breath of the world’s forgetfulness will first dim
+the brightness of my memory, and then blot it out for ever, and of a
+truth I shall be dead. So is it with us all. How many millions have
+lain as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!—thousands
+upon thousands of years ago they thought them, those dying men of the
+dim past; and thousands on thousands of years hence will their
+descendants think them and be in their turn forgotten. “As the breath
+of the oxen in winter, as the quick star that runs along the sky, as a
+little shadow that loses itself at sunset,” as I once heard a Zulu
+called Ignosi put it, such is the order of our life, the order that
+passeth away.
+
+Well, it is not a good world—nobody can say that it is, save those who
+wilfully blind themselves to facts. How can a world be good in which
+Money is the moving power, and Self-interest the guiding star? The
+wonder is not that it is so bad, but that there should be any good left
+in it.
+
+Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, glad to have
+known the dear breath of woman’s love, and that true friendship which
+can even surpass the love of woman, glad to have heard the laughter of
+little children, to have seen the sun and the moon and the stars, to
+have felt the kiss of the salt sea on my face, and watched the wild
+game trek down to the water in the moonlight. But I should not wish to
+live again!
+
+Everything is changing to me. The darkness draws near, and the light
+departs. And yet it seems to me that through that darkness I can
+already see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face. Harry is
+there, and others; one above all, to my mind the sweetest and most
+perfect woman that ever gladdened this grey earth. But of her I have
+already written elsewhere, and at length, so why speak of her now? Why
+speak of her after this long silence, now that she is again so near to
+me, now that I go where she has gone?
+
+The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple to a
+fiery flame, and my fingers tire.
+
+So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can think one
+kindly thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand from the
+far-off shore and bid a long farewell.
+
+And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commit my
+spirit.
+
+“I have spoken,” as the Zulus say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+
+A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermain wrote
+the words “_I have spoken_” at the end of his record of our adventures.
+Nor should I have ventured to make any additions to the record had it
+not happened that by a most strange accident a chance has arisen of its
+being conveyed to England. The chance is but a faint one, it is true;
+but, as it is not probable that another will arise in our lifetimes,
+Good and myself think that we may as well avail ourselves of it, such
+as it is. During the last six months several Frontier Commissions have
+been at work on the various boundaries of Zu-Vendis, with a view of
+discovering whether there exists any possible means of ingress or
+egress from the country, with the result that a channel of
+communication with the outer world hitherto overlooked has been
+discovered. This channel, apparently the only one (for I have
+discovered that it was by it that the native who ultimately reached Mr
+Mackenzie’s mission station, and whose arrival in the country, together
+with the fact of his expulsion—for he _did_ arrive about three years
+before ourselves—was for reasons of their own kept a dead secret by the
+priests to whom he was brought), is about to be effectually closed. But
+before this is done, a messenger is to be despatched bearing with him
+this manuscript, and also one or two letters from Good to his friends,
+and from myself to my brother George, whom it deeply grieves me to
+think I shall never see again, informing them, as our next heirs, that
+they are welcome to our effects in England, if the Court of Probate
+will allow them to take them,[23]} inasmuchas as we have made up our
+minds never to return to Europe. Indeed, it would be impossible for us
+to leave Zu-Vendis even if we wished to do so.
+
+ [23] Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of the
+ sort.—Editor.
+
+The messenger who is to go—and I wish him joy of his journey—is
+Alphonse. For a long while he has been wearied to death of Zu-Vendis
+and its inhabitants. “Oh, oui, c’est beau,” he says, with an expressive
+shrug; “mais je m’ennuie; ce n’est pas chic.” Again, he complains
+dreadfully of the absence of cafes and theatres, and moans continually
+for his lost Annette, of whom he says he dreams three times a week. But
+I fancy his secret cause of disgust at the country, putting aside the
+homesickness to which every Frenchman is subject, is that the people
+here laugh at him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of
+the great battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hid
+beneath a banner in Sorais’s tent in order to avoid being sent forth to
+fight, which he says would have gone against his conscience. Even the
+little boys call out at him in the streets, thereby offending his pride
+and making his life unbearable. At any rate, he has determined to brave
+the horrors of a journey of almost unprecedented difficulty and danger,
+and also to run the risk of falling into the hands of the French police
+to answer for a certain little indiscretion of his own some years old
+(though I do not consider that a very serious matter), rather than
+remain in _ce triste pays_. Poor Alphonse! we shall be very sorry to
+part with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and also for the
+sake of this history, which is, I think, worth giving to the world,
+that he may arrive in safety. If he does, and can carry the treasure we
+have provided him with in the shape of bars of solid gold, he will be,
+comparatively speaking, a rich man for life, and well able to marry his
+Annette, if she is still in the land of the living and willing to marry
+her Alphonse.
+
+Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two to dear old
+Quatermain’s narrative.
+
+He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote the last
+words of the last chapter. Nyleptha, Good and myself were present, and
+a most touching and yet in its way beautiful scene it was. An hour
+before the daybreak it became apparent to us that he was sinking, and
+our distress was very keen. Indeed, Good melted into tears at the
+idea—a fact that called forth a last gentle flicker of humour from our
+dying friend, for even at that hour he could be humorous. Good’s
+emotion had, by loosening the muscles, naturally caused his eyeglass to
+fall from its accustomed place, and Quatermain, who always observed
+everything, observed this also.
+
+“At last,” he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, “I have seen Good
+without his eyeglass.”
+
+After that he said no more till the day broke, when he asked to be
+lifted up to watch the rising of the sun for the last time.
+
+“In a very few minutes,” he said, after gazing earnestly at it, “I
+shall have passed through those golden gates.”
+
+Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedly in the
+face.
+
+“I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together.
+Think of me sometimes,” he murmured. “God bless you all. I shall wait
+for you.” And with a sigh he fell back dead.
+
+And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfection
+as any it has ever been my lot to encounter.
+
+Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualities
+that go to make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a man of action
+and a citizen of the world. I never knew any one so competent to form
+an accurate judgment of men and their motives. “I have studied human
+nature all my life,” he would say, “and I ought to know something about
+it,” and he certainly did. He had but two faults—one was his excessive
+modesty, and the other a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of
+anybody on whom he concentrated his affections. As regards the first of
+these points, anybody who reads what he has written will be able to
+form his own opinion; but I will add one last instance of it.
+
+As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trick of his
+to talk of himself as a timid man, whereas really, though very
+cautious, he possessed a most intrepid spirit, and, what is more, never
+lost his head. Well, in the great battle of the Pass, where he got the
+wound that finally killed him, one would imagine from the account which
+he gives of the occurrence that it was a chance blow that fell on him
+in the scrimmage. As a matter of fact, however, he was wounded in a
+most gallant and successful attempt to save Good’s life, at the risk
+and, as it ultimately turned out, at the cost of his own. Good was down
+on the ground, and one of Nasta’s highlanders was about to dispatch
+him, when Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form and
+received the blow on his own body, and then, rising, killed the
+soldier.
+
+As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justice to
+myself and Nyleptha will suffice. The reader will, perhaps, recollect
+that in one or two places he speaks as though Nyleptha monopolised me,
+and he was left by both of us rather out in the cold. Now Nyleptha is
+not perfect, any more than any other woman is, and she may be a little
+_exigeante_ at times, but as regards Quatermain the whole thing is pure
+imagination. Thus when he complains about my not coming to see him when
+he is ill, the fact was that, in spite of my entreaties, the doctors
+positively forbade it. Those little remarks of his pained me very much
+when I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as though he were my
+own father, and should never have dreamed of allowing my marriage to
+interfere with that affection. But let it pass; it is, after all, but
+one little weakness, which makes no great show among so many and such
+lovable virtues.
+
+Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in the
+presence of Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, in
+deference to the popular clamour, accorded a great public funeral, or
+rather cremation. I could not help thinking, however, as I marched in
+that long and splendid procession up to the Temple, how he would have
+hated the whole thing could he have been there to see it, for he had a
+horror of ostentation.
+
+And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night after his
+death, they laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar, and
+waited for the last ray of the setting sun to fall upon his face.
+Presently it came, and struck him like a golden arrow, crowning the
+pale brows with glory, and then the trumpets blew, and the flooring
+revolved, and all that remained of our beloved friend fell into the
+furnace below.
+
+We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years. He was
+the ablest man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend, the finest
+sportsman, and, I believe, the best shot in all Africa.
+
+And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of Hunter
+Quatermain.
+
+Since then things have gone very well with us. Good has been, and still
+is, busily employed in the construction of a navy on Lake Milosis and
+another of the large lakes, by means of which we hope to be able to
+increase trade and commerce, and also to overcome some very troublesome
+and warlike sections of the population who live upon their borders.
+Poor fellow! he is beginning to get over the sad death of that
+misguided but most attractive woman, Sorais, but it is a sad blow to
+him, for he was really deeply attached to her. I hope, however, that he
+will in time make a suitable marriage and get that unhappy business out
+of his head. Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view, especially a
+daughter of Nasta’s (who was a widower), a very fine imperial-looking
+girl, but with too much of her father’s intriguing, and yet haughty,
+spirit to suit my taste.
+
+As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I set to work
+to describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed, and
+content myself with saying that, on the whole, I am getting on very
+well in my curious position of King-Consort—better, indeed, than I had
+any right to expect. But, of course, it is not all plain sailing, and I
+find the responsibilities very heavy. Still, I hope to be able to do
+some good in my time, and I intend to devote myself to two great
+ends—namely, to the consolidation of the various clans which together
+make up the Zu-Vendi people, under one strong central government, and
+to the sapping of the power of the priesthood. The first of these
+reforms will, if it can be carried out, put an end to the disastrous
+civil wars that have for centuries devastated this country; and the
+second, besides removing a source of political danger, will pave the
+road for the introduction of true religion in the place of this
+senseless Sun worship. I yet hope to see the shadow of the Cross of
+Christ lying on the golden dome of the Flower Temple; or, if I do not,
+that my successors may.
+
+There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, and that is
+the total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis. Not, indeed, that
+any more are ever likely to get here, but if they do, I warn them
+fairly that they will be shown the shortest way out of the country. I
+do not say this from any sense of inhospitality, but because I am
+convinced of the sacred duty that rests upon me of preserving to this,
+on the whole, upright and generous-hearted people the blessings of
+comparative barbarism. Where would all my brave army be if some
+enterprising rascal were to attack us with field-guns and
+Martini-Henrys? I cannot see that gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily
+newspapers, universal suffrage, etc., etc., have made mankind one whit
+the happier than they used to be, and I am certain that they have
+brought many evils in their train. I have no fancy for handing over
+this beautiful country to be torn and fought for by speculators,
+tourists, politicians and teachers, whose voice is as the voice of
+Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the valley of the
+underground river tore and fought for the body of the wild swan; nor
+will I endow it with the greed, drunkenness, new diseases, gunpowder,
+and general demoralization which chiefly mark the progress of
+civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples. If in due course it
+pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open to the world, that is
+another matter; but of myself I will not take the responsibility, and I
+may add that Good entirely approves of my decision. Farewell.
+
+HENRY CURTIS.
+
+December 15, 18—.
+
+PS—I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha (who is
+very well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautiful than ever)
+presented me with a son and heir. He is a regular curly-haired,
+blue-eyed young Englishman in looks, and, though he is destined, if he
+lives, to inherit the throne of Zu-Vendis, I hope I may be able to
+bring him up to become what an English gentleman should be, and
+generally is—which is to my mind even a prouder and a finer thing than
+being born heir apparent to the great House of the Stairway, and,
+indeed, the highest rank that a man can reach upon this earth.
+
+H. C.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.
+
+
+The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting of my dear
+brother Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead, and bearing the
+Aden postmark, reached me in safety on December 20, 18—, or a little
+more than two years after it left his hands in the far centre of
+Africa, and I hasten to give the astonishing story it contains to the
+world. Speaking for myself, I have read it with very mixed feelings;
+for though it is a great relief to know that he and Good are alive and
+strangely prosperous, I cannot but feel that for me and for all their
+friends they might as well be dead, since we can never hope to see them
+more.
+
+They have cut themselves off from old England and from their homes and
+their relations for ever, and perhaps, under the circumstances, they
+were right and wise to do so.
+
+How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover; but
+I presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, that the little
+Frenchman, Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journey in safety. I
+have, however, advertised for him and caused various inquiries to be
+made in Marseilles and elsewhere with a view of discovering his
+whereabouts, but so far without the slightest success. Possibly he is
+dead, and the packet was posted by another hand; or possibly he is now
+happily wedded to his Annette, but still fears the vengeance of the
+law, and prefers to remain incognito. I cannot say, I have not yet
+abandoned my hopes of finding him, but I am bound to say that they grow
+fainter day by day, and one great obstacle to my search is that nowhere
+in the whole history does Mr Quatermain mention his surname. He is
+always spoken of as “Alphonse”, and there are so many Alphonses. The
+letters which my brother Henry says he is sending with the packet of
+manuscript have never arrived, so I presume that they are lost or
+destroyed.
+
+George Curtis
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES
+
+
+A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his “Quellen”.
+As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in the past, some
+reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge my
+indebtedness to Mr Thomson’s admirable history of travel “Through Masai
+Land” for much information as to the habits and customs of the tribes
+inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and the country where they
+live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard, RN, HBM’s consul at
+Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished by
+him of the mode of life and war of those engaging people the Masai;
+also to my sister-in-law, Mrs John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of
+p. 183 into rhyme for me; also to an extract in a review from some book
+of travel of which I cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea
+of the great crabs in the valley of the subterranean river.[24] But if
+I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritated projected their
+eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that I was not able to
+“plagiarize” this effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and
+doubtless do, behave thus in real life, in romance they “will not do
+so.”
+
+ [24] It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the
+ ‘Falcon’, with which work I am personally unacquainted.
+
+There is an underground river in “Peter Wilkins”, but at the time of
+writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaint but entertaining
+work.
+
+It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similarity between
+the scene of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with his axe and a scene
+in Far from the Madding Crowd. I regret this coincidence, and believe
+that the talented author of that work will not be inclined to accuse me
+of literary immorality on its account.
+
+Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain’s little Frenchman appears to
+belong to the same class of beings as those English ladies whose long
+yellow teeth and feet of enormous size excite our hearty amusement in
+the pages of the illustrated Gallic press.
+
+The Writer of “Allan Quatermain.”
+
+
+
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
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+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Allan Quatermain</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November, 1996 [eBook #711]<br />
+[Most recently updated: December 29, 2020]</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Ng E-Ching, Singapore and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:55%;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>Allan Quatermain</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by H. Rider Haggard</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#pref01">INTRODUCTION</a><br /><br /></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. THE CONSUL&rsquo;S YARN</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. THE BLACK HAND</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. THE MISSION STATION</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. THE NIGHT WEARS ON</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. ALPHONSE EXPLAINS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. INTO THE UNKNOWN</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. THE ROSE OF FIRE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. THE FROWNING CITY</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE SISTER QUEENS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. THE FLOWER TEMPLE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. SORAIS&rsquo; SONG</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. BEFORE THE STATUE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII. THE STORM BREAKS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII. WAR! RED WAR!</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX. A STRANGE WEDDING</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX. THE BATTLE OF THE PASS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XI. AWAY! AWAY!</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XII. HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XIII. I HAVE SPOKEN</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap24">CHAPTER XIV. BY ANOTHER HAND</a><br /><br /></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap25">NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap26">AUTHORITIES</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="center">
+I inscribe this book of adventure to my son<br />ARTHUR JOHN RIDER HAGGARD
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+in the hope that in days to come he, and many other boys whom I shall never
+know, may, in the acts and thoughts of Allan Quatermain and his companions, as
+herein recorded, find something to help him and them to reach to what, with Sir
+Henry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank whereto we can attain&mdash;the
+state and dignity of English gentlemen.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="pref01"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p class="right">
+December 23
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I was so proud,
+and my heart is broken. It is very hard having only one son to lose him thus,
+but God&rsquo;s will be done. Who am I that I should complain? The great wheel
+of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all in turn, some soon, some
+late&mdash;it does not matter when, in the end, it crushes us all. We do not
+prostrate ourselves before it like the poor Indians; we fly hither and
+thither&mdash;we cry for mercy; but it is of no use, the black Fate thunders on
+and in its season reduces us to powder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening to him. He was
+doing so well at the hospital, he had passed his last examination with honours,
+and I was proud of them, much prouder than he was, I think. And then he must
+needs go to that smallpox hospital. He wrote to me that he was not afraid of
+smallpox and wanted to gain the experience; and now the disease has killed him,
+and I, old and grey and withered, am left to mourn over him, without a chick or
+child to comfort me. I might have saved him, too&mdash;I have money enough for
+both of us, and much more than enough&mdash;King Solomon&rsquo;s Mines provided
+me with that; but I said, &lsquo;No, let the boy earn his living, let him
+labour that he may enjoy rest.&rsquo; But the rest has come to him before the
+labour. Oh, my boy, my boy!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and builded
+barns&mdash;goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in; and now his
+soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate. I would that it had been
+my soul and not my boy&rsquo;s!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey and ancient
+tower of the church of this village where my house is. It was a dreary December
+afternoon, and the sky was heavy with snow, but not much was falling. The
+coffin was put down by the grave, and a few big flakes lit upon it. They looked
+very white upon the black cloth! There was a little hitch about getting the
+coffin down into the grave&mdash;the necessary ropes had been forgotten: so we
+drew back from it, and waited in silence watching the big flakes fall gently
+one by one like heavenly benedictions, and melt in tears on Harry&rsquo;s pall.
+But that was not all. A robin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon
+the coffin and began to sing. And then I am afraid that I broke down, and so
+did Sir Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as for Captain Good, I saw
+him turn away too; even in my own distress I could not help noticing it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+The above, signed &ldquo;Allan Quatermain&rdquo;, is an extract from my diary
+written two years and more ago. I copy it down here because it seems to me that
+it is the fittest beginning to the history that I am about to write, if it
+please God to spare me to finish it. If not, well it does not matter. That
+extract was penned seven thousand miles or so from the spot where I now lie
+painfully and slowly writing this, with a pretty girl standing by my side
+fanning the flies from my august countenance. Harry is there and I am here, and
+yet somehow I cannot help feeling that I am not far off Harry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house&mdash;at least I call
+it a fine house, speaking comparatively, and judging from the standard of the
+houses I have been accustomed to all my life in Africa&mdash;not five hundred
+yards from the old church where Harry is asleep, and thither I went after the
+funeral and ate some food; for it is no good starving even if one has just
+buried all one&rsquo;s earthly hopes. But I could not eat much, and soon I took
+to walking, or rather limping&mdash;being permanently lame from the bite of a
+lion&mdash;up and down, up and down the oak-panelled vestibule; for there is a
+vestibule in my house in England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were
+placed pairs of horns&mdash;about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which I
+had shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I never keep any horns which
+are not in every way perfect, unless it may be now and again on account of the
+associations connected with them. In the centre of the room, however, over the
+wide fireplace, there was a clear space left on which I had fixed up all my
+rifles. Some of them I have had for forty years, old muzzle-loaders that nobody
+would look at nowadays. One was an elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green
+hide, lashed round the stock and locks, such as used to be owned by the
+Dutchmen&mdash;a &ldquo;roer&rdquo; they call it. That gun, the Boer I bought
+it from many years ago told me, had been used by his father at the battle of
+the Blood River, just after Dingaan swept into Natal and slaughtered six
+hundred men, women, and children, so that the Boers named the place where they
+died &ldquo;Weenen&rdquo;, or the &ldquo;Place of Weeping&rdquo;; and so it is
+called to this day, and always will be called. And many an elephant have I shot
+with that old gun. She always took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce
+ball, and kicked like the very deuce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the horns which the guns
+had brought low; and as I did so there rose up in me a great craving:&mdash;I
+would go away from this place where I lived idly and at ease, back again to the
+wild land where I had spent my life, where I met my dear wife and poor Harry
+was born, and so many things, good, bad, and indifferent, had happened to me.
+The thirst for the wilderness was on me; I could tolerate this place no more; I
+would go and die as I had lived, among the wild game and the savages. Yes, as I
+walked, I began to long to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the
+wide veldt and mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of game travelling
+down the ridges to the water. The ruling passion is strong in death, they say,
+and my heart was dead that night. But, independently of my trouble, no man who
+has for forty years lived the life I have, can with impunity go coop himself in
+this prim English country, with its trim hedgerows and cultivated fields, its
+stiff formal manners, and its well-dressed crowds. He begins to long&mdash;ah,
+how he longs!&mdash;for the keen breath of the desert air; he dreams of the
+sight of Zulu impis breaking on their foes like surf upon the rocks, and his
+heart rises up in rebellion against the strict limits of the civilized life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to? For forty years and more I
+lived among savages, and studied them and their ways; and now for several years
+I have lived here in England, and have in my own stupid manner done my best to
+learn the ways of the children of light; and what have I found? A great gulf
+fixed? No, only a very little one, that a plain man&rsquo;s thought may spring
+across. I say that as the savage is, so is the white man, only the latter is
+more inventive, and possesses the faculty of combination; save and except also
+that the savage, as I have known him, is to a large extent free from the greed
+of money, which eats like a cancer into the heart of the white man. It is a
+depressing conclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the child of
+civilization are identical. I dare say that the highly civilized lady reading
+this will smile at an old fool of a hunter&rsquo;s simplicity when she thinks
+of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so will the superfine cultured idler
+scientifically eating a dinner at his club, the cost of which would keep a
+starving family for a week. And yet, my dear young lady, what are those pretty
+things round your own neck?&mdash;they have a strong family resemblance,
+especially when you wear that <i>very</i> low dress, to the savage
+woman&rsquo;s beads. Your habit of turning round and round to the sound of
+horns and tom-toms, your fondness for pigments and powders, the way in which
+you love to subjugate yourself to the rich warrior who has captured you in
+marriage, and the quickness with which your taste in feathered head-dresses
+varies&mdash;all these things suggest touches of kinship; and you remember that
+in the fundamental principles of your nature you are quite identical. As for
+you, sir, who also laugh, let some man come and strike you in the face whilst
+you are enjoying that marvellous-looking dish, and we shall soon see how much
+of the savage there is in <i>you</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good? Civilization is only
+savagery silver-gilt. A vainglory is it, and like a northern light, comes but
+to fade and leave the sky more dark. Out of the soil of barbarism it has grown
+like a tree, and, as I believe, into the soil like a tree it will once more,
+sooner or later, fall again, as the Egyptian civilization fell, as the Hellenic
+civilization fell, and as the Roman civilization and many others of which the
+world has now lost count, fell also. Do not let me, however, be understood as
+decrying our modern institutions, representing as they do the gathered
+experience of humanity applied for the good of all. Of course they have great
+advantages&mdash;hospitals for instance; but then, remember, we breed the
+sickly people who fill them. In a savage land they do not exist. Besides, the
+question will arise: How many of these blessings are due to Christianity as
+distinct from civilization? And so the balance sways and the story
+runs&mdash;here a gain, there a loss, and Nature&rsquo;s great average struck
+across the two, whereof the sum total forms one of the factors in that mighty
+equation in which the result will equal the unknown quantity of her purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I make no apology for this digression, especially as this is an introduction
+which all young people and those who never like to think (and it is a bad
+habit) will naturally skip. It seems to me very desirable that we should
+sometimes try to understand the limitations of our nature, so that we may not
+be carried away by the pride of knowledge. Man&rsquo;s cleverness is almost
+indefinite, and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is like an
+iron ring. You can go round and round it, you can polish it highly, you can
+even flatten it a little on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the
+other, but you will <i>never</i>, while the world endures and man is man,
+increase its total circumference. It is the one fixed unchangeable
+thing&mdash;fixed as the stars, more enduring than the mountains, as
+unalterable as the way of the Eternal. Human nature is God&rsquo;s
+kaleidoscope, and the little bits of coloured glass which represent our
+passions, hopes, fears, joys, aspirations towards good and evil and what not,
+are turned in His mighty hand as surely and as certainly as it turns the stars,
+and continually fall into new patterns and combinations. But the composing
+elements remain the same, nor will there be one more bit of coloured glass nor
+one less for ever and ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselves into
+twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we must look to the nineteen
+savage portions of our nature, if we would really understand ourselves, and not
+to the twentieth, which, though so insignificant in reality, is spread all over
+the other nineteen, making them appear quite different from what they really
+are, as the blacking does a boot, or the veneer a table. It is on the nineteen
+rough serviceable savage portions that we fall back in emergencies, not on the
+polished but unsubstantial twentieth. Civilization should wipe away our tears,
+and yet we weep and cannot be comforted. Warfare is abhorrent to her, and yet
+we strike out for hearth and home, for honour and fair fame, and can glory in
+the blow. And so on, through everything.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in the dust,
+civilization fails us utterly. Back, back, we creep, and lay us like little
+children on the great breast of Nature, she that perchance may soothe us and
+make us forget, or at least rid remembrance of its sting. Who has not in his
+great grief felt a longing to look upon the outward features of the universal
+Mother; to lie on the mountains and watch the clouds drive across the sky and
+hear the rollers break in thunder on the shore, to let his poor struggling life
+mingle for a while in her life; to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and
+to forget his woes, and let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptibly
+moving energy of her of whom we are, from whom we came, and with whom we shall
+again be mingled, who gave us birth, and will in a day to come give us our
+burial also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelled vestibule of my
+house there in Yorkshire, I longed once more to throw myself into the arms of
+Nature. Not the Nature which you know, the Nature that waves in well-kept woods
+and smiles out in corn-fields, but Nature as she was in the age when creation
+was complete, undefiled as yet by any human sinks of sweltering humanity. I
+would go again where the wild game was, back to the land whereof none know the
+history, back to the savages, whom I love, although some of them are almost as
+merciless as Political Economy. There, perhaps, I should be able to learn to
+think of poor Harry lying in the churchyard, without feeling as though my heart
+would break in two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shall be no more of
+it. But if you whose eyes may perchance one day fall upon my written thoughts
+have got so far as this, I ask you to persevere, since what I have to tell you
+is not without its interest, and it has never been told before, nor will again.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+THE CONSUL&rsquo;S YARN</h2>
+
+<p>
+A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and one evening I was
+in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there was a ring at the outer
+door. Going down the steps I opened it myself, and in came my old friends Sir
+Henry Curtis and Captain John Good, RN. They entered the vestibule and sat
+themselves down before the wide hearth, where, I remember, a particularly good
+fire of logs was burning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is very kind of you to come round,&rdquo; I said by way of making a
+remark; &ldquo;it must have been heavy walking in the snow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and lit it with a
+burning ember. As he leant forward to do so the fire got hold of a gassy bit of
+pine and flared up brightly, throwing the whole scene into strong relief, and I
+thought, What a splendid-looking man he is! Calm, powerful face, clear-cut
+features, large grey eyes, yellow beard and hair&mdash;altogether a magnificent
+specimen of the higher type of humanity. Nor did his form belie his face. I
+have never seen wider shoulders or a deeper chest. Indeed, Sir Henry&rsquo;s
+girth is so great that, though he is six feet two high, he does not strike one
+as a tall man. As I looked at him I could not help thinking what a curious
+contrast my little dried-up self presented to his grand face and form. Imagine
+to yourself a small, withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thin
+hands, large brown eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and standing up like
+a half-worn scrubbing-brush&mdash;total weight in my clothes, nine stone
+six&mdash;and you will get a very fair idea of Allan Quatermain, commonly
+called Hunter Quatermain, or by the natives
+&ldquo;Macumazahn&rdquo;&mdash;Anglicè, he who keeps a bright look-out at
+night, or, in vulgar English, a sharp fellow who is not to be taken in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short, dark,
+stout&mdash;<i>very</i> stout&mdash;with twinkling black eyes, in one of which
+an eyeglass is everlastingly fixed. I say stout, but it is a mild term; I
+regret to state that of late years Good has been running to fat in a most
+disgraceful way. Sir Henry tells him that it comes from idleness and
+over-feeding, and Good does not like it at all, though he cannot deny it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that stood ready on
+the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary, as it is apt to do when one
+has a short week ago buried the hope of one&rsquo;s life. Next, I opened a
+cupboard in the wainscoting and got a bottle of whisky and some tumblers and
+water. I always like to do these things for myself: it is irritating to me to
+have somebody continually at my elbow, as though I were an eighteen-month-old
+baby. All this while Curtis and Good had been silent, feeling, I suppose, that
+they had nothing to say that could do me any good, and content to give me the
+comfort of their presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only their second
+visit since the funeral. And it is, by the way, from the <i>presence</i> of
+others that we really derive support in our dark hours of grief, and not from
+their talk, which often only serves to irritate us. Before a bad storm the game
+always herd together, but they cease their calling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood by the fire also
+smoking and looking at them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I spoke. &ldquo;Old friends,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;how long is it since
+we got back from Kukuanaland?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Three years,&rdquo; said Good. &ldquo;Why do you ask?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell of
+civilization. I am going back to the veldt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed one of his deep
+laughs. &ldquo;How very odd,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;eh, Good?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured, &ldquo;Yes,
+odd&mdash;very odd.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t quite understand,&rdquo; said I, looking from one to the
+other, for I dislike mysteries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you, old fellow?&rdquo; said Sir Henry; &ldquo;then I will
+explain. As Good and I were walking up here we had a talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If Good was there you probably did,&rdquo; I put in sarcastically, for
+Good is a great hand at talking. &ldquo;And what may it have been about?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you think?&rdquo; asked Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head. It was not likely that I should know what Good might be
+talking about. He talks about so many things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed&mdash;namely, that
+if you were willing we should pack up our traps and go off to Africa on another
+expedition.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I fairly jumped at his words. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t say so!&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don&rsquo;t you, Good?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rather,&rdquo; said that gentleman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen, old fellow,&rdquo; went on Sir Henry, with considerable
+animation of manner. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of it too, dead-tired of doing
+nothing more except play the squire in a country that is sick of squires. For a
+year or more I have been getting as restless as an old elephant who scents
+danger. I am always dreaming of Kukuanaland and Gagool and King Solomon&rsquo;s
+Mines. I can assure you I have become the victim of an almost unaccountable
+craving. I am sick of shooting pheasants and partridges, and want to have a go
+at some large game again. There, you know the feeling&mdash;when one has once
+tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid to the palate. That year we spent
+together up in Kukuanaland seems to me worth all the other years of my life put
+together. I dare say that I am a fool for my pains, but I can&rsquo;t help it;
+I long to go, and, what is more, I mean to go.&rdquo; He paused, and then went
+on again. &ldquo;And, after all, why should I not go? I have no wife or parent,
+no chick or child to keep me. If anything happens to me the baronetcy will go
+to my brother George and his boy, as it would ultimately do in any case. I am
+of no importance to any one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I thought you would come to that sooner or
+later. And now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; have you got
+one?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have,&rdquo; said Good, solemnly. &ldquo;I never do anything without a
+reason; and it isn&rsquo;t a lady&mdash;at least, if it is, it&rsquo;s
+several.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked at him again. Good is so overpoweringly frivolous. &ldquo;What is
+it?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, if you really want to know, though I&rsquo;d rather not speak of a
+delicate and strictly personal matter, I&rsquo;ll tell you: I&rsquo;m getting
+too fat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shut up, Good!&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;And now, Quatermain, tell
+us, where do you propose going to?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know the place,&rdquo; said Good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?&rdquo; I asked again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No. Stop, though&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it a place about 300 miles north of
+Zanzibar?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. Now listen. What I have to propose is this. That we go to Lamu and
+thence make our way about 250 miles inland to Mt Kenia; from Mt Kenia on inland
+to Mt Lekakisera, another 200 miles, or thereabouts, beyond which no white man
+has to the best of my belief ever been; and then, if we get so far, right on
+into the unknown interior. What do you say to that, my hearties?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big order,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, reflectively.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are right,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;it is; but I take it that we
+are all three of us in search of a big order. We want a change of scene, and we
+are likely to get one&mdash;a thorough change. All my life I have longed to
+visit those parts, and I mean to do it before I die. My poor boy&rsquo;s death
+has broken the last link between me and civilization, and I&rsquo;m off to my
+native wilds. And now I&rsquo;ll tell you another thing, and that is, that for
+years and years I have heard rumours of a great white race which is supposed to
+have its home somewhere up in this direction, and I have a mind to see if there
+is any truth in them. If you fellows like to come, well and good; if not,
+I&rsquo;ll go alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m your man, though I don&rsquo;t believe in your white
+race,&rdquo; said Sir Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my
+shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ditto,&rdquo; remarked Good. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go into training at once.
+By all means let&rsquo;s go to Mt Kenia and the other place with an
+unpronounceable name, and look for a white race that does not exist. It&rsquo;s
+all one to me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When do you propose to start?&rdquo; asked Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This day month,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;by the British India
+steamboat; and don&rsquo;t you be so certain that things have no existence
+because you do not happen to have heard of them. Remember King Solomon&rsquo;s
+mines!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this conversation, and
+this history goes on its way in very different surroundings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion that our best
+starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood of the mouth of the
+Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place over 100 miles nearer Zanzibar. This
+conclusion we arrived at from information given to us by a German trader whom
+we met upon the steamer at Aden. I think that he was the dirtiest German I ever
+knew; but he was a good fellow, and gave us a great deal of valuable
+information. &ldquo;Lamu,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you goes to Lamu&mdash;oh ze
+beautiful place!&rdquo; and he turned up his fat face and beamed with mild
+rapture. &ldquo;One year and a half I live there and never change my
+shirt&mdash;never at all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarked with all
+our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go, marched boldly up to the
+house of Her Majesty&rsquo;s Consul, where we were most hospitably received.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand out most clearly in my
+memory in connection with it are its exceeding dirtiness and its smells. These
+last are simply awful. Just below the Consulate is the beach, or rather a mud
+bank that is called a beach. It is left quite bare at low tide, and serves as a
+repository for all the filth, offal, and refuse of the town. Here it is, too,
+that the women come to bury coconuts in the mud, leaving them there till the
+outer husk is quite rotten, when they dig them up again and use the fibres to
+make mats with, and for various other purposes. As this process has been going
+on for generations, the condition of the shore can be better imagined than
+described. I have smelt many evil odours in the course of my life, but the
+concentrated essence of stench which arose from that beach at Lamu as we sat in
+the moonlit night&mdash;not under, but <i>on</i> our friend the Consul&rsquo;s
+hospitable roof&mdash;and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them very poor
+and faint. No wonder people get fever at Lamu. And yet the place was not
+without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, though possibly&mdash;indeed
+probably&mdash;it was one which would quickly pall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?&rdquo; asked our friend the
+hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,&rdquo;
+answered Sir Henry. &ldquo;Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about there
+being a white race up in the unknown territories beyond.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard something of that,
+too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What have you heard?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so ago I got a
+letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, &lsquo;The
+Highlands&rsquo;, is placed at the highest navigable point of the Tana River,
+in which he said something about it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you the letter?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man had arrived
+at his station who declared that two months&rsquo; journey beyond Mt
+Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited&mdash;at least, so far as I
+know&mdash;he found a lake called Laga, and that then he went off to the
+north-east, a month&rsquo;s journey, over desert and thorn veldt and great
+mountains, till he came to a country where the people are white and live in
+stone houses. Here he was hospitably entertained for a while, till at last the
+priests of the country set it about that he was a devil, and the people drove
+him away, and he journeyed for eight months and reached Mackenzie&rsquo;s
+place, as I heard, dying. That&rsquo;s all I know; and if you ask me, I believe
+that it is a lie; but if you want to find out more about it, you had better go
+up the Tana to Mackenzie&rsquo;s place and ask him for information.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry and I looked at each other. Here was something tangible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; answered the Consul, &ldquo;that is your best way, but I
+warn you that you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear that the Masai
+are about, and, as you know, they are not pleasant customers. Your best plan
+will be to choose a few picked men for personal servants and hunters, and to
+hire bearers from village to village. It will give you an infinity of trouble,
+but perhaps on the whole it will prove a cheaper and more advantageous course
+than engaging a caravan, and you will be less liable to desertion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a party of Wakwafi Askari
+(soldiers). The Wakwafi, who are a cross between the Masai and the Wataveta,
+are a fine manly race, possessing many of the good qualities of the Zulu, and a
+great capacity for civilization. They are also great hunters. As it happened,
+these particular men had recently been on a long trip with an Englishman named
+Jutson, who had started from Mombasa, a port about 150 miles below Lamu, and
+journeyed right round Kilimanjaro, one of the highest known mountains in
+Africa. Poor fellow, he had died of fever when on his return journey, and
+within a day&rsquo;s march of Mombasa. It does seem hard that he should have
+gone off thus when within a few hours of safety, and after having survived so
+many perils, but so it was. His hunters buried him, and then came on to Lamu in
+a dhow. Our friend the Consul suggested to us that we had better try and hire
+these men, and accordingly on the following morning we started to interview the
+party, accompanied by an interpreter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts of the town. Three of
+the men were sitting outside the hut, and fine frank-looking fellows they were,
+having a more or less civilized appearance. To them we cautiously opened the
+object of our visit, at first with very scant success. They declared that they
+could not entertain any such idea, that they were worn and weary with long
+travelling, and that their hearts were sore at the loss of their master. They
+meant to go back to their homes and rest awhile. This did not sound very
+promising, so by way of effecting a diversion I asked where the remainder of
+them were. I was told there were six, and I saw but three. One of the men said
+they slept in the hut, and were yet resting after their
+labours&mdash;&ldquo;sleep weighed down their eyelids, and sorrow made their
+hearts as lead: it was best to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness. But
+the men should be awakened.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently they came out of the hut, yawning&mdash;the first two men being
+evidently of the same race and style as those already before us; but the
+appearance of the third and last nearly made me jump out of my skin. He was a
+very tall, broad man, quite six foot three, I should say, but gaunt, with lean,
+wiry-looking limbs. My first glance at him told me that he was no Wakwafi: he
+was a pure bred Zulu. He came out with his thin aristocratic-looking hand
+placed before his face to hide a yawn, so I could only see that he was a
+&ldquo;Keshla&rdquo; or ringed man,<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+and that he had a great three-cornered hole in his forehead. In another second
+he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zulu face, with a humorous
+mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged with grey, and a pair of brown eyes keen as
+a hawk&rsquo;s. I knew my man at once, although I had not seen him for twelve
+years. &ldquo;How do you do, Umslopogaas?&rdquo; I said quietly in Zulu.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">[1]</a>
+Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a species of black gum
+twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliant black, when he has reached a
+certain dignity and age, or is the husband of a sufficient number of wives.
+Till he is in a position to wear a ring he is looked on as a boy, though he may
+be thirty-five years of age, or even more.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known as the
+&ldquo;Woodpecker&rdquo;, and also as the &ldquo;Slaughterer&rdquo;) started,
+and almost let the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fall in his
+astonishment. Next second he had recognized me, and was saluting me in an
+outburst of sonorous language which made his companions the Wakwafi stare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Koos&rdquo; (chief), he began, &ldquo;Koos-y-Pagete! Koos-y-umcool!
+(Chief from of old&mdash;mighty chief) Koos! Baba! (father) Macumazahn, old
+hunter, slayer of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one! watchful one! brave
+one! quick one! whose shot never misses, who strikes straight home, who grasps
+a hand and holds it to the death (i.e. is a true friend) Koos! Baba! Wise is
+the voice of our people that says, &lsquo;Mountain never meets with mountain,
+but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with man.&rsquo; Behold! a
+messenger came up from Natal, &lsquo;Macumazahn is dead!&rsquo; cried he.
+&lsquo;The land knows Macumazahn no more.&rsquo; That is years ago. And now,
+behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn, my friend. There
+is no room for doubt. The brush of the old jackal has gone a little grey; but
+is not his eye as keen, and are not his teeth as sharp? Ha! ha! Macumazahn,
+mindest thou how thou didst plant the ball in the eye of the charging
+buffalo&mdash;mindest thou&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm was producing a
+marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi, who appeared to understand
+something of his talk; but now I thought it time to put a stop to it, for there
+is nothing that I hate so much as this Zulu system of extravagant
+praising&mdash;&ldquo;bongering&rdquo; as they call it. &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo;
+I said. &ldquo;Has all thy noisy talk been stopped up since last I saw thee
+that it breaks out thus, and sweeps us away? What doest thou here with these
+men&mdash;thou whom I left a chief in Zululand? How is it that thou art far
+from thine own place, and gathered together with strangers?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe (which was
+nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handle of rhinoceros horn), and
+his grim face grew sad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My Father,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I have a word to tell thee, but I
+cannot speak it before these low people (umfagozana),&rdquo; and he glanced at
+the Wakwafi Askari; &ldquo;it is for thine own ear. My Father, this will I
+say,&rdquo; and here his face grew stern again, &ldquo;a woman betrayed me to
+the death, and covered my name with shame&mdash;ay, my own wife, a round-faced
+girl, betrayed me; but I escaped from death; ay, I broke from the very hands of
+those who came to slay me. I struck but three blows with this mine axe
+Inkosikaas&mdash;surely my Father will remember it&mdash;one to the right, one
+to the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead. And then I fled,
+and, as my Father knows, even now that I am old my feet are as the feet of the
+Sassaby,<a href="#fn-2" name="fnref-2" id="fnref-2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> and
+there breathes not the man who, by running, can touch me again when once I have
+bounded from his side. On I sped, and after me came the messengers of death,
+and their voice was as the voice of dogs that hunt. From my own kraal I flew,
+and, as I passed, she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring. I
+fleeted by her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smote with mine axe,
+and lo! her head fell: it fell into the water pan. Then I fled north. Day after
+day I journeyed on; for three moons I journeyed, resting not, stopping not, but
+running on towards forgetfulness, till I met the party of the white hunter who
+is now dead, and am come hither with his servants. And nought have I brought
+with me. I who was high-born, ay, of the blood of Chaka, the great king&mdash;a
+chief, and a captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi&mdash;am a wanderer in
+strange places, a man without a kraal. Nought have I brought save this mine
+axe; of all my belongings this remains alone. They have divided my cattle; they
+have taken my wives; and my children know my face no more. Yet with this
+axe&rdquo;&mdash;and he swung the formidable weapon round his head, making the
+air hiss as he clove it&mdash;&ldquo;will I cut another path to fortune. I have
+spoken.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-2" id="fn-2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2">[2]</a>
+One of the fleetest of the African antelopes.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head at him. &ldquo;Umslopogaas,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I know thee
+from of old. Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fear me that thou
+hast overreached thyself at last. Years ago, when thou wouldst have plotted
+against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warned thee, and thou didst listen. But now,
+when I was not by thee to stay thy hand, thou hast dug a pit for thine own feet
+to fall in. Is it not so? But what is done is done. Who can make the dead tree
+green, or gaze again upon last year&rsquo;s light? Who can recall the spoken
+word, or bring back the spirit of the fallen? That which Time swallows comes
+not up again. Let it be forgotten!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warrior and a
+brave man, faithful to the death. Even in Zululand, where all the men are
+brave, they called thee the &lsquo;Slaughterer&rsquo;, and at night told
+stories round the fire of thy strength and deeds. Hear me now. Thou seest this
+great man, my friend&rdquo;&mdash;and I pointed to Sir Henry; &ldquo;he also is
+a warrior as great as thou, and, strong as thou art, he could throw thee over
+his shoulder. Incubu is his name. And thou seest this one also; him with the
+round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant face. Bougwan (glass eye) is
+his name, and a good man is he and a true, being of a curious tribe who pass
+their life upon the water, and live in floating kraals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo Egere, the
+great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the unknown beyond. We know not
+what we shall find there; we go to hunt and seek adventures, and new places,
+being tired of sitting still, with the same old things around us. Wilt thou
+come with us? To thee shall be given command of all our servants; but what
+shall befall thee, that I know not. Once before we three journeyed thus, in
+search of adventure, and we took with us a man such as thou&mdash;one Umbopa;
+and, behold, we left him the king of a great country, with twenty Impis
+(regiments), each of 3,000 plumed warriors, waiting on his word. How it shall
+go with thee, I know not; mayhap death awaits thee and us. Wilt thou throw
+thyself to Fortune and come, or fearest thou, Umslopogaas?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The great man smiled. &ldquo;Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,&rdquo;
+he said; &ldquo;I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition that led me
+to my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to say it, a fair woman&rsquo;s
+face. Let it pass. So we are going to see something like the old times again,
+Macumazahn, when we fought and hunted in Zululand? Ay, I will come. Come life,
+come death, what care I, so that the blows fall fast and the blood runs red? I
+grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought enough! And yet am I a warrior
+among warriors; see my scars&rdquo;&mdash;and he pointed to countless
+cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skin of his chest and legs and
+arms. &ldquo;See the hole in my head; the brains gushed out therefrom, yet did
+I slay him who smote, and live. Knowest thou how many men I have slain, in fair
+hand-to-hand combat, Macumazahn? See, here is the tale of them&rdquo;&mdash;and
+he pointed to long rows of notches cut in the rhinoceros-horn handle of his
+axe. &ldquo;Number them, Macumazahn&mdash;one hundred and three&mdash;and I
+have never counted but those whom I have ripped open,<a href="#fn-3" name="fnref-3" id="fnref-3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+nor have I reckoned those whom another man had struck.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-3" id="fn-3"></a> <a href="#fnref-3">[3]</a>
+Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a dead foe. They have a
+superstition that, if this is not done, as the body of their enemy swells up so
+will the bodies of those who killed him swell up.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be silent,&rdquo; I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever
+on him; &ldquo;be silent; well art thou called the &lsquo;Slaughterer&rsquo;.
+We would not hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comest with us, we
+fight not save in self-defence. Listen, we need servants. These men,&rdquo; and
+I pointed to the Wakwafi, who had retired a little way during our
+&ldquo;indaba&rdquo; (talk), &ldquo;say they will not come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will not come!&rdquo; shouted Umslopogaas; &ldquo;where is the dog who
+says he will not come when my Father orders? Here, thou&rdquo;&mdash;and with a
+single bound he sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first spoken, and,
+seizing him by the arm, dragged him towards us. &ldquo;Thou dog!&rdquo; he
+said, giving the terrified man a shake, &ldquo;didst thou say that thou wouldst
+not go with my Father? Say it once more and I will choke thee&rdquo;&mdash;and
+his long fingers closed round his throat as he said it&mdash;&ldquo;thee, and
+those with thee. Hast thou forgotten how I served thy brother?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, we will come with the white man,&rdquo; gasped the man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;White man!&rdquo; went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a very
+little provocation would have made real enough; &ldquo;of whom speakest thou,
+insolent dog?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, we will go with the great chief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So!&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released
+his hold, so that the man fell backward. &ldquo;I thought you would.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency over his
+companions,&rdquo; Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+THE BLACK HAND</h2>
+
+<p>
+In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found ourselves at a
+spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having gone through many adventures
+which need not be recorded here. Amongst other things we visited a ruined city,
+of which there are many on this coast, and which must once, to judge from their
+extent and the numerous remains of mosques and stone houses, have been very
+populous places. These ruined cities are immeasurably ancient, having, I
+believe, been places of wealth and importance as far back as the Old Testament
+times, when they were centres of trade with India and elsewhere. But their
+glory has departed now&mdash;the slave trade has finished them&mdash;and where
+wealthy merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and
+bargained in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court at night, and
+instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager voices of the bidders, his
+awful note goes echoing down the ruined corridors. At this particular place we
+discovered on a mound, covered up with rank growth and rubbish, two of the most
+beautiful stone doorways that it is possible to conceive. The carving on them
+was simply exquisite, and I only regret that we had no means of getting them
+away. No doubt they had once been the entrances to a palace, of which, however,
+no traces were now to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising
+mound.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like the nobles and the
+ladies who lived within their gates, these cities have had their day, and now
+they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris will one day be.
+Nothing may endure. That is the inexorable law. Men and women, empires and
+cities, thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomed
+seas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their day, and all must go. In
+this ruined and forgotten place the moralist may behold a symbol of the
+universal destiny. For this system of ours allows no room for standing
+still&mdash;nothing can loiter on the road and check the progress of things
+upwards towards Life, or the rush of things downwards towards Death. The stern
+policeman Fate moves us and them on, on, uphill and downhill and across the
+level; there is no resting-place for the weary feet, till at last the abyss
+swallows us, and from the shores of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea
+of the Eternal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers we had hired
+to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort large extra payment from us.
+In the result he threatened to set the Masai&mdash;about whom more
+anon&mdash;on to us. That night he, with all our hired bearers, ran away,
+stealing most of the goods which had been entrusted to them to carry. Luckily,
+however, they had not happened to steal our rifles, ammunition, and personal
+effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling on their part, but owing to the
+fact that they chanced to be in the charge of the five Wakwafis. After that, it
+was clear to us that we had had enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we
+had not much left for a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Good who solved the question. &ldquo;Here is water,&rdquo; he said,
+pointing to the Tana River; &ldquo;and yesterday I saw a party of natives
+hunting hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s mission
+station is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoes and paddle up to
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with acclamation; and
+I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes from the surrounding natives. I
+succeeded after a delay of three days in obtaining two large ones, each
+hollowed out of a single log of some light wood, and capable of holding six
+people and baggage. For these two canoes we had to pay nearly all our remaining
+cloth, and also many other articles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected a start. In the
+first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three of our Wakwafi followers; in the
+second myself, Umslopogaas, and the other two Wakwafis. As our course lay
+upstream, we had to keep four paddles at work in each canoe, which meant that
+the whole lot of us, except Good, had to row away like galley-slaves; and very
+exhausting work it was. I say, except Good, for, of course, the moment that
+Good got into a boat his foot was on his native heath, and he took command of
+the party. And certainly he worked us. On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered
+man, and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in a boat was a
+perfect demon. To begin with, he knew all about it, and we didn&rsquo;t. On all
+nautical subjects, from the torpedo fittings of a man-of-war down to the best
+way of handling the paddle of an African canoe, he was a perfect mine of
+information, which, to say the least of it, we were not. Also his ideas of
+discipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he came the royal naval officer
+over us pretty considerably, and paid us out amply for all the chaff we were
+wont to treat him to on land; but, on the other hand, I am bound to say that he
+managed the boats admirably.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some cloth and a couple of
+poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, which lightened our labours not a
+little. But the current ran very strong against us, and at the best we were not
+able to make more than twenty miles a day. Our plan was to start at dawn, and
+paddle along till about half-past ten, by which time the sun got too hot to
+allow of further exertion. Then we moored our canoes to the bank, and ate our
+frugal meal; after which we ate or otherwise amused ourselves till about three
+o&rsquo;clock, when we again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown,
+when we called a halt for the night. On landing in the evening, Good would at
+once set to work, with the help of the Askari, to build a little
+&ldquo;scherm&rdquo;, or small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes, and to
+light a fire. I, with Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, would go out to shoot
+something for the pot. Generally this was an easy task, for all sorts of game
+abounded on the banks of the Tana. One night Sir Henry shot a young
+cow-giraffe, of which the marrow-bones were excellent; on another I got a
+couple of waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction,
+Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile shot with a rifle) managed to
+kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent him. Sometimes we varied our
+food by shooting some guinea-fowl, or bush-bustard (paau)&mdash;both of which
+were numerous&mdash;with a shot-gun, or by catching a supply of beautiful
+yellow fish, with which the waters of the Tana swarmed, and which form, I
+believe, one of the chief food-supplies of the crocodiles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred. We were just drawing
+in to the bank to make our camp as usual for the night, when we caught sight of
+a figure standing on a little knoll not forty yards away, and intensely
+watching our approach. One glance was sufficient&mdash;although I was
+personally unacquainted with the tribe&mdash;to tell me that he was a Masai
+Elmoran, or young warrior. Indeed, had I had any doubts, they would have
+quickly been dispelled by the terrified ejaculation of
+&ldquo;<i>Masai!</i>&rdquo; that burst simultaneously from the lips of our
+Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, themselves bastard Masai.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savage war-gear!
+Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life, I do not think that I have
+ever before seen anything quite so ferocious or awe-inspiring. To begin with,
+the man was enormously tall, quite as tall as Umslopogaas, I should say, and
+beautifully, though somewhat slightly, shaped; but with the face of a devil. In
+his right hand he held a spear about five and a half feet long, the blade being
+two and a half feet in length, by nearly three inches in width, and having an
+iron spike at the end of the handle that measured more than a foot. On his left
+arm was a large and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo hide, on which were
+painted strange heraldic-looking devices. On his shoulders was a huge cape of
+hawk&rsquo;s feathers, and round his neck was a &ldquo;naibere&rdquo;, or strip
+of cotton, about seventeen feet long, by one and a half broad, with a stripe of
+colour running down the middle of it. The tanned goatskin robe, which formed
+his ordinary attire in times of peace, was tied lightly round his waist, so as
+to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck, on the right and
+left sides respectively, his short pear-shaped sime, or sword, which is made of
+a single piece of steel, and carried in a wooden sheath, and an enormous
+knobkerrie. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of his attire consisted of
+a headdress of ostrich-feathers, which was fixed on the chin, and passed in
+front of the ears to the forehead, and, being shaped like an ellipse,
+completely framed the face, so that the diabolical countenance appeared to
+project from a sort of feather fire-screen. Round the ankles he wore black
+fringes of hair, and, projecting from the upper portion of the calves, to which
+they were attached, were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts
+of the beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey. Such was the
+elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watching the approach of our two
+canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen; only those who
+see it do not often live to describe it. Of course I could not make out all
+these details of his full dress on the occasion of this my first introduction,
+being, indeed, amply taken up with the consideration of the general effect, but
+I had plenty of subsequent opportunities of becoming acquainted with the items
+that went to make it up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drew himself up in a
+dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us, and, turning, vanished on the
+further side of the slope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hulloa!&rdquo; holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; &ldquo;our friend
+the caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the Masai after us. Do
+you think it will be safe to go ashore?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had no
+means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we could eat raw, so it was
+difficult to know what to do. At last Umslopogaas simplified matters by
+volunteering to go and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping off into the bush
+like a snake, while we hung off in the stream waiting for him. In half an hour
+he returned, and told us that there was not a Masai to be seen anywhere about,
+but that he had discovered a spot where they had recently been encamped, and
+that from various indications he judged that they must have moved on an hour or
+so before; the man we saw having, no doubt, been left to report upon our
+movements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded to cook and eat our
+evening meal. This done, we took the situation into our serious consideration.
+Of course, it was possible that the apparition of the Masai warrior had nothing
+to do with us, that he was merely one of a band bent upon some marauding and
+murdering expedition against another tribe. But when we recalled the threat of
+the caravan leader, and reflected on the ominous way in which the warrior had
+shaken his spear at us, this did not appear very probable. On the contrary,
+what did seem probable was that the party was after us and awaiting a
+favourable opportunity to attack us. This being so, there were two things that
+we could do&mdash;one of which was to go on, and the other to go back. The
+latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious that we should
+encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance; and, besides, we had made
+up our minds to journey onwards at any price. Under these circumstances,
+however, we did not consider it safe to sleep ashore, so we got into our
+canoes, and, paddling out into the middle of the stream, which was not very
+wide here, managed to anchor them by means of big stones fastened to ropes made
+of coconut-fibre, of which there were several fathoms in each canoe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined with anxiety as
+to our position, effectually prevented me from sleeping as the others were
+doing, notwithstanding the attacks of the aforesaid Tana mosquitoes. And so I
+lay awake, smoking and reflecting on many things, but, being of a practical
+turn of mind, chiefly on how we were to give those Masai villains the slip. It
+was a beautiful moonlight night, and, notwithstanding the mosquitoes, and the
+great risk we were running from fever from sleeping in such a spot, and
+forgetting that I had the cramp very badly in my right leg from squatting in a
+constrained position in the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was sleeping beside
+me smelt horribly, I really began to enjoy myself. The moonbeams played upon
+the surface of the running water that speeded unceasingly past us towards the
+sea, like men&rsquo;s lives towards the grave, till it glittered like a wide
+sheet of silver, that is in the open where the trees threw no shadows. Near the
+banks, however, it was very dark, and the night wind sighed sadly in the reeds.
+To our left, on the further side of the river, was a little sandy bay which was
+clear of trees, and here I could make out the forms of numerous antelopes
+advancing to the water, till suddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon
+they all made off hurriedly. Then after a pause I caught sight of the massive
+form of His Majesty the Lion, coming down to drink his fill after meat.
+Presently he moved on, then came a crashing of the reeds about fifty yards
+above us, and a few minutes later a huge black mass rose out of the water,
+about twenty yards from me, and snorted. It was the head of a hippopotamus.
+Down it went without a sound, only to rise again within five yards of where I
+sat. This was decidedly too near to be comfortable, more especially as the
+hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense curiosity to know what on earth
+our canoes were. He opened his great mouth, to yawn, I suppose, and gave me an
+excellent view of his ivories; and I could not help reflecting how easily he
+could crunch up our frail canoe with a single bite. Indeed, I had half a mind
+to give him a ball from my eight-bore, but on reflection determined to let him
+alone unless he actually charged the boat. Presently he sank again as
+noiselessly as before, and I saw no more of him. Just then, on looking towards
+the bank on our right, I fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting
+between the tree trunks. I have very keen sight, and I was almost sure that I
+saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or man I could not say. At the
+moment, however, a dark cloud passed over the moon, and I saw no more of it.
+Just then, too, although all the other sounds of the forest had ceased, a
+species of horned owl with which I was well acquainted began to hoot with great
+persistency. After that, save for the rustling of trees and reeds when the wind
+caught them, there was complete silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become nervous.
+There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond the ordinary reasons
+which surround the Central African traveller, and yet I undoubtedly was. If
+there is one thing more than another of which I have the most complete and
+entire scorn and disbelief, it is of presentiments, and yet here I was all of a
+sudden filled with and possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of
+approaching evil. I would not give way to it, however, although I felt the cold
+perspiration stand out upon my forehead. I would not arouse the others. Worse
+and worse I grew, my pulse fluttered like a dying man&rsquo;s, my nerves
+thrilled with the horrible sense of impotent terror which anybody who is
+subject to nightmare will be familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my
+fears, and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the bow of the
+canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view of Umslopogaas and the two
+Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside of and beyond me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then the owl hooted
+again in a kind of unnatural screaming note,<a href="#fn-4" name="fnref-4" id="fnref-4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>
+and the wind began to moan plaintively through the trees, making a
+heart-chilling music. Above was the black bosom of the cloud, and beneath me
+swept the black flood of the water, and I felt as though I and Death were
+utterly alone between them. It was very desolate.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-4" id="fn-4"></a> <a href="#fnref-4">[4]</a>
+No doubt this owl was a wingless bird. I afterwards learnt that the hooting of
+an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heart to stand still.
+Was it fancy, or were we moving? I turned my eyes to look for the other canoe
+which should be alongside of us. I could not see it, but instead I saw a lean
+and clutching black hand lifting itself above the gunwale of the little boat.
+Surely it was a nightmare! At the same instant a dim but devilish-looking face
+appeared to rise out of the water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the
+quick flash of a knife, and an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by
+my side (the same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something
+warm spurted into my face. In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that it
+was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by swimming Masai. Snatching at the
+first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be Umslopogaas&rsquo;
+battleaxe, I struck with all my force in the direction in which I had seen the
+flash of the knife. The blow fell upon a man&rsquo;s arm, and, catching it
+against the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely severed it from the
+body just above the wrist. As for its owner, he uttered no sound or cry. Like a
+ghost he came, and like a ghost he went, leaving behind him a bloody hand still
+gripping a great knife, or rather a short sword, that was buried in the heart
+of our poor servant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied, rightly or
+wrongly, that I made out several dark heads gliding away towards the right-hand
+bank, whither we were rapidly drifting, for the rope by which we were moored
+had been severed with a knife. As soon as I had realised this fact, I also
+realised that the scheme had been to cut the boat loose so that it should drift
+on to the right bank (as it would have done with the natural swing of the
+current), where no doubt a party of Masai were waiting to dig their
+shovel-headed spears into us. Seizing one paddle myself, I told Umslopogaas to
+take another (for the remaining Askari was too frightened and bewildered to be
+of any use), and together we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the
+stream; and not an instant too soon, for in another minute we should have been
+aground, and then there would have been an end of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoe upstream again
+to where the other was moored; and very hard and dangerous work it was in the
+dark, and with nothing but the notes of Good&rsquo;s stentorian shouts, which
+he kept firing off at intervals like a fog-horn, to guide us. But at last we
+fetched up, and were thankful to find that they had not been molested at all.
+No doubt the owner of the same hand that severed our rope should have severed
+theirs also, but was led away from his purpose by an irresistible inclination
+to murder when he got the chance, which, while it cost us a man and him his
+hand, undoubtedly saved all the rest of us from massacre. Had it not been for
+that ghastly apparition over the side of the boat&mdash;an apparition that I
+shall never forget till my dying hour&mdash;the canoe would undoubtedly have
+drifted ashore before I realised what had happened, and this history would
+never have been written by me.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+THE MISSION STATION</h2>
+
+<p>
+We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, and sat waiting for
+the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon our merciful escape, which really
+seemed to result more from the special favour of Providence than from our own
+care or prowess. At last it came, and I have not often been more grateful to
+see the light, though so far as my canoe was concerned it revealed a ghastly
+sight. There in the bottom of the little boat lay the unfortunate Askari, the
+sime, or sword, in his bosom, and the severed hand gripping the handle. I could
+not bear the sight, so hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to
+the other canoe, we made it fast to the murdered man and dropped him overboard,
+and down he went to the bottom, leaving nothing but a train of bubbles behind
+him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him leave nothing but bubbles
+behind, to show that we have been, and the bubbles soon burst. The hand of his
+murderer we threw into the stream, where it slowly sank. The sword, of which
+the handle was ivory, inlaid with gold (evidently Arab work), I kept and used
+as a hunting-knife, and very useful it proved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once more started on in
+very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortable as to the future, but
+fondly hoping to arrive at the &ldquo;Highlands&rdquo; station by night. To
+make matters worse, within an hour of sunrise it came on to rain in torrents,
+wetting us to the skin, and even necessitating the occasional baling of the
+canoes, and as the rain beat down the wind we could not use the sails, and had
+to get along as best as we could with our paddles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At eleven o&rsquo;clock we halted on an open piece of ground on the left bank
+of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managed to make a fire and catch
+and broil some fish. We did not dare to wander about to search for game. At two
+o&rsquo;clock we got off again, taking a supply of broiled fish with us, and
+shortly afterwards the rain came on harder than ever. Also the river began to
+get exceedingly difficult to navigate on account of the numerous rocks, reaches
+of shallow water, and the increased force of the current; so that it soon
+became clear to us that we should not reach the Rev. Mackenzie&rsquo;s
+hospitable roof that night&mdash;a prospect that did not tend to enliven us.
+Toil as we would, we could not make more than an average of a mile an hour, and
+at five o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon (by which time we were all utterly worn
+out) we reckoned that we were still quite ten miles below the station. This
+being so, we set to work to make the best arrangements we could for the night.
+After our recent experience, we simply did not dare to land, more especially as
+the banks of the Tana were clothed with dense bush that would have given cover
+to five thousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going to have
+another night of it in the canoes. Fortunately, however, we espied a little
+rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles or so square, situated nearly in the
+middle of the river. For this we paddled, and, making fast the canoes, landed
+and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, which was very
+uncomfortable indeed. As for the weather, it continued to be simply vile, the
+rain coming down in sheets till we were chilled to the marrow, and utterly
+preventing us from lighting a fire. There was, however, one consoling
+circumstance about this rain; our Askari declared that nothing would induce the
+Masai to make an attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in the
+wet, perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea of washing. We ate
+some insipid and sodden cold fish&mdash;that is, with the exception of
+Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannot bear fish&mdash;and took a pull of
+brandy, of which we fortunately had a few bottles left, and then began what,
+with one exception&mdash;when we same three white men nearly perished of cold
+on the snow of Sheba&rsquo;s Breast in the course of our journey to
+Kukuanaland&mdash;was, I think, the most trying night I ever experienced. It
+seemed absolutely endless, and once or twice I feared that two of the Askari
+would have died of the wet, cold, and exposure. Indeed, had it not been for
+timely doses of brandy I am sure that they would have died, for no African
+people can stand much exposure, which first paralyses and then kills them. I
+could see that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas felt it keenly; though,
+in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who groaned and bemoaned their fate
+unceasingly, he never uttered a single complaint. To make matters worse, about
+one in the morning we again heard the owl&rsquo;s ominous hooting, and had at
+once to prepare ourselves for another attack; though, if it had been attempted,
+I do not think that we could have offered a very effective resistance. But
+either the owl was a real one this time, or else the Masai were themselves too
+miserable to think of offensive operations, which, indeed, they rarely, if
+ever, undertake in bush veldt. At any rate, we saw nothing of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreaths of ghostly
+mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; and then, out came the glorious
+sun, sucking up the mists and warming the chill air. Benumbed, and utterly
+exhausted, we dragged ourselves to our feet, and went and stood in the bright
+rays, and were thankful for them. I can quite understand how it is that
+primitive people become sun worshippers, especially if their conditions of life
+render them liable to exposure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In half an hour more we were once again making fair progress with the help of a
+good wind. Our spirits had returned with the sunshine, and we were ready to
+laugh at difficulties and dangers that had been almost crushing on the previous
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o&rsquo;clock. Just as we were
+thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shoot something to eat, a
+sudden bend in the river brought us in sight of a substantial-looking European
+house with a veranda round it, splendidly situated upon a hill, and surrounded
+by a high stone wall with a ditch on the outer side. Right against and
+overshadowing the house was an enormous pine, the top of which we had seen
+through a glass for the last two days, but of course without knowing that it
+marked the site of the mission station. I was the first to see the house, and
+could not restrain myself from giving a hearty cheer, in which the others,
+including the natives, joined lustily. There was no thought of halting now. On
+we laboured, for, unfortunately, though the house seemed quite near, it was
+still a long way off by river, until at last, by one o&rsquo;clock, we found
+ourselves at the bottom of the slope on which the building stood. Running the
+canoes to the bank, we disembarked, and were just hauling them up on to the
+shore, when we perceived three figures, dressed in ordinary English-looking
+clothes, hurrying down through a grove of trees to meet us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl,&rdquo; ejaculated Good, after
+surveying the trio through his eyeglass, &ldquo;walking in a civilized fashion,
+through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place. Hang me, if this
+isn&rsquo;t the most curious thing we have seen yet!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place&mdash;more like a
+scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a real tangible fact; and the
+sense of unreality was not lessened when we heard ourselves addressed in good
+broad Scotch, which, however, I cannot reproduce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you do, sirs,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angular
+man, with a kindly face and red cheeks; &ldquo;I hope I see you very well. My
+natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes with white men in them coming
+up the river; so we have just come down to meet you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let me tell
+you,&rdquo; put in the lady&mdash;a charming and refined-looking person.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce ourselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, &ldquo;you must all be hungry and
+weary; so come on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see you. The
+last white who visited us was Alphonse&mdash;you will see Alphonse
+presently&mdash;and that was a year ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower portion of
+which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fences and sometimes with rough
+stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, just now full of crops of mealies, pumpkins,
+potatoes, etc. In the corners of these gardens were groups of neat
+mushroom-shaped huts, occupied by Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s mission natives, whose
+women and children came pouring out to meet us as we walked. Through the centre
+of the gardens ran the roadway up which we were walking. It was bordered on
+each side by a line of orange trees, which, although they had only been planted
+ten years, had in the lovely climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of
+which is about 5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to imposing
+proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. After a stiffish
+climb of a quarter of a mile or so&mdash;for the hillside was steep&mdash;we
+came to a splendid quince fence, also covered with fruit, which enclosed, Mr
+Mackenzie told us, a space of about four acres of ground that contained his
+private garden, house, church, and outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole
+hilltop. And what a garden it was! I have always loved a good garden, and I
+could have thrown up my hands for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s. First
+there were rows upon rows of standard European fruit-trees, all grafted; for on
+top of this hill the climate was so temperate that nearly all the English
+vegetables, trees, and flowers flourished luxuriantly, even including several
+varieties of the apple, which, generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and
+obstinately refuses to fruit. Then there were strawberries and tomatoes (such
+tomatoes!), and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of vegetable and
+fruit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, you have something like a garden!&rdquo; I said, overpowered with
+admiration not untouched by envy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered the missionary, &ldquo;it is a very good garden,
+and has well repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I have to thank. If
+you stick a peach-stone into the ground it will bear fruit the fourth year, and
+a rose-cutting will bloom in a year. It is a lovely clime.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full of water, on the
+other side of which was a loopholed stone wall eight feet high, and with sharp
+flints plentifully set in mortar on the coping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall,
+&ldquo;this is my <i>magnum opus;</i> at least, this and the church, which is
+the other side of the house. It took me and twenty natives two years to dig the
+ditch and build the wall, but I never felt safe till it was done; and now I can
+defy all the savages in Africa, for the spring that fills the ditch is inside
+the wall, and bubbles out at the top of the hill winter and summer alike, and I
+always keep a store of four months&rsquo; provision in the house.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in the wall, we entered
+into what Mrs Mackenzie called <i>her</i> domain&mdash;namely, the flower
+garden, the beauty of which is really beyond my power to describe. I do not
+think I ever saw such roses, gardenias, or camellias (all reared from seeds or
+cuttings sent from England); and there was also a patch given up to a
+collection of bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss Flossie, Mr
+Mackenzie&rsquo;s little daughter, from the surrounding country, some of which
+were surpassingly beautiful. In the middle of this garden, and exactly opposite
+the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear water bubbled up from the ground,
+and fell into a stone-work basin which had been carefully built to receive it,
+whence the overflow found its way by means of a drain to the moat round the
+outer wall, this moat in its turn serving as a reservoir, whence an unfailing
+supply of water was available to irrigate all the gardens below. The house
+itself, a massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of
+stone, and had a handsome veranda in front. It was built on three sides of a
+square, the fourth side being taken up by the kitchens, which stood separate
+from the house&mdash;a very good plan in a hot country. In the centre of this
+square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable object that we had yet
+seen in this charming place, and that was a single tree of the conifer tribe,
+varieties of which grow freely on the highlands of this part of Africa. This
+splendid tree, which Mr Mackenzie informed us was a landmark for fifty miles
+round, and which we had ourselves seen for the last forty miles of our journey,
+must have been nearly three hundred feet in height, the trunk measuring about
+sixteen feet in diameter at a yard from the ground. For some seventy feet it
+rose a beautiful tapering brown pillar without a single branch, but at that
+height splendid dark green boughs, which, looked at from below, had the
+appearance of gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out horizontally from the trunk,
+projecting right over the house and flower-garden, to both of which they
+furnished a grateful proportion of shade, without&mdash;being so high
+up&mdash;offering any impediment to the passage of light and air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What a beautiful tree!&rdquo; exclaimed Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree. There is not another like it
+in all the country round, that I know of,&rdquo; answered Mr Mackenzie.
+&ldquo;I call it my watch tower. As you see, I have a rope ladder fixed to the
+lowest bough; and if I want to see anything that is going on within fifteen
+miles or so, all I have to do is to run up it with a spyglass. But you must be
+hungry, and I am sure the dinner is cooked. Come in, my friends; it is but a
+rough place, but well enough for these savage parts; and I can tell you what,
+we have got&mdash;a French cook.&rdquo; And he led the way on to the veranda.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he could mean by this,
+there suddenly appeared, through the door that opened on to the veranda from
+the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue cotton suit, with shoes
+made of tanned hide, and remarkable for a bustling air and most enormous black
+mustachios, shaped into an upward curve, and coming to a point for all the
+world like a pair of buffalo-horns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved. Messieurs, my
+compliments;&rdquo; then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who was loitering
+along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw up his hands in
+astonishment. &ldquo;<i>Ah, mais quel homme!</i>&rdquo; he ejaculated in
+French, &ldquo;<i>quel sauvage affreux!</i> Take but note of his huge choppare
+and the great pit in his head.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie; &ldquo;what are you talking about,
+Alphonse?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Talking about!&rdquo; replied the little Frenchman, his eyes still fixed
+upon Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate him; &ldquo;why
+I talk of him&rdquo;&mdash;and he rudely pointed&mdash;&ldquo;of <i>ce monsieur
+noir</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceiving that he was the
+object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he had a most lordly dislike of
+anything like a personal liberty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Parbleu!</i>&rdquo; said Alphonse, &ldquo;he is angered&mdash;he
+makes the grimace. I like not his air. I vanish.&rdquo; And he did with
+considerable rapidity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which we indulged in.
+&ldquo;He is a queer character&mdash;Alphonse,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;By and by
+I will tell you his history; in the meanwhile let us try his cooking.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Might I ask,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent
+dinner, &ldquo;how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; answered Mrs Mackenzie, &ldquo;he arrived here of his own
+accord about a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service. He had got
+into some trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an
+application had been made by the French Government for his extradition.
+Whereupon he rushed off up-country, and fell in, when nearly starved, with our
+caravan of men, who were bringing us our annual supply of goods, and was
+brought on here. You should get him to tell you the story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded to give our host
+a description of our journey up here, over which he looked very grave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is evident to me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that those rascally Masai
+are following you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this house in
+safety. I do not think that they will dare to attack you here. It is
+unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men have gone down to the coast with
+ivory and goods. There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and the
+consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for defensive
+purposes in case they should attack us. But, still, I will just give a few
+orders;&rdquo; and, calling a black man who was loitering about outside in the
+garden, he went to the window, and addressed him in a Swahili dialect. The man
+listened, and then saluted and departed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamity upon
+you,&rdquo; said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. &ldquo;Rather
+than bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears, we will move on and
+take our chance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will do nothing of the sort. If the Masai come, they come, and there
+is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty warm greeting. I would
+not show any man the door for all the Masai in the world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That reminds me,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;the Consul at Lamu told me that
+he had had a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrived here who
+reported that he had come across a white people in the interior. Do you think
+that there was any truth in his story? I ask, because I have once or twice in
+my life heard rumours from natives who have come down from the far north of the
+existence of such a race.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned, bringing
+with him a most curious sword. It was long, and all the blade, which was very
+thick and heavy, was to within a quarter of an inch of the cutting edge worked
+into an ornamental pattern exactly as we work soft wood with a fret-saw, the
+steel, however, being invariably pierced in such a way as not to interfere with
+the strength of the sword. This in itself was sufficiently curious, but what
+was still more so was that all the edges of the hollow spaces cut through the
+substance of the blade were most beautifully inlaid with gold, which was in
+some way that I cannot understand welded on to the steel.<a href="#fn-5" name="fnref-5" id="fnref-5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-5" id="fn-5"></a> <a href="#fnref-5">[5]</a>
+Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords, but have never
+been able to discover how the gold plates were inlaid in the fretwork. The
+armourers who make them in Zu-vendis bind themselves by oath not to reveal the
+secret.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, &ldquo;did you ever see a sword like
+that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We all examined it and shook our heads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the man who said
+he had seen the white people brought with him, and because it does more or less
+give an air of truth to what I should otherwise have set down as a lie. Look
+here; I will tell you all that I know about the matter, which is not much. One
+afternoon, just before sunset, I was sitting on the veranda, when a poor,
+miserable, starved-looking man came limping up and squatted down before me. I
+asked him where he came from and what he wanted, and thereon he plunged into a
+long rambling narrative about how he belonged to a tribe far in the north, and
+how his tribe was destroyed by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors
+driven still further north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, he made
+his way to another lake that lay up in the mountains, &lsquo;a lake without a
+bottom&rsquo; he called it, and here his wife and brother died of an infectious
+sickness&mdash;probably smallpox&mdash;whereon the people drove him out of
+their villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over mountains
+for ten days, after which he got into dense thorn forest, and was one day found
+there by some <i>white men</i> who were hunting, and who took him to a place
+where all the people were white and lived in stone houses. Here he remained a
+week shut up in a house, till one night a man with a white beard, whom he
+understood to be a &lsquo;medicine-man&rsquo;, came and inspected him, after
+which he was led off and taken through the thorn forest to the confines of the
+wilderness, and given food and this sword (at least so he said), and turned
+loose.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathless
+interest, &ldquo;and what did he do then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone through sufferings
+and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weeks on roots and berries,
+and such things as he could catch and kill. But somehow he did live, and at
+last by slow degrees made his way south and reached this place. What the
+details of his journey were I never learnt, for I told him to return on the
+morrow, bidding one of my headmen look after him for the night. The headman
+took him away, but the poor man had the itch so badly that the headman&rsquo;s
+wife would not have him in the hut for fear of catching it, so he was given a
+blanket and told to sleep outside. As it happened, we had a lion hanging about
+here just then, and most unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer, and,
+springing on him, bit his head almost off without the people in the hut knowing
+anything about it, and there was an end of him and his story about the white
+people; and whether or no there is any truth in it is more than I can tell you.
+What do you think, Mr Quatermain?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head, and answered, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. There are so many
+queer things hidden away in the heart of this great continent that I should be
+sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to try and find
+out. We intend to journey to Lekakisera, and thence, if we live to get so far,
+to this Lake Laga; and, if there are any white people beyond, we will do our
+best to find them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are very venturesome people,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, with a smile,
+and the subject dropped.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE</h2>
+
+<p>
+After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and grounds of the
+station, which I consider the most successful as well as the most beautiful
+place of the sort that I have seen in Africa. We then returned to the veranda,
+where we found Umslopogaas taking advantage of this favourable opportunity to
+clean all the rifles thoroughly. This was the only <i>work</i> that he ever did
+or was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it was beneath his dignity to work with
+his hands; but such as it was he did it very well. It was a curious sight to
+see the great Zulu sitting there upon the floor, his battleaxe resting against
+the wall behind him, whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily
+employed, delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism of the
+breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One&mdash;a double four-bore
+belonging to Sir Henry&mdash;was the Thunderer; another, my 500 Express, which
+had a peculiarly sharp report, was &ldquo;the little one who spoke like a
+whip&rdquo;; the Winchester repeaters were &ldquo;the women, who talked so fast
+that you could not tell one word from another&rdquo;; the six Martinis were
+&ldquo;the common people&rdquo;; and so on with them all. It was very curious
+to hear him addressing each gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an
+individual, and in a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the same with his
+battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend, and to which he
+would at times talk by the hour, going over all his old adventures with
+it&mdash;and dreadful enough some of them were. By a piece of grim humour, he
+had named this axe &ldquo;Inkosi-kaas&rdquo;, which is the Zulu word for
+chieftainess. For a long while I could not make out why he gave it such a name,
+and at last I asked him, when he informed me that the axe was very evidently
+feminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very deep into things, and
+that she was clearly a chieftainess because all men fell down before her,
+struck dumb at the sight of her beauty and power. In the same way he would
+consult &ldquo;Inkosi-kaas&rdquo; if in any dilemma; and when I asked him why
+he did so, he informed me it was because she must needs be wise, having
+&ldquo;looked into so many people&rsquo;s brains&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon. It was, as I
+have said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an enormous
+rhinoceros horn, was three feet three inches long, about an inch and a quarter
+thick, and with a knob at the end as large as a Maltese orange, left there to
+prevent the hand from slipping. This horn haft, though so massive, was as
+flexible as cane, and practically unbreakable; but, to make assurance doubly
+sure, it was whipped round at intervals of a few inches with copper
+wire&mdash;all the parts where the hands grip being thus treated. Just above
+where the haft entered the head were scored a number of little nicks, each nick
+representing a man killed in battle with the weapon. The axe itself was made of
+the most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though
+Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken it from the hand of a
+chief he had killed in battle many years before. It was not very heavy, the
+head weighing two and a half pounds, as nearly as I could judge. The cutting
+part was slightly concave in shape&mdash;not convex, as is generally the case
+with savage battle-axes&mdash;and sharp as a razor, measuring five and
+three-quarter inches across the widest part. From the back of the axe sprang a
+stout spike four inches long, for the last two of which it was hollow, and
+shaped like a leather punch, with an opening for anything forced into the
+hollow at the punch end to be pushed out above&mdash;in fact, in this respect
+it exactly resembled a butcher&rsquo;s pole-axe. It was with this punch end, as
+we afterwards discovered, that Umslopogaas usually struck when fighting,
+driving a neat round hole in his adversary&rsquo;s skull, and only using the
+broad cutting edge for a circular sweep, or sometimes in a <i>mêlée</i>. I
+think he considered the punch a neater and more sportsmanlike tool, and it was
+from his habit of pecking at his enemy with it that he got his name of
+&ldquo;Woodpecker&rdquo;. Certainly in his hands it was a terribly efficient
+one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was Umslopogaas&rsquo; axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and fatal
+hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished as much as his
+own life. It scarcely ever left his hand except when he was eating, and then he
+always sat with it under his leg.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie came up and took me off
+to see her collection of flowers, African liliums, and blooming shrubs, some of
+which are very beautiful, many of the varieties being quite unknown to me and
+also, I believe, to botanical science. I asked her if she had ever seen or
+heard of the &ldquo;Goya&rdquo; lily, which Central African explorers have told
+me they have occasionally met with and whose wonderful loveliness has filled
+them with astonishment. This lily, which the natives say blooms only once in
+ten years, flourishes in the most arid soil. Compared to the size of the bloom,
+the bulb is small, generally weighing about four pounds. As for the flower
+itself (which I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to impress its
+appearance fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe its beauty and
+splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its perfume. The flower&mdash;for
+it has only one bloom&mdash;rises from the crown of the bulb on a thick fleshy
+and flat-sided stem, the specimen that I saw measured fourteen inches in
+diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the bloom of an ordinary
+&ldquo;longiflorum&rdquo; set vertically. First there is the green sheath,
+which in its early stage is not unlike that of a water-lily, but which as the
+bloom opens splits into four portions and curls back gracefully towards the
+stem. Then comes the bloom itself, a single dazzling arch of white enclosing
+another cup of richest velvety crimson, from the heart of which rises a
+golden-coloured pistil. I have never seen anything to equal this bloom in
+beauty or fragrance, and as I believe it is but little known, I take the
+liberty to describe it at length. Looking at it for the first time I well
+remember that I realised how even in a flower there dwells something of the
+majesty of its Maker. To my great delight Miss Flossie told me that she knew
+the flower well and had tried to grow it in her garden, but without success,
+adding, however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of the year she
+thought that she could procure me a specimen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here among all these
+savage people and without any companions of her own age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lonely?&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day
+is long, and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried
+in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell the
+difference! Here,&rdquo; she said, giving her head a little toss, &ldquo;I am
+<i>I;</i> and every native for miles around knows the
+&lsquo;Water-lily&rsquo;,&mdash;for that is what they call me&mdash;and is
+ready to do what I want, but in the books that I have read about little girls
+in England it is not like that. Everybody thinks them a trouble, and they have
+to do what their schoolmistress likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in
+a cage like that and not to be free&mdash;free as the air.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Would you not like to learn?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And are you never afraid among all these wild men?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that I
+am &lsquo;Ngai&rsquo; (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair
+hair. And look here,&rdquo; and diving her little hand into the bodice of her
+dress she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, &ldquo;I always
+carry that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once I
+shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. It frightened
+me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead, and I have its skin
+upon my bed. Look there!&rdquo; she went on in an altered voice, touching me on
+the arm and pointing to some far-away object, &ldquo;I said just now that I had
+companions; there is one of them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight the glory of Mount
+Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always been hidden in mist, but now its
+radiant beauty was unveiled for many thousand feet, although the base was still
+wrapped in vapour so that the lofty peak or pillar, towering nearly twenty
+thousand feet into the sky, appeared to be a fairy vision, hanging between
+earth and heaven, and based upon the clouds. The solemn majesty and beauty of
+this white peak are together beyond the power of my poor pen to describe. There
+it rose straight and sheer&mdash;a glittering white glory, its crest piercing
+the very blue of heaven. As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my whole
+heart lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a moment great and
+wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, even as the arrows of the
+setting sun were breaking upon Kenia&rsquo;s snows. Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s
+natives call the mountain the &ldquo;Finger of God&rdquo;, and to me it did
+seem eloquent of immortal peace and of the pure high calm that surely lies
+above this fevered world. Somewhere I had heard a line of poetry,
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughly understood
+what it meant. Base, indeed, would be the man who could look upon that mighty
+snow-wreathed pile&mdash; that white old tombstone of the years&mdash;and not
+feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatever name he calls Him, worship
+God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of the spirit; they throw wide
+the windows of the chamber of our small selfishness and let in a breath of that
+air that rushes round the rolling spheres, and for a while illumine our
+darkness with a far-off gleam of the white light which beats upon the Throne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I can well understand
+what little Flossie meant when she talked of Kenia as her companion. As
+Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu that he was, said when I pointed out to him the
+peak hanging in the glittering air: &ldquo;A man might look thereon for a
+thousand years and yet be hungry to see.&rdquo; But he gave rather another
+colour to his poetical idea when he added in a sort of chant, and with a touch
+of that weird imagination for which the man was remarkable, that when he was
+dead he should like his spirit to sit upon that snow-clad peak for ever, and to
+rush down the steep white sides in the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash
+of the lightning, and &ldquo;slay, and slay, and slay&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Slay what, you old bloodhound?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The other shadows.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I murder not,&rdquo; he answered hotly; &ldquo;I kill in fair fight. Man
+is born to kill. He who kills not when his blood is hot is a woman, and no man.
+The people who kill not are slaves. I say I kill in fair fight; and when I am
+&lsquo;in the shadow&rsquo;, as you white men say, I hope to go on killing in
+fair fight. May my shadow be accursed and chilled to the bone for ever if it
+should fall to murdering like a bushman with his poisoned arrows!&rdquo; And he
+stalked away with much dignity, and left me laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morning to find out if
+there were any traces of our Masai friends about, returned, and reported that
+the country had been scoured for fifteen miles round without a single Elmoran
+being seen, and that they believed that those gentry had given up the pursuit
+and returned whence they came. Mr Mackenzie gave a sigh of relief when he heard
+this, and so indeed did we, for we had had quite enough of the Masai to last us
+for some time. Indeed, the general opinion was that, finding we had reached the
+mission station in safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the pursuit
+of us as a bad job. How ill-judged that view was the sequel will show.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retired for the
+night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, and Sir Henry, who is a very
+good French scholar, got him to tell us how he came to visit Central Africa,
+which he did in a most extraordinary lingo, that for the most part I shall not
+attempt to reproduce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My grandfather,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;was a soldier of the Guard, and
+served under Napoleon. He was in the retreat from Moscow, and lived for ten
+days on his own leggings and a pair he stole from a comrade. He used to get
+drunk&mdash;he died drunk, and I remember playing at drums on his coffin. My
+father&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come to the point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bien, messieurs!&rdquo; replied this comical little man, with a polite
+bow. &ldquo;I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principle is not
+hereditary. My grandfather was a splendid man, six feet two high, broad in
+proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters. Also he was remarkable for his
+moustache. To me there remains the moustache and&mdash;nothing more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles. In that dear town
+I spent my happy youth. For years and years I washed the dishes at the Hôtel
+Continental. Ah, those were golden days!&rdquo; and he sighed. &ldquo;I am a
+Frenchman. Need I say, messieurs, that I admire beauty? Nay, I adore the fair.
+Messieurs, we admire all the roses in a garden, but we pluck one. <i>I</i> plucked
+one, and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger. She was a chambermaid, her name
+Annette, her figure ravishing, her face an angel&rsquo;s, her heart&mdash;alas,
+messieurs, that I should have to own it!&mdash;black and slippery as a patent
+leather boot. I loved to desperation, I adored her to despair. She transported
+me&mdash;in every sense; she inspired me. Never have I cooked as I cooked (for
+I had been promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette, smiled on
+me. Never&rdquo;&mdash;and here his manly voice broke into a
+sob&mdash;&ldquo;never shall I cook so well again.&rdquo; Here he melted into
+tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come, cheer up!&rdquo; said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartly on
+the back. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no knowing what may happen, you know. To judge
+from your dinner today, I should say you were in a fair way to recovery.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back. &ldquo;Monsieur,&rdquo; he
+said, &ldquo;doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy. To continue: we
+loved, and were happy in each other&rsquo;s love. The birds in their little
+nest could not be happier than Alphonse and his Annette. Then came the
+blow&mdash;sapristi!&mdash;when I think of it. Messieurs will forgive me if I
+wipe away a tear. Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the conscription.
+Fortune would be avenged on me for having won the heart of Annette.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The evil moment came; I had to go. I tried to run away, but I was caught
+by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with the butt-end of muskets till my
+mustachios curled with pain. I had a cousin a linen-draper, well-to-do, but
+very ugly. He had drawn a good number, and sympathized when they thumped me.
+&lsquo;To thee, my cousin,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;to thee, in whose veins flows
+the blue blood of our heroic grandparent, to thee I consign Annette. Watch over
+her whilst I hunt for glory in the bloody field.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Make your mind easy,&rsquo; said he; &lsquo;I will.&rsquo; As the
+sequel shows, he did!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I went. I lived in barracks on black soup. I am a refined man and a poet
+by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarse horror of my surroundings.
+There was a drill sergeant, and he had a cane. Ah, that cane, how it curled!
+Alas, never can I forget it!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin. The
+drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced. I&mdash;I made enquiries
+about Tonquin. They were not satisfactory. In Tonquin are savage Chinese who
+rip you open. My artistic tastes&mdash;for I am also an artist&mdash;recoiled
+from the idea of being ripped open. The great man makes up his mind quickly. I
+made up my mind. I determined not to be ripped open. I deserted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man. I went to the house of my
+cousin&mdash;he in whom runs my grandfather&rsquo;s heroic blood&mdash;and
+there sat Annette. It was the season of cherries. They took a double stalk. At
+each end was a cherry. My cousin put one into his mouth, Annette put the other
+in hers. Then they drew the stalks in till their eyes met&mdash;and alas, alas
+that I should have to say it!&mdash;they kissed. The game was a pretty one, but
+it filled me with fury. The heroic blood of my grandfather boiled up in me. I
+rushed into the kitchen. I struck my cousin with the old man&rsquo;s crutch. He
+fell&mdash;I had slain him. Alas, I believe that I did slay him. Annette
+screamed. The gendarmes came. I fled. I reached the harbour. I hid aboard a
+vessel. The vessel put to sea. The captain found me and beat me. He took an
+opportunity. He posted a letter from a foreign port to the police. He did not
+put me ashore because I cooked so well. I cooked for him all the way to
+Zanzibar. When I asked for payment he kicked me. The blood of my heroic
+grandfather boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his face and vowed to have
+my revenge. He kicked me again. At Zanzibar there was a telegram. I cursed the
+man who invented telegraphs. Now I curse him again. I was to be arrested for
+desertion, for murder, and <i>que sais-je?</i> I escaped from the prison. I
+fled, I starved. I met the men of Monsieur le Curé. They brought me here. I am
+full of woe. But I return not to France. Better to risk my life in these
+horrible places than to know the Bagne.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turn our faces away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! you weep, messieurs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No wonder&mdash;it is a
+sad story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, &ldquo;the heroic blood of your
+grandparent will triumph after all; perhaps you will still be great. At any
+rate we shall see. And now I vote we go to bed. I am dead tired, and we had not
+much sleep on that confounded rock last night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white sheets seemed to
+us after our recent experiences.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE</h2>
+
+<p>
+Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said her mother, &ldquo;when I got up this morning I found
+a note put outside my door in which&mdash;But here it is, you can read it for
+yourself,&rdquo; and she gave me the slip of paper on which the following was
+written:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;D<small>EAREST</small> M&mdash;,&mdash;It is just dawn, and I am off to
+the hills to get Mr Q&mdash;a bloom of the lily he wants, so don&rsquo;t expect
+me till you see me. I have taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple of
+boys are coming with me&mdash;also something to eat, as I may be away all day,
+for I am determined to get the lily if I have to go twenty miles for
+it.&mdash;F<small>LOSSIE</small>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hope she will be all right,&rdquo; I said, a little anxiously;
+&ldquo;I never meant her to trouble after the flower.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Flossie can look after herself,&rdquo; said her mother; &ldquo;she
+often goes off in this way like a true child of the wilderness.&rdquo; But Mr
+Mackenzie, who came in just then and saw the note for the first time, looked
+rather grave, though he said nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whether it would not be
+possible to send after the girl and get her back, having in view the
+possibility of there still being some Masai hanging about, at whose hands she
+might come to harm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I fear it would be of no use,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;She may be
+fifteen miles off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken.
+There are the hills;&rdquo; and he pointed to a long range of rising ground
+stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana, but
+gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five miles short of the
+house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over the house and search
+the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie had given some
+orders to his people to try and follow Flossie&rsquo;s spoor, we did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance, even with a
+sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up, at least to a landsman; but
+Good came up like a lamplighter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs sprang from the
+bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon a platform made of boards, nailed
+from one bough to another, and large enough to accommodate a dozen people. As
+for the view, it was simply glorious. In every direction the bush rolled away
+in great billows for miles and miles, as far as the glass would show, only here
+and there broken by the brighter green of patches of cultivation, or by the
+glittering surface of lakes. To the northwest, Kenia reared his mighty head,
+and we could trace the Tana river curling like a silver snake almost from his
+feet, and far away beyond us towards the ocean. It is a glorious country, and
+only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productive one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and her donkey, so at
+last we had to come down disappointed. On reaching the veranda I found
+Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightly sharpening his axe with a small
+whetstone he always carried with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What doest thou, Umslopogaas?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I smell blood,&rdquo; was the answer; and I could get no more out of
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surrounding country
+with a spyglass, but without result. When we came down Umslopogaas was still
+sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she already had an edge like a razor. Standing
+in front of him, and regarding him with a mixture of fear and fascination, was
+Alphonse. And certainly he did seem an alarming object&mdash;sitting there,
+Zulu fashion, on his haunches, a wild look upon his intensely savage and yet
+intellectual face, sharpening, sharpening, sharpening at the murderous-looking
+axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, the monster, the horrible man!&rdquo; said the little French cook,
+lifting his hands in amazement. &ldquo;See but the hole in his head; the skin
+beats on it up and down like a baby&rsquo;s! Who would nurse such a
+baby?&rdquo; and he burst out laughing at the idea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and a sort of evil
+light played in his dark eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What does the little &lsquo;buffalo-heifer&rsquo; [so named by
+Umslopogaas, on account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say?
+Let him be careful, or I will cut his horns. Beware, little man monkey,
+beware!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him, went on laughing
+at &ldquo;<i>ce drôle d&rsquo;un monsieur noir</i>&rdquo;. I was about to warn
+him to desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded off the veranda on to the
+open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort of
+malicious enthusiasm, and began swinging the axe round and round over the
+Frenchman&rsquo;s head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stand still,&rdquo; I shouted; &ldquo;do not move as you value your
+life&mdash;he will not hurt you;&rdquo; but I doubt if Alphonse heard me,
+being, fortunately for himself, almost petrified with horror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or rather of axemanship,
+that I ever saw. First of all the axe went flying round and round over the top
+of Alphonse&rsquo;s head, with an angry whirl and such extraordinary swiftness
+that it looked like a continuous band of steel, ever getting nearer and yet
+nearer to that unhappy individual&rsquo;s skull, till at last it grazed it as
+it flew. Then suddenly the motion was changed, and it seemed to literally flow
+up and down his body and limbs, never more than an eighth of an inch from them,
+and yet never striking them. It was a wonderful sight to see the little man
+fixed there, having apparently realised that to move would be to run the risk
+of sudden death, while his black tormentor towered over him, and wrapped him
+round with the quick flashes of the axe. For a minute or more this went on,
+till suddenly I saw the moving brightness travel down the side of
+Alphonse&rsquo;s face, and then outwards and stop. As it did so a tuft of
+something black fell to the ground; it was the tip of one of the little
+Frenchman&rsquo;s curling mustachios.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke into a long, low
+laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank into a sitting posture on the
+ground, while we stood astonished at this exhibition of almost superhuman skill
+and mastery of a weapon. &ldquo;Inkosi-kaas is sharp enough,&rdquo; he shouted;
+&ldquo;the blow that clipped the &lsquo;buffalo-heifer&rsquo;s&rsquo; horn
+would have split a man from the crown to the chin. Few could have struck it but
+I; none could have struck it and not taken off the shoulder too. Look, thou
+little heifer! Am I a good man to laugh at, thinkest thou? For a space hast
+thou stood within a hair&rsquo;s-breadth of death. Laugh not again, lest the
+hair&rsquo;s-breadth be wanting. I have spoken.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What meanest thou by such mad tricks?&rdquo; I asked of Umslopogaas,
+indignantly. &ldquo;Surely thou art mad. Twenty times didst thou go near to
+slaying the man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not. Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flew the spirit
+entered into me to end him, and send her crashing through his skull; but I did
+not. Nay, it was but a jest; but tell the &lsquo;heifer&rsquo; that it is not
+well to mock at such as I. Now I go to make a shield, for I smell blood,
+Macumazahn&mdash;of a truth I smell blood. Before the battle hast thou not seen
+the vulture grow of a sudden in the sky? They smell the blood, Macumazahn, and
+my scent is more keen than theirs. There is a dry ox-hide down yonder; I go to
+make a shield.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie,
+who had witnessed this extraordinary scene. &ldquo;He has frightened Alphonse
+out of his wits; look!&rdquo; and he pointed to the Frenchman, who, with a
+scared white face and trembling limbs, was making his way into the house.
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that he will ever laugh at &lsquo;le monsieur
+noir&rsquo; again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;it is ill jesting with such as he. When
+he is roused he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heart in his own fierce
+way. I remember years ago seeing him nurse a sick child for a week. He is a
+strange character, but true as steel, and a strong stick to rest on in
+danger.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He says he smells blood,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie. &ldquo;I only trust
+he is not right. I am getting very fearful about my little girl. She must have
+gone far, or she would be home by now. It is half-past three
+o&rsquo;clock.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likely would not in
+the ordinary course of events return till nightfall; but I myself felt very
+anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayed itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent out to search for
+Flossie returned, stating that they had followed the spoor of the donkey for a
+couple of miles and had then lost it on some stony ground, nor could they
+discover it again. They had, however, scoured the country far and wide, but
+without success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening, there still
+being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew very keen. As for the poor mother,
+she was quite prostrated by her fears, and no wonder, but the father kept his
+head wonderfully well. Everything that could be done was done: people were sent
+out in all directions, shots were fired, and a continuous outlook kept from the
+great tree, but without avail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired little Flossie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At eight o&rsquo;clock we had supper. It was but a sorrowful meal, and Mrs
+Mackenzie did not appear at it. We three also were very silent, for in addition
+to our natural anxiety as to the fate of the child, we were weighed down by the
+sense that we had brought this trouble on the head of our kind host. When
+supper was nearly at an end I made an excuse to leave the table. I wanted to
+get outside and think the situation over. I went on to the veranda and, having
+lit my pipe, sat down on a seat about a dozen feet from the right-hand end of
+the structure, which was, as the reader may remember, exactly opposite one of
+the narrow doors of the protecting wall that enclosed the house and flower
+garden. I had been sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thought I
+heard the door move. I looked in that direction and I listened, but, being
+unable to make out anything, concluded that I must have been mistaken. It was a
+darkish night, the moon not having yet risen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell with a soft but heavy
+thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda, and came bounding and rolling
+along past me. For a moment I did not rise, but sat wondering what it could be.
+Finally, I concluded it must have been an animal. Just then, however, another
+idea struck me, and I got up quick enough. The thing lay quite still a few feet
+beyond me. I put down my hand towards it and it did not move: clearly it was
+not an animal. My hand touched it. It was soft and warm and heavy. Hurriedly I
+lifted it and held it up against the faint starlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>It was a newly severed human head!</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastly sight made
+me feel sick. How had the thing come there? Whose was it? I put it down and ran
+to the little doorway. I could see nothing, hear nobody. I was about to go out
+into the darkness beyond, but remembering that to do so was to expose myself to
+the risk of being stabbed, I drew back, shut the door, and bolted it. Then I
+returned to the veranda, and in as careless a voice as I could command called
+Curtis. I fear, however, that my tones must have betrayed me, for not only Sir
+Henry but also Good and Mackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; said the clergyman, anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I had to tell them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin. We were standing opposite
+the hall door, and there was a light in it so that I could see. He snatched the
+head up by the hair and held it against the light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie,&rdquo; he said
+with a gasp. &ldquo;Thank God it is not hers!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We all stood and stared at each other aghast. What was to be done?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted, and a voice
+cried, &ldquo;Open, my father, open!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man. He was one of the spies who
+had been sent out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My father,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;the Masai are on us! A great body of
+them have passed round the hill and are moving towards the old stone kraal down
+by the little stream. My father, make strong thy heart! In the midst of them I
+saw the white ass, and on it sat the Water-lily [Flossie]. An Elmoran [young
+warrior] led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse weeping. The men who
+went with her in the morning I saw not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Was the child alive?&rdquo; asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passed quite close
+to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw her face against the
+sky.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;God help her and us!&rdquo; groaned the clergyman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How many are there of them?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;More than two hundred&mdash;two hundred and half a hundred.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done? Just then there rose
+a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald&mdash;a herald to
+speak with thee.&rdquo; Thus cried the voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms to the coping,
+lifted his head above it and gazed over.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see but one man,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He is armed, and carries a
+basket in his hand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Open the door,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Umslopogaas, take thine axe and
+stand thereby. Let one man pass. If another follows, slay.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas, his axe
+raised above his head to strike. Just then the moon came out. There was a
+moment&rsquo;s pause, and then in stalked a Masai Elmoran, clad in the full war
+panoply that I have already described, but bearing a large basket in his hand.
+The moonlight shone bright upon his great spear as he walked. He was physically
+a splendid man, apparently about thirty-five years of age. Indeed, none of the
+Masai that I saw were under six feet high, though mostly quite young. When he
+got opposite to us he halted, put down the basket, and stuck the spike of his
+spear into the ground, so that it stood upright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let us talk,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The first messenger we sent to you
+could not talk;&rdquo; and he pointed to the head which lay upon the paving of
+the stoep&mdash;a ghastly sight in the moonlight; &ldquo;but I have words to
+speak if ye have ears to hear. Also I bring presents;&rdquo; and he pointed to
+the basket and laughed with an air of swaggering insolence that is perfectly
+indescribable, and yet which one could not but admire, seeing that he was
+surrounded by enemies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say on,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am the &lsquo;Lygonani&rsquo; [war captain] of a party of the Masai of
+the Guasa Amboni. I and my men followed these three white men,&rdquo; and he
+pointed to Sir Henry, Good, and myself, &ldquo;but they were too clever for us,
+and escaped hither. We have a quarrel with them, and are going to kill
+them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you, my friend?&rdquo; said I to myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In following these men we this morning caught two black men, one black
+woman, a white donkey, and a white girl. One of the black men we
+killed&mdash;there is his head upon the pavement; the other ran away. The black
+woman, the little white girl, and the white ass we took and brought with us. In
+proof thereof have I brought this basket that she carried. Is it not thy
+daughter&rsquo;s basket?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good! With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor do we wish to
+harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have already gathered, two hundred
+and forty head&mdash;a beast for every man&rsquo;s father.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-6" name="fnref-6" id="fnref-6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-6" id="fn-6"></a> <a href="#fnref-6">[6]</a>
+The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so all the booty they
+may win in battle belongs to their fathers alone.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herd of cattle, which
+he bred with much care and trouble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially,&rdquo; he
+added frankly, glancing at the wall, &ldquo;as this place would be a difficult
+one to take. But as to these men it is otherwise; we have followed them for
+nights and days, and must kill them. Were we to return to our kraal without
+having done so, all the girls would make a mock of us. So, however troublesome
+it may be, they must die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now I have a proposition for thee. We would not harm the little girl;
+she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit. Give us one of these
+three men&mdash;a life for a life&mdash;and we will let her go, and throw in
+the black woman with her also. This is a fair offer, white man. We ask but for
+one, not for the three; we must take another opportunity to kill the other two.
+I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer the big one,&rdquo; pointing
+to Sir Henry; &ldquo;he looks strong, and would die more slowly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if I say I will not yield the man?&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, say not so, white man,&rdquo; answered the Masai, &ldquo;for then
+thy daughter dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hast no other
+child. Were she older I would take her for a servant; but as she is so young I
+will slay her with my own hand&mdash;ay, with this very spear. Thou canst come
+and see, an&rsquo; thou wilt. I give thee a safe conduct;&rdquo; and the fiend
+laughed aloud at his brutal jest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies, and had come
+to the conclusion that I would exchange myself against Flossie. I scarcely like
+to mention the matter for fear it should be misunderstood. Pray do not let any
+one be misled into thinking that there was anything heroic about this, or any
+such nonsense. It was merely a matter of common sense and common justice. My
+life was an old and worthless one, hers was young and valuable. Her death would
+pretty well kill her father and mother also, whilst nobody would be much the
+worse for mine; indeed, several charitable institutions would have cause to
+rejoice thereat. It was indirectly through me that the dear little girl was in
+her present position. Lastly, a man was better fitted to meet death in such a
+peculiarly awful form than a sweet young girl. Not, however, that I meant to
+let these gentry torture me to death&mdash;I am far too much of a coward to
+allow that, being naturally a timid man; my plan was to see the girl safely
+exchanged and then to shoot myself, trusting that the Almighty would take the
+peculiar circumstances of the case into consideration and pardon the act. All
+this and more went through my mind in very few seconds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right, Mackenzie,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;you can tell the man that I
+will exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that she shall be safely
+in this house before they kill me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eh?&rdquo; said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously. &ldquo;That you
+don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie. &ldquo;I will have no man&rsquo;s
+blood upon my hands. If it please God that my daughter should die this awful
+death, His will be done. You are a brave man (which I am not by any means) and
+a noble man, Quatermain, but you shall not go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If nothing else turns up I shall go,&rdquo; I said decidedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is an important matter,&rdquo; said Mackenzie, addressing the
+Lygonani, &ldquo;and we must think it over. You shall have our answer at
+dawn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, white man,&rdquo; answered the savage indifferently;
+&ldquo;only remember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will never grow
+into a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this,&rdquo; and he touched
+the spear. &ldquo;I should have thought that thou wouldst play a trick and
+attack us at night, but I know from the woman with the girl that your men are
+down at the coast, and that thou hast but twenty men here. It is not wise,
+white man,&rdquo; he added with a laugh, &ldquo;to keep so small a garrison for
+your &lsquo;boma&rsquo; [kraal]. Well, good night, and good night to you also,
+other white men, whose eyelids I shall soon close once and for all. At dawn
+thou wilt bring me word. If not, remember it shall be as I have said.&rdquo;
+Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the while been standing behind him and
+shepherding him as it were, &ldquo;Open the door for me, fellow, quick
+now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was too much for the old chief&rsquo;s patience. For the last ten minutes
+his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positively watering over the Masai
+Lygonani, and this he could not stand. Placing his long hand on the
+Elmoran&rsquo;s shoulder he gripped it and gave him such a twist as brought him
+face to face with himself. Then, thrusting his fierce countenance to within a
+few inches of the Masai&rsquo;s evil feather-framed features, he said in a low
+growling voice:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Seest thou me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, fellow, I see thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And seest thou this?&rdquo; and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of little girls,
+with this &lsquo;toy&rsquo; will I hew thee limb from limb. Well for thee that
+thou art a herald, or even now would I strew thy members about the
+grass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long as he answered,
+&ldquo;I would that thou stoodst against me man to man, and we would
+see,&rdquo; and again he turned to go still laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid,&rdquo; replied
+Umslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice. &ldquo;Thou shalt stand face to
+face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of the people of the Amazulu, a
+captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi, as many have done before, and bow
+thyself to Inkosi-kaas, as many have done before. Ay, laugh on, laugh on!
+tomorrow night shall the jackals laugh as they crunch thy ribs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening the basket he had
+brought as a proof that Flossie was really their prisoner. On lifting the lid
+it was found to contain a most lovely specimen of both bulb and flower of the
+Goya lily, which I have already described, in full bloom and quite uninjured,
+and what was more a note in Flossie&rsquo;s childish hand written in pencil
+upon a greasy piece of paper that had been used to wrap up some food in:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;D<small>EAREST</small> F<small>ATHER AND</small>
+M<small>OTHER</small>,&rdquo; ran the note, &ldquo;The Masai caught us when we
+were coming home with the lily. I tried to escape but could not. They killed
+Tom: the other man ran away. They have not hurt nurse and me, but say that they
+mean to exchange us against one of Mr Quatermain&rsquo;s party. <i>I will have
+nothing of the sort</i>. Do not let anybody give his life for me. Try and
+attack them at night; they are going to feast on three bullocks they have
+stolen and killed. I have my pistol, and if no help comes by dawn I will shoot
+myself. They shall not kill me. If so, remember me always, dearest father and
+mother. I am very frightened, but I trust in God. I dare not write any more as
+they are beginning to notice. Goodbye.&mdash;F<small>LOSSIE</small>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scrawled across the outside of this was &ldquo;Love to Mr Quatermain. They are
+going to take the basket, so he will get the lily.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I read those words, written by that brave little girl in an hour of danger
+sufficiently near and horrible to have turned the brain of a strong man, I own
+I wept, and once more in my heart I vowed that she should not die while my life
+could be given to save her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussing the situation.
+Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzie negatived it, and Curtis and
+Good, like the true men that they are, vowed that, if I did, they would go with
+me, and die back to back with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is,&rdquo; I said at last, &ldquo;absolutely necessary that an effort
+of some sort should be made before the morning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and take our
+chance,&rdquo; said Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, ay,&rdquo; growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; &ldquo;spoken like a man,
+Incubu. What is there to be afraid of? Two hundred and fifty Masai, forsooth!
+How many are we? The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] has twenty men, and thou,
+Macumazahn, hast five men, and there are also five white men&mdash;that is,
+thirty men in all&mdash;enough, enough. Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who art
+very clever and old in war. What says the maid? These men eat and make merry;
+let it be their funeral feast. What said the dog whom I hope to hew down at
+daybreak? That he feared no attack because we were so few. Knowest thou the old
+kraal where the men have camped? I saw it this morning; it is thus:&rdquo; and
+he drew an oval on the floor; &ldquo;here is the big entrance, filled up with
+thorn bushes, and opening on to a steep rise. Why, Incubu, thou and I with axes
+will hold it against an hundred men striving to break out! Look, now; thus
+shall the battle go. Just as the light begins to glint upon the oxen&rsquo;s
+horns&mdash;not before, or it will be too dark, and not later, or they will be
+awakening and perceive us&mdash;let Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top
+end of the kraal, where the narrow entrance is. Let them silently slay the
+sentry there so that he makes no sound, and stand ready. Then, Incubu, let thee
+and me and one of the Askari&mdash;the one with the broad chest&mdash;he is a
+brave man&mdash;creep to the wide entrance that is filled with thorn bushes,
+and there also slay the sentry, and armed with battle-axes take our stand also
+one on each side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond to deal with such
+as pass the twain at the gate. It is there that the rush will come. That will
+leave sixteen men. Let these men be divided into two parties, with one of which
+shalt thou go, Macumazahn, and with one the &lsquo;praying man&rsquo; [Mr
+Mackenzie], and, all armed with rifles, let them make their way one to the
+right side of the kraal and one to the left; and when thou, Macumazahn, lowest
+like an ox, all shall open fire with the guns upon the sleeping men, being very
+careful not to hit the little maid. Then shall Bougwan at the far end and his
+ten men raise the war-cry, and, springing over the wall, put the Masai there to
+the sword. And it shall happen that, being yet heavy with food and sleep, and
+bewildered by the firing of the guns, the falling of men, and the spears of
+Bougwan, the soldiers shall rise and rush like wild game towards the
+thorn-stopped entrance, and there the bullets from either side shall plough
+through them, and there shall Incubu and the Askari and I wait for those who
+break across. Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if thou hast a better, name
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had done, I explained to the others such portions of his scheme as they
+had failed to understand, and they all joined with me in expressing the
+greatest admiration of the acute and skilful programme devised by the old Zulu,
+who was indeed, in his own savage fashion, the finest general I ever knew.
+After some discussion we determined to accept the scheme, as it stood, it being
+the only one possible under the circumstances, and giving the best chance of
+success that such a forlorn hope would admit of&mdash;which, however,
+considering the enormous odds and the character of our foe, was not very great.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, old lion!&rdquo; I said to Umslopogaas, &ldquo;thou knowest how to
+lie in wait as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as where to hang
+on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, ay, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;For thirty years have I
+been a warrior, and have seen many things. It will be a good fight. I smell
+blood&mdash;I tell thee, I smell blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+THE NIGHT WEARS ON</h2>
+
+<p>
+As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire population of
+the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the stout stone wall, and were now
+to be seen&mdash;men, women, and countless children&mdash;huddled up together
+in little groups, and all talking at once in awed tones of the awfulness of
+Masai manners and customs, and of the fate that they had to expect if those
+bloodthirsty savages succeeded in getting over the stone wall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of action as
+suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four sharp boys of from twelve
+to fifteen years of age, and despatched them to various points where they could
+keep an outlook upon the Masai camp, with others to report from time to time
+what was going on. Other lads and even women were stationed at intervals along
+the wall in order to guard against the possibility of surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting force were
+summoned by our host into the square formed by the house, and there, standing
+by the bole of the great conifer, he earnestly addressed them and our four
+Askari. Indeed, it formed a very impressive scene&mdash;one not likely to be
+forgotten by anybody who witnessed it. Immediately by the tree stood the
+angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched as he talked, and the other
+resting against the giant bole, his hat off, and his plain but kindly face
+clearly betraying the anguish of his mind. Next to him was his poor wife, who,
+seated on a chair, had her face hidden in her hand. On the other side of her
+was Alphonse, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood the three
+of us, with Umslopogaas&rsquo; grim and towering form in the background,
+resting, as usual, on his axe. In front stood and squatted the group of armed
+men&mdash;some with rifles in their hands, and others with spears and
+shields&mdash;following with eager attention every word that fell from the
+speaker&rsquo;s lips. The white light of the moon peering in beneath the lofty
+boughs threw a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the melancholy
+soughing of the night wind passing through the millions of pine needles
+overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already a sufficiently tragic
+occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Men,&rdquo; said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances of
+the case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them the proposed plan
+of our forlorn hope&mdash;&ldquo;men, for years I have been a good friend to
+you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding you and yours from harm, and ye
+have prospered with me. Ye have seen my child&mdash;the Water-lily, as ye call
+her&mdash;grow year by year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood, and
+from childhood on towards maidenhood. She has been your children&rsquo;s
+playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We have,&rdquo; said a deep voice, &ldquo;and we will die to save
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank you from my heart&mdash;I thank you. Sure am I that now, in this
+hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to be cut off by cruel
+and savage men&mdash;who of a truth &lsquo;know not what they
+do&rsquo;&mdash;ye will strive your best to save her, and to save me and her
+mother from broken hearts. Think, too, of your own wives and children. If she
+dies, her death will be followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best,
+even if we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your
+goods and cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a man of peace. Never in
+all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man&rsquo;s blood; but now I say
+strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect our lives and homes.
+Swear to me,&rdquo; he went on with added fervour&mdash;&ldquo;swear to me that
+whilst a man of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost with me and
+with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody and cruel
+death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say no more, my father,&rdquo; said the same deep voice, that belonged
+to a stalwart elder of the Mission; &ldquo;we swear it. May we and ours die the
+death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals and the kites, if we
+break the oath! It is a fearful thing to do, my father, so few to strike at so
+many, yet will we do it or die in the doing. We swear!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, thus say we all,&rdquo; chimed in the others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thus say we all,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; went on Mr Mackenzie. &ldquo;Ye are true men and not
+broken reeds to lean on. And now, friends&mdash;white and black
+together&mdash;let us kneel and offer up our humble supplication to the Throne
+of Power, praying that He in the hollow of Whose hand lie all our lives, Who
+giveth life and giveth death, may be pleased to make strong our arms that we
+may prevail in what awaits us at the morning&rsquo;s light.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas, who
+still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas. The fierce old
+Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unless it were his battleaxe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh God of gods!&rdquo; began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous
+with emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof;
+&ldquo;Protector of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian of the
+helpless, hear Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Thee we come in
+supplication. Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one child hast Thou given
+us&mdash;an innocent child, nurtured in Thy knowledge&mdash;and now she lies
+beneath the shadow of the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of
+savage men. Be with her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly
+Father! Oh God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to
+fight, in Whose strength are hid the destinies of men, be Thou with us in the
+hour of strife. When we go forth into the shadow of death, make Thou us strong
+to conquer. Breathe Thou upon our foes and scatter them; turn Thou their
+strength to water, and bring their high-blown pride to nought; compass us about
+with Thy protection; throw over us the shield of Thy power; forget us not now
+in the hour of our sore distress; help us now that the cruel man would dash our
+little ones against the stones! Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who,
+kneeling now on earth in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy
+Presence on the Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away
+their offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits pass, oh
+receive Thou them into the haven of the just. Go forth, oh Father, go forth
+with us into the battle, as with the Israelites of old. Oh God of battle, hear
+Thou our prayer!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ceased, and after a moment&rsquo;s silence we all rose, and then began our
+preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop
+&ldquo;talking&rdquo; and get to business. The men who were to form each little
+party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely instructed
+as to what was to be done. After much consideration it was agreed that the ten
+men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not to carry
+firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself, who had a revolver as
+well as a short sword&mdash;the Masai &ldquo;sime&rdquo; which I had taken from
+the body of our poor servant who was murdered in the canoe. We feared that if
+they had firearms the result of three cross-fires carried on at once would be
+that some of our own people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us
+that the work they had to do would best be carried out with cold
+steel&mdash;especially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great advocate of
+cold steel. We had with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a
+dozen Martinis. I armed myself with one of the repeaters&mdash;my own; an
+excellent weapon for this kind of work, where great rapidity of fire is
+desirable, and fitted with ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome
+sliding mechanism which they generally have. Mr Mackenzie took another, and the
+two remaining ones were given to two of his men who understood the use of them
+and were noted shots. The Martinis and some rifles of Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s were
+served out, together with a plentiful supply of ammunition, to the other
+natives who were to form the two parties whose duty it was to be to open fire
+from separate sides of the kraal on the sleeping Masai, and who were
+fortunately all more or less accustomed to the use of a gun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed&mdash;with an axe. It may be
+remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of the Askari were to hold the
+thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal against the anticipated rush of men
+striving to escape. Of course, for such a purpose as this guns were useless.
+Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm themselves in like fashion.
+It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his little store a selection of the
+very best and English-made hammer-backed axe-heads. Sir Henry selected one of
+these weighing about two and a half pounds and very broad in the blade, and the
+Askari took another a size smaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on
+these two axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which Mr
+Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock, made of a light but exceedingly tough
+native wood, something like English ash, only more springy. When two suitable
+helves had been selected with great care and the ends of the hafts notched to
+prevent the hand from slipping, the axe-heads were fixed on them as firmly as
+possible, and the weapons immersed in a bucket of water for half an hour. The
+result of this was to swell the wood in the socket in such a fashion that
+nothing short of burning would get it out again. When this important matter had
+been attended to by Umslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a
+little tin-lined deal case, which contained&mdash;what do you
+think?&mdash;nothing more or less than four mail shirts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had made in another
+part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts of native make, and remembering
+this, I had suggested before we started on our present hazardous expedition
+that we should have some made to fit us. There was a little difficulty about
+this, as armour-making is pretty well an extinct art, but they can do most
+things in the way of steel work in Birmingham if they are put to it and you
+will pay the price, and the end of it was that they turned us out the loveliest
+steel shirts it is possible to see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the
+web being composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny rings of the
+best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved and high-necked jerseys,
+were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but browned like the
+barrel of a gun; and mine weighed exactly seven pounds and fitted me so well
+that I found I could wear it for days next to my skin without being chafed. Sir
+Henry had two, one of the ordinary make, viz. a jersey with little dependent
+flaps meant to afford some protection to the upper part of the thighs, and
+another of his own design fashioned on the pattern of the garments advertised
+as &ldquo;combinations&rdquo; and weighing twelve pounds. This combination
+shirt, of which the seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body
+down to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to be
+laced up at the back and, of course, involved some extra weight. With these
+shirts were what looked like four brown cloth travelling caps with ear pieces.
+Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel links so as to afford a
+most valuable protection for the head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days of bullets,
+against which they are of course quite useless; but where one has to do with
+savages, armed with cutting weapons such as assegais or battle-axes, they afford
+the most valuable protection, being, if well made, quite invulnerable to them.
+I have often thought that if only the English Government had in our savage
+wars, and more especially in the Zulu war, thought fit to serve out light steel
+shirts, there would be many a man alive today who, as it is, is dead and
+forgotten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in bringing these
+shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had not been stolen by our
+rascally bearers when they ran away with our goods. As Curtis had two, and
+after considerable deliberation, had made up his mind to wear his combination
+one himself&mdash;the extra three or four pounds&rsquo; weight being a matter
+of no account to so strong a man, and the protection afforded to the thighs
+being a very important matter to a fighting man not armed with a shield of any
+kind&mdash;I suggested that he should lend the other to Umslopogaas, who was to
+share the danger and the glory of his post. He readily consented, and called
+the Zulu, who came bearing Sir Henry&rsquo;s axe, which he had now fixed up to
+his satisfaction, with him. When we showed him the steel shirt, and explained
+to him that we wanted him to wear it, he at first declined, saying that he had
+fought in his own skin for thirty years, and that he was not going to begin now
+to fight in an iron one. Thereupon I took a heavy spear, and, spreading the
+shirt upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my strength, the
+weapon rebounding without leaving a mark upon the tempered steel. This
+exhibition half converted him; and when I pointed out to him how necessary it
+was that he should not let any old-fashioned prejudices he might possess stand
+in the way of a precaution which might preserve a valuable life at a time when
+men were scarce, and also that if he wore this shirt he might dispense with a
+shield, and so have both hands free, he yielded at once, and proceeded to
+invest his frame with the &ldquo;iron skin&rdquo;. And indeed, although made
+for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu like a skin. The two men were almost of
+a height; and, though Curtis looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that
+the difference was more imaginary than real, the fact being that, although he
+was plumper and rounder, he was not really bigger, except in the arm.
+Umslopogaas had, comparatively speaking, thin arms, but they were as strong as
+wire ropes. At any rate, when they both stood, axe in hand, invested in the
+brown mail, which clung to their mighty forms like a web garment, showing the
+swell of every muscle and the curve of every line, they formed a pair that any
+ten men might shrink from meeting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was now nearly one o&rsquo;clock in the morning, and the spies reported
+that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormous quantities of
+meat, the Masai were going to sleep round their watchfires; but that sentries
+had been posted at each opening of the kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting
+not far from the wall in the centre of the western side of the kraal, and by
+her were the nurse and the white donkey, which was tethered to a peg. Her feet
+were bound with a rope, and warriors were lying about all round her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then we all took
+some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of hours. I could not help
+admiring the way in which old Umslopogaas flung himself upon the floor, and,
+unmindful of what was hanging over him, instantly sank into a deep sleep. I do
+not know how it was with the others, but I could not do as much. Indeed, as is
+usual with me on these occasions, I am sorry to say that I felt rather
+frightened; and, now that some of the enthusiasm had gone out of me, and I
+began to calmly contemplate what we had undertaken to do, truth compels me to
+add that I did not like it. We were but thirty men all told, a good many of
+whom were no doubt quite unused to fighting, and we were going to engage two
+hundred and fifty of the fiercest, bravest, and most formidable savages in
+Africa, who, to make matters worse, were protected by a stone wall. It was,
+indeed, a mad undertaking, and what made it even madder was the exceeding
+improbability of our being able to take up our positions without attracting the
+notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did that&mdash;and any slight
+accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun, might do it&mdash;we were done
+for, for the whole camp would be up in a second, and our only hope lay in
+surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflections was near an
+open window that looked on to the veranda, through which came an extraordinary
+sound of groaning and weeping. For a time I could not make out what it was, but
+at last I got up and, putting my head out of the window, stared about.
+Presently I saw a dim figure kneeling on the end of the veranda and beating his
+breast&mdash;in which I recognized Alphonse. Not being able to understand his
+French talk or what on earth he was at, I called to him and asked him what he
+was doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, monsieur,&rdquo; he sighed, &ldquo;I do make prayer for the souls of
+those whom I shall slay tonight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;then I wish that you would do it a little
+more quietly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And so the time passed,
+till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisper through the window, for of
+course everything had now to be done in the most absolute silence. &ldquo;Three
+o&rsquo;clock,&rdquo; he said: &ldquo;we must begin to move at
+half-past.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound to say that if
+it had not been that just then I had not got a laugh anywhere about me, I
+should have exploded at the sight he presented armed for battle. To begin with,
+he had on a clergyman&rsquo;s black swallow-tail and a kind of broad-rimmed
+black felt hat, both of which he had donned on account, he said, of their dark
+colour. In his hand was the Winchester repeating rifle we had lent him; and
+stuck in an elastic cricketing belt, like those worn by English boys, were,
+first, a huge buckhorn-handled carving knife with a guard to it, and next a
+long-barrelled Colt&rsquo;s revolver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, my friend,&rdquo; he said, seeing me staring at his belt, &ldquo;you
+are looking at my &lsquo;carver&rsquo;. I thought it might come in handy if we
+came to close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many is the pig I have
+killed with it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light Norfolk jacket
+over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy to hold my cartridges, and
+buckled on my revolver. Good did the same, but Sir Henry put on nothing except
+his mail shirt, steel-lined cap, and a pair of &ldquo;veldt-schoons&rdquo; or
+soft hide shoes, his legs being bare from the knees down. His revolver he
+strapped on round his middle outside the armoured shirt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under the big tree
+and going the rounds to see that each was properly armed, etc. At the last
+moment we made one change. Finding that two of the men who were to have gone
+with the firing parties knew little or nothing of guns, but were good
+spearsmen, we took away their rifles, supplied them with shields and long
+spears of the Masai pattern, and took them off to join Curtis, Umslopogaas, and
+the Askari in holding the wide opening; it having become clear to us that three
+men, however brave and strong, were too few for the work.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT</h2>
+
+<p>
+Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent darkness
+waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the most trying time of
+all&mdash;that slow, slow quarter of an hour. The minutes seemed to drag along
+with leaden feet, and the quiet, the solemn hush, that brooded over
+all&mdash;big, as it were, with a coming fate, was most oppressive to the
+spirits. I once remember having to get up before dawn to see a man hanged, and
+I then went through a very similar set of sensations, only in the present
+instance my feelings were animated by that more vivid and personal element
+which naturally appertains rather to the person to be operated on than to the
+most sympathetic spectator. The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the
+short passage of an hour would mean for some, and perhaps all of them, the last
+great passage to the unknown or oblivion; the bated whispers in which they
+spoke; even Sir Henry&rsquo;s continuous and thoughtful examination of his
+woodcutter&rsquo;s axe and the fidgety way in which Good kept polishing his
+eyeglass, all told the same tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to
+breaking-point. Only Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and taking
+an occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly and completely
+unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer and nearer to
+the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the world in darkness save for a
+faint grey tinge in the eastern sky that palely heralded the dawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm and striving to
+stifle her sobs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Twenty minutes to four,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it ought to be light
+enough to attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better be
+moving, he will want three or four minutes&rsquo; start.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a jocular sort of
+way&mdash;which I could not help feeling it must have cost him something to
+muster up&mdash;and, ever polite, took off his steel-lined cap to Mrs Mackenzie
+and started for his position at the head of the kraal, to reach which he had to
+make a detour by some paths known to the natives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody in the Masai
+camp, with the exception of the two sentries who were walking up and down in
+front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fast asleep. Then the rest of
+us took the road. First came the guide, then Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the
+Wakwafi Askari, and Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s two mission natives armed with long
+spears and shields. I followed immediately after with Alphonse and five natives
+all armed with guns, and Mr Mackenzie brought up the rear with the six
+remaining natives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot of the hill on
+which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about eight hundred yards from the
+Mission buildings. The first five hundred yards of this distance we traversed
+quietly indeed, but at a good pace; after that we crept forward as silently as
+a leopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts from bush to bush and stone to
+stone. When I had gone a little way I chanced to look behind me, and saw the
+redoubtable Alphonse staggering along with white face and trembling knees, and
+his rifle, which was at full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back.
+Having halted and carefully put the rifle at &ldquo;safety&rdquo;, we started
+again, and all went well till we were within one hundred yards or so of the
+kraal, when his teeth began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t stop that I will kill you,&rdquo; I whispered
+savagely; for the idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering
+cook was too much for me. I began to fear that he would betray us, and heartily
+wished we had left him behind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, monsieur, I cannot help it,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;it is the
+cold.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the pocket of the coat
+I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that I had used some time before to
+clean a gun with. &ldquo;Put this in your mouth,&rdquo; I whispered again,
+giving him the rag; &ldquo;and if I hear another sound you are a dead
+man.&rdquo; I knew that that would stifle the clatter of his teeth. I must have
+looked as if I meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and continued his
+journey in silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we crept on again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us and it was an open
+space of sloping grass with only one mimosa bush and a couple of tussocks of a
+sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in fairly thick bush. It was
+beginning to grow light. The stars had paled and a sickly gleam played about
+the east and was reflected on the earth. We could see the outline of the kraal
+clearly enough, and could also make out the faint glimmer of the dying embers
+of the Masai camp-fires. We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was
+posted at the opening. Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly
+up and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to
+catch him napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide awake. If
+we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. There we
+crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces ahead of
+me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go down on his stomach
+like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when the sentry&rsquo;s head was
+turned, begin to work his way through the grass without a sound.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas crept
+on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived and there waited.
+Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently he turned and looked over the
+wall into the camp. Instantly the human snake who was stalking him glided on
+ten yards and got behind one of the tussocks of the thistle-like plant,
+reaching it as the Elmoran turned again. As he did so his eye fell upon this
+patch of thistles, and it seemed to strike him that it did not look quite
+right. He advanced a pace towards it&mdash;halted, yawned, stooped down, picked
+up a little pebble and threw it at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head,
+luckily not upon the armour shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed
+us. Luckily, too, the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which would
+certainly have been detected. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing
+wrong, he then gave over his investigations and contented himself with leaning
+on his spear and standing gazing idly at the tuft. For at least three minutes
+did he stand thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and there we lay in
+the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment that we should be
+discovered or that some untoward accident would happen. I could hear
+Alphonse&rsquo;s teeth going like anything on the oiled rag, and turning my
+head round made an awful face at him. But I am bound to state that my own heart
+was at much the same game as the Frenchman&rsquo;s castanets, while the
+perspiration was pouring from my body, causing the wash-leather-lined shirt to
+stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether I was in the pitiable state known by
+schoolboys as a &ldquo;blue fright&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at the east, and appeared
+to note with satisfaction that his period of duty was coming to an end&mdash;as
+indeed it was, once and for all&mdash;for he rubbed his hands and began to walk
+again briskly to warm himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again, and
+reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces of his
+return beat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterly unconscious of
+the presence that was crouching behind it. Had he looked down he could scarcely
+have failed to see, but he did not do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and with outstretched
+hand followed in his tracks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the great Zulu made
+a spring, and in the growing light we could see his long lean hands close round
+the Masai&rsquo;s throat. Then followed a convulsive twining of the two dark
+bodies, and in another second I saw the Masai&rsquo;s head bent back, and heard
+a sharp crack, something like that of a dry twig snapping, and he fell down
+upon the ground, his limbs moving spasmodically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the warrior&rsquo;s
+neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat till he was
+sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he rose and
+beckoned to us to advance, which we did on all fours, like a colony of huge
+apes. On reaching the kraal we saw that the Masai had still further choked this
+entrance, which was about ten feet wide&mdash;no doubt in order to guard
+against attack&mdash;by dragging four or five tops of mimosa trees up to it. So
+much the better for us, I reflected; the more obstruction there was the slower
+would they be able to come through. Here we separated; Mackenzie and his party
+creeping up under the shadow of the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and
+Umslopogaas took their stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two
+spearmen and the Askari lying down in front of it. I and my men crept on up the
+right side of the kraal, which was about fifty paces long.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances of four paces
+from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however. Then I peeped for the
+first time over the wall. It was getting fairly light now, and the first thing
+I saw was the white donkey, exactly opposite to me, and close by it I could
+make out the pale face of little Flossie, who was sitting as the lad had
+described, some ten paces from the wall. Round her lay many warriors, sleeping.
+At distances all over the surface of the kraal were the remains of fires, round
+each of which slept some five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with
+food. Now and then a man would raise himself, yawn, and look at the east, which
+was turning primrose; but none got up. I determined to wait another five
+minutes, both to allow the light to increase, so that we could make better
+shooting, and to give Good and his party&mdash;of whom we could see or hear
+nothing&mdash;every opportunity to make ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain and forest
+and river&mdash;mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence of eternal snows, looked
+out across the earth&mdash;till presently a beam from the unrisen sun lit upon
+his heaven-kissing crest and purpled it with blood; the sky above grew blue,
+and tender as a mother&rsquo;s smile; a bird began to pipe his morning song,
+and a little breeze passing through the bush shook down the dewdrops in
+millions to refresh the waking world. Everywhere was peace and the happiness of
+arising strength, everywhere save in the heart of cruel man!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having already selected
+my man on whom I meant to open fire&mdash;a great fellow sprawling on the
+ground within three feet of little Flossie&mdash;Alphonse&rsquo;s teeth began
+to chatter again like the hoofs of a galloping giraffe, making a great noise in
+the silence. The rag had dropped out in the agitation of his mind. Instantly a
+Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting up, gazed about him, looking
+for the cause of the sound. Moved beyond myself, I brought the butt-end of my
+rifle down on to the pit of the Frenchman&rsquo;s stomach. This stopped his
+chattering; but, as he doubled up, he managed to let off his gun in such a
+manner that the bullet passed within an inch of my head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraal broke out a
+waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing with a snap shot to
+knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he was jumping up. Then from the top
+end of the kraal there rang an awful yell, in which I rejoiced to recognize
+Good&rsquo;s piercing notes rising clear and shrill above the din, and in
+another second followed such a scene as I have never seen before nor shall
+again. With an universal howl of terror and fury the brawny crowd of savages
+within the kraal sprang to their feet, many of them to fall again beneath our
+well-directed hail of lead before they had moved a yard. For a moment they
+stood undecided, and then hearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly
+from the top end of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they as
+by one impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they went we
+kept pouring our fire with terrible effect into the thickening mob as fast as
+we could load. I had emptied my repeater of the ten shots it contained and was
+just beginning to slip in some more when I bethought me of little Flossie.
+Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lying kicking, having been knocked
+over either by one of our bullets or a Masai spear-thrust. There were no living
+Masai near, but the black nurse was on her feet and with a spear cutting the
+rope that bound Flossie&rsquo;s feet. Next second she ran to the wall of the
+kraal and began to climb over it, an example which the little girl followed.
+But Flossie was evidently very stiff and cramped, and could only go slowly, and
+as she went two Masai flying down the kraal caught sight of her and rushed
+towards her to kill her. The first fellow came up just as the poor little girl,
+after a desperate effort to climb the wall, fell back into the kraal. Up
+flashed the great spear, and as it did so a bullet from my rifle found its home
+in the holder&rsquo;s ribs, and over he went like a shot rabbit. But behind him
+was the other man, and, alas, I had only that one cartridge in the magazine!
+Flossie had scrambled to her feet and was facing the second man, who was
+advancing with raised spear. I turned my head aside and felt sick as death. I
+could not bear to see him stab her. Glancing up again, to my surprise I saw the
+Masai&rsquo;s spear lying on the ground, while the man himself was staggering
+about with both hands to his head. Suddenly I saw a puff of smoke proceeding
+apparently from Flossie, and the man fell down headlong. Then I remembered the
+Derringer pistol she carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it at
+him, thereby saving her life. In another instant she had made an effort, and
+assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top, had scrambled over the wall,
+and I knew that she was, comparatively speaking, safe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took more than
+fifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazine of the repeater filled again
+with cartridges, and once more opened fire, not on the seething black mass
+which was gathering at the end of the kraal, but on fugitives who bethought
+them to climb the wall. I picked off several of these men, moving down towards
+the end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving at the corner, or rather the
+bend of the oval, in time to see, and by means of my rifle to assist in, the
+mighty struggle that took place there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time some two hundred Masai&mdash;allowing that we had up to the
+present accounted for fifty&mdash;had gathered together in front of the
+thorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spears of Good&rsquo;s men, whom
+they doubtless supposed were a large force instead of being but ten strong. For
+some reason it never occurred to them to try and rush the wall, which they
+could have scrambled over with comparative ease; they all made for the fence,
+which was really a strongly interwoven fortification. With a bound the first
+warrior went at it, and even before he touched the ground on the other side I
+saw Sir Henry&rsquo;s great axe swing up and fall with awful force upon his
+feather head-piece, and he sank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell
+and a crash they began to break through as they might, and ever as they came
+the great axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead one by one, each
+man thus helping to build up a barrier against his fellows. Those who escaped
+the axes of the pair fell at the hands of the Askari and the two Mission
+Kaffirs, and those who passed scatheless from them were brought low by my own
+and Mackenzie&rsquo;s fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai would spring upon the
+dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of the axemen with their
+long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts, the result was always the
+same. Presently there was a great swing of the axe, a crashing sound, and
+another dead Masai. That is, if the man was engaged with Sir Henry. If it was
+Umslopogaas that he fought with the result indeed would be the same, but it
+would be differently attained. It was but rarely that the Zulu used the
+crashing double-handed stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap
+continually at his adversary&rsquo;s head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end
+of the axe as a woodpecker<a href="#fn-7" name="fnref-7" id="fnref-7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>
+pecks at rotten wood. Presently a peck would go home, and his enemy would drop
+down with a neat little circular hole in his forehead or skull, exactly similar
+to that which a cheese-scoop makes in a cheese. He never used the broad blade
+of the axe except when hard pressed, or when striking at a shield. He told me
+afterwards that he did not consider it sportsmanlike.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-7" id="fn-7"></a> <a href="#fnref-7">[7]</a>
+As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas&rsquo;s Zulu names was the
+&ldquo;Woodpecker&rdquo;. I could never make out why he was called so until I
+saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at once recognized the
+resemblance.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had to cease firing
+into the mass for fear of killing some of them (as it was, one of them was
+slain in this way). Mad and desperate with fear, the Masai by a frantic effort
+burst through the thorn fence and piled-up dead, and, sweeping Curtis,
+Umslopogaas, and the other three before them, into the open. And now it was
+that we began to lose men fast. Down went our poor Askari who was armed with
+the axe, a great spear standing out a foot behind his back; and before long the
+two spearsmen who had stood with him went down too, dying fighting like tigers;
+and others of our party shared their fate. For a moment I feared the fight was
+lost&mdash;certainly it trembled in the balance. I shouted to my men to cast
+down their rifles, and to take spears and throw themselves into the
+<i>mêlée</i>. They obeyed, their blood being now thoroughly up, and Mr
+Mackenzie&rsquo;s people followed their example.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung in the balance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the dark mass of
+Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And ever above the din
+rose Good&rsquo;s awful yell of encouragement as he plunged to wherever the
+fight was thickest; and ever, with an almost machine-like regularity, the two
+axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablement at every stroke. But I could
+see that the strain was beginning to tell upon Sir Henry, who was bleeding from
+several flesh wounds: his breath was coming in gasps, and the veins stood out
+on his forehead like blue and knotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that
+he was, was hard pressed. I noticed that he had given up
+&ldquo;woodpecking&rdquo;, and was now using the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas,
+&ldquo;browning&rdquo; his enemy wherever he could hit him, instead of drilling
+scientific holes in his head. I myself did not go into the <i>mêlée</i>, but
+hovered outside like the swift &ldquo;back&rdquo; in a football scrimmage,
+putting a bullet through a Masai whenever I got a chance. I was more use so. I
+fired forty-nine cartridges that morning, and I did not miss many shots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise against us. We
+had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left now, and the Masai had at
+least fifty. Of course if they had kept their heads, and shaken themselves
+together, they could soon have made an end of the matter; but that is just what
+they did not do, not having yet recovered from their start, and some of them
+having actually fled from their sleeping-places without their weapons. Still by
+now many individuals were fighting with their normal courage and discretion,
+and this alone was sufficient to defeat us. To make matters worse just then,
+when Mackenzie&rsquo;s rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a
+&ldquo;sime&rdquo;, or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his
+gun, and drawing his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had
+dropped out in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle. Presently, locked
+in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on the ground behind the wall,
+and for some time I, being amply occupied with my own affairs, and in keeping
+my skin from being pricked, remained in ignorance of his fate or how the duel
+had ended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex of a human
+whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for us. Just then, however, a
+fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either by accident or design, broke out
+of the ring and engaged a warrior at some few paces from it. As he did so,
+another man ran up and struck him with all his force between his shoulders with
+his great spear, which, falling on the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it
+and rebounded. For a moment the man stared aghast&mdash;protective armour being
+unknown among these tribes&mdash;and then he yelled out at the top of his
+voice&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>They are devils&mdash;bewitched, bewitched!</i>&rdquo; And seized by
+a sudden panic, he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cut short his
+career with a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic
+spread to the others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Bewitched, bewitched!</i>&rdquo; they cried, and tried to escape in
+every direction, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most part
+even throwing down their shields and spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It was a slaughter
+great and grim, in which no quarter was asked or given. One incident, however,
+is worth detailing. Just as I was hoping that it was all done with, suddenly
+from under a heap of slain where he had been hiding, an unwounded warrior
+sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying dead like an antelope, sped like
+the wind up the kraal towards the spot where I was standing at the moment. But
+he was not alone, for Umslopogaas came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar
+swallow-like motion for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized
+in the Masai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, run as he would,
+his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and turned round to give battle.
+Umslopogaas also pulled up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, ah,&rdquo; he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, &ldquo;it is thou
+whom I talked with last night&mdash;the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer of
+little girls&mdash;he who would kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to
+stand man to man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe of
+the Maquilisini, of the people of the Amazulu? Behold, thy prayer is granted!
+And I didst swear to hew thee limb from limb, thou insolent dog. Behold, I will
+do it even now!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu with his spear.
+As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swinging Inkosi-kaas high
+above his head with both hands, brought the broad blade down with such fearful
+force from behind upon the Masai&rsquo;s shoulder just where the neck is set
+into the frame, that its razor edge shore right through bone and flesh and
+muscle, almost severing the head and one arm from the body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Ou!</i>&rdquo; ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of
+his foe; &ldquo;I have kept my word. It was a good stroke.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+ALPHONSE EXPLAINS</h2>
+
+<p>
+And so the fight was ended. On returning from the shocking scene it suddenly
+struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse since the moment, some twenty
+minutes before&mdash;for though this fight has taken a long while to describe,
+it did not take long in reality&mdash;when I had been forced to hit him in the
+wind with the result of nearly getting myself shot. Fearing that the poor
+little man had perished in the battle, I began to hunt among the dead for his
+body, but, not being able either to see or hear anything of it, I concluded
+that he must have survived, and walked down the side of the kraal where we had
+first taken our stand, calling him by name. Now some fifteen paces back from
+the kraal wall stood a very ancient tree of the banyan species. So ancient was
+it that all the inside had in the course of ages decayed away, leaving nothing
+but a shell of bark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alphonse,&rdquo; I called, as I walked down the wall.
+&ldquo;Alphonse!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oui, monsieur,&rdquo; answered a voice. &ldquo;Here am I.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked round but could see nobody. &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; I cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here am I, monsieur, in the tree.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of the banyan about
+five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face and a pair of large mustachios,
+one clipped short and the other as lamentably out of curl as the tail of a
+newly whipped pug. Then, for the first time, I realised what I had suspected
+before&mdash;namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward. I walked up to him.
+&ldquo;Come out of that hole,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it finished, monsieur?&rdquo; he asked anxiously; &ldquo;quite
+finished? Ah, the horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have
+uttered!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come out, you little wretch,&rdquo; I said, for I did not feel amiable;
+&ldquo;it is all over.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed? I emerge,&rdquo; and he
+did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we were walking down together to join the others, who were gathered in a
+group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which now resembled a veritable
+charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped so far and been hiding under a bush,
+suddenly sprang up and charged furiously at us. Off went Alphonse with a howl
+of terror, and after him flew the Masai, bent upon doing some execution before
+he died. He soon overtook the poor little Frenchman, and would have finished
+him then and there had I not, just as Alphonse made a last agonized double in
+the vain hope of avoiding the yard of steel that was flashing in his immediate
+rear, managed to plant a bullet between the Elmoran&rsquo;s broad shoulders,
+which brought matters to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman was
+concerned. But just then he tripped and fell flat, and the body of the Masai
+fell right on the top of him, moving convulsively in the death struggle.
+Thereupon there arose such a series of piercing howls that I concluded that
+before he died the savage must have managed to stab poor Alphonse. I ran up in
+a hurry and pulled the Masai off, and there beneath him lay Alphonse covered
+with blood and jerking himself about like a galvanized frog. Poor fellow!
+thought I, he is done for, and kneeling down by him I began to search for his
+wound as well as his struggles would allow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, the hole in my back!&rdquo; he yelled. &ldquo;I am murdered. I am
+dead. Oh, Annette!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I searched again, but could see no wound. Then the truth dawned on me&mdash;the
+man was frightened, not hurt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Get up!&rdquo; I shouted, &ldquo;Get up. Aren&rsquo;t you ashamed of
+yourself? You are not touched.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse. &ldquo;But, monsieur, I thought I
+was,&rdquo; he said apologetically; &ldquo;I did not know that I had
+conquered.&rdquo; Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick, he ejaculated
+triumphantly, &ldquo;Ah, dog of a black savage, thou art dead; what
+victory!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself, which he did by
+following me like a shadow, and proceeded to join the others by the large
+entrance. The first thing that I saw was Mackenzie, seated on a stone with a
+handkerchief twisted round his thigh, from which he was bleeding freely,
+having, indeed, received a spear-thrust that passed right through it, and still
+holding in his hand his favourite carving knife now bent nearly double, from
+which I gathered that he had been successful in his rough and tumble with the
+Elmoran.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Quatermain!&rdquo; he sang out in a trembling, excited voice,
+&ldquo;so we have conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;&rdquo; and
+then breaking into broad Scotch and glancing at the bent knife in his hand,
+&ldquo;It fashes me sair to have bent my best carver on the breastbone of a
+savage,&rdquo; and he laughed hysterically. Poor fellow, what between his wound
+and the killing excitement he had undergone his nerves were much shaken, and no
+wonder! It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart to be called upon to
+join in such a gruesome business. But there, fate puts us sometimes into very
+comical positions!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one. The slaughter was over by
+now, and the wounded men had been put out of their pain, for no quarter had
+been given. The bush-closed entrance was trampled flat, and in place of bushes
+it was filled with the bodies of dead men. Dead men, everywhere dead
+men&mdash;they lay about in knots, they were flung by ones and twos in every
+position upon the open spaces, for all the world like the people on the grass
+in one of the London parks on a particularly hot Sunday in August. In front of
+this entrance, on a space which had been cleared of dead and of the shields and
+spears which were scattered in all directions as they had fallen or been thrown
+from the hands of their owners, stood and lay the survivors of the awful
+struggle, and at their feet were four wounded men. We had gone into the fight
+thirty strong, and of the thirty but fifteen remained alive, and five of them
+(including Mr Mackenzie) were wounded, two mortally. Of those who held the
+entrance, Curtis and the Zulu alone remained. Good had lost five men killed, I
+had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out of the six with him.
+As for the survivors they were, with the exception of myself who had never come
+to close quarters, red from head to foot&mdash;Sir Henry&rsquo;s armour might
+have been painted that colour&mdash;and utterly exhausted, except Umslopogaas,
+who, as he grimly stood on a little mound above a heap of dead, leaning as
+usual upon his axe, did not seem particularly distressed, although the skin
+over the hole in his head palpitated violently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Macumazahn!&rdquo; he said to me as I limped up, feeling very sick,
+&ldquo;I told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has. Never have I seen
+a better, or one more bravely fought. As for this iron shirt, surely it is
+&lsquo;tagati&rsquo; [bewitched]; nothing could pierce it. Had it not been for
+the garment I should have been <i>there</i>,&rdquo; and he nodded towards the
+great pile of dead men beneath him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I give it thee; thou art a brave man,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, briefly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Koos!&rdquo; answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift and the
+compliment. &ldquo;Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as a man, but I must
+give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dost waste thy strength.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatly relieved when
+one of the men said he had seen her flying towards the house with the nurse.
+Then bearing such of the wounded as could be moved at the moment with us, we
+slowly made our way towards the Mission-house, spent with toil and bloodshed,
+but with the glorious sense of victory against overwhelming odds glowing in our
+hearts. We had saved the life of the little maid, and taught the Masai of those
+parts a lesson that they will not forget for ten years&mdash;but at what a
+cost!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little more than an hour
+before, we had descended under such different circumstances. At the gate of the
+wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us. When her eyes fell upon us, however,
+she shrieked out, and covered her face with her hands, crying, &ldquo;Horrible,
+horrible!&rdquo; Nor were her fears allayed when she discovered her worthy
+husband being borne upon an improvised stretcher; but her doubts as to the
+nature of his injury were soon set at rest. Then when in a few brief words I
+had told her the upshot of the struggle (of which Flossie, who had arrived in
+safety, had been able to explain something) she came up to me and solemnly
+kissed me on the forehead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child&rsquo;s
+life,&rdquo; she said simply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds; I am glad to
+say I had none, and Sir Henry&rsquo;s and Good&rsquo;s were, thanks to those
+invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmless nature, and to be dealt
+with by means of a few stitches and sticking-plaster. Mackenzie&rsquo;s,
+however, were serious, though fortunately the spear had not severed any large
+artery. After that we had a bath, and what a luxury it was! And having clad
+ourselves in ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dining-room, where breakfast
+was set as usual. It was curious sitting down there, drinking tea and eating
+toast in an ordinary nineteenth-century sort of way just as though we had not
+employed the early hours in a regular primitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind
+of struggle. As Good said, the whole thing seemed more as though one had had a
+bad nightmare just before being called, than as a deed done. When we were
+finishing our breakfast the door opened, and in came little Flossie, very pale
+and tottery, but quite unhurt. She kissed us all and thanked us. I
+congratulated her on the presence of mind she had shown in shooting the Masai
+with her Derringer pistol, and thereby saving her own life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t talk of it!&rdquo; she said, beginning to cry
+hysterically; &ldquo;I shall never forget his face as he went turning round and
+round, never&mdash;I can see it now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did, and awoke in the
+evening quite recovered, so far as her strength was concerned. It struck me as
+an odd thing that a girl who could find the nerve to shoot a huge black ruffian
+rushing to kill her with a spear should have been so affected at the thought of
+it afterwards; but it is, after all, characteristic of the sex. Poor Flossie! I
+fear that her nerves will not get over that night in the Masai camp for many a
+long year. She told me afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful,
+having to sit there hour after hour through the livelong night utterly ignorant
+as to whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescue her. She said that on
+the whole she did not expect it, knowing how few of us, and how many of the
+Masai&mdash;who, by the way, came continually to stare at her, most of them
+never having seen a white person before, and handled her arms and hair with
+their filthy paws. She said also that she had made up her mind that if she saw
+no signs of succour by the time the first rays of the rising sun reached the
+kraal she would kill herself with the pistol, for the nurse had heard the
+Lygonani say that they were to be tortured to death as soon as the sun was up
+if one of the white men did not come in their place. It was an awful resolution
+to have to take, but she meant to act on it, and I have little doubt but what
+she would have done so. Although she was at an age when in England girls are in
+the schoolroom and come down to dessert, this &ldquo;child of the
+wilderness&rdquo; had more courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a
+woman of mature age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefully
+drilled and educated out of any originality or self-resource that nature may
+have endowed them with.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep, only getting up
+in time for dinner; after which meal we once more adjourned, together with all
+the available population&mdash;men, women, youths, and girls&mdash;to the scene
+of the morning&rsquo;s slaughter, our object being to bury our own dead and get
+rid of the Masai by flinging them into the Tana River, which ran within fifty
+yards of the kraal. On reaching the spot we disturbed thousands upon thousands
+of vultures and a sort of brown bush eagle, which had been flocking to the
+feast from miles and miles away. Often have I watched these great and repulsive
+birds, and marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arrive on a
+scene of slaughter. A buck falls to your rifle, and within a minute high in the
+blue ether appears a speck that gradually grows into a vulture, then another,
+and another. I have heard many theories advanced to account for the wonderful
+power of perception nature has given these birds. My own, founded on a good
+deal of observation, is that the vultures, gifted as they are with powers of
+sight greater than those given by the most powerful glass, quarter out the
+heavens among themselves, and hanging in mid-air at a vast
+height&mdash;probably from two to three miles above the earth&mdash;keep watch,
+each of them, over an enormous stretch of country. Presently one of them spies
+food, and instantly begins to sink towards it. Thereon his next neighbour in
+the airy heights sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at a distance perhaps
+of some miles, follows his example, knowing that food has been sighted. Down he
+goes, and all the vultures within sight of him follow after, and so do all
+those in sight of them. In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be
+summoned to the feast in a few minutes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to read the Burial
+Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie, confined to bed), as he was
+generally allowed to possess the best voice and most impressive manner. It was
+melancholy in the extreme, but, as Good said, it might have been worse, for we
+might have had &ldquo;to bury ourselves&rdquo;. I pointed out that this would
+have been a difficult feat, but I knew what he meant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been brought round from the
+Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, having first collected the spears,
+shields, and other arms. We loaded the wagon five times, about fifty bodies to
+the load, and emptied it into the Tana. From this it was evident that very few
+of the Masai could have escaped. The crocodiles must have been well fed that
+night. One of the last bodies we picked up was that of the sentry at the upper
+end. I asked Good how he managed to kill him, and he told me that he had crept
+up much as Umslopogaas had done, and stabbed him with his sword. He groaned a
+good deal, but fortunately nobody heard him. As Good said, it was a horrible
+thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly like cold-blooded murder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so with the last body that floated away down the current of the Tana ended
+the incident of our attack on the Masai camp. The spears and shields and other
+arms we took up to the Mission, where they filled an outhouse. One incident,
+however, I must not forget to mention. As we were returning from performing the
+obsequies of our Masai friends we passed the hollow tree where Alphonse had
+secreted himself in the morning. It so happened that the little man himself was
+with us assisting in our unpleasant task with a far better will than he had
+shown where live Masai were concerned. Indeed, for each body that he handled he
+found an appropriate sarcasm. Alphonse throwing Masai into the Tana was a very
+different creature from Alphonse flying for dear life from the spear of a live
+Masai. He was quite merry and gay, he clapped his hands and warbled snatches of
+French songs as the grim dead warriors went &ldquo;splash&rdquo; into the
+running waters to carry a message of death and defiance to their kindred a
+hundred miles below. In short, thinking that he wanted taking down a peg, I
+suggested holding a court-martial on him for his conduct in the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, and proceeded to
+sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining to him in the very best French the
+unheard-of cowardice and enormity of his conduct, more especially in letting
+the oiled rag out of his mouth, whereby he nearly aroused the Masai camp with
+teeth-chattering and brought about the failure of our plans: ending up with a
+request for an explanation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him to open shame we were
+destined to be disappointed. He bowed and scraped and smiled, and acknowledged
+that his conduct might at first blush appear strange, but really it was not,
+inasmuch as his teeth were not chattering from fear&mdash;oh, dear no! oh,
+certainly not! he marvelled how the &ldquo;messieurs&rdquo; could think of such
+a thing&mdash;but from the chill air of the morning. As for the rag, if
+monsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being compounded indeed of a
+mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and gunpowder, monsieur himself would
+have spat it out. But he did nothing of the sort; he determined to keep it
+there till, alas! his stomach &ldquo;revolted&rdquo;, and the rag was ejected
+in an access of involuntary sickness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?&rdquo;
+asked Sir Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it was thus: I
+stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieur hit me in the
+stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battle began. I watched whilst
+recovering myself from monsieur&rsquo;s cruel blow; then, messieurs, I felt the
+heroic blood of my grandfather boil up in my veins. The sight made me mad. I
+ground my teeth! Fire flashed from my eyes! I shouted &lsquo;En avant!&rsquo;
+and longed to slay. Before my eyes there rose a vision of my heroic
+grandfather! In short, I was mad! I was a warrior indeed! But then in my heart
+I heard a small voice: &lsquo;Alphonse,&rsquo; said the voice, &lsquo;restrain
+thyself, Alphonse! Give not way to this evil passion! These men, though black,
+are brothers! And thou wouldst slay them? Cruel Alphonse!&rsquo; The voice was
+right. I knew it; I was about to perpetrate the most horrible cruelties: to
+wound! to massacre! to tear limb from limb! And how restrain myself? I looked
+round; I saw the tree, I perceived the hole. &lsquo;Entomb thyself,&rsquo; said
+the voice, &lsquo;and hold on tight! Thou wilt thus overcome temptation by main
+force!&rsquo; It was bitter, just when the blood of my heroic grandfather
+boiled most fiercely; but I obeyed! I dragged my unwilling feet along; I
+entombed myself! Through the hole I watched the battle! I shouted curses and
+defiance on the foe! I noted them fall with satisfaction! Why not? I had not
+robbed them of their lives. Their gore was not upon my head. The blood of my
+heroic&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, get along with you, you little cur!&rdquo; broke out Sir Henry, with
+a shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick which sent him flying off
+with a rueful face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who was suffering a good
+deal from his wounds, which Good, who was a skilful though unqualified doctor,
+was treating him for. He told me that this occurrence had taught him a lesson,
+and that, if he recovered safely, he meant to hand over the Mission to a
+younger man, who was already on his road to join him in his work, and return to
+England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You see, Quatermain,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I made up my mind to it,
+this very morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages.
+&lsquo;If we live through this and rescue Flossie alive,&rsquo; I said to
+myself, &lsquo;I will go home to England; I have had enough of savages.&rsquo;
+Well, I did not think that we should live through it at the time; but thanks be
+to God and you four, we have lived through it, and I mean to stick to my
+resolution, lest a worse thing befall us. Another such time would kill my poor
+wife. And besides, Quatermain, between you and me, I am well off; it is thirty
+thousand pounds I am worth today, and every farthing of it made by honest trade
+and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for living here costs me next to nothing.
+So though it will be hard to leave this place, which I have made to blossom
+like a rose in the wilderness, and harder still to leave the people I have
+taught, I shall go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I congratulate you on your decision,&rdquo; answered I, &ldquo;for two
+reasons. The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter, and more
+especially to the latter, who should receive some education and mix with girls
+of her own race, otherwise she will grow up wild, shunning her kind. The other
+is, that as sure as I am standing here, sooner or later the Masai will try to
+avenge the slaughter inflicted on them today. Two or three men are sure to have
+escaped the confusion who will carry the story back to their people, and the
+result will be that a great expedition will one day be sent against you. It
+might be delayed for a year, but sooner or later it will come. Therefore, if
+only for that reason, I should go. When once they have learnt that you are no
+longer here they may perhaps leave the place alone.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-8" name="fnref-8" id="fnref-8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-8" id="fn-8"></a> <a href="#fnref-8">[8]</a>
+By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr Quatermain, the Masai
+have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and his wife&mdash;Mr and Mrs
+Houghton&mdash;on this very Tana River, and at the spot described. These are, I
+believe, the first white people who are known to have fallen victims to this
+cruel tribe.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are quite right,&rdquo; answered the clergyman. &ldquo;I will turn
+my back upon this place in a month. But it will be a wrench, it will be a
+wrench.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+INTO THE UNKNOWN</h2>
+
+<p>
+A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in the Mission
+dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits, for the reason that we
+were going to say goodbye to our kind friends, the Mackenzies, and depart upon
+our way at dawn on the morrow. Nothing more had been seen or heard of the
+Masai, and save for a spear or two which had been overlooked and was rusting in
+the grass, and a few empty cartridges where we had stood outside the wall, it
+would have been difficult to tell that the old cattle kraal at the foot of the
+slope had been the scene of so desperate a struggle. Mackenzie was, thanks
+chiefly to his being so temperate a man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and
+could get about on a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, one
+had died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery. Mr
+Mackenzie&rsquo;s caravan of men had also returned from the coast, so that the
+station was now amply garrisoned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing as were the
+invitations for us to stay, that it was time to move on, first to Mount Kenia,
+and thence into the unknown in search of the mysterious white race which we had
+set our hearts on discovering. This time we were going to progress by means of
+the humble but useful donkey, of which we had collected no less than a dozen,
+to carry our goods and chattels, and, if necessary, ourselves. We had now but
+two Wakwafis left for servants, and found it quite impossible to get other
+natives to venture with us into the unknown parts we proposed to
+explore&mdash;and small blame to them. After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was
+odd that three men, each of whom possessed many of those things that are
+supposed to make life worth living&mdash;health, sufficient means, and
+position, etc.&mdash;should from their own pleasure start out upon a wild-goose
+chase, from which the chances were they never would return. But then that is
+what Englishmen are, adventurers to the backbone; and all our magnificent
+muster-roll of colonies, each of which will in time become a great nation,
+testify to the extraordinary value of the spirit of adventure which at first
+sight looks like a mild form of lunacy. &ldquo;Adventurer&rdquo;&mdash;he that
+goes out to meet whatever may come. Well, that is what we all do in the world
+one way or another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud of the title, because
+it implies a brave heart and a trust in Providence. Besides, when many and many
+a noted Croesus, at whose feet the people worship, and many and many a
+time-serving and word-coining politician are forgotten, the names of those
+grand-hearted old adventurers who have made England what she is, will be
+remembered and taught with love and pride to little children whose unshaped
+spirits yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be. Not that we three can
+expect to be numbered with such as these, yet have we done
+something&mdash;enough, perhaps, to throw a garment over the nakedness of our
+folly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smoking a pipe before
+turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse, and, with a magnificent bow,
+announce his wish for an interview. Being requested to &ldquo;fire away&rdquo;,
+he explained at some length that he was anxious to attach himself to our
+party&mdash;a statement that astonished me not a little, knowing what a coward
+the little man was. The reason, however, soon appeared. Mr Mackenzie was going
+down to the coast, and thence on to England. Now, if he went down country,
+Alphonse was persuaded that he would be seized, extradited, sent to France, and
+to penal servitude. This was the idea that haunted him, as King Charles&rsquo;s
+head haunted Mr Dick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggerated
+the danger ten times. As a matter of fact, the probability is that his offence
+against the laws of his country had long ago been forgotten, and that he would
+have been allowed to pass unmolested anywhere except in France; but he could
+not be got to see this. Constitutional coward as the little man was, he
+infinitely preferred to face the certain hardships and great risks and dangers
+of such an expedition as ours, than to expose himself, notwithstanding his
+intense longing for his native land, to the possible scrutiny of a police
+officer&mdash;which is after all only another exemplification of the truth
+that, to the majority of men, a far-off foreseen danger, however shadowy, is
+much more terrible than the most serious present emergency. After listening to
+what he had to say, we consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with Mr
+Mackenzie&rsquo;s knowledge and consent, to accept his offer. To begin with, we
+were very short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, active fellow, who could turn
+his hand to anything, and cook&mdash;ah, he <i>could</i> cook! I believe that
+he would have made a palatable dish of those gaiters of his heroic grandfather
+which he was so fond of talking about. Then he was a good-tempered little man,
+and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous, vainglorious talk was a source of
+infinite amusement to us; and what is more, he never bore malice. Of course,
+his being so pronounced a coward was a great drawback to him, but now that we
+knew his weakness we could more or less guard against it. So, after warning him
+of the undoubted risks he was exposing himself to, we told him that we would
+accept his offer on condition that he would promise implicit obedience to our
+orders. We also promised to give him wages at the rate of ten pounds a month
+should he ever return to a civilized country to receive them. To all of this he
+agreed with alacrity, and retired to write a letter to his Annette, which Mr
+Mackenzie promised to post when he got down country. He read it to us
+afterwards, Sir Henry translating, and a wonderful composition it was. I am
+sure the depth of his devotion and the narration of his sufferings in a
+barbarous country, &ldquo;far, far from thee, Annette, for whose adored sake I
+endure such sorrow,&rdquo; ought to have touched the feelings of the
+stoniest-hearted chambermaid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, the morrow came, and by seven o&rsquo;clock the donkeys were all loaded,
+and the time of parting was at hand. It was a melancholy business, especially
+saying goodbye to dear little Flossie. She and I were great friends, and often
+used to have talks together&mdash;but her nerves had never got over the shock
+of that awful night when she lay in the power of those bloodthirsty Masai.
+&ldquo;Oh, Mr Quatermain,&rdquo; she cried, throwing her arms round my neck and
+bursting into tears, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t bear to say goodbye to you. I wonder
+when we shall meet again?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, my dear little girl,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I am at
+one end of life and you are at the other. I have but a short time before me at
+best, and most things lie in the past, but I hope that for you there are many
+long and happy years, and everything lies in the future. By-and-by you will
+grow into a beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild life will be like a
+far-off dream to you; but I hope, even if we never do meet again, that you will
+think of your old friend and remember what I say to you now. Always try to be
+good, my dear, and to do what is right, rather than what happens to be
+pleasant, for in the end, whatever sneering people may say, what is good and
+what is happy are the same. Be unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping
+hand to others&mdash;for the world is full of suffering, my dear, and to
+alleviate it is the noblest end that we can set before us. If you do that you
+will become a sweet and God-fearing woman, and make many people&rsquo;s lives a
+little brighter, and then you will not have lived, as so many of your sex do,
+in vain. And now I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so I am
+going to give you something to sweeten it with. You see this little piece of
+paper. It is what is called a cheque. When we are gone give it to your father
+with this note&mdash;not before, mind. You will marry one day, my dear little
+Flossie, and it is to buy you a wedding present which you are to wear, and your
+daughter after you, if you have one, in remembrance of Hunter
+Quatermain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of her bright hair in
+return, which I still have. The cheque I gave her was for a thousand pounds
+(which being now well off, and having no calls upon me except those of charity,
+I could well afford), and in the note I directed her father to invest it for
+her in Government security, and when she married or came of age to buy her the
+best diamond necklace he could get for the money and accumulated interest. I
+chose diamonds because I think that now that King Solomon&rsquo;s Mines are
+lost to the world, their price will never be much lower than it is at present,
+so that if in after-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, she will
+be able to turn them into money.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving, and also
+farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weeping copiously (for he has a
+warm heart) at parting with his master and mistress; and I was not sorry for it
+at all, for I hate those goodbyes. Perhaps the most affecting thing of all was
+to witness Umslopogaas&rsquo; distress at parting with Flossie, for whom the
+grim old warrior had conceived a strong affection. He used to say that she was
+as sweet to see as the only star on a dark night, and was never tired of loudly
+congratulating himself on having killed the Lygonani who had threatened to
+murder her. And that was the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house&mdash;a
+true oasis in the desert&mdash;and of European civilization. But I often think
+of the Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, and if they are now
+safe and well in England, and will ever see these words. Dear little Flossie! I
+wonder how she fares there where there are no black folk to do her imperious
+bidding, and no sky-piercing snow-clad Kenia for her to look at when she gets
+up in the morning. And so goodbye to Flossie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparatively unmolested, past
+the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call &ldquo;Donyo Egere&rdquo;, or the
+&ldquo;speckled mountain&rdquo;, on account of the black patches of rock that
+appear upon its mighty spire, where the sides are too precipitous to allow of
+the snow lying on them; then on past the lonely lake Baringo, where one of our
+two remaining Askari, having unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died of
+snake-bite, in spite of all our efforts to save him. Thence we proceeded a
+distance of about a hundred and fifty miles to another magnificent snow-clad
+mountain called Lekakisera, which has never, to the best of my belief, been
+visited before by a European, but which I cannot now stop to describe. There we
+rested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless and uninhabited
+forest of a vast district called Elgumi. In this forest alone there are more
+elephants than I ever met with or heard of before. The mighty mammals literally
+swarm there entirely unmolested by man, and only kept down by the natural law
+that prevents any animals increasing beyond the capacity of the country they
+inhabit to support them. Needless to say, however, we did not shoot many of
+them, first because we could not afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock
+was getting perilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept away in
+fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could not carry away the
+ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sake of slaughter. So we let the
+great beasts be, only shooting one or two in self-protection. In this district,
+the elephants, being unacquainted with the hunter and his tender mercies, would
+allow one to walk up to within twenty yards of them in the open, while they
+stood, with their great ears cocked for all the world like puzzled and gigantic
+puppy-dogs, and stared at that new and extraordinary phenomenon&mdash;man.
+Occasionally, when the inspection did not prove satisfactory, the staring ended
+in a trumpet and a charge, but this did not often happen. When it did we had to
+use our rifles. Nor were elephants the only wild beasts in the great Elgumi
+forest. All sorts of large game abounded, including lions&mdash;confound them!
+I have always hated the sight of a lion since one bit my leg and lamed me for
+life. As a consequence, another thing that abounded was the dreadful tsetse
+fly, whose bite is death to domestic animals. Donkeys have, together with men,
+hitherto been supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity from its attacks; but all I
+have to say, whether it was on account of their poor condition, or because the
+tsetse in those parts is more poisonous than usual, I do not know, but ours
+succumbed to its onslaught. Fortunately, however, that was not till two months
+or so after the bites had been inflicted, when suddenly, after a two
+days&rsquo; cold rain, they all died, and on removing the skins of several of
+them I found the long yellow streaks upon the flesh which are characteristic of
+death from bites from the tsetse, marking the spot where the insect had
+inserted his proboscis. On emerging from the great Elgumi forest, we, still
+steering northwards, in accordance with the information Mr Mackenzie had
+collected from the unfortunate wanderer who reached him only to die so
+tragically, struck the base in due course of the large lake, called Laga by the
+natives, which is about fifty miles long by twenty broad, and of which, it may
+be remembered, he made mention. Thence we pushed on nearly a month&rsquo;s
+journey over great rolling uplands, something like those in the Transvaal, but
+diversified by patches of bush country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of about one hundred
+feet every ten miles. Indeed the country was on a slope which appeared to
+terminate at a mass of snow-tipped mountains, for which we were steering, and
+where we learnt the second lake of which the wanderer had spoken as the lake
+without a bottom was situated. At length we arrived there, and, having
+ascertained that there <i>was</i> a large lake on top of the mountains,
+ascended three thousand feet more till we came to a precipitous cliff or edge,
+to find a great sheet of water some twenty miles square lying fifteen hundred
+feet below us, and evidently occupying an extinct volcanic crater or craters of
+vast extent. Perceiving villages on the border of this lake, we descended with
+great difficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed the
+precipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by the people, a
+simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or even heard of a white man before,
+and treated us with great reverence and kindness, supplying us with as much
+food and milk as we could eat and drink. This wonderful and beautiful lake lay,
+according to our aneroid, at a height of no less than 11,450 feet above
+sea-level, and its climate was quite cold, and not at all unlike that of
+England. Indeed, for the first three days of our stay there we saw little or
+nothing of the scenery on account of an unmistakable Scotch mist which
+prevailed. It was this rain that set the tsetse poison working in our remaining
+donkeys, so that they all died.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had now no means of
+transport whatever, though on the other hand we had not much to carry.
+Ammunition, too, was very short, amounting to but one hundred and fifty rounds
+of rifle cartridges and some fifty shot-gun cartridges. How to get on we did
+not know; indeed it seemed to us that we had about reached the end of our
+tether. Even if we had been inclined to abandon the object of our search,
+which, shadow as it was, was by no means the case, it was ridiculous to think
+of forcing our way back some seven hundred miles to the coast in our present
+plight; so we came to the conclusion that the only thing to be done was to stop
+where we were&mdash;the natives being so well disposed and food
+plentiful&mdash;for the present, and abide events, and try to collect
+information as to the countries beyond.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enough to hold us all
+and our baggage, from the headman of the village we were staying in, presenting
+him with three empty cold-drawn brass cartridges by way of payment, with which
+he was perfectly delighted, we set out to make a tour of the lake in order to
+find the most favourable place to make a camp. As we did not know if we should
+return to this village, we put all our gear into the canoe, and also a quarter
+of cooked water-buck, which when young is delicious eating, and off we set,
+natives having already gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitants
+of the other villages of our approach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we were paddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the extraordinary deep
+blue colour of the water, and said that he understood from the natives, who
+were great fishermen&mdash;fish, indeed, being their principal food&mdash;that
+the lake was supposed to be wonderfully deep, and to have a hole at the bottom
+through which the water escaped and put out some great fire that was raging
+below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legend arising from
+a tradition among the people which dated back to the time when one of the
+extinct parasitic volcanic cones was in activity. We saw several round the
+borders of the lake which had no doubt been working at a period long subsequent
+to the volcanic death of the central crater which now formed the bed of the
+lake itself. When it finally became extinct the people would imagine that the
+water from the lake had run down and put out the big fire below, more
+especially as, though it was constantly fed by streams running from the
+snow-tipped peaks about, there was no visible exit to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, to consist of a vast
+perpendicular wall of rock, which held the water without any intermediate
+sloping bank, as elsewhere. Accordingly we paddled parallel with this
+precipice, at a distance of about a hundred paces from it, shaping our course
+for the end of the lake, where we knew that there was a large village.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floating rushes,
+weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Good supposed, to this spot
+by some current, which he was much puzzled to account for. Whilst we were
+speculating about this, Sir Henry pointed out a flock of large white swans,
+which were feeding on the drift some little way ahead of us. Now I had already
+noticed swans flying about this lake, and, having never come across them before
+in Africa, was exceedingly anxious to obtain a specimen. I had questioned the
+natives about them, and learnt that they came from over the mountain, always
+arriving at certain periods of the year in the early morning, when it was very
+easy to catch them, on account of their exhausted condition. I also asked them
+what country they came from, when they shrugged their shoulders, and said that
+on the top of the great black precipice was stony inhospitable land, and beyond
+that were mountains with snow, and full of wild beasts, where no people lived,
+and beyond the mountains were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, so thick
+that even the elephants could not get through it, much less men. Next I asked
+them if they had ever heard of white people like ourselves living on the
+farther side of the mountains and the thorn forest, whereat they laughed. But
+afterwards a very old woman came and told me that when she was a little girl
+her grandfather had told her that in his youth <i>his</i> grandfather had
+crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the thorn forest, and seen a
+white people who lived in stone kraals beyond. Of course, as this took the tale
+back some two hundred and fifty years, the information was very indefinite; but
+still there it was again, and on thinking it over I grew firmly convinced that
+there was some truth in all these rumours, and equally firmly determined to
+solve the mystery. Little did I guess in what an almost miraculous way my
+desire was to be gratified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing, as they fed,
+nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at last we pushed the canoe under
+shelter of a patch of drift within forty yards of them. Sir Henry had the
+shot-gun, loaded with No. 1, and, waiting for a chance, got two in a line, and,
+firing at their necks, killed them both. Up rose the rest, thirty or more of
+them, with a mighty splashing; and, as they did so, he gave them the other
+barrel. Down came one fellow with a broken wing, and I saw the leg of another
+drop and a few feathers start out of his back; but he went on quite strong. Up
+went the swans, circling ever higher till at last they were mere specks level
+with the top of the frowning precipice, when I saw them form into a triangle
+and head off for the unknown north-east. Meanwhile we had picked up our two
+dead ones, and beautiful birds they were, weighing not less than about thirty
+pounds each, and were chasing the winged one, which had scrambled over a mass
+of driftweed into a pool of clear water beyond. Finding a difficulty in forcing
+the canoe through the rubbish, I told our only remaining Wakwafi servant, whom
+I knew to be an excellent swimmer, to jump over, dive under the drift, and
+catch him, knowing that as there were no crocodiles in this lake he could come
+to no harm. Entering into the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was
+dodging about after the winged swan in fine style, getting gradually nearer to
+the rock wall, against which the water washed as he did so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cry out that he was
+being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that, though he was swimming with all
+his strength towards us, he was being drawn slowly to the precipice. With a few
+desperate strokes of our paddles we pushed the canoe through the crust of drift
+and rowed towards the man as hard as we could, but, fast as we went, he was
+drawn faster to the rock. Suddenly I saw that before us, just rising eighteen
+inches or so above the surface of the lake, was what looked like the top of the
+arch of a submerged cave or railway tunnel. Evidently, from the watermark on
+the rock several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged; but there
+had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented the snow from melting as
+freely as usual; so the lake was low and the arch showed. Towards this arch our
+poor servant was being sucked with frightful rapidity. He was not more than ten
+fathoms from it, and we were about twenty when I saw it, and with little help
+from us the canoe flew along after him. He struggled bravely, and I thought
+that we should have saved him, when suddenly I perceived an expression of
+despair come upon his face, and there before our eyes he was sucked down into
+the cruel swirling blue depths, and vanished. At the same moment I felt our
+canoe seized as with a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force towards
+the rock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We realised our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiously in our
+attempt to get out of the vortex. In vain; in another second we were flying
+straight for the arch like an arrow, and I thought that we were lost. Luckily I
+retained sufficient presence of mind to shout out, instantly setting the
+example by throwing myself into the bottom of the canoe, &ldquo;Down on your
+faces&mdash;down!&rdquo; and the others had the sense to take the hint. In
+another instant there was a grinding noise, and the boat was pushed down till
+the water began to trickle over the sides, and I thought that we were gone. But
+no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we could again feel the canoe flying
+along. I turned my head a little&mdash;I dared not lift it&mdash;and looked up.
+By the feeble light that yet reached the canoe, I could make out that a dense
+arch of rock hung just over our heads, and that was all. In another minute I
+could not even see as much as that, for the faint light had merged into shadow,
+and the shadows had been swallowed up in darkness, utter and complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For an hour or so we lay there, not daring to lift our heads for fear lest the
+brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcely able to speak even, on
+account of the noise of the rushing water which drowned our voices. Not,
+indeed, that we had much inclination to speak, seeing that we were overwhelmed
+by the awfulness of our position and the imminent fear of instant death, either
+by being dashed against the sides of the cavern, or on a rock, or being sucked
+down in the raging waters, or perhaps asphyxiated by want of air. All of these
+and many other modes of death presented themselves to my imagination as I lay
+at the bottom of the canoe, listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters which
+ran whither we knew not. One only other sound could I hear, and that was
+Alphonse&rsquo;s intermittent howl of terror coming from the centre of the
+canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural. Indeed, the whole thing
+overpowered my brain, and I began to believe that I was the victim of some
+ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+THE ROSE OF FIRE</h2>
+
+<p>
+On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticed that the sound
+of the water was not half so deafening as it had been, and concluded that this
+must be because there was more room for the echoes to disperse in. I could now
+hear Alphonse&rsquo;s howls much more distinctly; they were made up of the
+oddest mixture of invocations to the Supreme Power and the name of his beloved
+Annette that it is possible to conceive; and, in short, though their evident
+earnestness saved them from profanity, were, to say the least, very remarkable.<a href="#fn-9" name="fnref-9" id="fnref-9"><sup>[9]</sup></a>
+Taking up a paddle I managed to drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking
+that the end had come, howled louder than ever. Then I slowly and cautiously
+raised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, but could touch no
+roof. Next I took the paddle and lifted it above my head as high as I could,
+but with the same result. I also thrust it out laterally to the right and left,
+but could touch nothing except water. Then I bethought me that there was in the
+boat, amongst our other remaining possessions, a bull&rsquo;s-eye lantern and a
+tin of oil. I groped about and found it, and having a match on me carefully lit
+it, and as soon as the flame had got a hold of the wick I turned it on down the
+boat. As it happened, the first thing the light lit on was the white and scared
+face of Alphonse, who, thinking that it was all over at last, and that he was
+witnessing a preliminary celestial phenomenon, gave a terrific yell and was
+with difficulty reassured with the paddle. As for the other three, Good was
+lying on the flat of his back, his eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and gazing
+blankly into the upper darkness. Sir Henry had his head resting on the thwarts
+of the canoe, and with his hand was trying to test the speed of the water. But
+when the beam of light fell upon old Umslopogaas I could really have laughed. I
+think I have said that we had put a roast quarter of water-buck into the canoe.
+Well, it so happened that when we all prostrated ourselves to avoid being swept
+out of the boat and into the water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas&rsquo;s head
+had come down uncommonly near this roast buck, and so soon as he had recovered
+a little from the first shock of our position it occurred to him that he was
+hungry. Thereupon he coolly cut off a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now
+employed in eating it with every appearance of satisfaction. As he afterwards
+explained, he thought that he was going &ldquo;on a long journey&rdquo;, and
+preferred to start on a full stomach. It reminded me of the people who are
+going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in the English daily papers
+to have made &ldquo;an excellent breakfast&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-9" id="fn-9"></a> <a href="#fnref-9">[9]</a>
+Sir Henry afterwards wrote down one of Alphonse&rsquo;s prayers as he overheard
+it. It ran thus: &ldquo;Oh, save me! lake me out of this hole! I will promise
+never to go exploring again! Oh, Annette, why did I leave thee? Oh, my false
+cousin! Oh, deliver me from this horrible main drain! Never mind the others!
+Let them drown; they are more used to it than I am, and they cannot cook! Oh
+Annette! Annette [<i>cresendo</i>]! Annette [<i>fortissimo</i>]!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp, we bundled
+Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with a threat which calmed him down
+wonderfully, that if he would insist upon making the darkness hideous with his
+cries we would put him out of suspense by sending him to join the Wakwafi and
+wait for Annette in another sphere, and began to discuss the situation as well
+as we could. First, however, at Good&rsquo;s suggestion, we bound two paddles
+mast-fashion in the bows so that they might give us warning against any sudden
+lowering of the roof of the cave or waterway. It was clear to us that we were
+in an underground river or, as Alphonse defined it, &ldquo;main drain&rdquo;,
+which carried off the superfluous waters of the lake. Such rivers are well
+known to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not often been the evil
+fortune of explorers to travel by them. That the river was wide we could
+clearly see, for the light from the bull&rsquo;s-eye lantern failed to reach
+from shore to shore, although occasionally, when the current swept us either to
+one side or the other, we could distinguish the rock wall of the tunnel, which,
+as far as we could make out, appeared to arch about twenty-five feet above our
+heads. As for the current itself, it ran, Good estimated, at least eight knots,
+and, fortunately for us, was, as is usual, fiercest in the middle of the
+stream. Still, our first act was to arrange that one of us, with the lantern
+and a pole there was in the canoe, should always be in the bows ready, if
+possible, to prevent us from being stove in against the side of the cave or any
+projecting rock. Umslopogaas, having already dined, took the first turn. This
+was absolutely, with one exception, all that we could do towards preserving our
+safety. The exception was that another of us took up a position in the stern
+with a paddle by means of which it was possible to steer the canoe more or less
+and to keep her from the sides of the cave. These matters attended to, we made
+a somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck&rsquo;s meat (for we did not know how
+long it might have to last us), and then feeling in rather better spirits I
+gave my opinion that, serious as it undoubtedly was, I did not consider our
+position altogether without hope, unless, indeed, the natives were right, and
+the river plunged straight down into the bowels of the earth. If not, it was
+clear that it must emerge somewhere, probably on the other side of the
+mountains, and in that case all we had to think of was to keep ourselves alive
+till we got there, wherever &ldquo;there&rdquo; might be. But, of course, as
+Good lugubriously pointed out, on the other hand we might fall victims to a
+hundred unsuspected horrors&mdash;or the river might go on winding away inside
+the earth till it dried up, in which case our fate would indeed be an awful
+one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for the
+worst,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited&mdash;a
+very tower of strength in the time of trouble. &ldquo;We have come out of so
+many queer scrapes together, that somehow I almost fancy we shall come out of
+this,&rdquo; he added.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each in our separate
+way&mdash;that is, except Alphonse, who had by now sunk into a sort of
+terrified stupor. Good was at the helm and Umslopogaas in the bows, so there
+was nothing left for Sir Henry and myself to do except to lie down in the canoe
+and think. It certainly was a curious, and indeed almost a weird, position to
+be placed in&mdash;rushing along, as we were, through the bowels of the earth,
+borne on the bosom of a Stygian river, something after the fashion of souls
+being ferried by Charon, as Curtis said. And how dark it was! The feeble ray
+from our little lamp did but serve to show the darkness. There in the bows sat
+old Umslopogaas, like Pleasure in the poem,<a href="#fn-10" name="fnref-10" id="fnref-10"><sup>[10]</sup></a>
+watchful and untiring, the pole ready to his hand, and behind in the shadow I
+could just make out the form of Good peering forward at the ray of light in
+order to make out how to steer with the paddle that he held and now and again
+dipped into the water.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-10" id="fn-10"></a> <a href="#fnref-10">[10]</a>
+Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes&mdash;Pleasure sat at the helm.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;you have come in search of
+adventures, Allan my boy, and you have certainly got them. At your time of
+life, too! You ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehow you are not, and,
+awful as it all is, perhaps you will pull through after all; and if you
+don&rsquo;t, why, you cannot help it, you see! And when all&rsquo;s said and
+done an underground river will make a very appropriate burying-place.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon the nerves was very
+great. It is trying to the coolest and most experienced person not to know from
+one hour to another if he has five minutes more to live, but there is nothing
+in this world that one cannot get accustomed to, and in time we began to get
+accustomed even to that. And, after all, our anxiety, though no doubt natural,
+was, strictly speaking, illogical, seeing that we never know what is going to
+happen to us the next minute, even when we sit in a well-drained house with two
+policemen patrolling under the window&mdash;nor how long we have to live. It is
+all arranged for us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, and we had set our
+watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreed that it should be of a
+duration of five hours. At seven o&rsquo;clock, accordingly, Sir Henry and I
+went on, Sir Henry at the bow and I at the stern, and the other two lay down
+and went to sleep. For three hours all went well, Sir Henry only finding it
+necessary once to push us off from the side; and I that but little steering was
+required to keep us straight, as the violent current did all that was needed,
+though occasionally the canoe showed a tendency which had to be guarded against
+to veer and travel broadside on. What struck me as the most curious thing about
+this wonderful river was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick,
+no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably
+unpleasant. The only explanation that I can suggest is that the water of the
+lake had sufficient air in it to keep the atmosphere of the tunnel from
+absolute stagnation, this air being given out as it proceeded on its headlong
+way. Of course I only give the solution of the mystery for what it is worth,
+which perhaps is not much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began to notice a decided
+change in the temperature, which was getting warmer. At first I took no notice
+of it, but when, at the expiration of another half-hour, I found that it was
+getting hotter and hotter, I called to Sir Henry and asked him if he noticed
+it, or if it was only my imagination. &ldquo;Noticed it!&rdquo; he answered;
+&ldquo;I should think so. I am in a sort of Turkish bath.&rdquo; Just about
+then the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin to discard their
+clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, for he did not wear any to speak
+of, except a moocha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely breathe, and the
+perspiration poured out of us. Half an hour more, and though we were all now
+stark naked, we could hardly bear it. The place was like an antechamber of the
+infernal regions proper. I dipped my hand into the water and drew it out almost
+with a cry; it was nearly boiling. We consulted a little thermometer we
+had&mdash;the mercury stood at 123 degrees. From the surface of the water rose
+a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse groaned out that we were already in purgatory,
+which indeed we were, though not in the sense that he meant it. Sir Henry
+suggested that we must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanic
+fire, and I am inclined to think, especially in the light of what subsequently
+occurred, that he was right. Our sufferings for some time after this really
+pass my powers of description. We no longer perspired, for all the perspiration
+had been sweated out of us. We simply lay in the bottom of the boat, which we
+were now physically incapable of directing, feeling like hot embers, and I
+fancy undergoing very much the same sensations that the poor fish do when they
+are dying on land&mdash;namely, that of slow suffocation. Our skins began to
+crack, and the blood to throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the river turned a little,
+and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bows in a hoarse, startled voice, and,
+looking up, saw a most wonderful and awful thing. About half a mile ahead of
+us, and a little to the left of the centre of the stream&mdash;which we could
+now see was about ninety feet broad&mdash;a huge pillar-like jet of almost
+white flame rose from the surface of the water and sprang fifty feet into the
+air, when it struck the roof and spread out some forty feet in diameter,
+falling back in curved sheets of fire shaped like the petals of a full-blown
+rose. Indeed this awful gas jet resembled nothing so much as a great flaming
+flower rising out of the black water. Below was the straight stalk, a foot or
+more thick, and above the dreadful bloom. And as for the fearfulness of it and
+its fierce and awesome beauty, who can describe it? Certainly I cannot.
+Although we were now some five hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding the
+steam, lit up the whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see that the roof
+was here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly smooth with water. The
+rock was black, and here and there I could make out long shining lines of ore
+running through it like great veins, but of what metal they were I know not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercer than any
+furnace ever lit by man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain&mdash;to the right,&rdquo;
+shouted Sir Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless.
+Alphonse had already gone. Good was the next to go. There they lay as though
+dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses. We were within fifty yards of it
+now, and I saw the Zulu&rsquo;s head fall forward on his hands. He had gone
+too, and I was alone. I could not breathe; the fierce heat dried me up. For
+yards and yards round the great rose of fire the rock-roof was red-hot. The
+wood of the boat was almost burning. I saw the feathers on one of the dead
+swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but I would not give in. I knew that if I
+did we should pass within three or four yards of the gas jet and perish
+miserably. I set the paddle so as to turn the canoe as far from it as possible,
+and held on grimly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed lids I could
+see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now; it roared like all the fires
+of hell, and the water boiled furiously around it. Five seconds more. We were
+past; I heard the roar behind me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I too fell senseless. The next thing that I recollect is feeling a breath
+of air upon my face. My eyes opened with great difficulty. I looked up. Far,
+far above me there was light, though around me was great gloom. Then I
+remembered and looked. The canoe still floated down the river, and in the
+bottom of it lay the naked forms of my companions. &ldquo;Were they
+dead?&rdquo; I wondered. &ldquo;Was I left alone in this awful place?&rdquo; I
+knew not. Next I became conscious of a burning thirst. I put my hand over the
+edge of the boat into the water and drew it up again with a cry. No wonder:
+nearly all the skin was burnt off the back of it. The water, however, was cold,
+or nearly so, and I drank pints and splashed myself all over. My body seemed to
+suck up the fluid as one may see a brick wall suck up rain after a drought; but
+where I was burnt the touch of it caused intense pain. Then I bethought myself
+of the others, and, dragging myself towards them with difficulty, I sprinkled
+them with water, and to my joy they began to recover&mdash;Umslopogaas first,
+then the others. Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges. Then,
+feeling chilly&mdash;a queer contrast to our recent sensations&mdash;we began
+as best we could to get into our clothes. As we did so Good pointed to the port
+side of the canoe: it was all blistered with heat, and in places actually
+charred. Had it been built like our civilized boats, Good said that the planks
+would certainly have warped and let in enough water to sink us; but fortunately
+it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a single great tree, and had sides
+nearly three inches and a bottom four inches thick. What that awful flame was
+we never discovered, but I suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole
+in the bed of the river through which a vast volume of gas forced its way from
+its volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towards the upper air. How it
+first became ignited is, of course, impossible to say&mdash;probably, I should
+think, from some spontaneous explosion of mephitic gases.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselves together a
+little, we set to work to make out where we were now. I have said that there
+was light above, and on examination we found that it came from the sky. Our
+river that was, Sir Henry said, a literal realization of the wild vision of the
+poet,<a href="#fn-11" name="fnref-11" id="fnref-11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> was no
+longer underground, but was running on its darksome way, not now through
+&ldquo;caverns measureless to man&rdquo;, but between two frightful cliffs
+which cannot have been less than two thousand feet high. So high were they,
+indeed, that though the sky was above us, where we were was dense
+gloom&mdash;not darkness indeed, but the gloom of a room closely shuttered in
+the daytime. Up on either side rose the great straight cliffs, grim and
+forbidding, till the eye grew dizzy with trying to measure their sheer height.
+The little space of sky that marked where they ended lay like a thread of blue
+upon their soaring blackness, which was unrelieved by any tree or creeper. Here
+and there, however, grew ghostly patches of a long grey lichen, hanging
+motionless to the rock as the white beard to the chin of a dead man. It seemed
+as though only the dregs or heavier part of the light had sunk to the bottom of
+this awful place. No bright-winged sunbeam could fall so low: they died far,
+far above our heads.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<a name="fn-11" id="fn-11"></a> <a href="#fnref-11">[11]</a><br />
+In Kubla Khan a river ran<br />
+Through caverns measureless to man<br />
+Down to a sunless sea
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the river&rsquo;s edge was a little shore formed of round fragments of rock
+washed into this shape by the constant action of water, and giving the place
+the appearance of being strewn with thousands of fossil cannon balls. Evidently
+when the water of the underground river is high there is no beach at all, or
+very little, between the border of the stream and the precipitous cliffs; but
+now there was a space of seven or eight yards. And here, on this beach, we
+determined to land, in order to rest ourselves a little after all that we had
+gone through and to stretch our limbs. It was a dreadful place, but it would
+give an hour&rsquo;s respite from the terrors of the river, and also allow of
+our repacking and arranging the canoe. Accordingly we selected what looked like
+a favourable spot, and with some little difficulty managed to beach the canoe
+and scramble out on to the round, inhospitable pebbles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My word,&rdquo; called out Good, who was on shore the first, &ldquo;what
+an awful place! It&rsquo;s enough to give one a fit.&rdquo; And he laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying them a hundred
+times. &ldquo;<i>Give one a fit&mdash;Ho! ho! ho!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;A fit,
+Ho! ho! ho!</i>&rdquo; answered another voice in wild accents from far up the
+cliff&mdash;<i>a fit! a fit! a fit!</i> chimed in voice after voice&mdash;each
+flinging the words to and fro with shouts of awful laughter to the invisible
+lips of the other till the whole place echoed with the words and with shrieks
+of fiendish merriment, which at last ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, mon Dieu!&rdquo; yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of such
+self-command as he possessed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!</i>&rdquo; the Titanic echoes
+thundered, shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas calmly, &ldquo;I clearly perceive that
+devils live here. Well, the place looks like it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub was a very
+remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I know an echo when I hear one. There was one
+lived opposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] used to talk
+with it. But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mine at home can only have
+been a baby. No, no&mdash;they are devils up there. But I don&rsquo;t think
+much of them, though,&rdquo; he added, taking a pinch of snuff. &ldquo;They can
+copy what one says, but they don&rsquo;t seem to be able to talk on their own
+account, and they dare not show their faces,&rdquo; and he relapsed into
+silence, and apparently paid no further attention to such contemptible fiends.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation down to a
+whisper&mdash;for it was really unbearable to have every word one uttered
+tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipice called to precipice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurs till at last they
+died away in long-drawn sighs of sound. Echoes are delightful and romantic
+things, but we had more than enough of them in that dreadful gulf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones, we went on to
+wash and dress our burns as well as we could. As we had but a little oil for
+the lantern, we could not spare any for this purpose, so we skinned one of the
+swans, and used the fat off its breast, which proved an excellent substitute.
+Then we repacked the canoe, and finally began to take some food, of which I
+need scarcely say we were in need, for our insensibility had endured for many
+hours, and it was, as our watches showed, midday. Accordingly we seated
+ourselves in a circle, and were soon engaged in discussing our cold meat with
+such appetite as we could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much,
+as I felt sick and faint after my sufferings of the previous night, and had
+besides a racking headache. It was a curious meal. The gloom was so intense
+that we could scarcely see the way to cut our food and convey it to our mouths.
+Still we got on pretty well, till I happened to look behind me&mdash;my
+attention being attracted by a noise of something crawling over the stones, and
+perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear a huge species of black
+freshwater crab, only it was five times the size of any crab I ever saw. This
+hideous and loathsome-looking animal had projecting eyes that seemed to glare
+at one, very long and flexible antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws. Nor was
+I especially favoured with its company. From every quarter dozens of these
+horrid brutes were creeping up, drawn, I suppose, by the smell of the food,
+from between the round stones and out of holes in the precipice. Some were
+already quite close to us. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and
+as I did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and give the
+unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up with a howl, and set the
+&ldquo;wild echoes flying&rdquo; in sober earnest. Just then, too, another, a
+very large one, got hold of Alphonse&rsquo;s leg, and declined to part with it,
+and, as may be imagined, a considerable scene ensued. Umslopogaas took his axe
+and cracked the shell of one with the flat of it, whereon it set up a horrid
+screaming which the echoes multiplied a thousandfold, and began to foam at the
+mouth, a proceeding that drew hundreds more of its friends out of unsuspected
+holes and corners. Those on the spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell
+upon it like creditors on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with
+their huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the fragments
+to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy, such as stones or
+paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters&mdash;whose numbers were
+increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose stench was overpowering. So fast as
+we cracked their armour others seized the injured ones and devoured them,
+foaming at the mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor did the brutes stop at
+that. When they could they nipped hold of us&mdash;and awful nips they
+were&mdash;or tried to steal the meat. One enormous fellow got hold of the swan
+we had skinned and began to drag it off. Instantly a score of others flung
+themselves upon the prey, and then began a ghastly and disgusting scene. How
+the monsters foamed and screamed, and rent the flesh, and each other! It was a
+sickening and unnatural sight, and one that will haunt all who saw it till
+their dying day&mdash;enacted as it was in the deep, oppressive gloom, and set
+to the unceasing music of the many-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it
+may seem to say so, there was something so shockingly human about these
+fiendish creatures&mdash;it was as though all the most evil passions and
+desires of man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and gone mad. They
+were so dreadfully courageous and intelligent, and they looked as if they
+<i>understood</i>. The whole scene might have furnished material for another
+canto of Dante&rsquo;s &ldquo;Inferno&rdquo;, as Curtis said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, you fellows, let&rsquo;s get out of this or we shall all go off
+our heads,&rdquo; sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the hint. Pushing
+the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling by hundreds and making
+vain attempts to climb, off the rocks, we bundled into it and got out into
+mid-stream, leaving behind us the fragments of our meal and the screaming,
+foaming, stinking mass of monsters in full possession of the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those are the devils of the place,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas with the air
+of one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt almost inclined to
+agree with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas&rsquo; remarks were like his axe&mdash;very much to the point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s to be done next?&rdquo; said Sir Henry blankly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Drift, I suppose,&rdquo; I answered, and we drifted accordingly. All the
+afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in the gloom beneath the
+far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing when day ended and night began, for
+down in that vast gulf the difference was not marked, till at length Good
+pointed out a star hanging right above us, which, having nothing better to do,
+we observed with great interest. Suddenly it vanished, the darkness became
+intense, and a familiar murmuring sound filled the air. &ldquo;Underground
+again,&rdquo; I said with a groan, holding up the lamp. Yes, there was no doubt
+about it. I could just make out the roof. The chasm had come to an end and the
+tunnel had recommenced. And then there began another long, long night of danger
+and horror. To describe all its incidents would be too wearisome, so I will
+simply say that about midnight we struck on a flat projecting rock in
+mid-stream and were as nearly as possible overturned and drowned. However, at
+last we got off, and went upon the uneven tenor of our way. And so the hours
+passed till it was nearly three o&rsquo;clock. Sir Henry, Good, and Alphonse
+were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at the bow with the pole, and I
+was steering, when I perceived that the rate at which we were travelling had
+perceptibly increased. Then, suddenly, I heard Umslopogaas make an exclamation,
+and next second came a sound as of parting branches, and I became aware that
+the canoe was being forced through hanging bushes or creepers. Another minute,
+and the breath of sweet open air fanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged
+from the tunnel and were floating upon clear water. I say felt, for I could see
+nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it often is just before the
+dawn. But even this could scarcely damp my joy. We were out of that dreadful
+river, and wherever we might have got to this at least was something to be
+thankful for. And so I sat down and inhaled the sweet night air and waited for
+the dawn with such patience as I could command.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+THE FROWNING CITY</h2>
+
+<p>
+For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile gone to sleep
+also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge misty shapes moved over the
+surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours
+rising from their watery bed to greet the sun. Then the grey turned to
+primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars of light sprang up
+across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant messengers of the dawn
+came speeding upon their arrowy way, scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking
+the mountains with a kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to
+longitude. Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself
+came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and a flashing
+as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and covered her with
+brightness, and it was day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for over the
+water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole surface had been
+covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the
+mists, and then I saw that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water
+of which I could not make out the shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us,
+however, there stretched as far as the eye could reach a range of precipitous
+hills that formed a retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it
+was through some entrance in these hills that the subterranean river found its
+way into the open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be the fact,
+and it will be some indication of the extraordinary strength and directness of
+the current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even at this distance, was
+still answering to it. Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up
+just then, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it was.
+Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my attention
+to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to the spot,
+whereupon we discovered that the object was the body of a man floating face
+downwards. This was bad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas having
+turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunken features
+the lineaments of&mdash;whom do you suppose? None other than our poor servant
+who had been sucked down two days before in the waters of the subterranean
+river. It quite frightened me. I thought that we had left him behind for ever,
+and behold! borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us, and
+with us had reached the end. His appearance also was dreadful, for he bore
+traces of having touched the pillar of fire&mdash;one arm being completely
+shrivelled up and all his hair being burnt off. The features were, as I have
+said, sunken, and yet they preserved upon them that awful look of despair that
+I had seen upon his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the
+sight unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone
+through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly and without any warning the body
+began to sink just as though it had had a mission, which having been
+accomplished, it retired; the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its
+back allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went to the transparent
+depths&mdash;fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at last a long
+line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other to the surface, alone
+remained where it had passed. At length these, too, were gone, and that was an
+end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did he follow us for?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis an ill
+omen for thee and me, Macumazahn.&rdquo; And he laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions. If people
+have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keep them to themselves. I
+detest individuals who make on the subject of their disagreeable presentiments,
+or who, when they dream that they saw one hanged as a common felon, or some
+such horror, will insist upon telling one all about it at breakfast, even if
+they have to get up early to do it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly at
+finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more beneath the blue
+sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions as to what we were to do
+next, the upshot of all of which was that, as we were excessively hungry, and
+had nothing whatsoever left to eat except a few scraps of biltong (dried
+game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained of our provisions to those
+horrible freshwater crabs, we determined to make for the shore. But a new
+difficulty arose. We did not know where the shore was, and, with the exception
+of the cliffs through which the subterranean river made its entry, could see
+nothing but a wide expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that
+the long flights of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that
+they were advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the
+lake, and accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they came, and
+began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze sprang up, blowing
+directly in the direction we wanted, so we improvised a sail with a blanket and
+the pole, which took us along merrily. This done, we devoured the remnants of
+our biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and then lit our pipes and
+awaited whatever might turn up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the horizon with
+the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he saw land, and pointed out
+that, from the change in the colour of the water, he thought we must be
+approaching the mouth of a river. In another minute we perceived a great golden
+dome, not unlike that of St Paul&rsquo;s, piercing the morning mists, and while
+we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reported another and
+still more important discovery, namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing
+towards us. This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with
+our own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this
+unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that they
+possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more minutes it became evident
+that the occupant or occupants of the advancing boat had made us out. For a
+moment or two she hung in the wind as though in doubt, and then came tacking
+towards us with great swiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a hundred
+yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat&mdash;not a canoe &ldquo;dug
+out&rdquo;, but built more or less in the European fashion with planks, and
+carrying a singularly large sail for her size. But our attention was soon
+diverted from the boat to her crew, which consisted of a man and a woman,
+<i>nearly as white as ourselves</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be mistaken; but
+no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but the two people in the
+boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished from a black race, as white,
+for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It was a patent fact. So it was true,
+after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, we had discovered
+this wonderful people. I could have shouted for joy when I thought of the glory
+and the wonder of the thing; and as it was, we all shook hands and
+congratulated each other on the unexpected success of our wild search. All my
+life had I heard rumours of a white race that existed in the highlands of this
+vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with
+my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was
+right when he wrote &ldquo;Ex Africa semper aliquid novi&rdquo;, which he tells
+me means that out of Africa there always comes some new thing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique, and
+possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an intelligent
+face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something like a flannel shirt
+without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of the same material. The legs
+and feet were bare. Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings of
+yellow metal that I judged to be gold. The woman had a sweet face, wild and
+shy, with large eyes and curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same
+material as the man&rsquo;s, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first
+of a linen under-garment that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long
+strip of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the
+body in graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder so that the
+end, which was dyed blue or purple or some other colour, according to the
+social standing of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm and breast
+being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress, especially when, as in
+the present case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite impossible to
+conceive. Good (who has an eye for such things) was greatly struck with it, and
+so indeed was I. It was so simple and yet so effective.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and woman, it
+was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for the man, he appeared
+to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for a while hovered round our canoe,
+but would not approach. At last, however, he came within hailing distance, and
+called to us in a language that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which
+we could not understand one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin,
+Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects
+that I am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these
+tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she was busily
+employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the compliment by
+staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding that she seemed rather
+to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man, being unable to make anything of
+us, suddenly turned his boat round and began to head off for the shore, his
+little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow. As she passed across
+our bows the man turned to attend to the large sail, and Good promptly took the
+opportunity to kiss his hand to the young lady. I was horrified at this
+proceeding, both on general grounds and because I feared that she might take
+offence, but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and seeing
+that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged, she promptly
+kissed hers back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;It seems that we have at last found a language
+that the people of this country understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In which case,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, &ldquo;Good will prove an
+invaluable interpreter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I frowned, for I do not approve of Good&rsquo;s frivolities, and he knows it,
+and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. &ldquo;It is very clear
+to me,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;that the man will be back before long with a host
+of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we are going to
+receive them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The question is how will they receive us?&rdquo; said Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin case
+that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under a pile of baggage. Now
+we had often remonstrated with Good about this tin case, inasmuch as it had
+been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never given any very explicit
+account as to its contents; but he had insisted on keeping it, saying
+mysteriously that it might come in very useful one day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What on earth are you going to do, Good?&rdquo; asked Sir Henry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do&mdash;why dress, of course! You don&rsquo;t expect me to appear in a
+new country in these things, do you?&rdquo; and he pointed to his soiled and
+worn garments, which were however, like all Good&rsquo;s things, very tidy, and
+with every tear neatly mended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless interest. His
+first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly competent in such matters,
+to trim his hair and beard in the most approved fashion. I think that if he had
+had some hot water and a cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the
+latter; but he had not. This done, he suggested that we should lower the sail
+of the canoe and all take a bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and
+astonishment of Alphonse, who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these
+English were indeed a wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like
+most high-bred Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun
+of swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement.
+We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water, and sat to dry in
+the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced first a beautiful clean
+white shirt, just as it had left a London steam laundry, and then some garments
+wrapped first in brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper. We watched
+this undoing with the tenderest interest and much speculation. One by one Good
+removed the dull husks that hid their splendours, carefully folding and
+replacing each piece of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the
+majesty of its golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal
+Navy&rsquo;s full-dress uniform&mdash;dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent
+leather boots and all. We literally gasped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>What!</i>&rdquo; we said, &ldquo;<i>what!</i> Are you going to put
+those things on?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; he answered composedly; &ldquo;you see so much depends
+upon a first impression, especially,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;as I observe that
+there are ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we considered the
+artful way in which Good had concealed the contents of that box for all these
+months. Only one suggestion did we make&mdash;namely, that he should wear his
+mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he feared it would spoil the set of
+his coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the creases out, but finally
+consented to this precautionary measure. The most amusing part of the affair,
+however, was to see old Umslopogaas&rsquo;s astonishment and Alphonse&rsquo;s
+delight at Good&rsquo;s transformation. When at last he stood up in all his
+glory, even down to the medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the
+still waters of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient
+history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love with his own
+shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Bougwan!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee
+an ugly little man, and fat&mdash;fat as the cows at calving time; and now thou
+art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts my
+eyes to look at thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell the truth, was
+not very well deserved, for hard exercise had brought him down three inches;
+but on the whole he was pleased at Umslopogaas&rsquo;s admiration. As for
+Alphonse, he was quite delighted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air&mdash;the air of the warrior. It
+is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is complete;
+he puts me in mind of my heroic grand&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here we stopped Alphonse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of emulation
+filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves up as well as we could.
+The most, however, that we were able to do was to array ourselves in our spare
+suits of shooting clothes, of which we each had several, all the fine clothes
+in the world could never make it otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but
+Sir Henry looked what he is, a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit,
+gaiters, and boots. Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn
+to his enormous moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way
+given to the vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern and a
+bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone like
+Good&rsquo;s patent leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir Henry had
+given him and his &ldquo;moocha&rdquo;, and, having cleaned up Inkosi-kaas a
+little, stood forth complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had finished
+bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or, rather, for the
+mouth of a great river. Presently&mdash;in all about an hour and a half after
+the little boat had left us&mdash;we saw emerging from the river or harbour a
+large number of boats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons burden. One of these
+was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the rest sailed. Looking through
+the glass we soon made out that the row-boat was an official vessel, her crew
+being all dressed in a sort of uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood
+an old man of venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword
+strapped to his side, who was evidently the commander of the craft. The other
+boats were apparently occupied by people brought out by curiosity, and were
+rowing or sailing towards us as quickly as they could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now for it,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;What is the betting? Are they going to
+be friendly or to put an end to us?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike appearance of
+the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little anxious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about two hundred
+yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to impress the
+natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them if possible. This,
+unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out
+our eight-bore rifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left, and
+prepared for action. There were four of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two
+young ones, one three parts grown. We got up to them without difficulty, the
+great animals contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising
+again a few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as
+being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards away,
+Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown young one. The
+heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull,
+killed it, and it sank, leaving a long train of blood behind it. At the same
+moment I fired at the cow, and Good at the old bull. My shot took effect, but
+not fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only
+to rise again presently blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water
+round her crimson, when I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who is an
+execrable shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely
+cutting the side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I had fired my
+second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen among were evidently
+ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternation caused by our shots
+and their effect upon the animals was prodigious. Some of the parties in the
+boats began to cry out in fear; others turned and made off as hard as they
+could; and even the old gentleman with the sword looked greatly puzzled and
+alarmed, and halted his big row-boat. We had, however, but little time for
+observation, for just then the old bull, rendered furious by the wound he had
+received, rose fair within forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired,
+and hit him in various places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now
+began to overcome the fear of the onlookers, and some of them sailed on up
+close to us, amongst these being the man and woman whom we had first seen a
+couple of hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside. Just then the great
+brute rose again within ten yards of their base, and instantly with a roar of
+fury made at it open-mouthed. The woman shrieked, and the man tried to give the
+boat way, but without success. In another second I saw the huge red jaws and
+gleaming ivories close with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous
+mouthful out of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its
+occupants struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could do anything
+towards saving them, the huge and furious creature was up again and making
+open-mouthed at the poor girl, who was struggling in the water. Lifting my
+rifle just as the grinding jaws were about to close on her, I fired over her
+head right down the hippopotamus&rsquo;s throat. Over he went, and commenced
+turning round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of blood through his
+nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however, I let him have the other
+barrel in the side of the throat, and that finished him. He never moved or
+struggled again, but instantly sank. Our next effort was directed towards
+saving the girl, the man having swum off towards another boat; and in this we
+were fortunately successful, pulling her into the canoe (amidst the shouts of
+the spectators) considerably exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and we could see that
+the occupants, who were evidently much frightened, were consulting what to do.
+Without giving them time for further consideration, which we thought might
+result unfavourably to ourselves, we instantly took our paddles and advanced
+towards them, Good standing in the bow and taking off his cocked hat politely
+in every direction, his amiable features suffused by a bland but intelligent
+smile. Most of the craft retreated as we advanced, but a few held their ground,
+while the big row-boat came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and I
+could see that our appearance&mdash;and especially Good&rsquo;s and
+Umslopogaas&rsquo;s&mdash;filled the venerable-looking commander with
+astonishment, not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the same fashion as
+the man we first met, except that his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of
+pure white linen hemmed with purple. The kilt, however, was identical, and so
+were the thick rings of gold around the arm and beneath the left knee. The
+rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist. Good took off
+his hat to the old gentleman with an extra flourish, and inquired after his
+health in the purest English, to which he replied by laying the first two
+fingers of his right hand horizontally across his lips and holding them there
+for a moment, which we took as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed
+some remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished our first
+interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did not understand by shaking
+our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse, being to the manner
+born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way that nobody could take any
+offence. Then we came to a standstill, till I, being exceedingly hungry,
+thought I might as well call attention to the fact, and did so first by opening
+my mouth and pointing down it, and then rubbing my stomach. These signals the
+old gentleman clearly understood, for he nodded his head vigorously, and
+pointed towards the harbour; and at the same time one of the men on his boat
+threw us a line and motioned to us to make it fast, which we did. The row-boat
+then took us in tow, and went with great rapidity towards the mouth of the
+river, accompanied by all the other boats. In about twenty minutes more we
+reached the entrance to the harbour, which was crowded with boats full of
+people who had come out to see us. We observed that all the occupants were more
+or less of the same type, though some were fairer than others. Indeed, we
+noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness; and the
+darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that of a rather swarthy
+Spaniard. Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did so an
+exclamation of astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we caught our
+first view of the place that we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning
+City (from the prefix <i>mi</i>, which means city, and <i>losis</i>, a frown).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river&rsquo;s bank rose a
+sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in height, which had no
+doubt once formed the bank itself&mdash;the intermediate space of land now
+utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by draining, and deepening
+and embanking the stream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same granite that
+formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth side being open,
+save for a kind of battlement pierced at its base by a little door. This
+imposing place we afterwards discovered was the palace of the queen, or rather
+of the queens. At the back of the palace the town sloped gently upwards to a
+flashing building of white marble, crowned by the golden dome which we had
+already observed. The city was, with the exception of this one building,
+entirely built of red granite, and laid out in regular blocks with splendid
+roadways between. So far as we could see also the houses were all one-storied
+and detached, with gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye
+wearied with the vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a road of
+extraordinary width stretched away up the hill for a distance of a mile and a
+half or so, and appeared to terminate at an open space surrounding the gleaming
+building that crowned the hill. But right in front of us was the wonder and
+glory of Milosis&mdash;the great staircase of the palace, the magnificence of
+which took our breath away. Let the reader imagine, if he can, a splendid
+stairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to balustrade, consisting of two vast
+flights, each of one hundred and twenty-five steps of eight inches in height by
+three feet broad, connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and
+running from the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet a
+waterway or canal cut to its foot from the river. This marvellous staircase was
+supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which the resting-place
+between the two flights formed the crown; that is, the connecting open space
+lay upon it. From this archway sprang a subsidiary flying arch, or rather
+something that resembled a flying arch in shape, such as none of us had seen in
+any other country, and of which the beauty and wonder surpassed all that we had
+ever imagined. Three hundred feet from point to point, and no less than five
+hundred and fifty round the curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it
+supported for a space of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the
+parent archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of the side of the
+precipice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which any living man
+might have been proud, both on account of its magnitude and its surpassing
+beauty. Four times, as we afterwards learnt, did the work, which was commenced
+in remote antiquity, fail, and was then abandoned for three centuries when
+half-finished, till at last there rose a youthful engineer named Rademas, who
+said that he would complete it successfully, and staked his life upon it. If he
+failed he was to be hurled from the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he
+succeeded, he was to be rewarded by the hand of the king&rsquo;s daughter. Five
+years was given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour
+and material. Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeing failure to be
+inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on the morrow of the third
+collapse. That night, however, a beautiful woman came to him in a dream and
+touched his forehead, and of a sudden he saw a vision of the completed work,
+and saw too through the masonry and how the difficulties connected with the
+flying arch that had hitherto baffled his genius were to be overcome. Then he
+awoke and once more commenced the work, but on a different plan, and behold! he
+achieved it, and on the last day of the five years he led the princess his
+bride up the stair and into the palace. And in due course he became king by
+right of his wife, and founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this
+day called the &ldquo;House of the Stairway&rdquo;, thus proving once more how
+energy and talent are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And to
+commemorate his triumph he fashioned a statue of himself dreaming, and of the
+fair woman who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in the great hall of
+the palace, and there it stands to this day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond. No wonder they
+named it the &ldquo;Frowning City&rdquo;, for certainly those mighty works in
+solid granite did seem to frown down upon our littleness in their sombre
+splendour. This was so even in the sunshine, but when the storm-clouds gathered
+on her imperial brow Milosis looked more like a supernatural dwelling-place, or
+some imagining of a poet&rsquo;s brain, than what she is&mdash;a mortal city,
+carven by the patient genius of generations out of the red silence of the
+mountain side.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+THE SISTER QUEENS</h2>
+
+<p>
+The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almost to the foot of the
+vast stairway, and then halted at a flight of steps leading to the
+landing-place. Here the old gentleman disembarked, and invited us to do so
+likewise, which, having no alternative, and being nearly starved, we did
+without hesitation&mdash;taking our rifles with us, however. As each of us
+landed, our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and bowed deeply, at the
+same time ordering back the crowds which had assembled to gaze on us. The last
+to leave the canoe was the girl we had picked out of the water, for whom her
+companion was waiting. Before she went away she kissed my hand, I suppose as a
+token of gratitude for having saved her from the fury of the hippopotamus; and
+it seemed to me that she had by this time quite got over any fear she might
+have had of us, and was by no means anxious to return in such a hurry to her
+lawful owners. At any rate, she was going to kiss Good&rsquo;s hand as well as
+mine, when the young man interfered and led her off. As soon as we were on
+shore, a number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possession of our
+few goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendid staircase, our
+guide indicating to us by means of motions that the things were perfectly safe.
+This done, he turned to the right and led the way to a small house, which was,
+as I afterwards discovered, an inn. Entering into a good-sized room, we saw
+that a wooden table was already furnished with food, presumably in preparation
+for us. Here our guide motioned us to be seated on a bench that ran the length
+of the table. We did not require a second invitation, but at once fell to
+ravenously on the viands before us, which were served on wooden platters, and
+consisted of cold goat&rsquo;s-flesh, wrapped up in some kind of leaf that gave
+it a delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling lettuces, brown bread, and
+red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs. This wine was peculiarly soft and
+good, having something of the flavour of Burgundy. Twenty minutes after we sat
+down at that hospitable board we rose from it, feeling like new men. After all
+that we had gone through we needed two things, food and rest, and the food of
+itself was a great blessing to us. Two girls of the same charming cast of face
+as the first whom we had seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely they
+did it. They were also dressed in the same fashion namely, in a white linen
+petticoat coming to the knee, and with the toga-like garment of brown cloth,
+leaving bare the right arm and breast. I afterwards found out that this was the
+national dress, and regulated by an iron custom, though of course subject to
+variations. Thus, if the petticoat was pure white, it signified that the wearer
+was unmarried; if white, with a straight purple stripe round the edge, that she
+was married and a first or legal wife; if with a black stripe, that she was a
+widow. In the same way the toga, or &ldquo;kaf&rdquo;, as they call it, was of
+different shades of colour, from pure white to the deepest brown, according to
+the rank of the wearer, and embroidered at the end in various ways. This also
+applies to the &ldquo;shirts&rdquo; or tunics worn by the men, which varied in
+material and colour; but the kilts were always the same except as regards
+quality. One thing, however, every man and woman in the country wore as the
+national insignia, and that was the thick band of gold round the right arm
+above the elbow, and the left leg beneath the knee. People of high rank also
+wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observed that our guide had one on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor, who had been
+standing all the while, regarding us with inquiring eyes, and our guns with
+something as like fear as his pride would allow him to show, bowed towards
+Good, whom he evidently took for the leader of the party on account of the
+splendour of his apparel, and once more led the way through the door and to the
+foot of the great staircase. Here we paused for a moment to admire two colossal
+lions, each hewn from a single block of pure black marble, and standing rampant
+on the terminations of the wide balustrades of the staircase. These lions are
+magnificently executed, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the great
+prince who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt, to judge from the
+many beautiful examples of his art that we saw afterwards, one of the finest
+sculptors who ever lived, either in this or any other country. Then we climbed
+almost with a feeling of awe up that splendid stair, a work executed for all
+time and that will, I do not doubt, be admired thousands of years hence by
+generations unborn unless an earthquake should throw it down. Even Umslopogaas,
+who as a general rule made it a point of honour not to show astonishment, which
+he considered undignified, was fairly startled out of himself, and asked if the
+&ldquo;bridge had been built by men or devils&rdquo;, which was his vague way
+of alluding to any supernatural power. But Alphonse did not care about it. Its
+solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous little Frenchman, who said that it was
+all &ldquo;tres magnifique, mais triste&mdash;ah, triste!&rdquo; and went on to
+suggest that it would be improved if the balustrades were <i>gilt</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps, across the
+broad platform joining it to the second flight, where we paused to admire the
+glorious view of one of the most beautiful stretches of country that the world
+can show, edged by the blue waters of the lake. Then we passed on up the stair
+till at last we reached the top, where we found a large standing space to which
+there were three entrances, all of small size. Two of these opened on to rather
+narrow galleries or roadways cut in the face of the precipice that ran round
+the palace walls and led to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were
+used by the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks. These were defended
+by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwards learnt, it was possible to let
+down a portion of the roadways themselves by withdrawing certain bolts, and
+thus render it quite impracticable for an enemy to pass. The third entrance
+consisted of a flight of ten curved black marble steps leading to a doorway cut
+in the palace wall. This wall was in itself a work of art, being built of huge
+blocks of granite to the height of forty feet, and so fashioned that its face
+was concave, whereby it was rendered practically impossible for it to be
+scaled. To this doorway our guide led us. The door, which was massive, and made
+of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed; but on our approach
+it was thrown wide, and we were met by the challenge of a sentry, who was armed
+with a heavy triangular-bladed spear, not unlike a bayonet in shape, and a
+cutting sword, and protected by breast and back plates of skilfully prepared
+hippopotamus hide, and a small round shield fashioned of the same tough
+material. The sword instantly attracted our attention; it was practically
+identical with the one in the possession of Mr Mackenzie which he had obtained
+from the ill-starred wanderer. There was no mistaking the gold-lined fretwork
+cut in the thickness of the blade. So the man had told the truth after all. Our
+guide instantly gave a password, which the soldier acknowledged by letting the
+iron shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement, and we
+passed on through the massive wall into the courtyard of the palace. This was
+about forty yards square, and laid out in flower-beds full of lovely shrubs and
+plants, many of which were quite new to me. Through the centre of this garden
+ran a broad walk formed of powdered shells brought from the lake in the place
+of gravel. Following this we came to another doorway with a round heavy arch,
+which is hung with thick curtains, for there are no doors in the palace itself.
+Then came another short passage, and we were in the great hall of the palace,
+and once more stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeur of
+the place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet long by eighty
+wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved wood. Down the entire length
+of the building there are on either side, and at a distance of twenty feet from
+the wall, slender shafts of black marble springing sheer to the roof,
+beautifully fluted, and with carved capitals. At one end of this great place
+which these pillars support is the group of which I have already spoken as
+executed by the King Rademas to commemorate his building of the staircase; and
+really, when we had time to admire it, its loveliness almost struck us dumb.
+The group, of which the figures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is
+about half as large again as life, and represents a young man of noble
+countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One arm is carelessly
+thrown over the side of this couch, and his head reposes upon the other, its
+curling locks partially hiding it. Bending over him, her hand resting on his
+forehead, is a draped female form of such white loveliness as to make the
+beholder&rsquo;s breath stand still. And as for the calm glory that shines upon
+her perfect face&mdash;well, I can never hope to describe it. But there it
+rests like the shadow of an angel&rsquo;s smile; and power, love, and divinity
+all have their part in it. Her eyes are fixed upon the sleeping youth, and
+perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this beautiful work is the success
+with which the artist has succeeded in depicting on the sleeper&rsquo;s worn
+and weary face the sudden rising of a new and spiritual thought as the spell
+begins to work within his mind. You can see that an inspiration is breaking in
+upon the darkness of the man&rsquo;s soul as the dawn breaks in upon the
+darkness of night. It is a glorious piece of statuary, and none but a genius
+could have conceived it. Between each of the black marble columns is some such
+group of figures, some allegorical, and some representing the persons and wives
+of deceased monarchs or great men; but none of them, in our opinion, comes up
+to the one I have described, although several are from the hand of the sculptor
+and engineer, King Rademas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marble about the size
+of a baby&rsquo;s arm-chair, which it rather resembled in appearance. This, as
+we afterwards learnt, was the sacred stone of this remarkable people, and on it
+their monarchs laid their hand after the ceremony of coronation, and swore by
+the sun to safeguard the interests of the empire, and to maintain its customs,
+traditions, and laws. This stone was evidently exceedingly ancient (as indeed
+all stones are), and was scored down its sides with long marks or lines, which
+Sir Henry said proved it to have been a fragment that at some remote period in
+its history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers. There was a curious
+prophecy about this block of marble, which was reported among the people to
+have fallen from the sun, to the effect that when it was shattered into
+fragments a king of alien race should rule over the land. As the stone,
+however, looked remarkably solid, the native princes seemed to have a fair
+chance of keeping their own for many a long year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, on which two thrones
+are set side by side. These thrones are shaped like great chairs, and made of
+solid gold. The seats are richly cushioned, but the backs are left bare, and on
+each is carved the emblem of the sun, shooting out his fiery rays in all
+directions. The footstools are golden lions couchant, with yellow topazes set
+in them for eyes. There are no other gems about them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed high up, cut on the
+principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancient castles, but innocent of
+glass, which was evidently unknown here.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which we now found
+ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledge of it. On this
+occasion we had but little time for observation, for when we entered we
+perceived that a large number of men were gathered together in front of the two
+thrones, which were unoccupied. The principal among them were seated on carved
+wooden chairs ranged to the right and the left of the thrones, but not in front
+of them, and were dressed in white tunics, with various embroideries and
+different coloured edgings, and armed with the usual pierced and gold-inlaid
+swords. To judge from the dignity of their appearance, they seemed one and all
+to be individuals of very great importance. Behind each of these great men
+stood a small knot of followers and attendants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne, were six men
+of a different stamp. Instead of wearing the ordinary kilt, they were clothed
+in long robes of pure white linen, with the same symbol of the sun that is to
+be seen on the back of the chairs, emblazoned in gold thread upon the breast.
+This garment was girt up at the waist with a simple golden curb-like chain,
+from which hung long elliptic plates of the same metal, fashioned in shiny
+scales like those of a fish, that, as their wearers moved, jingled and
+reflected the light. They were all men of mature age and of a severe and
+impressive cast of features, which was rendered still more imposing by the long
+beards they wore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The personality of one individual among them, however, impressed us at once. He
+seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuse to be overlooked. He was very
+old&mdash;eighty at least&mdash;and extremely tall, with a long snow-white
+beard that hung nearly to his waist. His features were aquiline and deeply cut,
+and his eyes were grey and cold-looking. The heads of the others were bare, but
+this man wore a round cap entirely covered with gold embroidery, from which we
+judged that he was a person of great importance; and indeed we afterwards
+discovered that he was Agon, the High Priest of the country. As we approached,
+all these men, including the priests, rose and bowed to us with the greatest
+courtesy, at the same time placing the two fingers across the lips in
+salutation. Then soft-footed attendants advanced from between the pillars,
+bearing seats, which were placed in a line in front of the thrones. We three
+sat down, Alphonse and Umslopogaas standing behind us. Scarcely had we done so
+when there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to the right, and a
+similar blare from the left. Next a man with a long white wand of ivory
+appeared just in front of the right-hand throne, and cried out something in a
+loud voice, ending with the word <i>Nyleptha</i>, repeated three times; and
+another man, similarly attired, called out a similar sentence before the other
+throne, but ending with the word <i>Sorais</i>, also repeated thrice. Then came
+the tramp of armed men from each side entrance, and in filed about a score of
+picked and magnificently accoutred guards, who formed up on each side of the
+thrones, and let their heavy iron-handled spears fall simultaneously with a
+clash upon the black marble flooring. Another double blare of trumpets, and in
+from either side, each attended by six maidens, swept the two Queens of
+Zu-Vendis, everybody in the hall rising to greet them as they came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer thrown into transports
+at the sight of a pretty face; but language fails me when I try to give some
+idea of the blaze of loveliness that then broke upon us in the persons of these
+sister Queens. Both were young&mdash;perhaps five-and-twenty years of
+age&mdash;both were tall and exquisitely formed; but there the likeness
+stopped. One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling fairness; her right arm and
+breast bare, after the custom of her people, showed like snow even against her
+white and gold-embroidered &ldquo;kaf&rdquo;, or toga. And as for her sweet
+face, all I can say is, that it was one that few men could look on and forget.
+Her hair, a veritable crown of gold, clustered in short ringlets over her
+shapely head, half hiding the ivory brow, beneath which eyes of deep and
+glorious grey flashed out in tender majesty. I cannot attempt to describe her
+other features, only the mouth was most sweet, and curved like Cupid&rsquo;s
+bow, and over the whole countenance there shone an indescribable look of
+loving-kindness, lit up by a shadow of delicate humour that lay upon her face
+like a touch of silver on a rosy cloud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usual torques of
+gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; and her dress was of pure white
+linen of excessive fineness, plentifully embroidered with gold and with the
+familiar symbols of the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type of beauty. Her hair
+was wavy like Nyleptha&rsquo;s but coal-black, and fell in masses on her
+shoulders; her complexion was olive, her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; the
+lips were full, and I thought rather cruel. Somehow her face, quiet and even
+cold as it is, gave an idea of passion in repose, and caused one to wonder
+involuntarily what its aspect would be if anything occurred to break the calm.
+It reminded me of the deep sea, that even on the bluest days never loses its
+visible stamp of power, and in its murmuring sleep is yet instinct with the
+spirit of the storm. Her figure, like her sister&rsquo;s, was almost perfect in
+its curves and outlines, but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was
+absolutely the same.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones, amid the deep
+attentive silence of the Court, I was bound to confess to myself that they did
+indeed fulfil my idea of royalty. Royal they were in every way&mdash;in form,
+in grace, and queenly dignity, and in the barbaric splendour of their attendant
+pomp. But methought that they needed no guards or gold to proclaim their power
+and bind the loyalty of wayward men. A glance from those bright eyes or a smile
+from those sweet lips, and while the red blood runs in the veins of youth women
+such as these will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and therefore not
+devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seats I saw both of them glance
+swiftly in our direction. I saw, too, that their eyes passed by me, seeing
+nothing to charm them in the person of an insignificant and grizzled old man.
+Then they looked with evident astonishment on the grim form of old Umslopogaas,
+who raised his axe in salutation. Attracted next by the splendour of
+Good&rsquo;s apparel, for a second their glance rested on him like a humming
+moth upon a flower, then off it darted to where Sir Henry Curtis stood, the
+sunlight from a window playing upon his yellow hair and peaked beard, and
+marking the outlines of his massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat
+gloomy hall. He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha&rsquo;s full,
+and thus for the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has ever been
+my lot to see looked one upon another. And why it was I know not, but I saw the
+swift blood run up Nyleptha&rsquo;s skin as the pink lights run up the morning
+sky. Red grew her fair bosom and shapely arm, red the swanlike neck; the
+rounded cheeks blushed red as the petals of a rose, and then the crimson flood
+sank back to whence it came and left her pale and trembling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I glanced at Sir Henry. He, too, had coloured up to the eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, my word!&rdquo; thought I to myself, &ldquo;the ladies have come on
+the stage, and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.&rdquo; And I
+sighed and shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a woman is like the beauty
+of the lightning&mdash;a destructive thing and a cause of desolation. By the
+time that I had finished my reflections both the Queens were on the thrones,
+for all this had happened in about six seconds. Once more the unseen trumpets
+blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen Sorais motioned to us
+to do likewise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward our guide,
+the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding by the hand the girl whom we
+had seen first and afterwards rescued from the hippopotamus. Having made
+obeisance he proceeded to address the Queens, evidently describing to them the
+way and place where we had been found. It was most amusing to watch the
+astonishment, not unmixed with fear, reflected upon their faces as they
+listened to his tale. Clearly they could not understand how we had reached the
+lake and been found floating on it, and were inclined to attribute our presence
+to supernatural causes. Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the
+frequent appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we had
+shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there was something very
+wrong about those hippopotami, for the history was frequently interrupted by
+indignant exclamations from the little group of white-robed priests and even
+from the courtiers, while the two Queens listened with an amazed expression,
+especially when our guide pointed to the rifles in our hands as being the means
+of destruction. And here, to make matters clear, I may as well explain at once
+that the inhabitants of Zu-Vendis are sun-worshippers, and that for some reason
+or another the hippopotamus is sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it,
+because at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands&mdash;which
+are specially preserved in large lakes up the country&mdash;and use their hides
+for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent them from considering these
+animals as sacred to the sun.<a href="#fn-12" name="fnref-12" id="fnref-12"><sup>[12]</sup></a>
+Now, as ill luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we had shot were a
+family of tame animals that were kept in the mouth of the port and daily fed by
+priests whose special duty it was to attend to them. When we shot them I
+thought that the brutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we afterwards
+ascertained, the cause of it. Thus it came about that in attempting to show off
+we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated nature.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-12" id="fn-12"></a> <a href="#fnref-12">[12]</a>
+Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is common for
+animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beasts they adore. See
+Herodotus, ii. 45.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long beard and round
+cap, whose appearance I have already described, and who was, as I have said,
+the High Priest of the country, and known by the name of Agon, rose and
+commenced an impassioned harangue. I did not like the look of his cold grey eye
+as he fixed it on us. I should have liked it still less had I known that in the
+name of the outraged majesty of his god he was demanding that the whole lot of
+us should be offered up as a sacrifice by means of being burnt alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him in a soft and
+musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his gestures of dissent, to be
+putting the other side of the question before him. Then Nyleptha spoke in
+liquid accents. Little did we know that she was pleading for our lives.
+Finally, she turned and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of middle age with a
+black beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as we afterwards learnt, was
+Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the country; apparently appealing to
+him for support. Now when Sir Henry had caught her eye and she had blushed so
+rosy red, I had seen that the incident had not escaped this man&rsquo;s notice,
+and, what is more, that it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his
+lip and his hand tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learnt that he was
+an aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage, which accounted for it.
+This being so, Nyleptha could not have appealed to a worse person, for,
+speaking in slow, heavy tones, he appeared to confirm all that the High Priest
+Agon had said. As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee, and, resting her
+chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile upon her lips, as
+though she saw through the man, and was determined to be his match; but
+Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed, her eyes flashed, and she did
+indeed look lovely. Finally she turned to Agon and seemed to give some sort of
+qualified assent, for he bowed at her words; and as she spoke she moved her
+hands as though to emphasize what she said; while all the time Sorais kept her
+chin on her hand and smiled. Then suddenly Nyleptha made a sign, the trumpets
+blew again, and everybody rose to leave the hall save ourselves and the guards,
+whom she motioned to stay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly, partially by
+signs and partially by exclamations made it clear to us that she was very
+anxious to know where we came from. The difficulty was how to explain, but at
+last an idea struck me. I had my large pocket-book in my pocket and a pencil.
+Taking it out, I made a little sketch of a lake, and then as best I could I
+drew the underground river and the lake at the other end. When I had done this
+I advanced to the steps of the throne and gave it to her. She understood it at
+once and clapped her hands with delight, and then descending from the throne
+took it to her sister Sorais, who also evidently understood. Next she took the
+pencil from me, and after examining it with curiosity proceeded to make a
+series of delightful little sketches, the first representing herself holding
+out both hands in welcome, and a man uncommonly like Sir Henry taking them.
+Next she drew a lovely little picture of a hippopotamus rolling about dying in
+the water, and of an individual, in whom we had no difficulty in recognizing
+Agon the High Priest, holding up his hands in horror on the bank. Then followed
+a most alarming picture of a dreadful fiery furnace and of the same figure,
+Agon, poking us into it with a forked stick. This picture perfectly horrified
+me, but I was a little reassured when she nodded sweetly and proceeded to make
+a fourth drawing&mdash;a man again uncommonly like Sir Henry, and of two women,
+in whom I recognized Sorais and herself, each with one arm around him, and
+holding a sword in protection over him. To all of these Sorais, who I saw was
+employed in carefully taking us all in&mdash;especially Curtis&mdash;signified
+her approval by nodding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicating that she must
+go, and that we should meet on the following morning; whereat Sir Henry looked
+so disappointed that she saw it, and, I suppose by way of consolation, extended
+her hand to him to kiss, which he did with pious fervour. At the same time
+Sorais, off whom Good had never taken his eyeglass during the whole indaba
+[interview], rewarded him by giving him her hand to kiss, though, while she did
+so, her eyes were fixed upon Sir Henry. I am glad to say that I was not
+implicated in these proceedings; neither of them gave <i>me</i> her hand to
+kiss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to be in command of the
+bodyguard, apparently from her manner and his frequent obeisances, giving him
+very stringent and careful orders; after which, with a somewhat coquettish nod
+and smile, she left the hall, followed by Sorais and most of the guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressed came forward
+and with many tokens of deep respect led us from the hall through various
+passages to a sumptuous set of apartments opening out of a large central room
+lighted with brazen swinging lamps (for it was now dusk) and richly carpeted
+and strewn with couches. On a table in the centre of the room was set a
+profusion of food and fruit, and, what is more, flowers. There was a delicious
+wine also in ancient-looking sealed earthenware flagons, and beautifully chased
+golden and ivory cups to drink it from. Servants, male and female, also were
+there to minister to us, and whilst we ate, from some recess outside the
+apartment
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;The silver lute did speak between<br />
+The trumpet&rsquo;s lordly blowing;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradise which was only
+disturbed by the vision of that disgusting High Priest who intended to commit
+us to the flames. But so very weary were we with our labours that we could
+scarcely keep ourselves awake through the sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was
+over we indicated that we desired to sleep. As a further precaution against
+surprise we left Umslopogaas with his axe to sleep in the main chamber near the
+curtained doorways leading to the apartments which we occupied respectively,
+Good and I in the one, and Sir Henry and Alphonse in the other. Then throwing
+off our clothes, with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered it
+safer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxurious couches,
+and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused by Good&rsquo;s
+voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, Quatermain,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;did you ever see such
+eyes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eyes!&rdquo; I said, crossly; &ldquo;what eyes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, the Queen&rsquo;s, of course! Sorais, I mean&mdash;at least I think
+that is her name.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; I yawned; &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t notice
+them much: I suppose they are good eyes,&rdquo; and again I dropped off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, Quatermain,&rdquo; said the voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I answered testily, &ldquo;what is it now?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you notice her ankle? The shape&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was more than I could stand. By my bed stood the veldtschoons I had been
+wearing. Moved quite beyond myself, I took them up and threw them straight at
+Good&rsquo;s head&mdash;and hit it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleep it must be. As
+for Good, I don&rsquo;t know if he went to sleep or if he continued to pass
+Sorais&rsquo; beauties in mental review, and, what is more, I don&rsquo;t care.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE</h2>
+
+<p>
+And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in this novel drama
+are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should except Nyleptha, whom the reader
+may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in her bed of state encompassed by
+her maidens, tiring women, guards, and all the other people and appurtenances
+that surround a throne, and yet not able to slumber for thinking of the
+strangers who had visited a country where no such strangers had ever come
+before, and wondering, as she lay awake, who they were and what their past has
+been, and if she was ugly compared to the women of their native place. I,
+however, not being poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give
+some account of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needless to
+state, from information which we subsequently collected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis, from Zu,
+&ldquo;yellow&rdquo;, and Vendis, &ldquo;place or country&rdquo;. Why it is
+called the Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor
+do the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given, each of
+which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the name owes its
+origin to the great quantity of gold that is found in the land. Indeed, in this
+respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the precious metal being
+extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collected from purely alluvial
+diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and which are situated within a
+day&rsquo;s journey from Milosis, being mostly found in pockets and in nuggets
+weighing from an ounce up to six or seven pounds in weight. But other diggings
+of a similar nature are known to exist, and I have besides seen great veins of
+gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendis gold is a much commoner metal than silver,
+and thus it has curiously enough come to pass that silver is the legal tender
+of the country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year the native
+grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow as ripe
+corn; and the third arises from a tradition that the people were originally
+yellow skinned, but grew white after living for many generations upon these
+high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about the size of France, is, roughly
+speaking, oval in shape; and on every side cut off from the surrounding
+territory by illimitable forests of impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said
+to be hundreds of miles of morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in
+short, a huge, high tableland rising up in the centre of the dark continent,
+much as in southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the
+surrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a level of
+about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the land is even higher,
+the greatest elevation of the open country being, I believe, about eleven
+thousand feet. As a consequence the climate is, comparatively speaking, a cold
+one, being very similar to that of southern England, only brighter and not so
+rainy. The land is, however, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and
+temperate fruits and timber to perfection; and in the lower-lying parts even
+produces a hardy variety of sugar-cane. Coal is found in great abundance, and
+in many places crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both black
+and white. The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, which is
+scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of mountains in the north.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery, including two
+ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundary beyond the
+impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing the country from
+north to south, and passing at a distance of about eighty miles from Milosis,
+from which town its higher peaks are distinctly visible. This range forms the
+chief watershed of the land. There are also three large lakes&mdash;the
+biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and which is named Milosis after the
+city, covering some two hundred square miles of country&mdash;and numerous
+small ones, some of them salt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense,
+numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almost purely
+agricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes as in civilized
+countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerable middle class, formed
+principally of merchants, officers of the army, etc.; but the great bulk of the
+people are well-to-do peasants who live upon the lands of the lords, from whom
+they hold under a species of feudal tenure. The best bred people in the country
+are, as I think I have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of
+countenance; but the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any
+negro or other African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no
+certain information. Their written records, which extend back for about a
+thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does indeed, in
+alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talk of it as having
+probably originally &ldquo;come down with the people from the coast&rdquo;, but
+that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of the Zu-Vendi is lost
+in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what race they are no man knows.
+Their architecture and some of their sculptures suggest an Egyptian or possibly
+an Assyrian origin; but it is well known that their present remarkable style of
+building has only sprung up within the last eight hundred years, and they
+certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their
+appearance and some of their habits are rather Jewish; but here again it seems
+hardly conceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewish
+religion. Still, for aught I know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes whom
+people are so fond of discovering all over the world, or they may not. I do not
+know, and so can only describe them as I find them, and leave wiser heads than
+mine to make what they can out of it, if indeed this account should ever be
+read at all, which is exceedingly doubtful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard a theory
+of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young lady said in
+mitigation of her baby. This theory is founded on a legend which I have heard
+among the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the effect that &ldquo;more than
+two thousand years ago&rdquo; there were troubles in the country which was
+known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of Persians came down to
+Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by the north-east monsoon to the
+east coast of Africa, where, according to the legend, &ldquo;the sun and fire
+worshippers&rdquo; fell into conflict with the belt of Arab settlers who even
+then were settled on the east coast, and finally broke their way through them,
+and, vanishing into the interior, were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at
+least possible that the Zu-Vendi people are the descendants of these &ldquo;sun
+and fire worshippers&rdquo; who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a
+matter of fact, there is a good deal in their characters and customs that
+tallies with the somewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we
+have no books of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not
+fail him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500 BC, whereon a vast
+multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is a well-established fact
+that there have been many separate emigrations of Persians from the Persian
+Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to as lately as seven hundred years ago.
+There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on the east coast, still in good repair,
+which bear dates showing them to be just seven hundred years old.<a href="#fn-13" name="fnref-13" id="fnref-13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-13" id="fn-13"></a> <a href="#fnref-13">[13]</a>
+There is another theory which might account for the origin of the Zu-Vendi
+which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr Quatermain and his companions,
+and that is, that they are descendants of the Phœnicians. The cradle of the
+Phœnician race is supposed to have been on the western shore of the Persian
+Gulf. Thence, as there is good evidence to show, they emigrated in two streams,
+one of which took possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is
+supposed by savants to have immigrated down the coast of Eastern Africa where,
+near Mozambique, signs and remains of their occupation are not wanting. Indeed,
+it would have been very extraordinary if they did not, when leaving the Persian
+Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that the north-east monsoon
+blows for six months in the year dead in that direction, while for the other
+six months it blows back again. And, by the way of illustrating the
+probability, I may add that to this day a very extensive trade is carried on
+between the Persian Gulf and Lamu and other East African ports as far south as
+Madagascar, which is of course the ancient Ebony Isle of the &ldquo;Arabian
+Nights&rdquo;.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly enough,
+excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the exigencies of their position
+make war upon other nations, they fight among each other like the famed
+Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the population never outgrows the
+power of the country to support it. This habit of theirs is largely fostered by
+the political condition of the country. The monarchy is nominally an absolute
+one, save in so far as it is tempered by the power of the priests and the
+informal council of the great lords; but, as in many other institutions, the
+king&rsquo;s writ does not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth
+of the land. In short, the whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute
+serfdom or slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally from the
+throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the power of
+life and death, waging war against and making peace with their neighbours as
+the whim or their interests lead them, and even on occasion rising in open
+rebellion against their royal master or mistress, and, safely shut up in their
+castles and fenced cities, as far from the seat of government, successfully
+defying them for years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that will be well
+appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have sat upon the
+throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took its rise from
+some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary
+struggle. At the date of our arrival in the country things were a little better
+than they had been for some centuries, the last king, the father of Nyleptha
+and Sorais, having been an exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a
+consequence, he kept down the power of the priests and nobles. On his death,
+two years before we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were,
+following an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an attempt to
+exclude either would instantly have provoked a sanguinary civil war; but it was
+generally felt in the country that this measure was a most unsatisfactory one,
+and could hardly be expected to be permanent. Indeed, as it was, the various
+intrigues that were set on foot by ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one
+or other of the queens in marriage had disquieted the country, and the general
+opinion was that there would be bloodshed before long.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which is nothing
+more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced and highly developed character.
+Around this sun-worship is grouped the entire social system of the Zu-Vendi. It
+sends its roots through every institution and custom of the land. From the
+cradle to the grave the Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying.
+As an infant he is solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to &ldquo;the
+symbol of good, the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity&rdquo;, the
+ceremony answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point
+out the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god, and he
+worships it at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when still quite small, he
+goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother&rsquo;s &ldquo;kaf&rdquo;
+(toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and there, when at
+midday the bright beams strike down upon the golden central altar and beat back
+the fire that burns thereon, he hears the white-robed priests raise their
+solemn chant of praise and sees the people fall down to adore, and then, amidst
+the blowing of the golden trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery
+furnace beneath the altar. Here he comes again to be declared &ldquo;a
+man&rdquo; by the priests, and consecrated to war and to good works; here
+before the solemn altar he leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall
+unhappily arise, he divorces her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so on, down life&rsquo;s long pathway till the last mile is travelled, and
+he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man. Here they
+bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling brazen doors before the eastern
+altar, and when the last ray from the setting sun falls upon his white face the
+bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the raging furnace beneath and is ended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as young men specially
+devoted to the work by their parents and supported by the State. The nomination
+to the higher offices of the priesthood lies with the Crown, but once appointed
+the nominees cannot be dispossessed, and it is scarcely too much to say that
+they really rule the land. To begin with, they are a united body sworn to
+obedience and secrecy, so that an order issued by the High Priest at Milosis
+will be instantly and unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a
+little country town three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the
+land, criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of the
+district, and from him to the king; and they have, of course, practically
+unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offences, together with a right
+of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of more highly civilized lands, is
+a very effective weapon. Indeed, their rights and powers are almost unlimited,
+but I may as well state here that the priests of the Sun are wise in their
+generation, and do not push things too far. It is but very seldom that they go
+to extremes against anybody, being more inclined to exercise the prerogative of
+mercy than run the risk of exasperating the powerful and vigorous-minded people
+on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise and break it off
+altogether.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopoly of
+learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, which enables
+them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipses and even comets.
+In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can read and write, but nearly all
+the priests have this knowledge, and are therefore looked upon as learned men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs in several
+respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law of England is much more
+severe upon offences against property than against the person, as becomes a
+people whose ruling passion is money. A man may half kick his wife to death or
+inflict horrible sufferings upon his children at a much cheaper rate of
+punishment than he can compound for the theft of a pair of old boots. In
+Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there they rightly or wrongly look upon the
+person as of more consequence than goods and chattels, and not, as in England,
+as a sort of necessary appendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is
+death, for treason death, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for
+sacrilege, and for attempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a
+sacrilege) death. In each case the method of execution is the same, and a
+rather awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneath
+one of the altars to the Sun. For all other offences, including the offence of
+idleness, the punishment is forced labour upon the vast national buildings
+which are always going on in some part of the country, with or without
+periodical floggings, according to the crime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to the
+individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customs of the
+country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of them have only one wife
+on account of the expense. By law a man is bound to provide a separate
+establishment for each wife. The first wife also is the legal wife, and her
+children are said to be &ldquo;of the house of the Father&rdquo;. The children
+of the other wives are of the houses of their respective mothers. This does
+not, however, imply any slur upon either mother or children. Again, a first
+wife can, on entering into the married state, make a bargain that her husband
+shall marry no other wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are
+the great upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus
+numbers but gives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus practically
+the head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as primarily a civil
+contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a proper provision for
+children, is dissoluble at the will of both contracting parties, the divorce,
+or &ldquo;unloosing&rdquo;, being formally and ceremoniously accomplished by
+going through certain portions of the marriage ceremony backwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-hearted
+people. They are not great traders and care little about money, only working to
+earn enough to support themselves in that class of life in which they were
+born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look with disfavour upon changes.
+Their legal tender is silver, cut into little squares of different weights;
+gold is the baser coin, and is about of the same value as our silver. It is,
+however, much prized for its beauty, and largely used for ornaments and
+decorative purposes. Most of the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale
+and barter, payment being made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of
+the country, and is really well understood and carried out, most of the
+available acreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also given to the
+breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any I have ever
+seen either in Europe or Africa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to the great
+lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on down to the little
+peasant farmer who works his forty &ldquo;reestu&rdquo; (acres) on a system of
+half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact the whole system is, as I have
+said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much to meet with such an old
+friend far in the unknown heart of Africa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man&rsquo;s total
+earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on the remainder. But on the
+other hand, if a man through any cause falls into <i>bona fide</i> misfortune
+the State supports him in the position of life to which he belongs. If he is
+idle, however, he is sent to work on the Government undertakings, and the State
+looks after his wives and children. The State also makes all the roads and
+builds all town houses, about which great care is shown, letting them out to
+families at a small rent. It also keeps up a standing army of about twenty
+thousand men, and provides watchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the
+priests attend to the service of the temples, carry out all religious
+ceremonies, and keep schools, where they teach whatever they think desirable,
+which is not very much. Some of the temples also possess private property, but
+priests as individuals cannot hold property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are the
+Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one, sometimes
+the other. In some branches of art they have attained the very highest
+proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and their statuary. I do not
+think that the latter can be equalled either in beauty or imaginative power
+anywhere in the world, and as for the former it may have been rivalled in
+ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has never been since. But, on the other
+hand, they are totally ignorant of many other arts. Till Sir Henry, who
+happened to know something about it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica
+and lime, they could not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather
+primitive. A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed, ours
+delighted them exceedingly. They know nothing about steam, electricity, or
+gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about printing or the penny
+post. Thus they are spared many evils, for of a truth our age has learnt the
+wisdom of the old-world saying, &ldquo;He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth
+sorrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative people who know
+no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to the sun and worship him
+as the all-Father, but it cannot justly be called elevating or spiritual. It is
+true that they do sometimes speak of the sun as the &ldquo;garment of the
+Spirit&rdquo;, but it is a vague term, and what they really adore is the fiery
+orb himself. They also call him the &ldquo;hope of eternity&rdquo;, but here
+again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the phrase conveys any very clear
+impression to their minds. Some of them do indeed believe in a future life for
+the good&mdash;I know Nyleptha does firmly&mdash;but it is a private faith
+arising from the promptings of the spirit, not an essential of their creed. So
+on the whole I cannot say that I consider this sun-worship as a religion
+indicative of a civilized people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual,
+or however moral and high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I
+am sure, have their own opinions on the whole subject; though of course they
+have nothing but praise for a system which provides them with so many of the
+good things of this world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are now only two more matters to which I need allude&mdash;namely, the
+language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it is soft-sounding,
+and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it sounds something like modern
+Greek, but of course it has no connection with it. It is easy to acquire, being
+simple in its construction, and a peculiar quality about it is its euphony, and
+the way in which the sound of the words adapts itself to the meaning to be
+expressed. Long before we mastered the language, we could frequently make out
+what was meant by the ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the
+language lends itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these
+remarkable people are very fond. The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says,
+to be derived, like every other known system of letters, from a Phœnician
+source, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian hieratic
+writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned in such
+matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists of twenty-two
+characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not very unlike our own.
+The whole affair is, however, clumsy and puzzling.<a href="#fn-14" name="fnref-14" id="fnref-14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
+But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to the writing of novels, or of
+anything except business documents and records of the briefest character, it
+answers their purpose well enough.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-14" id="fn-14"></a> <a href="#fnref-14">[14]</a>
+There are twenty-two letters in the Phœnician alphabet (<i>see</i> Appendix,
+Maspero&rsquo;s <i>Histoire ancienne des peuples de l&rsquo;Orient</i>, etc.)
+Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives us no specimen of the Zu-Vendi writing, but
+what he here states seems to go a long way towards substantiating the theory
+advanced in the note on p. 139.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+THE FLOWER TEMPLE</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning following our
+arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly twelve hours, and I must say
+that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep! and what a
+difference twelve hours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil
+and danger. It is like going to bed one man and getting up another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat up upon my silken couch&mdash;never had I slept upon such a bed
+before&mdash;and the first thing that I saw was Good&rsquo;s eyeglass fixed on
+me from the recesses of his silken couch. There was nothing else of him to be
+seen except his eyeglass, but I knew from the look of it that he was awake, and
+waiting till I woke up to begin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, Quatermain,&rdquo; he commenced sure enough, &ldquo;did you
+observe her skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now look here, Good,&rdquo; I remonstrated, when there came a sound at
+the curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary, who signified by
+signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented, and were
+conducted to a delightful marble chamber, with a pool of running crystal water
+in the centre of it, into which we gaily plunged. When we had bathed, we
+returned to our apartment and dressed, and then went into the central room
+where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a morning meal already
+prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, though I should be puzzled to
+describe the dishes. After breakfast we lounged round and admired the
+tapestries and carpets and some pieces of statuary that were placed about,
+wondering the while what was going to happen next. Indeed, by this time our
+minds were in such a state of complete bewilderment that we were, as a matter
+of fact, ready for anything that might arrive. As for our sense of
+astonishment, it was pretty well obliterated. Whilst we were still thus
+engaged, our friend the captain of the guard presented himself, and with many
+obeisances signified that we were to follow him, which we did, not without
+doubts and heart-searchings&mdash;for we guessed that the time had come when we
+should have to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with our
+cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However, there was no help for it, and
+personally I took great comfort in the promise of the protection of the sister
+Queens, knowing that if ladies have a will they can generally find a way; so
+off we started as though we liked it. A minute&rsquo;s walk through a passage
+and an outer court brought us to the great double gates of the palace that open
+on to the wide highway which runs uphill through the heart of Milosis to the
+Temple of the Sun a mile away, and thence down the slope on the farther side of
+the temple to the outer wall of the city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily beautiful work
+in metal. Between them&mdash;for one set is placed at the entrance to an
+interior, and one at that of the exterior wall&mdash;is a fosse, forty-five
+feet in width. This fosse is filled with water and spanned by a drawbridge,
+which when lifted makes the palace nearly impregnable to anything except siege
+guns. As we came, one half of the wide gates were flung open, and we passed
+over the drawbridge and presently stood gazing up one of the most imposing, if
+not the most imposing, roadways in the world. It is a hundred feet from curb to
+curb, and on either side, not cramped and crowded together, as is our European
+fashion, but each standing in its own grounds, and built equidistant from and
+in similar style to the rest, are a series of splendid, single-storied
+mansions, all of red granite. These are the town houses of the nobles of the
+Court, and stretch away in unbroken lines for a mile or more till the eye is
+arrested by the glorious vision of the Temple of the Sun that crowns the hill
+and heads the roadway.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there suddenly
+dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn by two white horses. These
+chariots are two-wheeled, and made of wood. They are fitted with a stout pole,
+the weight of which is supported by leathern girths that form a portion of the
+harness. The wheels are made with four spokes only, are tired with iron, and
+quite innocent of springs. In the front of the chariot, and immediately over
+the pole, is a small seat for the driver, railed round to prevent him from
+being jolted off. Inside the machine itself are three low seats, one at each
+side, and one with the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door. The
+whole vehicle is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owing to the grace of the
+curves, though primitive, not half so ugly as might be expected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses did not. They were
+simply splendid, not very large but strongly built, and well ribbed up, with
+small heads, remarkably large and round hoofs, and a great look of speed and
+blood. I have often wondered whence this breed, which presents many distinct
+characteristics, came, but like that of its owners, its history is obscure.
+Like the people the horses have always been there. The first and last of these
+chariots were occupied by guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the
+driver, and to these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into the first, and
+Sir Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind, and then suddenly off we
+went. And we did go! Among the Zu-Vendi it is not usual to trot horses either
+riding or driving, especially when the journey to be made is a short
+one&mdash;they go at full gallop. As soon as we were seated the driver called
+out, the horses sprang forward, and we were whirled away at a speed sufficient
+to take one&rsquo;s breath, and which, till I got accustomed to it, kept me in
+momentary fear of an upset. As for the wretched Alphonse, he clung with a
+despairing face to the side of what he called this &ldquo;devil of a
+fiacre&rdquo;, thinking that every moment was his last. Presently it occurred
+to him to ask where we were going, and I told him that, as far as I could
+ascertain, we were going to be sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his
+face as he grasped the side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flying steeds and
+shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, bore away the sound of
+Alphonse&rsquo;s lamentations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling loveliness,
+shone out the Temple of the Sun&mdash;the peculiar pride of the Zu-Vendi, to
+whom it was what Solomon&rsquo;s, or rather Herod&rsquo;s, Temple was to the
+Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour of generations had been given to the
+building of this wonderful place, which had been only finally completed within
+the last fifty years. Nothing was spared that the country could produce, and
+the result was indeed worthy of the effort, not so much on account of its
+size&mdash;for there are larger fanes in the world&mdash;as because of its
+perfect proportions, the richness and beauty of its materials, and the
+wonderful workmanship. The building (that stands by itself on a space of some
+eight acres of garden ground on the hilltop, around which are the
+dwelling-places of the priests) is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a
+dome-covered central hall, from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts, each
+dedicated to one of the twelve months, and serving as the repositories of
+statues reared in memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle
+beneath the dome is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred
+feet, and the length of the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height
+of their roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome
+exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised heart. Thus
+the exact measurement from the centre of the central altar to the extreme point
+of any one of the rounded rays would be three hundred feet (the width of the
+circle itself), or a total of six hundred feet from the rounded extremity of
+one ray or petal to the extremity of the opposite one.<a href="#fn-15" name="fnref-15" id="fnref-15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-15" id="fn-15"></a> <a href="#fnref-15">[15]</a>
+These are internal measurements.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, which shows out in
+marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowning city, on whose brow it
+glistens indeed like an imperial diadem upon the forehead of a dusky queen. The
+outer surface of the dome and of the twelve petal courts is covered entirely
+with thin sheets of beaten gold; and from the extreme point of the roof of each
+of these petals a glorious golden form with a trumpet in its hand and
+widespread wings is figured in the very act of soaring into space. I really
+must leave whoever reads this to imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden
+roofs flashing when the sun strikes&mdash;flashing like a thousand fires aflame
+on a mountain of polished marble&mdash;so fiercely that the reflection can be
+clearly seen from the great peaks of the range a hundred miles away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is a marvellous sight&mdash;this golden flower upborne upon the cool white
+marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such another. What makes the
+whole effect even more gorgeous is that a belt of a hundred and fifty feet
+around the marble wall of the temple is planted with an indigenous species of
+sunflower, which were at the time when we first saw them a sheet of golden
+bloom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two northernmost of
+the rays or petal courts, and is protected first by the usual bronze gates, and
+then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully carved with allegorical
+subjects and overlaid with gold. When these are passed there is only the
+thickness of the wall, which is, however, twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi
+build for all time), and another slight wall also of white marble, introduced
+in order to avoid causing a visible gap in the inner skin of the wall, and you
+stand in the circular hall under the great dome. Advancing to the central altar
+you look upon as beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive. You
+are in the middle of the holy place, and above you the great white marble dome
+(for the inner skin, like the outer, is of polished marble throughout) arches
+away in graceful curves something like that of St Paul&rsquo;s in London, only
+at a slighter angle, and from the funnel-like opening at the exact apex a
+bright beam of light pours down upon the golden altar. At the east and the west
+are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacred twilight to the
+heart. In every direction, &ldquo;white, mystic, wonderful&rdquo;, open out the
+ray-like courts, each pierced through by a single arrow of light that serves to
+illumine its lofty silence and dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead.<a href="#fn-16" name="fnref-16" id="fnref-16"><sup>[16]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-16" id="fn-16"></a> <a href="#fnref-16">[16]</a>
+Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of the dome and in
+the roof.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which thrills the
+nerves like a glance from beauty&rsquo;s eyes, you turn to the central golden
+altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it now, there burns a pale
+but steady flame crowned with curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble
+overlaid with pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height, and
+thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar,
+are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night and, except at one hour, all day
+also, these petals are closed over the altar itself exactly as the petals of a
+water-lily close over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun at
+midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon the golden
+flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only to close again when
+the ray has passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distances from each other on
+the north and south of the sacred place are ten golden angels, or female winged
+forms, exquisitely shaped and draped. These figures, which are slightly larger
+than life-size, stand with bent heads in an attitude of adoration, their faces
+shadowed by their wings, and are most imposing and of exceeding beauty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is but one thing further which calls for description in this altar, which
+is, that to the east the flooring in front of it is not of pure white marble,
+as elsewhere throughout the building, but of solid brass, and this is also the
+case in front of the other two altars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape, and placed
+against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and are not enfolded
+in golden petals. They are, however, also of gold, the sacred fire burns on
+each, and a golden-winged figure stands on either side of them. Two great
+golden rays run up the wall behind them, but where the third or middle one
+should be is an opening in the wall, wide on the outside, but narrow within,
+like a loophole turned inwards. Through the eastern loophole stream the first
+beams of the rising sun, and strike right across the circle, touching the
+folded petals of the great gold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the
+western altar. In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest
+for a while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It is the
+promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening to the dawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures about them, the
+whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly empty and devoid of
+ornamentation&mdash;a circumstance that to my fancy adds greatly to its
+splendour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to the
+glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their complete simplicity, I
+only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so it is useless talking
+more about it. But when I compare this great work of genius to some of the
+tawdry buildings and tinsel ornamentation produced in these latter days by
+European ecclesiastical architects, I feel that even highly civilized art might
+learn something from the Zu-Vendi masterpieces. I can only say that the
+exclamation which sprang to my lips as soon as my eyes first became accustomed
+to the dim light of that glorious building, and its white and curving beauties,
+perfect and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by one,
+was, &ldquo;Well! a dog would feel religious here.&rdquo; It is vulgarly put,
+but perhaps it conveys my meaning more clearly than any polished utterance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers, who appeared
+to be under the orders of a priest; and by them we were conducted into one of
+the ray or &ldquo;petal&rdquo; courts, as the priests call them, and there left
+for at least half-an-hour. Here we conferred together, and realizing that we
+stood in great danger of our lives, determined, if any attempt should be made
+upon us, to sell them as dearly as we could&mdash;Umslopogaas announcing his
+fixed intention of committing sacrilege on the person of Agon, the High Priest,
+by splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas. From where we stood we could perceive
+that an immense multitude were pouring into the temple, evidently in
+expectation of some unusual event, and I could not help fearing that we had to
+do with it. And here I may explain that every day, when the sunlight falls upon
+the central altar, and the trumpets sound, a burnt sacrifice is offered to the
+Sun, consisting generally of the carcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of
+fruit or corn. This event comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly
+at that hour, but as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line,
+although&mdash;being so high above the sea it is very temperate&mdash;midday
+and the falling of the sunlight on the altar were generally simultaneous. Today
+the sacrifice was to take place at about eight minutes past twelve.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just at twelve o&rsquo;clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, and the
+officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected to advance, which we
+did with the best grace that we could muster, all except Alphonse, whose
+irrepressible teeth instantly began to chatter. In a few seconds we were out of
+the court and looking at a vast sea of human faces stretching away to the
+farthest limits of the great circle, all straining to catch a glimpse of the
+mysterious strangers who had committed sacrilege; the first strangers, mind
+you, who, to the knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis
+since such time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd that went echoing away
+up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush of excitement grow on the
+thousands of faces, like a pink light on a stretch of pale cloud, and a very
+curious effect it was. On we passed down a lane cut through the heart of the
+human mass, till presently we stood upon the brazen patch of flooring to the
+east of the central altar, and immediately facing it. For some thirty feet
+around the golden-winged figures the space was roped off, and the multitudes
+stood outside the ropes. Within were a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured
+priests holding long golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front
+of us was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap upon his head.
+His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage. We took our stand upon
+the brazen space, little knowing what was prepared for us beneath, but I
+noticed a curious hissing sound proceeding apparently from the floor for which
+I could not account. Then came a pause, and I looked around to see if there was
+any sign of the two Queens, Nyleptha and Sorais, but they were not there. To
+the right of us, however, was a bare space that I guessed was reserved for
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high up in the
+dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long lane, leading
+to the open space to our right, we saw the two Queens walking side by side.
+Behind them were some nobles of the Court, among whom I recognized the great
+lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of about fifty guards. These last I
+was very glad to see. Presently they had all arrived and taken their stand, the
+two Queens in the front, the nobles to the right and left, and the guards in a
+double semicircle behind them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caught my eye; it seemed
+to me that there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it narrowly. From my
+eye it travelled down to the brazen flooring, on the outer edge of which we
+stood. Then followed a slight and almost imperceptible sidelong movement of the
+head. I did not understand it, and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she
+meant us to move back off the brazen floor. One more glance and I was sure of
+it&mdash;there was danger in standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one
+side of me, Umslopogaas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straight before me,
+I whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English, to draw slowly back
+inch by inch till half their feet were resting on the marble flooring where the
+brass ceased. Sir Henry whispered on to Good and Alphonse, and slowly, very
+very slowly, we shifted backwards; so slowly that nobody, except Nyleptha and
+Sorais, who saw everything, seemed to notice the movement. Then I glanced again
+at Nyleptha, and saw that, by an almost imperceptible nod, she indicated
+approval. All the while Agon&rsquo;s eyes were fixed upon the altar before him
+apparently in an ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small
+of his back in another sort of ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and
+in a solemn and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for
+convenience&rsquo; sake I append a rough, a <i>very</i> rough, translation
+here, though, of course, I did not then comprehend its meaning. It was an
+invocation to the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof!<br />
+Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird;<br />
+The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness,<br />
+Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star,<br />
+The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire;<br />
+The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted.<br />
+She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes,<br />
+And stretches her pale hands to the East.<br />
+<br />
+Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light;<br />
+The Earth seeth and lifts herself. She looks out from beneath<br />
+the hollow of her hand.<br />
+Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun,<br />
+They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up.<br />
+They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones;<br />
+Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night;<br />
+They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man,<br />
+And behold! Thy glory comes, oh Sun!<br />
+<br />
+Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire.<br />
+The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o&rsquo;er them as a
+chariot.<br />
+The Earth is thy bride. Thou dost embrace her and<br />
+she brings forth children;<br />
+Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase.<br />
+Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun.<br />
+The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness;<br />
+The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength.<br />
+Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!<br />
+<br />
+When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face;<br />
+Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows.<br />
+Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed;<br />
+They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder:<br />
+They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain;<br />
+They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing.<br />
+The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale;<br />
+The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place<br />
+When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!<br />
+<br />
+Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour&mdash;<br />
+Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror?<br />
+When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending?<br />
+Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit.<a href="#fn-17" name="fnref-17" id="fnref-17"><sup>[17]</sup></a><br />
+None did place Thee on high, for Thou wast the Beginning.<br />
+Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten;<br />
+Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal.<br />
+Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and<br />
+measurest out the centuries.<br />
+Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-17" id="fn-17"></a> <a href="#fnref-17">[17]</a>
+This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions to be found in the
+Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independent of the material splendour
+of the orb they worship. &ldquo;<i>Ptia</i>&rdquo;, the word used here, has a
+very indeterminate meaning, and signifies <i>essence, vital principle,
+spirit</i>, or even <i>God</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough thing after
+going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive in the original; and
+then, after a moment&rsquo;s pause, he glanced up towards the funnel-sloped
+opening in the dome and added&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened. Down from on high
+flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving the twilight like a sword of
+fire. Full upon the closed petals it fell and ran shimmering down their golden
+sides, and then the glorious flower opened as though beneath the bright
+influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals fell wide and revealed the
+golden altar on which the fire ever burns, the priests blew a blast upon the
+trumpets, and from all the people there rose a shout of praise that beat
+against the domed roof and came echoing down the marble walls. And now the
+flower altar was open, and the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred
+flame and beat it down, so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow
+recesses whence it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes of the trumpets
+rolled out once more. Again the old priest flung up his hands and called
+aloud&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more I caught Nyleptha&rsquo;s eye; it was fixed upon the brazen flooring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look out,&rdquo; I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bend
+forward and touch something on the altar. As he did so, the great white sea of
+faces around us turned red and then white again, and a deep breath went up like
+a universal sigh. Nyleptha leant forward, and with an involuntary movement
+covered her eyes with her hand. Sorais turned and whispered to the officer of
+the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the whole of the brazen
+flooring slid from before our feet, and there in its place was suddenly
+revealed a smooth marble shaft terminating in a most awful raging furnace
+beneath the altar, big enough and hot enough to heat the iron stern-post of a
+man-of-war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched Alphonse, who
+was paralysed with fear, and would have fallen into the fiery furnace which had
+been prepared for us, had not Sir Henry caught him in his strong hand as he was
+vanishing and dragged him back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got back to back,
+Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle in his attempts to take
+shelter under our legs. We all had our revolvers on&mdash;for though we had
+been politely disarmed of our guns on leaving the palace, of course these
+people did not know what a revolver was. Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of
+which no effort had been made to deprive him, and now he whirled it round his
+head and sent his piercing Zulu war-shout echoing up the marble walls in fine
+defiant fashion. Next second, the priests, baffled of their prey, had drawn
+swords from beneath their white robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a
+stag at bay. I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or be lost,
+so as the first man came bounding along&mdash;and a great tall fellow he
+was&mdash;I sent a heavy revolver ball through him, and down he fell at the
+mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking frantically, into the fiery gulf that
+had been prepared for us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect of the pistol
+shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests halted, paralysed and
+dismayed, and before they could come on again Sorais had called out something,
+and we, together with the two Queens and most of the courtiers, were being
+surrounded with a wall of armed men. In a moment it was done, and still the
+priests hesitated, and the people hung in the balance like a herd of startled
+buck as it were, making no sign one way or the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had finished him,
+and a great silence fell upon the place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face of a devil.
+&ldquo;Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,&rdquo; he cried to the Queens.
+&ldquo;Has not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers, and would ye, as
+Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over evildoers? Are not the creatures
+sacred to the Sun dead? And is not a priest of the Sun also dead, but now slain
+by the magic of these strangers, who come as the winds out of heaven, whence we
+know not, and who are what we know not? Beware, oh Queens, how ye tamper with
+the great majesty of the God, even before His high altar! There is a Power that
+is more than your power; there is a Justice that is higher than your justice.
+Beware how ye lift an impious hand against it! Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,
+oh Queens.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that always seemed to me to
+have a suspicion of mockery about them, however serious the theme: &ldquo;Oh,
+Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy desire, and thou hast spoken truth. But
+it is thou who wouldst lift an impious hand against the justice of thy God.
+Bethink thee the midday sacrifice is accomplished; the Sun hath claimed his
+priest as a sacrifice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bethink thee what are these men? They are strangers found floating on
+the bosom of a lake. Who brought them here? How came they here? How know you
+that they also are not servants of the Sun? Is this the hospitality that ye
+would have our nation show to those whom chance brings to them, to throw them
+to the flames? Shame on you! Shame on you! What is hospitality? To receive the
+stranger and show him favour. To bind up his wounds, and find a pillow for his
+head, and food for him to eat. But thy pillow is the fiery furnace, and thy
+food the hot savour of the flame. Shame on thee, I say!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the multitude, and
+seeing that it was favourable, changed her tone from one of remonstrance to one
+of command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ho! place there,&rdquo; she cried; &ldquo;place, I say; make way for the
+Queens, and those whom the Queens cover with their &lsquo;kaf&rsquo;
+(mantle).&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And if I refuse, oh Queen?&rdquo; said Agon between his teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then will I cut a path with my guards,&rdquo; was the proud answer;
+&ldquo;ay, even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodies of thy
+priests.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agon turned livid with baffled fury. He glanced at the people as though
+meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly that their sympathies were all
+the other way. The Zu-Vendi are a very curious and sociable people, and great
+as was their sense of the enormity that we had committed in shooting the sacred
+hippopotami, they did not like the idea of the only real live strangers they
+had seen or heard of being consigned to a fiery furnace, thereby putting an end
+for ever to their chance of extracting knowledge and information from, and
+gossiping about us. Agon saw this and hesitated, and then for the first time
+Nyleptha spoke in her soft sweet voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bethink thee, Agon,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;as my sister Queen has said,
+these men may also be servants of the Sun. For themselves they cannot speak,
+for their tongues are tied. Let the matter be adjourned till such time as they
+have learnt our language. Who can be condemned without a hearing? When these
+men can plead for themselves, then it will be time to put them to the
+proof.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive old priest took it,
+little as he liked it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So be it, oh Queens,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Let the men go in peace, and
+when they have learnt our tongue then let them speak. And I, even I, will make
+humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence fall on the land by cause of
+the sacrilege.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in another minute we
+were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact substance of what
+had passed, and how hardly our lives had been wrung out of the cruel grip of
+the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in the face of which even the Queens were practically
+powerless. Had it not been for their strenuous efforts to protect us we should
+have been slain even before we set foot in the Temple of the Sun. The attempt
+to drop us bodily into the fiery pit as an offering was a last artifice to
+attain this end when several others quite unsuspected by us had already failed.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+SORAIS&rsquo; SONG</h2>
+
+<p>
+After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to our quarters in
+the palace and had a very good time. The two Queens, the nobles and the people
+vied with each other in doing us honour and showering gifts upon us. As for
+that painful little incident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we
+were quite content to leave it. Every day deputations and individuals waited on
+us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts, and our instruments,
+especially our watches, with which they were much delighted. In short, we
+became quite the rage, so much so that some of the fashionable young swells
+among the Zu-Vendi began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir
+Henry&rsquo;s shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us and,
+as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion. This deputation
+seemed somehow to be a different class to those who generally came to visit us.
+They were little insignificant men of an excessively polite, not to say
+servile, demeanour; and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with
+observing the details of Good&rsquo;s full-dress uniform, of which they took
+copious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at the time, not
+suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading tailors of Milosis. A
+fortnight afterwards, however, when on attending court as usual he had the
+pleasure of seeing some seven or eight Zu-Vendi &ldquo;mashers&rdquo; arrayed
+in all the glory of a very fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed
+his mind. I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust. It was
+after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because our clothes were wearing
+out and had to be saved up, that we resolved to adopt the native dress; and a
+very comfortable one we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked
+sufficiently ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas would have
+none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce old Zulu made him
+a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim and naked as his own battleaxe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made very good
+progress. On the morning following our adventure in the temple, three grave and
+reverend signiors presented themselves armed with manuscript books, ink-horns
+and feather pens, and indicated that they had been sent to teach us. So, with
+the exception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will, doing four hours a
+day. As for Umslopogaas, he would have none of that either. He did not wish to
+learn that &ldquo;woman&rsquo;s talk&rdquo;, not he; and when one of the
+teachers advanced on him with a book and an ink-horn and waved them before him
+in a mild persuasive way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the
+offertory bag under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang up
+with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes of our learned
+friend, and there was an end of the attempt to teach <i>him</i> Zu-Vendi.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more and more
+interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were given up to recreation.
+Sometimes we made trips, notably one to the gold mines and another to the
+marble quarries both of which I wish I had space and time to describe; and
+sometimes we went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose, and a
+very exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agricultural enclosures
+and our horses were magnificent. This is not to be wondered at, seeing that the
+royal stables were at our command, in addition to which we had four splendid
+saddle horses given to us by Nyleptha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great favour among the
+Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a species of partridge which is
+remarkable for the swiftness and strength of its flight. When attacked by the
+hawk this bird appears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flies
+high into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport. I have seen one of these
+partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed by the hawk. Still better
+sport is offered by a variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock,
+which is plentiful in this country, and which is flown at with a very small,
+agile, and highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging of the
+great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and movements of the
+red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful one. Another variety of the same
+amusement is the hunting of a very small species of antelope with trained
+eagles; and it certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and
+soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and then suddenly
+come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some cowering buck that is hidden in
+a patch of grass from everything but that piercing eye. Still finer is the
+spectacle when the eagle takes the buck running.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of the great
+lords&rsquo; beautiful fortified places, and the villages clustering beneath
+their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields and well-kept park-like
+grounds, with such timber in them as filled me with delight, for I do love a
+good tree. There it stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very
+type of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head to the winter
+storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices when the spring has come again!
+How grand its voice is, too, when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian
+harps cannot equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day
+it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus passionless, and
+yet full of life, it endures through the centuries, come storm, come shine,
+drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as the slow
+years roll by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay. And so on
+and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs, dynasties&mdash;all
+save the landscape it adorns and human nature&mdash;till the appointed day when
+the wind wins the long battle and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay
+puts the last stroke to his fungus-fingered work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself to dine, or
+rather sup, with their Majesties&mdash;not every night, indeed, but about three
+or four times a week, whenever they had not much company, or the affairs of
+state would allow of it. And I am bound to say that those little suppers were
+quite the most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with. How
+true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always the most simple and
+kindly. It is from your half-and-half sort of people that you get pomposity and
+vulgarity, the difference between the two being very much what one sees every
+day in England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family, and
+the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and &ldquo;take the place&rdquo;.
+I really think that Nyleptha&rsquo;s greatest charm is her sweet simplicity,
+and her kindly genuine interest even in little things. She is the simplest
+woman I ever knew, and where her passions are not involved, one of the
+sweetest; but she can look queenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as
+any savage too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the first time was
+sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It came about in this
+way&mdash;all through Good&rsquo;s weakness for ladies&rsquo; society. When we
+had been employed for some three months in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master
+Good that he was getting rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the
+honour to lead us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without saying
+a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiar fact, but that we
+could not make any real progress in the deeper intricacies of a foreign
+language unless we were taught by ladies&mdash;young ladies, he was careful to
+explain. In his own country, he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very
+best-looking and most charming girls who could be found to instruct any
+strangers who happened to come that way, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There was, they admitted,
+reason in what he said, since the contemplation of the beautiful, as their
+philosophy taught, induced a certain porosity of mind similar to that produced
+upon the physical body by the healthful influences of sun and air. Consequently
+it was probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little faster if
+suitable teachers could be found. Another thing was that, as the female sex was
+naturally loquacious, good practice would be gained in the <i>viva voce</i>
+department of our studies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen departed,
+assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our wishes in every way,
+and that, if possible, our views should be met.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I trust and believe
+Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where we were accustomed to carry on our
+studies the following morning, we found, instead of our usual venerable tutors,
+three of the best-looking young women whom Milosis could produce&mdash;and that
+is saying a good deal&mdash;who blushed and smiled and curtseyed, and gave us
+to understand that they were there to carry on our instruction. Then Good, as
+we gazed at one another in bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it
+had slipped his memory before&mdash;but the old gentlemen had told him, on the
+previous evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
+should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and appealed to Sir
+Henry for advice in such a crisis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you see the ladies are here, ain&rsquo;t
+they? If we sent them away, don&rsquo;t you think it might hurt their feelings,
+eh? One doesn&rsquo;t like to be rough, you see; and they look regular
+<i>blues</i>, don&rsquo;t they, eh?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest of the
+three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything went very well: the
+young ladies were certainly very clever, and they only smiled when we
+blundered. I never saw Good so attentive to his books before, and even Sir
+Henry appeared to tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo;
+thought I, &ldquo;will it always be thus?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed with
+questions about our native country, what the ladies were like there, etc., all
+of which we answered as best as we could in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring
+his teacher that her loveliness was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the
+moon, to which she replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plain
+teaching woman and nothing else, and that it was not kind &ldquo;to deceive a
+poor girl so&rdquo;. Then we had a little singing that was really charming, so
+natural and unaffected. The Zu-Vendi love-songs are most touching. On the third
+day we were all quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love affairs
+to his fair teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his own.
+I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian art, and never
+saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to drop a specimen of the cockroach
+tribe down my back, whilst in the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared,
+so far as I could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the great
+educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq., though in a very
+modified or rather spiritualized form. The lady softly repeated the Zu-Vendi
+word for &ldquo;hand&rdquo;, and he took hers; &ldquo;eyes&rdquo;, and he gazed
+deep into her brown orbs; &ldquo;lips&rdquo;, and&mdash;but just at that moment
+<i>my</i> young lady dropped the cockroach down my back and ran away laughing.
+Now if there is one thing I loathe more than another it is cockroaches, and
+moved quite beyond myself, and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the
+cushion she had been sitting on and threw it after her. Imagine then my
+shame&mdash;my horror, and my distress&mdash;when the door opened, and,
+attended by two guards only, in walked <i>Nyleptha</i>. The cushion could not
+be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the guards on the head), but I
+instantly and ineffectually tried to look as though I had not thrown it. Good
+ceased his sighing, and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and
+Sir Henry whistled and looked silly. As for the poor girls, they were utterly
+dumbfounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower even above
+that of the tall guards, and her face went first red, and then pale as death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Guards,&rdquo; she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the
+fair but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, &ldquo;slay me that
+woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men hesitated, as well they might.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will ye do my bidding,&rdquo; she said again in the same voice,
+&ldquo;or will ye not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this time Sir Henry
+had recovered himself, and saw that the comedy was likely to turn into a
+tragedy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stand back,&rdquo; he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time
+getting in front of the terrified girl. &ldquo;Shame on thee,
+Nyleptha&mdash;shame! Thou shalt not kill her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou couldst
+hardly do less in honour,&rdquo; answered the infuriated Queen; &ldquo;but she
+shall die&mdash;she shall die,&rdquo; and she stamped her little foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;then will I die with her. I am
+thy servant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.&rdquo; And he bowed
+towards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I could wish to slay thee too,&rdquo; she answered; &ldquo;for thou dost
+make a mock of me;&rdquo; and then feeling that she was mastered, and I suppose
+not knowing what else to do, she burst into such a storm of tears and looked so
+royally lovely in her passionate distress, that, old as I am, I must say I
+envied Curtis his task of supporting her. It was rather odd to see him holding
+her in his arms considering what had just passed&mdash;a thought that seemed to
+occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself free and went, leaving us
+all much disturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message to the girls that
+they were, on pain of death, to leave the city and return to their homes in the
+country, and that no further harm would come to them; and accordingly they
+went, one of them remarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and
+that it was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little serviceable
+Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and, overlooking the cockroach, I
+made her a present of my favourite lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she
+went away. After that our former masters resumed their course of instruction,
+needless to say to my great relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal supper table, we
+found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache. That headache lasted for
+three whole days; but on the fourth she was present at supper as usual, and
+with the most gracious and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to
+the table. No allusion was made to the little affair described above beyond her
+saying, with a charming air of innocence, that when she came to see us at our
+studies the other day she had been seized with a giddiness from which she had
+only now recovered. She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was
+common to her, that it was the sight of people working so hard which had
+affected her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not look quite
+herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those quick glances of hers at
+him, which if he had the feelings of a man must have gone through him like a
+knife, and the subject dropped entirely. Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha
+condescended to put us through an examination to see what we had learnt, and to
+express herself well satisfied with the results. Indeed, she proceeded to give
+us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her own account, and very interesting we
+found it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and laughed, Sorais
+would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and look at us and read us all like
+a book, only from time to time saying a few words, and smiling that quick
+ominous smile of hers which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark
+cloud than anything else. And as near to her as he dared would sit Good,
+worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting seriously devoted
+to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking personally, I felt terribly afraid. I
+watched her keenly, and soon I found out that for all her apparent
+impassibility she was at heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I
+found out, and the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she
+<i>also</i> was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not be
+sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman; but I noticed one or
+two little things, and, as elephant hunters know, dried grass shows which way
+the wind has set.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had all attained
+to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi language, which is an easy one
+to learn. And as the time went on we became great favourites with the people,
+and even with the courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness,
+because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show them how to make
+glass, which was a national want, and also, by the help of a twenty-year
+almanac that we had with us, to predict various heavenly combinations which
+were quite unsuspected by the native astronomers. We even succeeded in
+demonstrating the principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned
+men, who were filled with amazement; and several other things of the same sort
+we did. And so it came about that the people made up their minds that we must
+on no account be allowed to go out of the country (which indeed was an apparent
+impossibility even if we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour
+and made officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent
+quarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was asked upon
+questions of national policy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on the horizon.
+We had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotami, but it is not on
+that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of
+the great and powerful priesthood headed by Agon appeased. On the contrary, it
+was burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed, and what
+had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright direct hatred born of
+jealousy. Hitherto, the priests had been the wise men of the land, and were on
+this account, as well as from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar
+veneration. But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange
+inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow to this state
+of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went far towards destroying the
+priestly prestige. A still worse affront to them, however, was the favour with
+which we were regarded, and the trust that was reposed in us. All these things
+tended to make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan, the most
+powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of the
+great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to us had at best been but thinly
+veiled, and which now threatened to break out into open flame. Nasta had for
+some years been a candidate for Nyleptha&rsquo;s hand in marriage, and when we
+appeared on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there were
+still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means out of his reach. But
+now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction, and
+he was not slow to guess the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his
+attention to Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain
+side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on
+him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the thirty thousand wild swordsmen
+who would pour down at his bidding through the northern mountain passes, and no
+doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with our heads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt and to demand
+the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the formal annual ceremony of the
+signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the Queens during the year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and with a
+little trembling of the voice herself informed us of it as we sat at supper on
+the night preceding the great ceremony of the law-giving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed his
+agitation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the great
+Lord?&rdquo; asked I, in a jesting manner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Answer, Macumazahn&rdquo; (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names
+in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder. &ldquo;Nay,
+I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the wooer has thirty thousand
+swords wherewith to urge his love?&rdquo; And from under her long lashes she
+glanced at Curtis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
+&ldquo;Quatermain, a word, quick,&rdquo; said Sir Henry to me. &ldquo;Listen. I
+have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love Nyleptha. What
+am I to do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into consideration,
+and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the wisest to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Now is your
+time, now or never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her, and whisper
+to her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue at the end of the great
+hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her hands before her,
+and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way off was Sorais
+talking to Good in her slow measured tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according to their
+habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir Henry had had no chance of saying a
+word in private: indeed, though we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no
+means easy to see them alone. I racked my brains, and at last an idea came to
+me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will the Queen be pleased,&rdquo; I said, bowing low before Sorais,
+&ldquo;to sing to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh
+Lady of the Night&rdquo; (Sorais&rsquo; favourite name among the people).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart, yet
+will I sing if it pleases thee,&rdquo; she answered; and she rose and went a
+few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither, and struck
+a few wandering chords.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her rounded voice
+rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so eerie and sad a refrain, that
+it made the very blood stand still. Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed
+to melt far away, and then to grow again and travel on, laden with all the
+sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost. It was a marvellous song,
+but I had not time to listen to it properly. However, I got the words of it
+afterwards, and here is a translation of its burden, so far as it admits of
+being translated at all.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+SORAIS&rsquo; SONG<br />
+<br />
+As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,<br />
+As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death&rsquo;s sickle is swinging,<br />
+So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.<br />
+<br />
+As the nightingale&rsquo;s song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,<br />
+As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,<br />
+So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.<br />
+<br />
+As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,<br />
+As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending,<br />
+So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.<br />
+<br />
+So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,<br />
+A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,<br />
+Till Death&rsquo;s dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o&rsquo;ertake
+us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Refrain
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Oh, the world is fair at the dawning&mdash;dawning&mdash;dawning,<br />
+But the red sun sinks in blood&mdash;the red sun sinks in blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I only wish that I could write down the music too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, Curtis, now,&rdquo; I whispered, when she began the second verse,
+and turned my back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nyleptha,&rdquo; he said&mdash;for my nerves were so much on the stretch
+that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais&rsquo;
+divine notes&mdash;&ldquo;Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this night, upon my
+life I must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can I speak with thee?&rdquo; she answered, looking fixedly before
+her; &ldquo;Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and
+watched.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas in the
+great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can pass in. Macumazahn will
+be there to keep guard, and with him the Zulu. Oh come, my Queen, deny me
+not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is not seemly,&rdquo; she murmured, &ldquo;and tomorrow&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and Sorais
+slowly turned her round.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will be there,&rdquo; said Nyleptha, hurriedly; &ldquo;on thy life see
+that thou fail me not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+BEFORE THE STATUE</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was night&mdash;dead night&mdash;and the silence lay on the Frowning City
+like a cloud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself threaded our
+way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the great Throne Chamber.
+Once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge of the sentry. I gave the
+countersign, and the man grounded his spear and let us pass. Also we were
+officers of the Queens&rsquo; bodyguard, and in that capacity had a right to
+come and go unquestioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even when we
+had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty walls, vibrating
+faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof, like ghosts of the
+footsteps of dead men haunting the place that once they trod.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw great
+pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings in the walls,
+that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the marble floor, like white
+flowers on a coffin. One of these silver arrows fell upon the statue of the
+sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bent over him, illumining it, and a
+small circle round it, with a soft clear light, reminding me of that with which
+Catholics illumine the altars of their cathedrals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I close
+together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could only just
+make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the cold marble,
+but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick catching breath. Then
+from far away there came a little sound as though the statues that lined the
+walls were whispering to each other some message of the ages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the faint sweep of a lady&rsquo;s dress. Nearer it grew, and nearer yet.
+We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and even hear the
+soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw the black silhouette of
+the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha was before us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the circle of
+the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her white bosom heaved
+beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf was loosely thrown, partially
+shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering it even more lovely; for beauty,
+dependent as it is to a certain extent upon the imagination, is never so
+beautiful as when it is half hid. There she stood radiant but half doubting,
+stately and yet so sweet. It was but a moment, but I then and there fell in
+love with her myself, and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she
+looked more like an angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal
+woman. Low we bowed before her, and then she spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have come,&rdquo; she whispered, &ldquo;but it was at great risk. Ye
+know not how I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those
+great eyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me too. Oh,
+let him be careful!&rdquo; and she stamped her foot. &ldquo;Let him be careful;
+I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too, and can
+still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving him my hand I
+take his head,&rdquo; and she ended the outburst with a little sob, and then
+smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu&rdquo; (Curtis had taught
+her to call him so). &ldquo;Doubtless it is about business of the State, for I
+know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare and my
+people&rsquo;s. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I greatly fear
+the dark alone,&rdquo; and again she laughed and gave him a glance from her
+grey eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets &ldquo;of the
+State&rdquo; should not be made public property; but she would not let me go
+far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she feared
+surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard all that
+passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou knowest, Nyleptha,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, &ldquo;that it was for
+none of these things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place.
+Nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for&mdash;I love
+thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change. The
+coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light of love
+which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marble angel overhead.
+I could not help thinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinct
+which made the long dead Rademas limn, in the features of the angel of his
+inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of his own descendant. Sir Henry, also,
+must have observed and been struck by the likeness, for, catching the look upon
+Nyleptha&rsquo;s face, he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and
+then back again at his beloved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou sayest thou dost love me,&rdquo; she said in a low voice,
+&ldquo;and thy voice rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the
+truth?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Though,&rdquo; she went on with proud humility, and in the stately third
+person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, &ldquo;I be as nothing in the
+eyes of my lord,&rdquo; and she curtseyed towards him, &ldquo;who comes from
+among a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am I a
+queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred thousand
+spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down the path of the
+bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my
+lord,&rdquo; and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed again, &ldquo;yet
+here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever since I was a woman the
+great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel concerning me, as though
+forsooth,&rdquo; she added with a flash of passion, &ldquo;I were a deer to be
+pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to be sold to the highest bidder.
+Let my lord pardon me if I weary my lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say
+that he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say
+that though my love and my hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they
+all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and
+modifying her dignified mode of address. &ldquo;Oh, how can I know that thou
+lovest but me? How can I know that thou wilt not weary of me and seek thine own
+place again, leaving me desolate? Who is there to tell me but that thou lovest
+some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but who yet draws breath
+beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight? Tell me <i>how</i> am I to
+know?&rdquo; And she clasped her hands and stretched them out towards him and
+looked appealingly into his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nyleptha,&rdquo; answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of
+speech; &ldquo;I have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how
+much I love thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not
+that I have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say that I
+love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love thee now and
+shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe beyond my
+death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music to my ear, and thy
+touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art there the world is
+beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as though the light was dead. Oh,
+Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and now for thy dear sake I will forget
+my people and my father&rsquo;s house, yea, I renounce them all. By thy side
+will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side will I die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily, and
+said never a word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look!&rdquo; he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight
+played so brightly. &ldquo;Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon
+the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soul
+flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch of the
+fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast awakened my soul and
+called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine, but <i>thine</i>
+and thine only. There is no more for me to say; in thy hands is my life.&rdquo;
+And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue, looking very pale, and
+his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a god.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all alight
+with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though to read his
+very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly as a silver bell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be the day
+for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I have believed a lie.
+And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here from far to steal my
+heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand upon thy hand thus, and thus I,
+whose lips have never kissed before, do kiss thee on the brow; and now by my
+hand and by that first and holy kiss, ay, by my people&rsquo;s weal and by my
+throne that like enough I shall lose for thee&mdash;by the name of my high
+House, by the sacred Stone and by the eternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that
+for thee will I live and die. And I swear that I will love thee and thee only
+till death, ay, and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy
+will shall be my will, and thy ways my ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; I,
+who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;&rdquo;
+and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on the cold
+marble before him. And after that I really do not know, for I could stand it no
+longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a little of old
+Umslopogaas&rsquo; society, leaving them to settle it their own way, and a very
+long time they were about it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveying the
+scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I suppose it is because I am
+getting old, but I don&rsquo;t think that I shall ever learn to understand the
+ways of you white people. Look there now, I pray thee, they are a pretty pair
+of doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn? He wants a wife, and she
+wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down<a href="#fn-18" name="fnref-18" id="fnref-18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>
+like a man and have done with it? It would save a deal of trouble, and we
+should have had our night&rsquo;s sleep. But there they go, talk, talk, talk,
+and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-18" id="fn-18"></a> <a href="#fnref-18">[18]</a>
+Alluding to the Zulu custom.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the &ldquo;pair of doves&rdquo; came
+strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and Nyleptha remarking
+calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on the marble. Then, for she
+was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand and said that I was &ldquo;her
+Lord&rsquo;s&rdquo; dear friend, and therefore most dear to her&mdash;not a
+word for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas&rsquo; axe, and
+examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that he might soon
+have cause to use it in defence of her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance at her
+lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtis asked
+me jocularly what I was thinking about.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am wondering,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;on what principle it is
+arranged that some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with
+them, while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and I am also
+wondering how many brave men&rsquo;s lives this night&rsquo;s work will
+cost.&rdquo; It was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings
+do not evaporate with age, and I could not help being a little jealous of my
+old friend&rsquo;s luck. Vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence, and
+positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about the mouth,
+slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond, till they flowed
+over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet smiles go. The fact of the
+matter, however, was that not only was Good rejoiced about the thing on its own
+merits but also for personal reasons. He adored Sorais quite as earnestly as
+Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and his adoration had not altogether prospered.
+Indeed, it had seemed to him and to me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen
+favoured Curtis in her own curious inscrutable way much more than Good.
+Therefore it was a relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was
+permanently and satisfactorily attached in another direction. His face fell a
+little, however, when he was told that the whole thing was to be kept as secret
+as the dead, above all from Sorais for the present, inasmuch as the political
+convulsion which would follow such an announcement at the moment would be
+altogether too great to face and would very possibly, if prematurely made,
+shake Nyleptha from her throne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could not help smiling
+to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting that, if walls
+could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in her
+blazoned &ldquo;kaf&rdquo; or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when
+Sir Henry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an officer of
+her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely acknowledged his
+salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly aside. It was a very
+large Court, for not only did the signing of the laws attract many outside of
+those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour that Nasta was going to
+publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriage had gone abroad, with the result
+that the great hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. There were our friends
+the priests in force, headed by Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye;
+and a most imposing band they were, with their long white embroidered robes
+girt with a golden chain from which hung the fish-like scales. There, too, were
+a number of the lords, each with a band of brilliantly attired attendants, and
+prominent among them was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and
+looking unusually pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight, especially
+when the officer after having read out each law handed them to the Queens to
+sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the Queens&rsquo; guard grounded
+their spears with a crash in salute. This reading and signing of the laws took
+a long time, but at length it came to an end, the last one reciting that
+&ldquo;whereas distinguished strangers, etc.&rdquo;, and proceeding to confer
+on the three of us the rank of &ldquo;lords&rdquo;, together with certain
+military commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen. When it was read the
+trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual, but I saw some of the
+lords turn and whisper to each other, while Nasta ground his teeth. They did
+not like the favour that was shown to us, which under all the circumstances was
+not perhaps unnatural.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly, though
+with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of the Queen Nyleptha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the
+&ldquo;well-beloved lord&rdquo; to speak on, whereon in a few straightforward
+soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest Agon took up the
+tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out the many
+advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate the kingdom, for
+Nasta&rsquo;s dominions, of which he was virtually king, were to Zu-Vendis much
+what Scotland used to be to England; how it would gratify the wild mountaineers
+and be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta was a famous general; how it would
+set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and would gain the blessing and approval
+of the &ldquo;Sun&rdquo;, <i>i.e.</i>, of the office of the High Priest, and so
+on. Many of his arguments were undoubtedly valid, and there was, looking at it
+from a political point of view, everything to be said for the marriage. But
+unfortunately it is difficult to play the game of politics with the persons of
+young and lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies of themselves on a
+chessboard. Nyleptha&rsquo;s face, while Agon spouted away, was a perfect
+study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it set like a stone, and her
+eyes began to flash ominously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Before she did so,
+however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficiently loud for me
+to catch what she said, &ldquo;Bethink thee well, my sister, ere thou dost
+speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy words.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais leant back again
+and listened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,&rdquo; she said,
+&ldquo;that my poor hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that
+Agon here should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the Sun upon my
+union. Methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere the bride
+had said her say. Nasta, I thank thee, and I will bethink me of thy words, but
+now as yet I have no mind for marriage, that is a cup of which none know the
+taste until they begin to drink it. Again I thank thee, Nasta,&rdquo; and she
+made as though she would rise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The great lord&rsquo;s face turned almost as black as his beard with fury, for
+he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,&rdquo; he said,
+restraining himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful,
+&ldquo;my heart shall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon,
+namely, the royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north
+till such time as the Queen shall say my suit nay or yea. Mayhap,&rdquo; he
+added, with a sneer, &ldquo;the Queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to
+bring with her these stranger lords,&rdquo; and he scowled darkly towards us.
+&ldquo;It is but a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of
+mountaineers, and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout a
+welcome to her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was received in
+complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered it with spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my train, and
+for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bring two from
+the lowlands who call me Queen, and we will see which is the staunchest breed.
+Till then farewell.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly broke up in
+murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with a heavy heart foreseeing
+civil war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queen did not often
+meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the true relation in which
+they stood to each other to leak out; but do what they would, rumours as hard
+to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room, and yet quite as audible, began to
+hum round and round, and at last to settle on her throne.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+THE STORM BREAKS</h2>
+
+<p>
+And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but a cloud as large as
+a man&rsquo;s hand began to loom very black and big upon our horizon, namely,
+Sorais&rsquo; preference for Sir Henry. I saw the storm drawing nearer and
+nearer; and so, poor fellow, did he. The affection of so lovely and
+highly-placed a woman was not a thing that could in a general way be considered
+a calamity by any man, but, situated as Curtis was, it was a grievous burden to
+bear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it must be admitted,
+of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimes apt to visit on her
+lover&rsquo;s head her indignation at the marks of what Alphonse would have
+called the &ldquo;distinguished consideration&rdquo; with which her royal
+sister favoured him. Then the enforced secrecy of his relation to Nyleptha
+prevented Curtis from taking some opportunity of putting a stop, or trying to
+put a stop, to this false condition of affairs, by telling Sorais, in a casual
+but confidential way, that he was going to marry her sister. A third sting in
+Sir Henry&rsquo;s honey was that he knew that Good was honestly and sincerely
+attached to the ominous-looking but most attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed,
+poor Bougwan was wasting himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about
+her, his face getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick in it;
+while she, with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave him encouragement enough
+to keep him going, thinking, no doubt, that he might be useful as a
+stalking-horse. I tried to give him a hint, in as delicate a way as I could,
+but he flew into a huff and would not listen to me, so I was determined to let
+ill alone, for fear of making it worse. Poor Good, he really was very ludicrous
+in his distress, and went in for all sorts of absurdities, under the belief
+that he was advancing his suit. One of them was the writing&mdash;with the
+assistance of one of the grave and revered signiors who instructed us, and who,
+whatever may have been the measure of his erudition, did not understand how to
+scan a line&mdash;of a most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song, of which the
+continually recurring refrain was something about &ldquo;I will kiss thee; oh
+yes, I will kiss thee!&rdquo; Now among the Zu-Vendi it is a common and most
+harmless thing for young men to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do
+in the southern countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songs to
+them. The young men may or may not be serious; but no offence is meant and none
+is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank, who accept the whole thing as an
+English girl would a gracefully-turned compliment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that he would serenade
+Sorais, whose private apartments, together with those of her maidens, were
+exactly opposite our own, on the further side of a narrow courtyard which
+divided one section of the great palace from another. Accordingly, having armed
+himself with a native zither, on which, being an adept with the light guitar,
+he had easily learned to strum, he proceeded at midnight&mdash;the fashionable
+hour for this sort of caterwauling&mdash;to make night hideous with his amorous
+yells. I was fast asleep when they began, but they soon woke me up&mdash;for
+Good possesses a tremendous voice and has no notion of time&mdash;and I ran to
+my window-place to see what was the matter. And there, standing in the full
+moonlight in the courtyard, I perceived Good, adorned with an enormous ostrich
+feather head-dress and a flowing silken cloak, which it is the right thing to
+wear upon these occasions, and shouting out the abominable song which he and
+the old gentleman had evolved, to a jerky, jingling accompaniment. From the
+direction of the quarters of the maids of honour came a succession of faint
+sniggerings; but the apartments of Sorais herself&mdash;whom I devoutly pitied
+if she happened to be there&mdash;were silent as the grave. There was
+absolutely no end to that awful song, with its eternal &ldquo;I will kiss
+thee!&rdquo; and at last neither I nor Sir Henry, whom I had summoned to enjoy
+the sight, could stand it any longer; so, remembering the dear old story, I put
+my head to the window opening, and shouted, &ldquo;For Heaven&rsquo;s sake,
+Good, don&rsquo;t go on talking about it, but <i>kiss</i> her and let&rsquo;s
+all go to sleep!&rdquo; That choked him off, and we had no more serenading.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business. How deeply
+thankful we ought to be that even the most serious matters have generally a
+silver lining about them in the shape of a joke, if only people could see it.
+The sense of humour is a very valuable possession in life, and ought to be
+cultivated in the Board schools&mdash;especially in Scotland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, as is not uncommon
+in such cases, till at last things got very queer indeed. Evidently she was, by
+some strange perversity of mind, quite blinded to the true state of the case;
+and I, for one, greatly dreaded the moment of her awakening. Sorais was a
+dangerous woman to be mixed up with, either with or without one&rsquo;s
+consent. At last the evil moment came, as I saw it must come. One fine day,
+Good having gone out hawking, Sir Henry and I were sitting quietly talking over
+the situation, especially with reference to Sorais, when a Court messenger
+arrived with a written note, which we with some difficulty deciphered, and
+which was to the effect that &ldquo;the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance
+of the Lord Incubu in her private apartments, whither he would be conducted by
+the bearer&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh my word!&rdquo; groaned Sir Henry. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t you go instead,
+old fellow?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not if I know it,&rdquo; I said with vigour. &ldquo;I had rather face a
+wounded elephant with a shot-gun. Take care of your own business, my boy. If
+you will be so fascinating you must take the consequences. I would not be in
+your place for an empire.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school and the other
+boys came to console me,&rdquo; he said gloomily. &ldquo;What right has this
+Queen to command my attendance, I should like to know? I won&rsquo;t go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obey her, and she
+knows it. And after all it will soon be over.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just what they used to say,&rdquo; he said again. &ldquo;I
+only hope she won&rsquo;t put a knife into me. I believe that she is quite
+capable of it.&rdquo; And off he started very faintheartedly, and no wonder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minutes he returned,
+looking a good deal worse than when he went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Give me something to drink,&rdquo; he said hoarsely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the matter? Why if ever there was trouble there&rsquo;s trouble
+now. You know when I left you? Well, I was shown straight into Sorais&rsquo;
+private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and there she sat, quite alone,
+upon a silken couch at the end of the room, playing gently upon that zither of
+hers. I stood before her, and for a while she took no notice of me, but kept on
+playing and singing a little, and very sweet music it was. At last she looked
+up and smiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;So thou art come,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;I thought perchance
+thou hadst gone about the Queen Nyleptha&rsquo;s business. Thou art ever on her
+business, and I doubt not a good servant and a true.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive the
+Queen&rsquo;s word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated. It wearies me
+to look so high,&rsquo; and she made room for me beside her on the couch,
+placing herself with her back against the end, so as to have a view of my face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;It is not meet,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;that I should make myself
+equal with the Queen.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;I said be seated,&rsquo; was her answer, so I sat down, and she
+began to look at me with those dark eyes of hers. There she sat like an
+incarnate spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and when she did, very low,
+but all the while looking at me. There was a white flower in her black hair,
+and I tried to keep my eyes on it and count the petals, but it was of no use.
+At last, whether it was her gaze, or the perfume in her hair, or what I do not
+know, but I almost felt as though I was being mesmerized. At last she roused
+herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Incubu,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;lovest thou power?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Thou shalt have it,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Lovest thou
+wealth?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I said I liked wealth for what it brought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Thou shalt have it,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;And lovest thou
+beauty?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture, or
+something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and there was a pause. By
+this time my nerves were on such a stretch that I was shaking like a leaf. I
+knew that something awful was going to happen, but she held me under a kind of
+spell, and I could not help myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Incubu,&rsquo; she said at length, &lsquo;wouldst thou be a king?
+Listen, wouldst thou be a king? Behold, stranger, I am minded to make thee king
+of all Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night. Nay, peace and hear
+me. To no man among my people had I thus opened out my secret heart, but thou
+art an outlander and therefore I speak without shame, knowing all I have to
+offer and how hard it had been thee to ask. See, a crown lies at thy feet, my
+lord Incubu, and with that fortune a woman whom some have wished to woo. Now
+mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft shall thy words fall upon mine
+ears.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Oh Sorais,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;I pray thee speak not
+thus&rsquo;&mdash;you see I had not time to pick and choose my
+words&mdash;&lsquo;for this thing cannot be. I am betrothed to thy sister
+Nyleptha, oh Sorais, and I love her and her alone.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, and I looked up
+to see the results. When I spoke, Sorais&rsquo; face was hidden in her hands,
+and as my words reached her she slowly raised it, and I shrank back dismayed.
+It was ashy white, and her eyes were flaming. She rose to her feet and seemed
+to be choking, but the awful thing was that she was so quiet about it all. Once
+she looked at a side table, on which lay a dagger, and from it to me, as though
+she thought of killing me; but she did not take it up. At last she spoke one
+word, and one only&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;<i>Go!</i>&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and here I am. Give
+me another cup of wine, there&rsquo;s a good fellow, and tell me, what is to be
+done?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious. As one of the poets says,
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeed I feared the
+very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nyleptha had better be told of this at once,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;and
+perhaps I had better tell her; she might receive your account with
+suspicion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is captain of her guard tonight?&rdquo; I went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at. Don&rsquo;t
+look surprised. I don&rsquo;t think that her sister would stick at that. I
+suppose one must tell Good of what has happened.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;It would hurt his
+feelings, poor fellow! You see, he takes a lively personal interest in
+Sorais.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him.
+He will find out the truth soon enough. Now, you mark my words, Sorais will
+throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in the North there, and there
+will be such a war as has not been known in Zu-Vendis for centuries. Look
+there!&rdquo; and I pointed to two Court messengers, who were speeding away
+from the door of Sorais&rsquo; private apartments. &ldquo;Now follow me,&rdquo;
+and I ran up a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the roof of our
+quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over the palace wall. The
+first thing we saw was one of the messengers speeding towards the Temple,
+bearing, without any doubt, the Queen&rsquo;s word to the High Priest Agon, but
+for the other I searched in vain. Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding
+furiously through the northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized the
+other messenger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting at
+once, and will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her, my boy, and the
+blood will flow in rivers before the stain is washed away, and yours with it,
+if she can get hold of you. Well, I&rsquo;m off to Nyleptha. Just you stop
+where you are, old fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again.
+You&rsquo;ll need them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human nature
+in the rough for fifty years for nothing.&rdquo; And off I went accordingly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expecting Curtis, and
+was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured face instead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits not upon
+me? Say, is he sick?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I plunged into
+my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh, what a rage she flew into! It
+was a sight to see her, she looked so lovely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How darest thou come to me with such a tale?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It
+is a lie to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Pardon me, oh Queen,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I said that Sorais was
+making love to thy lord.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Spin me no spiders&rsquo; webs of words. Is not the thing the same
+thing? The one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes, and what matters
+it which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, I hate her&mdash;Sorais is a queen and
+my sister. She had not stooped so low had he not shown the way. Oh, truly hath
+the poet said that man is like a snake, whom to touch is poison, and whom none
+can hold.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread the
+poet. Nyleptha,&rdquo; I went on, &ldquo;thou knowest well that thy words are
+empty foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How darest thou?&rdquo; she broke in, stamping her foot. &ldquo;Hast my
+false lord sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou, stranger, that thou
+shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after this sort? How darest thou?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yea, I dare. Listen. The moments which thou dost waste in idle anger may
+well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives. Already Sorais&rsquo;
+horsemen go forth and call to arms. In three days&rsquo; time Nasta will rouse
+himself in his fastnesses like a lion in the evening, and his growling will be
+heard throughout the North. The &lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo; (Sorais) hath a
+sweet voice, and she will not sing in vain. Her banner will be borne from range
+to range and valley to valley, and warriors will spring up in its track like
+dust beneath a whirlwind; half the army will echo her war-cry; and in every
+town and hamlet of this wide land the priests will call out against the
+foreigner and will preach her cause as holy. I have spoken, oh Queen!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; and putting off the
+character of a lovely headstrong lady, with a rapidity and completeness that
+distinguished her, she put on that of a queen and a woman of business. The
+transformation was sudden but entire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn. Forgive me my folly. Ah, what a
+Queen I should be if only I had no heart! To be heartless&mdash;that is to
+conquer all. Passion is like the lightning, it is beautiful, and it links the
+earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war upon me. So be
+it. She shall not prevail against me. I, too, have my friends and my retainers.
+There are many, I say, who will shout &lsquo;Nyleptha!&rsquo; when my pennon
+runs up on peak and pinnacle, and the light of my beacon fires leaps tonight
+from crag to crag, bearing the message of my war. I will break her strength and
+scatter her armies. Eternal night shall be the portion of Sorais of the Night.
+Give me that parchment and the ink. So. Now summon the officer in the
+ante-room. He is a trusty man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-looking gentleman of the
+guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take this parchment,&rdquo; said Nyleptha; &ldquo;it is thy warrant; and
+guard every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of my sister Sorais, the
+&lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo;, and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. Let none come in
+and none go out, or thy life shall pay the cost.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man looked startled, but he merely said, &ldquo;The Queen&rsquo;s word be
+done,&rdquo; and departed. Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to Sir Henry, and
+presently he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable. I thought that another
+outburst was about to follow, but wonderful are the ways of woman; she said not
+a word about Sorais and his supposed inconstancy, greeting him with a friendly
+nod, and stating simply that she required his advice upon high matters. All the
+same there was a look in her eye, and a sort of suppressed energy in her manner
+towards him, that makes me think that she had not forgotten the affair, but was
+keeping it for a private occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reported that Sorais was
+<i>gone</i>. The bird had flown to the Temple, stating that she was going, as
+was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendi ladies of rank, to spend the night in
+meditation before the altar. We looked at each other significantly. The blow
+had fallen very soon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we set to work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters, and as much of
+the State affairs as was thought desirable was told to each, strict injunctions
+being given to them to get all their available force together. The same was
+done with such of the more powerful lords as Nyleptha knew she could rely on,
+several of whom left that very day for distant parts of the country to gather
+up their tribesmen and retainers. Sealed orders were dispatched to the rulers
+of far-off cities, and some twenty messengers were sent off before nightfall
+with instructions to ride early and late till they reached the distant chiefs
+to whom their letters were addressed: also many spies were set to work. All the
+afternoon and evening we laboured, assisted by some confidential scribes,
+Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind that astonished me, and it was
+eight o&rsquo;clock before we got back to our quarters. Here we heard from
+Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved because our non-return had spoilt his dinner
+(for he had turned cook again now), that Good had come back from his hawking
+and gone on duty. As instructions had already been given to the officer of the
+outer guard to double the sentries at the gate, and as we had no reason to fear
+any immediate danger, we did not think it worth while to hunt him up and tell
+him anything of what had passed, which at best was, under the peculiar
+circumstances of the case, one of those tasks that one prefers to postpone, so
+after swallowing our food we turned in to get some much-needed rest. Before we
+did so, however, it occurred to Curtis to tell old Umslopogaas to keep a
+look-out in the neighbourhood of Nyleptha&rsquo;s private apartments.
+Umslopogaas was now well known about the place, and by the Queen&rsquo;s order
+allowed to pass whither he would by the guards, a permission of which he often
+availed himself by roaming about the palace during the still hours in a
+nocturnal fashion that he favoured, and which is by no means uncommon amongst
+black men generally. His presence in the corridors would not, therefore, be
+likely to excite remark. Without any comment the Zulu took up his axe and
+departed, and we also departed to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakened by a
+peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I felt that somebody was in the room and
+looking at me, and instantly sat up, to see to my surprise that it was already
+dawn, and that there, standing at the foot of my couch and looking peculiarly
+grim and gaunt in the grey light, was Umslopogaas himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How long hast thou been there?&rdquo; I asked testily, for it is not
+pleasant to be aroused in such a fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn. I have a word for thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Speak on,&rdquo; I said, now wide enough awake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queen and hid
+myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyond which is the
+sleeping-place of the Queen. Bougwan (Good) was in the first anteroom alone,
+and outside the curtain of that room was a sentry, but I had a mind to see if I
+could pass in unseen, and I did, gliding behind them both. There I waited for
+many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark figure coming secretly towards me.
+It was the figure of a woman, and in her hand she held a dagger. Behind that
+figure crept another unseen by the woman. It was Bougwan following in her
+tracks. His shoes were off, and for so fat a man he followed very well. The
+woman passed me, and the starlight shone upon her face.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who was it?&rdquo; I asked impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The face was the face of the &lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo;, and of a
+truth she is well named.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I waited, and Bougwan passed me also. Then I followed. So we went slowly
+and without a sound up the long chamber. First the woman, then Bougwan, and
+then I; and the woman saw not Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not me. At last the
+&lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo; came to the curtains that shut off the sleeping
+place of the White Queen, and put out her left hand to part them. She passed
+through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I. At the far end of the room is the
+bed of the Queen, and on it she lay very fast asleep. I could hear her breathe,
+and see one white arm lying on the coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry
+grass. The &lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo; doubled herself thus, and with the
+long knife lifted crept towards the bed. So straight did she gaze thereat that
+she never thought to look behind her. When she was quite close Bougwan touched
+her on the arm, and she caught her breath and turned, and I saw the knife
+flash, and heard it strike. Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of
+iron on him, or he had been pierced. Then for the first time he saw who the
+woman was, and without a word he fell back astonished, and unable to speak.
+She, too, was astonished, and spoke not, but suddenly she laid her finger on
+her lip, thus, and walked towards and through the curtain, and with her went
+Bougwan. So close did she pass to me that her dress touched me, and I was nigh
+to slaying her as she went. In the first outer room she spoke to Bougwan in a
+whisper and, clasping her hands thus, she pleaded with him, but what she said I
+know not. And so they passed on to the second outer room, she pleading and he
+shaking his head, and saying, &lsquo;Nay, nay, nay&rsquo;. And it seemed to me
+that he was about to call the guard, when she stopped talking and looked at him
+with great eyes, and I saw that he was bewitched by her beauty. Then she
+stretched out her hand and he kissed it, whereon I gathered myself together to
+advance and take her, seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no longer
+knew the good from the evil, when behold! she was gone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Gone!&rdquo; I ejaculated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one asleep,
+and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came away also.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Art thou sure, Umslopogaas,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;that thou hast not
+been a dreamer this night?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inches of a blade of
+a dagger of the finest steel. &ldquo;If I be, Macumazahn, behold what the dream
+left with me. The knife broke upon Bougwan&rsquo;s bosom and as I passed I
+picked this up in the sleeping-place of the White Queen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+WAR! RED WAR!</h2>
+
+<p>
+Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went off with him to
+Sir Henry&rsquo;s room, where the Zulu repeated his story word for word. It was
+a sight to watch Curtis&rsquo; face as he heard it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Great Heavens!&rdquo; he said: &ldquo;here have I been sleeping away
+while Nyleptha was nearly murdered&mdash;and all through me, too. What a fiend
+that Sorais must be! It would have served her well if Umslopogaas had cut her
+down in the act.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said the Zulu. &ldquo;Fear not; I should have slain her ere
+she struck. I was but waiting the moment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand doomed lives
+would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais the fate she meant for her
+sister. And, as the issue proved, I was right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedly to get his
+morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was no longer to be
+trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escape by some secret stair when
+it was his duty to have handed her over to justice. Indeed, he spoke in the
+most unmeasured terms on the matter. I let him run on awhile, reflecting to
+myself how easy we find it to be hard on the weaknesses of others, and how
+tender we are to our own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Really, my dear fellow,&rdquo; I said at length, &ldquo;one would never
+think, to hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interview with this
+same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficult to resist her fascinations,
+notwithstanding your ties to one of the loveliest and most loving women in the
+world. Now suppose it was Nyleptha who had tried to murder Sorais, and
+<i>you</i> had caught her, and she had pleaded with you, would you have been so
+very eager to hand her over to an open shame, and to death by fire? Just look
+at the matter through Good&rsquo;s eyeglass for a minute before you denounce an
+old friend as a scoundrel.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He listened to this jobation submissively, and then frankly acknowledged that
+he had spoken hardly. It is one of the best points in Sir Henry&rsquo;s
+character that he is always ready to admit it when he is in the wrong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to the fact that, however
+natural his behaviour might be, it was obvious that he was being involved in a
+very awkward and disgraceful complication. A foul and wicked murder had been
+attempted, and he had let the murderess escape, and thereby, among other
+things, allowed her to gain a complete ascendency over himself. In fact, he was
+in a fair way to become her tool&mdash;and no more dreadful fate can befall a
+man than to become the tool of an unscrupulous woman, or indeed of any woman.
+There is but one end to it: when he is broken, or has served her purpose, he is
+thrown away&mdash;turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect.
+Whilst I was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done&mdash;for the
+whole subject was a thorny one&mdash;I suddenly heard a great clamour in the
+courtyard outside, and distinguished the voice of Umslopogaas and Alphonse, the
+former cursing furiously, and the latter yelling in terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicrous sight. The
+little Frenchman was running up the courtyard at an extraordinary speed, and
+after him sped Umslopogaas like a great greyhound. Just as I came out he caught
+him, and, lifting him right off his legs, carried him some paces to a beautiful
+but very dense flowering shrub which bore a flower not unlike the gardenia, but
+was covered with short thorns. Next, despite his howls and struggles, he with
+one mighty thrust plunged poor Alphonse head first into the bush, so that
+nothing but the calves of his legs and heels remained in evidence. Then,
+satisfied with what he had done, the Zulu folded his arms and stood grimly
+contemplating the Frenchman&rsquo;s kicks, and listening to his yells, which
+were awful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What art thou doing?&rdquo; I said, running up. &ldquo;Wouldst thou kill
+the man? Pull him out of the bush!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonse by the ankle, and
+with a jerk that must have nearly dislocated it, tearing him out of the heart
+of the shrub. Never did I see such a sight as he presented, his clothes half
+torn off his back, and bleeding as he was in every direction from the sharp
+thorns. There he lay and yelled and rolled, and there was no getting anything
+out of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me, cursed old
+Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowing by the blood of his heroic
+grandfather that he would poison him, and &ldquo;have his revenge&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I got to the truth of the matter. It appeared that Alphonse habitually
+cooked Umslopogaas&rsquo;s porridge, which the latter ate for breakfast in the
+corner of the courtyard, just as he would have done at home in Zululand, from a
+gourd, and with a wooden spoon. Now Umslopogaas had, like many Zulus, a great
+horror of fish, which he considered a species of water-snake; so Alphonse, who
+was as fond of playing tricks as a monkey, and who was also a consummate cook,
+determined to make him eat some. Accordingly he grated up a quantity of white
+fish very finely, and mixed it with the Zulu&rsquo;s porridge, who swallowed it
+nearly all down in ignorance of what he was eating. But, unfortunately for
+Alphonse, he could not restrain his joy at this sight, and came capering and
+peering round, till at last Umslopogaas, who was very clever in his way,
+suspected something, and, after a careful examination of the remains of his
+porridge, discovered &ldquo;the buffalo heifer&rsquo;s trick&rdquo;, and, in
+revenge, served him as I have said. Indeed, the little man was fortunate not to
+get a broken neck for his pains; for, as one would have thought, he might have
+learnt from the episode of his display of axemanship that &ldquo;le Monsieur
+noir&rdquo; was an ill person to play practical jokes upon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrate it because it led
+to serious consequences. As soon as he had stanched the bleeding from his
+scratches and washed himself, Alphonse went off still cursing, to recover his
+temper, a process which I knew from experience would take a very long time.
+When he had gone I gave Umslopogaas a jobation and told him that I was ashamed
+of his behaviour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, well, Macumazahn,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you must be gentle with me,
+for here is not my place. I am weary of it, weary to death of eating and
+drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage. I love not this soft life in
+stone houses that takes the heart out of a man, and turns his strength to water
+and his flesh to fat. I love not the white robes and the delicate women, the
+blowing of trumpets and the flying of hawks. When we fought the Masai at the
+kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth the living, but here is never a blow
+struck in anger, and I begin to think I shall go the way of my fathers and lift
+Inkosi-kaas no more,&rdquo; and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;that is thy complaint, is it? Thou hast the
+blood-sickness, hast thou? And the Woodpecker wants a tree. And at thy age,
+too. Shame on thee! Umslopogaas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and more honest
+than some. Better is it to slay a man in fair fight than to suck out his
+heart&rsquo;s blood in buying and selling and usury after your white fashion.
+Many a man have I slain, yet is there never a one that I should fear to look in
+the face again, ay, many are there who once were friends, and whom I should be
+right glad to snuff with. But there! there! thou hast thy ways, and I mine:
+each to his own people and his own place. The high-veldt ox will die in the fat
+bush country, and so is it with me, Macumazahn. I am rough, I know it, and when
+my blood is warm I know not what to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the
+night swallows me and I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thou
+lovest me, my father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be nought but a broken-down
+Zulu war-dog&mdash;a chief for whom there is no room in his own kraal, an
+outcast and a wanderer in strange places: ay, I love thee, Macumazahn, for we
+have grown grey together, and there is that between us that cannot be seen, and
+yet is too strong for breaking;&rdquo; and he took his snuff-box, which was
+made of an old brass cartridge, from the slit in his ear where he always
+carried it, and handed it to me for me to help myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion. It was quite true, I was much
+attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian. I do not know what was the charm of
+his character, but it had a charm; perhaps it was its fierce honesty and
+directness; perhaps one admired his almost superhuman skill and strength, or it
+may have been simply that he was so absolutely unique. Frankly, with all my
+experience of savages, I never knew a man quite like him, he was so wise and
+yet such a child with it all; and though it seems laughable to say so, like the
+hero of the Yankee parody, he &ldquo;had a tender heart&rdquo;. Anyway, I was
+very fond of him, though I should never have thought of telling him so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, old wolf,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;thine is a strange love. Thou
+wouldst split me to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came in the way of
+duty, but I should love thee all the same when the blow had gone fairly home.
+Is there any chance of some fighting here, Macumazahn?&rdquo; he went on in an
+insinuating voice. &ldquo;Methought that what I saw last night did show that
+the two great Queens were vexed one with another. Else had the &lsquo;Lady of
+the Night&rsquo; not brought that dagger with her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique and irritation existed
+between the ladies, and told him how things stood, and that they were
+quarrelling over Incubu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, is it so?&rdquo; he exclaimed, springing up in delight; &ldquo;then
+will there be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains&mdash;war to the
+end. Women love the last blow as well as the last word, and when they fight for
+love they are pitiless as a wounded buffalo. See thou, Macumazahn, a woman will
+swim through blood to her desire, and think nought of it. With these eyes have
+I seen it once, and twice also. Ah, Macumazahn, we shall see this fine place of
+houses burning yet, and hear the battle cries come ringing up the street. After
+all, I have not wandered for nothing. Can this folk fight, think ye?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from another direction,
+looking very pale and hollow-eyed. The moment Umslopogaas saw the latter he
+stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, Bougwan,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou art
+surely weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?&rdquo; Then, without waiting
+for an answer, he went on&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a woman,
+therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a woman who loved
+the man&rsquo;s brother and was beloved of the man. But the man&rsquo;s brother
+had a favourite wife and loved not the woman, and he made a mock of her. Then
+the woman, being very cunning and fierce-hearted for revenge, took counsel with
+herself and said to the man, &lsquo;I love thee, and if thou wilt make war upon
+thy brother I will marry thee.&rsquo; And he knew it was a lie, yet because of
+his great love of the woman, who was very fair, did he listen to her words and
+made war. And when many people had been killed his brother sent to him, saying,
+&lsquo;Why slayest thou me? What hurt have I done unto thee? From my youth up
+have I not loved thee? When thou wast little did I not nurture thee, and have
+we not gone down to war together and divided the cattle, girl by girl, ox by
+ox, and cow by cow? Why slayest thou me, my brother, son of my own
+mother?&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then the man&rsquo;s heart was heavy, and he knew that his path was
+evil, and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased to make war on his
+brother, and lived at peace in the same kraal with him. And after a time the
+woman came to him and said, &lsquo;I have lost the past, I will be thy
+wife.&rsquo; And in his heart he knew that it was a lie and that she thought
+the evil thing, yet because of his love did he take her to wife.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plunged into a
+deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe from his hand and creep into
+the hut of his brother and slay him in his rest. Then did she slink back like a
+gorged lioness and place the thong of the red axe back upon his wrist and go
+her ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And at the dawning the people came shouting, &lsquo;Lousta is slain in
+the night,&rsquo; and they came unto the hut of the man, and there he lay
+asleep and by him was the red axe. Then did they remember the war and say,
+&lsquo;Lo! he hath of a surety slain his brother,&rsquo; and they would have
+taken and killed him, but he rose and fled swiftly, and as he fleeted by he
+slew the woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on him rested
+the weight of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcast and his name a scorn
+among his own people; for on him, and him only, resteth the burden of her who
+betrayed. And, therefore, does he wander afar, without a kraal and without an
+ox or a wife, and therefore will he die afar like a stricken buck and his name
+be accursed from generation to generation, in that the people say that he slew
+his brother, Lousta, by treachery in the night-time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by his own story.
+Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed to his breast, and went on:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I was the man, Bougwan. Ou! <i>I</i> was that man, and now hark thou!
+Even as I am so wilt thou be&mdash;a tool, a plaything, an ox of burden to
+carry the evil deeds of another. Listen! When thou didst creep after the
+&lsquo;Lady of the Night&rsquo; <i>I</i> was hard upon thy track. When she
+struck thee with the knife in the sleeping place of the White Queen <i>I</i>
+was there also; when thou didst let her slip away like a snake in the stones
+<i>I</i> saw thee, and I knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man
+had abandoned the truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had taken a
+crooked way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but out of a full
+heart are they spoken. See her no more, so shalt thou go down with honour to
+the grave. Else because of the beauty of a woman that weareth as a garment of
+fur shalt thou be even as I am, and perchance with more cause. I have
+said.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly silent, but
+when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his own case, he coloured up,
+and when he learnt that what had passed between him and Sorais had been
+overseen he was evidently much distressed. And now, when at last he spoke, it
+was in a tone of humility quite foreign to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I must say,&rdquo; he said, with a bitter little laugh, &ldquo;that I
+scarcely thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but it just
+shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can understand how
+humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it is that I deserve it all. Of
+course I should have handed Sorais over to the guard, but I could not, and that
+is a fact. I let her go and I promised to say nothing, more is the shame to me.
+She told me that if I would side with her she would marry me and make me king
+of this country, but thank goodness I did find the heart to say that even to
+marry her I could not desert my friends. And now you can do what you like, I
+deserve it all. All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a
+woman with all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her,&rdquo; and he
+turned to go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here, old fellow,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, &ldquo;just stop a minute.
+I have a little tale to tell you too.&rdquo; And he went on to narrate what had
+taken place on the previous day between Sorais and himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasant to any man to
+learn that he has been made a tool of, but when the circumstances are as
+peculiarly atrocious as in the present case, it is about as bitter a pill as
+anybody can be called on to swallow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I think that between you, you
+fellows have about worked a cure,&rdquo; and he turned and walked away, and I
+for one felt very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would always carefully avoid
+the candle, how few burnt wings there would be!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great hall and received
+petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and so forth, and thither we adjourned
+shortly afterwards. On our way we were joined by Good, who was looking
+exceedingly depressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne and proceeding
+with business as usual, surrounded by councillors, courtiers, lawyers, priests,
+and an unusually strong guard. It was, however, easy to see from the air of
+excitement and expectation on the faces of everybody present that nobody was
+paying much attention to ordinary affairs, the fact being that the knowledge
+that civil war was imminent had now got abroad. We saluted Nyleptha and took
+our accustomed places, and for a little while things went on as usual, when
+suddenly the trumpets began to call outside the palace, and from the great
+crowd that was gathered there in anticipation of some unusual event there rose
+a roar of &ldquo;<i>Sorais! Sorais!</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the great curtains at
+the end of the hall were drawn wide and through them entered the &ldquo;Lady of
+the Night&rdquo; herself. Nor did she come alone. Preceding her was Agon, the
+High Priest, arrayed in his most gorgeous vestments, and on either side were
+other priests. The reason for their presence was obvious&mdash;coming with them
+it would have been sacrilege to attempt to detain her. Behind her were a number
+of the great lords, and behind them a small body of picked guards. A glance at
+Sorais herself was enough to show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for
+in place of her gold embroidered &ldquo;kaf&rdquo; she wore a shining tunic
+formed of golden scales, and on her head a little golden helmet. In her hand,
+too, she bore a toy spear, beautifully made and fashioned of solid silver. Up
+the hall she came, looking like a lioness in her conscious pride and beauty,
+and as she came the spectators fell back bowing and made a path for her. By the
+sacred stone she halted, and laying her hand on it, she cried out with a loud
+voice to Nyleptha on the throne, &ldquo;Hail, oh Queen!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All hail, my royal sister!&rdquo; answered Nyleptha. &ldquo;Draw thou
+near. Fear not, I give thee safe conduct.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the hall till she stood
+right before the thrones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A boon, oh Queen!&rdquo; she cried again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee who hath half
+our kingdom?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou canst tell me a true word&mdash;me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art
+thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,&rdquo; and she pointed
+to Sir Henry with her toy spear, &ldquo;to be a husband to thee, and share thy
+bed and throne?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to her in a low voice,
+&ldquo;Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names than wolf to call me by,
+oh Queen!&rdquo; and I saw her bite her lips as, like a danger flag, the blood
+flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if not original, she,
+seeing that the thing was out, and that there was nothing further to be gained
+by concealment, answered the question in a novel and effectual manner, inspired
+thereto, as I firmly believe, by coquetry and a desire to triumph over her
+rival.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all the glory of her
+royal grace on to where her lover stood. There she stopped and untwined the
+golden snake that was wound around her arm. Then she bade him kneel, and he
+dropped on one knee on the marble before her, and next, taking the golden snake
+with both her hands, she bent the pure soft metal round his neck, and when it
+was fast, deliberately kissed him on the brow and called him her &ldquo;dear
+lord&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou seest,&rdquo; she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators
+had died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, &ldquo;I
+have put my collar round the &lsquo;wolf&rsquo;s&rsquo; neck, and behold! he
+shall be my watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen Sorais, my sister,
+and to those with thee. Fear not,&rdquo; she went on, smiling sweetly on her
+lover, and pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his massive
+throat, &ldquo;if my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not
+gall thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud tone, &ldquo;Ay,
+Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here gathered together, by this
+sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of you all.
+What, am I a Queen, and yet not free to choose the man whom I will love? Then
+should I be lower than the meanest girl in all my provinces. Nay, he hath won
+my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and all I have&mdash;ay, had he
+been a beggar instead of a great lord fairer and stronger than any here, and
+having more wisdom and knowledge of strange things, I had given him all, how
+much more so being what he is!&rdquo; And she took his hand and gazed proudly
+on him, and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her
+sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful she looked
+standing hand in hand there at her lover&rsquo;s side, so sure of him and of
+herself, and so ready to risk all things and endure all things for him, that
+most of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever
+forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her blushing
+face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke for her to make,
+and it appealed to the imagination; but human nature in Zu-Vendis, as
+elsewhere, loves that which is bold and not afraid to break a rule, and is
+moreover peculiarly susceptible to appeals to its poetical side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the Night stood
+there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her sister&rsquo;s
+triumph, which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to win, and in the
+awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned white like an aspen in
+the wind. I think I have said somewhere of her that she reminded me of the sea
+on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping power about her. Well, it was
+all awake now, and like the face of the furious ocean it awed and yet
+fascinated me. A really handsome woman in a royal rage is always a beautiful
+sight, but such beauty and such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can
+only say that the effect produced was well worthy of the two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple rings beneath
+her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak and thrice she failed, but at last
+her voice came. Raising her silver spear, she shook it, and the light gleamed
+from it and from the golden scales of her cuirass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,&rdquo; she said in notes which pealed
+through the great hall like a clarion, &ldquo;thinkest thou that I, Sorais, a
+Queen of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander shall sit upon my
+father&rsquo;s throne and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great
+House of the Stairway? Never! never! while there is life in my bosom and a man
+to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my side? Who?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither to prey
+with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly sin
+against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War&mdash;red War! Ay, I say to thee
+that the path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing of thy towns
+and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On thy head rest the
+burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the dying and the cries
+of the widows and those who are left fatherless for ever and for ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from thy
+throne, and that thou shalt be hurled&mdash;ay, hurled even from the topmost
+stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered the name
+of the House of him who built it with black shame. And I tell ye
+strangers&mdash;all save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service I
+will save alive if thou wilt leave these men and follow me&rdquo; (here poor
+Good shook his head vigorously and ejaculated &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t be done&rdquo;
+in English)&mdash;&ldquo;that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you
+yet alive in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly
+east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the Temple, so
+that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for thee, Incubu, thou
+shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not tell thee now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm, and a
+murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through the hall. Then
+Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak as thou
+hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou wilt make
+war, then will I strive to bear up against thee, for if my hand seem soft, yet
+shalt thou find it of iron when it grips thine armies by the throat. Sorais, I
+fear thee not. I weep for that which thou wilt bring upon our people and on
+thyself, but for myself I say&mdash;I fear thee not. Yet thou, who but
+yesterday didst strive to win my lover and my lord from me, whom today thou
+dost call a &lsquo;foreign wolf&rsquo;, to be <i>thy</i> lover and <i>thy</i>
+lord&rdquo; (here there was an immense sensation in the hall), &ldquo;thou who
+but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst enter here, didst creep
+like a snake into my sleeping-place&mdash;ay, even by a secret way, and wouldst
+have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay asleep&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is false, it is false!&rdquo; rang out Agon&rsquo;s and a score of
+other voices.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is <i>not</i> false,&rdquo; said I, producing the broken point of the
+dagger and holding it up. &ldquo;Where is the haft from which this flew, oh
+Sorais?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is not false,&rdquo; cried Good, determined at last to act like a
+loyal man. &ldquo;I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen&rsquo;s bed,
+and on my breast the dagger broke.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is on my side?&rdquo; cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for
+she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. &ldquo;What, Bougwan,
+thou comest not?&rdquo; she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to
+her, in a low, concentrated voice. &ldquo;Thou pale-souled fool, for a reward
+thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou
+mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold <i>thee</i> in chains
+that cannot be broken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>War! war! war!</i>&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Here, with my hand upon
+the sacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the Zu-Vendi set
+their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows Sorais
+of the Night to victory and honour?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable confusion.
+Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the &ldquo;Lady of the
+Night&rdquo;, but some came from her following to us. Amongst the former was an
+under officer of Nyleptha&rsquo;s own guard, who suddenly turned and made a run
+for the doorway through which Sorais&rsquo; people were already passing.
+Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole scene in, seeing with
+admirable presence of mind that if this soldier got away others would follow
+his example, seized the man, who drew his sword and struck at him. Thereon the
+Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and, avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck
+at his foe with his terrible axe, till in a few seconds the man&rsquo;s fate
+overtook him and he fell with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble
+floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was the first blood spilt in the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shut the gates,&rdquo; I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch
+Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing sacrilege. But
+the order came too late, her guards were already passing through them, and in
+another minute the streets echoed with the furious galloping of horses and the
+rolling of her chariots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing like a whirlwind
+through the Frowning City on her road to her headquarters at M&rsquo;Arstuna, a
+fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north of Milosis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments and
+preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once more began to sit
+in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening Inkosi-kaas&rsquo;s razor
+edge.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+A STRANGE WEDDING</h2>
+
+<p>
+One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before the gates
+were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had every reason to
+believe, was Sorais&rsquo; great ally, and the heart and soul of her party.
+This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us for those hippopotami,
+or rather that was what he said. What he meant was that he would never brook
+the introduction of our wider ways of thought and foreign learning and
+influence while there was a possibility of stamping us out. Also he knew that
+we possessed a different system of religion, and no doubt was in daily terror
+of our attempting to introduce it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had
+any religion in our country, and I told him that so far as I could remember we
+had ninety-five different ones. You might have knocked him down with a feather,
+and really it is difficult not to pity a high priest of a well-established cult
+who is haunted by the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new
+religions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I discussed what
+was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating him, but Nyleptha
+shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous effect throughout the
+country. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she added, with a stamp of her foot, &ldquo;if I win
+and am once really Queen, I will break the power of those priests, with their
+rites and revels and dark secret ways.&rdquo; I only wished that old Agon could
+have heard her, it would have frightened him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, &ldquo;if we are not to imprison him, I
+suppose that we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry little
+voice, &ldquo;Thinkest thou so, my lord?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eh?&rdquo; said Curtis. &ldquo;No, I do not see what is the use of
+keeping him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy as it
+was sweet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then at last he understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Forgive me, Nyleptha,&rdquo; he said, rather tremulously. &ldquo;Dost
+thou mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, I know not; let my lord say,&rdquo; was her rapid answer;
+&ldquo;but if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is
+there&rdquo;&mdash;pointing to the entrance to a private
+chapel&mdash;&ldquo;and am I not ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my
+lord! In eight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for thou
+shalt lead my armies, and in war&mdash;men sometimes fall, and so I would for a
+little space have had thee all my own, if only for memory&rsquo;s sake;&rdquo;
+and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and rolled down her face like heavy
+drops of dew down the red heart of a rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mayhap, too,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;I shall lose my crown, and with
+my crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very bitter, and if
+she prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future? Happiness is the
+world&rsquo;s White Bird, that alights seldom, and flies fast and far till one
+day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by any
+chance he rests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to neglect the
+present for the future, for who knows what the future will be, Incubu? Let us
+pluck our flowers while the dew is on them, for when the sun is up they wither
+and on the morrow will others bloom that we shall never see.&rdquo; And she
+lifted her sweet face to him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a
+curious pang of jealousy and turned and went away. They never took much notice
+of whether I was there or not, thinking, I suppose, that I was an old fool, and
+that it did not matter one way or the other, and really I believe that they
+were right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general, and
+watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window as a vulture whets
+his beak beside a dying ox.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in about an hour&rsquo;s time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking very
+radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and even Umslopogaas, and
+asked us if we should like to assist at a real wedding. Of course we said yes,
+and off we went to the chapel, where we found Agon looking as sulky as any High
+Priest possibly could, and no wonder. It appeared that he and Nyleptha had a
+slight difference of opinion about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused
+to celebrate it, or to allow any of his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha
+became very angry and told him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and
+meant to be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the Eighth
+to perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be married, she would be
+married, and that he should marry her.<a href="#fn-19" name="fnref-19" id="fnref-19"><sup>[19]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-19" id="fn-19"></a> <a href="#fnref-19">[19]</a>
+In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married by the High Priest
+or a formally appointed deputy.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched her argument
+thus&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
+prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his subordinates
+would raise a crying that would bring the stars down on Zu-Vendis and crush it;
+but I <i>can</i> leave him to contemplate the altar of the Sun without anything
+to eat, because that is his natural vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O
+Agon! thou shalt be placed before the altar yonder with nought but a little
+water till such time as thou hast reconsidered the matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning without his
+breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so he presently modified his
+views and consented to marry them, saying at the same time that he washed his
+hands of all responsibility in the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite maidens,
+came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and downcast eyes, dressed in
+pure white, without embroidery of any sort, as seems to be the fashion on these
+occasions in most countries of the world. She did not wear a single ornament,
+even her gold circlets were removed, and I thought that if possible she looked
+more lovely than ever without them, as really superbly beautiful women do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand and led him up
+before the altar, and after a little pause, in a slow, clear voice uttered the
+following words, which are customary in Zu-Vendis if the bride desires and the
+man consents:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman to wife
+unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I swear it,&rdquo; answered Sir Henry; adding in English, &ldquo;One is
+quite enough for me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, came forward and
+gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate that I could not follow it,
+but it appeared to be an invocation to the Sun to bless the union and make it
+fruitful. I observed that Nyleptha listened very closely to every word, and
+afterwards discovered that she was afraid lest Agon should play her a trick,
+and by going through the invocations backwards divorce them instead of marry
+them. At the end of the invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they
+took each other for husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each
+other before the altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites were
+concerned. But it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, and so I
+produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together with the &ldquo;Ingoldsby
+Legends&rdquo;, that I often read when I lie awake at night, accompanied me in
+all my later wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy Harry years ago, and after
+his death I found it among his things and took it back again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Curtis,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I am not a clergyman, and I do not know if
+what I am going to propose is allowable&mdash;I know it is not legal&mdash;but
+if you and the Queen have no objection I should like to read the English
+marriage service over you. It is a solemn step which you are taking, and I
+think that you ought, so far as circumstances will allow, to give it the
+sanction of your own religion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have thought of that,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I wish you would. I
+do not feel half married yet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husband wished to
+celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailing in his own country,
+and so I set to work and read the service, from &ldquo;Dearly beloved&rdquo; to
+&ldquo;amazement&rdquo;, as well as I could; and when I came to &ldquo;I,
+Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,&rdquo; I translated, and also &ldquo;I, Nyleptha,
+take thee, Henry,&rdquo; which she repeated after me very well. Then Sir Henry
+took a plain gold ring from his little finger and placed it on hers, and so on
+to the end. The ring had been Curtis&rsquo; mother&rsquo;s wedding-ring, and I
+could not help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire lady would have
+been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ring was to serve a similar
+purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this second ceremony was
+going on, for he at once understood that it was religious in its nature, and
+doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five new faiths which loomed so ominously
+in his eyes. Indeed, he at once set me down as a rival High Priest, and hated
+me accordingly. However, in the end off he went, positively bristling with
+indignation, and I knew that we might look out for danger from his direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving the happy pair to
+themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriages are supposed to be cheerful
+things, but my experience is that they are very much the reverse to everybody,
+except perhaps the two people chiefly interested. They mean the breaking-up of
+so many old ties as well as the undertaking of so many new ones, and there is
+always something sad about the passing away of the old order. Now to take this
+case for instance: Sir Henry Curtis is the best and kindest fellow and friend
+in the world, but he has never been quite the same since that little scene in
+the chapel. It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that&mdash;Nyleptha, in
+short, from morning till night in one way or another, either expressed or
+understood. And as for the old friends&mdash;well, of course they have taken
+the place that old friends ought to take, and which ladies are as a rule very
+careful to see they do take when a man marries, and that is, the second place.
+Yes, he would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a fact for all that. He is
+not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet and very charming, but I think
+that she likes him to understand that she has married <i>him</i>, and not
+Quatermain, Good, and Co. But there! what is the use of grumbling? It is all
+very right and proper, as any married lady would have no difficulty in
+explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous old man, though I hope I never show it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in an extra fine flagon
+of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and presently one of our attendants
+came and told a story that gave us something to think about.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel with Umslopogaas,
+Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper to sulk over his scratches.
+Well, it appears that he walked right past the Temple to the Sun, down the wide
+road on the further side of the slope it crowns, and thence on into the
+beautiful park, or pleasure gardens, which are laid out just beyond the outer
+wall. After wandering about there for a little he started to return, but was
+met near the outer gate by Sorais&rsquo; train of chariots, which were
+galloping furiously along the great northern road. When she caught sight of
+Alphonse, Sorais halted her train and called to him. On approaching he was
+instantly seized and dragged into one of the chariots and carried off,
+&ldquo;crying out loudly&rdquo;, as our informant said, and as from my general
+knowledge of him I can well believe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais could have had in
+carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She could hardly stoop so low as to try
+to wreak her fury on one whom she knew was only a servant. At last, however, an
+idea occurred to me. We three were, as I think I have said, much revered by the
+people of Zu-Vendis at large, both because we were the first strangers they had
+ever seen, and because we were supposed to be the possessors of almost
+supernatural wisdom. Indeed, though Sorais&rsquo; cry against the
+&ldquo;foreign wolves&rdquo;&mdash;or, to translate it more accurately,
+&ldquo;foreign hyenas&rdquo;&mdash;was sure to go down very well with the
+nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely to be particularly
+effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The Zu-Vendi people, like the
+Athenians of old, are ever seeking for some new thing, and just because we were
+so new our presence was on the whole acceptable to them. Again, Sir
+Henry&rsquo;s magnificent personal appearance made a deep impression upon a
+race who possess a greater love of beauty than any other I have ever been
+acquainted with. Beauty may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendis it
+is almost worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuary shows. The people
+said openly in the market-places that there was not a man in the country to
+touch Curtis in personal appearance, as with the exception of Sorais there was
+no woman who could compete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that
+they should marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husband for their
+Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen that the outcry against us was to a
+considerable extent fictitious, and nobody knew it better than Sorais herself.
+Consequently it struck me that it might have occurred to her that down in the
+country and among the country people, it would be better to place the reason of
+her conflict with her sister upon other and more general grounds than
+Nyleptha&rsquo;s marriage with the stranger. It would be easy in a land where
+there had been so many civil wars to rake out some old cry that would stir up
+the recollection of buried feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one.
+This being so, it was of great importance to her to have one of the strangers
+with her whom she could show to the common people as a great Outlander, who had
+been so struck by the justice of her cause that he had elected to leave his
+companions and follow her standard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold of Good, whom she
+would have used till he ceased to be of service and then cast off. But Good
+having drawn back she grasped at the opportunity of securing Alphonse, who was
+not unlike him in personal appearance though smaller, no doubt with the object
+of showing him off in the cities and country as the great Bougwan himself. I
+told Good that I thought that that was her plan, and his face was a sight to
+see&mdash;he was so horrified at the idea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;dress up that little wretch to represent
+me? Why, I shall have to get out of the country! My reputation will be ruined
+for ever.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant to be personated all
+over a strange country by an arrant little coward, and I can quite sympathize
+with his vexation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitary grandeur, feeling
+very much as though we had just returned from burying a friend instead of
+marrying one, and next morning the work began in good earnest. The messages and
+orders which had been despatched by Nyleptha two days before now began to take
+effect, and multitudes of armed men came pouring into the city. We saw, as may
+be imagined, but very little of Nyleptha and not too much of Curtis during
+those next few days, but Good and I sat daily with the council of generals and
+loyal lords, drawing up plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the
+distribution of commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came in
+freely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosis were spotted
+with the banners of lords arriving from their distant places to rally round
+Nyleptha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the first few days it became clear that we should be able to take the
+field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry, a very
+respectable force considering how short was the time we had to collect it, and
+that about half the regular army had elected to follow Sorais.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if our force was large, Sorais&rsquo; was, according to the reports brought
+in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had taken up her headquarters at a
+very strong town called M&rsquo;Arstuna, situated, as I have said, to the north
+of Milosis, and all the countryside was flocking to her standard. Nasta had
+poured down from his highlands and was on his way to join her with no less than
+twenty-five thousand of his mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to face in
+all Zu-Vendis. Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who lived in the great
+horse-breeding district, had come in with twelve thousand cavalry, and so on.
+Indeed, what between one thing and another, it seemed certain that she would
+gather a fully armed host of nearly one hundred thousand men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up her camp and march on
+the Frowning City itself, desolating the country as she came. Thereon arose the
+question whether it would be best to meet her at Milosis or to go out and give
+her battle. When our opinion was asked upon the subject, Good and I
+unhesitatingly gave it in favour of an advance. If we were to shut ourselves up
+in the city and wait to be attacked, it seemed to us that our inaction would be
+set down to fear. It is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort,
+when a very little will suffice to turn men&rsquo;s opinions one way or the
+other, to be up and doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate if
+the cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore we cast our vote
+for moving out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting till we were
+drawn from our walls like a badger from a hole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry&rsquo;s opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to say, did
+that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready to flash out fire. A
+great map of the country was brought and spread out before her. About thirty
+miles this side of M&rsquo;Arstuna, where Sorais lay, and ninety odd miles from
+Milosis, the road ran over a neck of land some two and a half miles in width,
+and flanked on either side by forest-clad hills which, without being lofty,
+would, if the road were blocked, be quite impracticable for a great
+baggage-laden army to cross. She looked earnestly at the map, and then, with a
+quickness of perception that in some women amounts almost to an instinct, she
+laid her finger upon this neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband,
+said, with a proud air of confidence and a toss of the golden head&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here shalt thou meet Sorais&rsquo; armies. I know the spot, here shalt
+thou meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before the storm.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+THE BATTLE OF THE PASS</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was on the third morning after this incident of the map that Sir Henry and I
+started. With the exception of a small guard, all the great host had moved on
+the night before, leaving the Frowning City very silent and empty. Indeed, it
+was found impossible to leave any garrison with the exception of a personal
+guard for Nyleptha, and about a thousand men who from sickness or one cause or
+another were unable to proceed with the army; but as Milosis was practically
+impregnable, and as our enemy was in front of and not behind us, this did not
+so much matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nyleptha accompanied Sir
+Henry and myself to the city gates, riding a magnificent white horse called
+Daylight, which was supposed to be the fleetest and most enduring animal in
+Zu-Vendis. Her face bore traces of recent weeping, but there were no tears in
+her eyes now, indeed she was bearing up bravely against what must have been a
+bitter trial to her. At the gate she reined in her horse and bade us farewell.
+On the previous day she had reviewed and addressed the officers of the great
+army, speaking to them such high, eloquent words, and expressing so complete a
+confidence in their valour and in their ultimate victory, that she quite
+carried their hearts away, and as she rode from rank to rank they cheered her
+till the ground shook. And now today the same mood seemed to be on her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fare thee well, Macumazahn!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Remember, I trust to
+thy wits, which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared to those of my
+people, to save us from Sorais. I know that thou wilt do thy duty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fear lest I should
+lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turned to Curtis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fare thee well, my lord!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Come back with victory,
+and as a king, or on thy soldiers&rsquo; spears.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-20" name="fnref-20" id="fnref-20"><sup>[20]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-20" id="fn-20"></a> <a href="#fnref-20">[20]</a>
+Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers on a framework of
+spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps he had a bit of a
+lump in his throat. One gets over it afterwards, but these sort of partings are
+trying when one has only been married a week.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here,&rdquo; added Nyleptha, &ldquo;will I greet thee when ye return in
+triumph. And now, my lords, once more, farewell!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yards or so, we
+turned and perceived her still sitting on her horse at the same spot, and
+looking out after us beneath her hand, and that was the last we saw of her.
+About a mile farther on, however, we heard galloping behind us, and looking
+round, saw a mounted soldier coming towards us, leading Nyleptha&rsquo;s
+matchless steed&mdash;Daylight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to her Lord
+Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetest and most enduring
+horse in all the land,&rdquo; said the soldier, bending to his saddle-bow
+before us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying that he was too good
+for such rough work, but I persuaded him to do so, thinking that Nyleptha would
+be hurt if he did not. Little did I guess at the time what service that noble
+horse would render in our sorest need. It is curious to look back and realise
+upon what trivial and apparently coincidental circumstances great events
+frequently turn as easily and naturally as a door on its hinges.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfect pleasure to see
+him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetings and thanks, we proceeded on
+our journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of which Sir Henry then
+formally took over the command. It was a heavy responsibility, and it oppressed
+him very much, but the Queen&rsquo;s injunctions on the point were such as did
+not admit of being trifled with. He was beginning to find out that greatness
+has its responsibilities as well as its glories.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almost indeed without
+seeing anybody, for the populations of the towns and villages along our route
+had for the most part fled, fearing lest they should be caught between the two
+rival armies and ground to powder like grain between the upper and the nether
+stones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so great a multitude was
+necessarily slow, we camped two miles this side of the neck or ridge I have
+spoken of, and our outposts brought us word that Sorais with all her power was
+rolling down upon us, and had pitched her camp that night ten miles the farther
+side of the neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalry to seize the
+position. Scarcely had they occupied it, however, before they were attacked by
+about as many of Sorais&rsquo; horsemen, and a very smart little cavalry fight
+ensued, with a loss to us of about thirty men killed. On the advance of our
+supports, however, Sorais&rsquo; force drew off, carrying their dead and
+wounded with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time, and I must say
+that Nyleptha&rsquo;s judgment had not failed her, it was an admirable place to
+give battle in, especially to a superior force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken to admit of the
+handling of any considerable force, till it reached the crest of a great green
+wave of land, that rolled down a gentle slope to the banks of a little stream,
+and then rolled away again up a still gentler slope to the plain beyond, the
+distance from the crest of the land-wave down to the stream being a little over
+half a mile, and from the stream up to the plain beyond a trifle less. The
+length of this wave of land at its highest point, which corresponded exactly
+with the width of the neck of the land between the wooded hills, was about two
+miles and a quarter, and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky,
+bush-clad ground, that afforded a most valuable cover to the flanks of the army
+and rendered it almost impossible for them to be turned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encamped his army
+in the same formation that he had, after consultation with the various
+generals, Good, and myself, determined that they should occupy in the great
+pitched battle which now appeared to be imminent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, divided as follows. In
+the centre was a dense body of twenty thousand foot-soldiers, armed with
+spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hide shields, breast and back plates.<a href="#fn-21" name="fnref-21" id="fnref-21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>
+These formed the chest of the army, and were supported by five thousand foot,
+and three thousand horse in reserve. On either side of this chest were
+stationed seven thousand horse arranged in deep, majestic squadrons; and beyond
+and on either side but slightly in front of them again were two bodies, each
+numbering about seven thousand five hundred spearmen, forming the right and
+left wings of the army, and each supported by a contingent of some fifteen
+hundred cavalry. This makes in all sixty thousand men.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-21" id="fn-21"></a> <a href="#fnref-21">[21]</a>
+The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousand horse between
+the chest and right wing, which was commanded by Good, and the other battalions
+and squadrons were entrusted to Zu-Vendis generals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais&rsquo; vast army began to
+swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front of us, till the whole place
+seemed alive with the multitude of her spearpoints, and the ground shook with
+the tramp of her battalions. It was evident that the spies had not exaggerated;
+we were outnumbered by at least a third. At first we expected that Sorais was
+going to attack us at once, as the clouds of cavalry which hung upon her flanks
+executed some threatening demonstrations, but she thought better of it, and
+there was no fight that day. As for the formation of her great forces I cannot
+now describe it with accuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I did,
+but I may say, generally, that in its leading features it resembled our own,
+only her reserve was much greater.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais&rsquo; left wing, was a great army
+of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shield only, which, I was
+informed, was composed of Nasta&rsquo;s twenty-five thousand savage hillsmen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My word, Good,&rdquo; said I, when I saw them, &ldquo;you will catch it
+tomorrow when those gentlemen charge!&rdquo; whereat Good not unnaturally
+looked rather anxious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at last night fell,
+and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on the slopes, to wane and die one
+by one like the stars they resembled. As the hours wore on, the silence
+gradually gathered more deeply over the opposing hosts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endless things that had to
+be attended to, there was our gnawing suspense to reckon with. The fray which
+tomorrow would witness would be so vast, and the slaughter so awful, that stout
+indeed must the heart have been that was not overwhelmed at the prospect. And
+when I thought of all that hung upon it, I own I felt ill, and it made me very
+sad to reflect that these mighty forces were gathered for destruction, simply
+to gratify the jealous anger of a woman. This was the hidden power which was to
+send those dense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts across the
+plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as clouds when hurricane
+meets hurricane. It was a dreadful thought, and set one wondering about the
+responsibilities of the great ones of the earth. Deep into the night we sat,
+with pale faces and heavy hearts, and took counsel, whilst the sentries tramped
+up and down, down and up, and the armed and plumed generals came and went, grim
+and shadow-like.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for the coming slaughter;
+and I lay down and thought, and tried to get a little rest, but could not sleep
+for fear of the morrow&mdash;for who could say what the morrow would bring
+forth? Misery and death, this was certain; beyond that we knew not, and I
+confess I was very much afraid. But as I realised then, it is useless to
+question that eternal Sphinx, the future. From day to day she reads aloud the
+riddles of the yesterday, of which the puzzled wordlings of all ages have not
+answered one, nor ever will, guess they never so wildly or cry they never so
+loud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly to leave the issue in
+the balancing hands of Providence and the morrow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke with a clash, and a
+roar, and gathered themselves together for battle. It was a beautiful and
+awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas, leaning on his axe, contemplated it
+with grim delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never,&rdquo; he said.
+&ldquo;The battles of my people are as the play of children to what this will
+be. Thinkest thou that they will fight it out?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; I answered sadly, &ldquo;to the death. Content thyself,
+&lsquo;Woodpecker&rsquo;, for once shalt thou peck thy fill.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack. A force of cavalry
+crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along our front, evidently taking
+stock of our position and numbers. With this we did not attempt to interfere,
+as our decision was to stand strictly on the defensive, and not to waste a
+single man. The men breakfasted and stood to their arms, and the hours wore on.
+About midday, when the men were eating their dinner, for we thought they would
+fight better on full stomachs, a shout of &ldquo;<i>Sorais, Sorais</i>&rdquo;
+arose like thunder from the enemy&rsquo;s extreme right, and taking the glass,
+I was able to clearly distinguish the &ldquo;Lady of the Night&rdquo; herself,
+surrounded by a glittering staff, and riding slowly down the lines of her
+battalions. And as she went, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before
+her like the rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the ocean when
+the gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to the listener&rsquo;s
+ears, till the earth shook, and the air was full of the majesty of sound.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle, we remained
+still and made ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had not long to wait. Suddenly, like flame from a cannon&rsquo;s mouth, out
+shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, and came charging down the slope
+towards the little stream, slowly at first, but gathering speed as they came.
+Before they got to the stream, orders reached me from Sir Henry, who evidently
+feared that the shock of such a charge, if allowed to fall unbroken upon our
+infantry, would be too much for them, to send five thousand sabres to meet the
+force opposite to me, at the moment when it began to mount the stiffest of the
+rise about four hundred yards from our lines. This I did, remaining behind
+myself with the rest of my men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-like form, and I must
+say that the general in command handled them very ably. Starting at a hand
+gallop, for the first three hundred yards he rode straight at the tip of the
+tongue-shaped mass of cavalry which, numbering, so far as I could judge, about
+eight thousand sabres, was advancing to charge us. Then he suddenly swerved to
+the right and put on the pace, and I saw the great wedge curl round, and before
+the foe could check himself and turn to meet it, strike him about halfway down
+his length, with a crashing rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vast
+sheets of ice. In sank the great wedge, into his heart, and as it cut its way
+hundreds of horsemen were thrown up on either side of it, just as the earth is
+thrown up by a ploughshare, or more like still, as the foaming water curls over
+beneath the bows of a rushing ship. In, yet in, vainly does the tongue twist
+its ends round in agony, like an injured snake, and strive to protect its
+centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right through, and so, amid cheer after
+cheer from our watching thousands, back again upon the severed ends, beating
+them down, driving them as a gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the
+rushing of hundreds of riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the
+victorious clamour of their pursuers, the great force crumples up like an empty
+glove, then turns and gallops pell-mell for safety back to its own lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strong as it went out
+ten minutes before. The lines which were now advancing to the attack, opened
+and swallowed them up, and my force returned, having only suffered a loss of
+about five hundred men&mdash;not much, I thought, considering the fierceness of
+the struggle. I could also see that the opposing bodies of cavalry on our left
+wing were drawing back, but how the fight went with them I do not quite know.
+It is as much as I can do to describe what took place immediately around me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time the dense masses of the enemy&rsquo;s left, composed almost
+entirely of Nasta&rsquo;s swordsmen, were across the little stream, and with
+alternate yells of &ldquo;Nasta&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sorais&rdquo;, with dancing
+banners and gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us like ants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and also the main
+advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalry charges, and this I
+did to the best of my ability, by continually sending squadrons of about a
+thousand sabres out against them. These squadrons did the enemy much damage,
+and it was a glorious sight to see them flash down the hillside, and bury
+themselves like a living knife in the heart of the foe. But, also, we lost many
+men, for after the experience of a couple of these charges, which had drawn a
+sort of bloody St Andrew&rsquo;s cross of dead and dying through the centre of
+Nasta&rsquo;s host, our foes no longer attempted to offer an unyielding front
+to their irresistible weight, but opened out to let the rush go through,
+throwing themselves on the ground and hamstringing hundreds of horses as they
+passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drew nearer, till at
+last he hurled himself upon Good&rsquo;s force of seven thousand five hundred
+regulars, who were drawn up to receive them in three strong squares. About the
+same time, too, an awful and heartshaking roar told me that the main battle had
+closed in on the centre and extreme left. I raised myself in my stirrups and
+looked down to my left; so far as the eye could see there was a long dazzling
+shimmer of steel as the sun glanced upon falling sword and thrusting spear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle, now giving way,
+now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusion of attack and defence.
+But it was as much as I could do to keep count of what was happening to our own
+wing; and, as for the moment the cavalry had fallen back under cover of
+Good&rsquo;s three squares, I had a fair view of this.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nasta&rsquo;s wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves against the sullen
+rock-like squares. Time after time did they yell out their war-cries, and hurl
+themselves furiously against the long triple ridges of spear points, only to be
+rolled back as billows are when they meet the cliff.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without a pause, and at the
+end of that time, if we had gained nothing we had lost nothing. Two attempts to
+turn our left flank by forcing a way through the wood by which it was protected
+had been defeated; and as yet Nasta&rsquo;s swordsmen had, notwithstanding
+their desperate efforts, entirely failed to break Good&rsquo;s three squares,
+though they had thinned their numbers by quite a third.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staff and
+Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had held its own with honour,
+and the same may be said of our left battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais&rsquo; army drew back, having, I
+began to think, had enough of it. On this point, however, I was soon
+undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparatively small squadrons,
+she charged us furiously with them, all along the line, and then once more
+sullenly rolled her tens of thousands of sword and spearmen down upon our
+weakened squares and squadrons; Sorais herself directing the movement, as
+fearless as a lioness heading the main attack. On they came like an
+avalanche&mdash;I saw her golden helm gleaming in the van&mdash;our counter
+charges of cavalry entirely failing to check their forward sweep. Now they had
+struck us, and our centre bent in like a bow beneath the weight of their
+rush&mdash;it parted, and had not the ten thousand men in reserve charged down
+to its support it must have been utterly destroyed. As for Good&rsquo;s three
+squares, they were swept backwards like boats upon an incoming tide, and the
+foremost one was burst into and lost half its remaining men. But the effort was
+too fierce and terrible to last. Suddenly the battle came, as it were, to a
+turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then it began to move towards Sorais&rsquo; camp. Just then, too, Nasta&rsquo;s
+fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either because they were disheartened
+by their losses or by way of a ruse, fell back, and the remains of Good&rsquo;s
+gallant squares, leaving the positions they had held for so many hours, cheered
+wildly, and rashly followed them down the slope, whereon the swarms of
+swordsmen turned to envelop them, and once more flung themselves upon them with
+a yell. Taken thus on every side, what remained of the first square was quickly
+destroyed, and I perceived that the second, in which I could see Good himself
+mounted on a large horse, was on the point of annihilation. A few more minutes
+and it was broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sight of Good in the
+confused and hideous slaughter that ensued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-white mane and tail
+burst from the ruins of the square and came rushing past me riderless and with
+wide streaming reins, and in it I recognized the charger that Good had been
+riding. Then I hesitated no longer, but taking with me half my effective
+cavalry force, which now amounted to between four and five thousand men, I
+commended myself to God, and, without waiting for orders, I charged straight
+down upon Nasta&rsquo;s swordsmen. Seeing me coming, and being warned by the
+thunder of my horses&rsquo; hoofs, the majority of them faced round, and gave
+us a right warm welcome. Not an inch would they yield; in vain did we hack and
+trample them down as we ploughed a broad red furrow through their thousands;
+they seemed to re-arise by hundreds, driving their terrible sharp swords into
+our horses, or severing their hamstrings, and then hacking the troopers who
+came to the ground with them almost into pieces. My horse was speedily killed
+under me, but luckily I had a fresh one, my own favourite, a coal-black mare
+Nyleptha had given me, being held in reserve behind, and on this I afterwards
+mounted. Meanwhile I had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well
+lost sight of by my men in the mad confusion of the moment. My voice, of
+course, could not be heard in the midst of the clanging of steel and the
+shrieks of rage and agony. Presently I found myself mixed up with the remnants
+of the square, which had formed round its leader Good, and was fighting
+desperately for existence. I stumbled against somebody, and glancing down,
+caught sight of Good&rsquo;s eyeglass. He had been beaten to his knee. Over him
+was a great fellow swinging a heavy sword. Somehow I managed to run the man
+through with the sime I had taken from the Masai whose hand I had cut off; but
+as I did so, he dealt me a frightful blow on the left side and breast with the
+sword, and though my chain shirt saved my life, I felt that I was badly hurt.
+For a minute I fell on to my hands and knees among the dead and dying, and
+turned sick and faint. When I came to again I saw that Nasta&rsquo;s spearmen,
+or rather those of them who remained, were retreating back across the stream,
+and that Good was there by me smiling sweetly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Near go that,&rdquo; he shouted; &ldquo;but all&rsquo;s well that ends
+well.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not ended well for me. I
+was sorely hurt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on our extreme right
+and left, and which were now reinforced by the three thousand sabres which we
+had held in reserve, flash out like arrows from their posts and fall upon the
+disordered flanks of Sorais&rsquo; forces, and that charge decided the issue of
+the battle. In another minute or two the enemy was in slow and sullen retreat
+across the little stream, where they once more re-formed. Then came another
+lull, during which I managed to get a second horse, and received my orders to
+advance from Sir Henry, and then with one fierce deep-throated roar, with a
+waving of banners and a wide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took
+the offensive and began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly from the
+positions they had so gallantly held all day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last it was our turn to attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and were approaching
+the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary sight. Galloping wildly
+towards us, his arms tightly clasped around his horse&rsquo;s neck, against
+which his blanched cheek was tightly pressed, was a man arrayed in the full
+costume of a Zu-Vendi general, but in whom, as he came nearer, I recognized
+none other than our lost Alphonse. It was impossible even then to mistake those
+curling mustachios. In a minute he was tearing through our ranks and narrowly
+escaped being cut down, till at last somebody caught his horse&rsquo;s bridle,
+and he was brought to me just as a momentary halt occurred in our advance to
+allow what remained of our shattered squares to form into line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, monsieur,&rdquo; he gasped out in a voice that was nearly
+inarticulate with fright, &ldquo;grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have
+endured! But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the lâches. But listen,
+monsieur&mdash;I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered tomorrow at
+the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards will leave their posts,
+and the priests are going to kill her. Ah yes! they little thought it, but I
+was ensconced beneath a banner, and I heard it all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What?&rdquo; I said, horror-struck; &ldquo;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last night to settle
+the affair with the Archbishop [Agon]. The guard will leave open the little
+gate leading from the great stair and go away, and Nasta and Agon&rsquo;s
+priests will come in and kill her. Themselves they would not kill her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come with me,&rdquo; I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer next to
+me to take over the command, I snatched his bridle and galloped as hard as I
+could for the spot, between a quarter and half a mile off, where I saw the
+royal pennon flying, and where I knew that I should find Curtis if he were
+still alive. On we tore, our horses clearing heaps of dead and dying men, and
+splashing through pools of blood, on past the long broken lines of spearmen to
+where, mounted on the white stallion Nyleptha had sent to him as a parting
+gift, I saw Sir Henry&rsquo;s form towering above the generals who surrounded
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as we reached him the advance began again. A bloody cloth was bound around
+his head, but I saw that his eye was as bright and keen as ever. Beside him was
+old Umslopogaas, his axe red with blood, but looking quite fresh and uninjured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong, Quatermain?&rdquo; he shouted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Everything. There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow at dawn.
+Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheard it all,&rdquo;
+and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman had told me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curtis&rsquo; face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At dawn,&rdquo; he gasped, &ldquo;and it is now sunset; it dawns before
+four and we are nearly a hundred miles off&mdash;nine hours at the outside.
+What is to be done?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An idea entered into my head. &ldquo;Is that horse of yours fresh?&rdquo; I
+said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I have only just got on to him&mdash;when my last was killed, and
+he has been fed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So is mine. Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he can ride well. We
+will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not&mdash;well, we cannot help it.
+No, no; it is impossible for you to leave now. You would be seen, and it would
+turn the fate of the battle. It is not half won yet. The soldiers would think
+you were making a bolt of it. Quick now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang into the empty
+saddle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now farewell,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Send a thousand horsemen with
+remounts after us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general to the left
+wing to take over the command and explain my absence.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?&rdquo; he said in a
+broken voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped off to join the
+advance, which by this time was fording the little brook that now ran red with
+the blood of the fallen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as arrows leave a
+bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out of the sight of slaughter, the
+smell of blood, and the turmoil and shouting, which only came to our ears as a
+faint, far-off roaring like the sound of distant breakers.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+AWAY! AWAY!</h2>
+
+<p>
+At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses; and,
+turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it was by the
+fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red, looked from where
+we were more like some wild titanic picture than an actual hand-to-hand combat.
+The distinguishing scenic effect from that distance was the countless distinct
+flashes of light reflected from the swords and spears, otherwise the panorama
+was not so grand as might have been expected. The great green lap of sward in
+which the struggle was being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills
+behind, and the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what
+was tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant when viewed from
+the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings of our race
+about which we blow the loud trumpet and make such a fuss and worry? How
+utterly antlike, and morally and physically insignificant, must they seem to
+the calm eyes that watch them from the arching depths above!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We win the day, Macumazahn,&rdquo; said old Umslopogaas, taking in the
+whole situation with a glance of his practised eye. &ldquo;Look, the Lady of
+the Night&rsquo;s forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in
+them, they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But
+alas! the battle will in a manner be drawn, for the darkness gathers, and the
+regiments will not be able to follow and slay!&rdquo;&mdash;and he shook his
+head sadly. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;I do not think that they will
+fight again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have
+lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I told him
+what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the lives that had been
+lost that day would have been lost in vain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but
+these, and to be there before the dawn! Well&mdash;away! away! man can but try,
+Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old
+&lsquo;witch-finder&rsquo;s&rsquo; [Agon&rsquo;s] skull for him. Once he wanted
+to burn us, the old &lsquo;rain-maker&rsquo;, did he? And now he would set a
+snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good! So sure as my name is the name
+of the Woodpecker, so surely, be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to
+the beard. Ay, by T&rsquo;Chaka&rsquo;s head I swear it!&rdquo; and he shook
+Inkosi-kaas as he galloped. By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately
+there would be a moon later, and the road was good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode had got
+their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide steady stride that
+neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the side of slopes we
+galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot of far-off hills. Nearer
+and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were travelling up their steeps, and now
+we were over and passing towards others that sprang up like visions in the far,
+faint distance beyond.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet of the night, that
+was set like a song to the falling music of our horses&rsquo; hoofs; on, past
+deserted villages, where only some forgotten starving dog howled a melancholy
+welcome; on, past lonely moated dwellings; on, through the white patchy
+moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom of the earth, as though there
+was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for hour after hour!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious horses,
+and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they filled their great
+lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round hoofs. Grim and black
+indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside me, mounted upon the great white horse,
+like Death in the Revelation of St John, as now and again lifting his fierce
+set face he gazed out along the road, and pointed with his axe towards some
+distant rise or house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning to give
+out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were considerably
+more than half way. On the top of a rise was a little spring, which I
+remembered because I had slept by it a few nights before, and here I motioned
+to Umslopogaas to pull up, having determined to give the horses and ourselves
+ten minutes to breathe in. He did so, and we dismounted&mdash;that is to say,
+Umslopogaas did, and then helped me off, for what with fatigue, stiffness, and
+the pain of my wound, I could not do so for myself; and then the gallant horses
+stood panting there, resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat
+fell drip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds in the
+still night air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and drank deep
+of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful of wine since
+midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up, though my fatigue was too
+great to allow me to feel hungry. Then, having laved my fevered head and hands,
+I returned, and the Zulu went and drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a
+couple of mouthfuls each&mdash;no more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get
+the poor beasts away from the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed
+it in hobbling up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting
+the condition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though she was, was
+evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her eye looked sick and dull;
+but Daylight, Nyleptha&rsquo;s glorious horse&mdash;who, if he is served
+aright, should, like the steeds who saved great Rameses in his need, feed for
+the rest of his days out of a golden manger&mdash;was still comparatively
+speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had by far the heavier
+weight to carry. He was &ldquo;tucked up&rdquo;, indeed, and his legs were
+weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his shapely head up and
+gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that seemed to say that whoever
+failed <i>he</i> was good for those five-and-forty miles that yet lay between
+us and Milosis. Then Umslopogaas helped me into the saddle and&mdash;vigorous
+old savage that he was!&mdash;vaulted into his own without touching a stirrup,
+and we were off once more, slowly at first, till the horses got into their
+stride, and then more swiftly. So we passed over another ten miles, and then
+came a long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three times did my poor
+black mare nearly come to the ground with me. But on the top she seemed to
+gather herself together, and rattled down the slope with long, convulsive
+strides, breathing in gasps. We did that three or four miles more swiftly than
+any since we had started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last effort,
+and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between her teeth and
+bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for some three or four hundred
+yards, and then, with two or three jerky strides, pulled herself up and fell
+with a crash right on to her head, I rolling myself free as she did so. As I
+struggled to my feet the brave beast raised her head and looked at me with
+piteous bloodshot eyes, and then her head dropped with a groan and she was
+dead. Her heart was broken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him in dismay. There
+were still more than twenty miles to do by dawn, and how were we to do it with
+one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old Zulu&rsquo;s
+extraordinary running powers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to hoist me into it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What wilt thou do?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Run,&rdquo; he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief it was to
+me to get that change of horses! Anybody who has ever ridden against time will
+know what it meant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the gaunt Zulu a
+lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thing to see old Umslopogaas run mile
+after mile, his lips slightly parted and his nostrils agape like the
+horse&rsquo;s. Every five miles or so we stopped for a few minutes to let him
+get his breath, and then flew on again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Canst thou go farther,&rdquo; I said at the third of these stoppages,
+&ldquo;or shall I leave thee to follow me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of the Sun,
+now not more than five miles away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I reach it or I die,&rdquo; he gasped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my legs, and
+every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all. I was exhausted
+with toil, want of food and sleep, and also suffering very much from the blow I
+had received on my left side; it seemed as though a piece of bone or something
+was slowly piercing into my lung. Poor Daylight, too, was pretty nearly
+finished, and no wonder. But there was a smell of dawn in the air, and we might
+not stay; better that all three of us should die upon the road than that we
+should linger while there was life in us. The air was thick and heavy, as it
+sometimes is before the dawn breaks, and&mdash;another infallible sign in
+certain parts of Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand&mdash;hundreds of little
+spiders pendant on the end of long tough webs were floating about in it. These
+early-rising creatures, or rather their webs, caught upon the horse&rsquo;s and
+our own forms by scores, and, as we had neither the time nor the energy to
+brush them off, we rushed along covered with hundreds of long grey threads that
+streamed out a yard or more behind us&mdash;and a very strange appearance they
+must have given us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wall of the Frowning
+City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me: What if they will not let us in?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>Open! open!</i>&rdquo; I shout imperiously, at the same time giving
+the royal password. &ldquo;<i>Open! open!</i> a messenger, a messenger with
+tidings of the war!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What news?&rdquo; cried the guard. &ldquo;And who art thou that ridest
+so madly, and who is that whose tongue lolls out&rdquo;&mdash;and it actually
+did&mdash;&ldquo;and who runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog.
+<i>Open! open!</i> I bring tidings.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge fell with a
+rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one and over the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What news, my lord, what news?&rdquo; cried the guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,&rdquo; I answered, and
+was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen short minutes
+more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both live for ever in the annals of the
+land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passing the Flower Temple
+now&mdash;one mile more, only one little mile&mdash;hold on, keep your life in
+thee, see the houses run past of themselves. Up, good horse, up,
+there&mdash;but fifty yards now. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on
+gallantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank God, the palace at last!&rdquo; and see, the first arrows of the
+dawn are striking on the Temple&rsquo;s golden dome.<a href="#fn-22" name="fnref-22" id="fnref-22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>
+But shall I get in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-22" id="fn-22"></a> <a href="#fnref-22">[22]</a>
+Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught the light some time
+before the breaking of the dawn.&mdash;A. Q.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more I give the password and shout &ldquo;<i>Open! open!</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No answer, and my heart grows very faint.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my joy I recognize
+it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of Nyleptha&rsquo;s guards, a man I
+know to be as honest as the light&mdash;indeed, the same whom Nyleptha had sent
+to arrest Sorais on the day she fled to the temple.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is it thou, Kara?&rdquo; I cry; &ldquo;I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard
+let down the bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length the bridge fell
+and one half of the gate opened and we got into the courtyard, where at last
+poor Daylight fell down beneath me, as I thought, dead. Except Kara, there was
+nobody to be seen, and his look was wild, and his garments were all torn. He
+had opened the gate and let down the bridge alone, and was now getting them up
+and shut again (as, owing to a very ingenious arrangement of cranks and levers,
+one man could easily do, and indeed generally did do).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where are the guard?&rdquo; I gasped, fearing his answer as I never
+feared anything before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know not,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;two hours ago, as I slept, was I
+seized and bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very moment, have I
+freed myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly fear, that we are
+betrayed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered, followed
+by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man, through the courtyards,
+up the great hall, which was silent as the grave, towards the Queen&rsquo;s
+sleeping-place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We reached the first ante-room&mdash;no guards; the second, still no guards.
+Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after all, too late! The
+silence and solitude of those great chambers was dreadful, and weighed me down
+like an evil dream. On, right into Nyleptha&rsquo;s chamber we rushed and
+staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst; we saw there was a light in
+it, ay, and a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it is the White Queen
+herself, the Queen unharmed! There she stands in her night gear, roused, by the
+clatter of our coming, from her bed, the heaviness of sleep yet in her eyes,
+and a red blush of fear and shame mantling her lovely breast and cheek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; she cries. &ldquo;What means this? Oh, Macumazahn, is
+it thou? Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearing evil
+tidings&mdash;and my lord&mdash;oh, tell me not my lord is dead&mdash;not
+dead!&rdquo; she wailed, wringing her white hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais last night
+at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten back all along
+her lines, and thy arms prevail.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I knew it,&rdquo; she cried in triumph. &ldquo;I knew that he would win;
+and they called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads when I gave him the
+command! Last night at sundown, sayest thou, and it is not yet dawn?
+Surely&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,&rdquo; I broke in, &ldquo;and give
+us wine to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst save thyself
+alive. Nay, stay not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towards some room beyond,
+and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick cloak, by which time a dozen or
+so of half-dressed women were pouring into the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Follow us and be silent,&rdquo; I said to them as they gazed with
+wondering eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into the first ante-room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;give us wine to drink and food, if ye have
+it, for we are near to death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and from a
+cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold flesh were brought forth, and
+Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life flow back into our veins as the good red
+wine went down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hark to me, Nyleptha,&rdquo; I said, as I put down the empty tankard.
+&ldquo;Hast thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of
+discretion?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;surely.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom thou
+canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them come armed, with all
+honest folk that they can gather, to rescue thee from death. Nay, question not;
+do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the maids.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated the words I had
+uttered, giving them besides a list of the names of the men to whom each should
+run.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives,&rdquo; I added.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin us at the door
+leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway as soon as he had made fast
+behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made our way, followed by the
+Queen and her women. As we went we tore off mouthfuls of food, and between them
+I told her what I knew of the danger which encompassed her, and how we found
+Kara, and how all the guards and men-servants were gone, and she was alone with
+her women in that great place; and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread
+through the town that our army had been utterly destroyed, and that Sorais was
+marching in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereof all men had
+fallen away from her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been but six or seven
+minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding that the golden roof of the temple
+being very lofty was ablaze with the rays of the rising sun, it was not yet
+dawn, nor would be for another ten minutes. We were in the courtyard now, and
+here my wound pained me so that I had to take Nyleptha&rsquo;s arm, while
+Umslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway through the palace
+wall that opened on to the mighty stair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The door was gone, and so
+were the outer gates of bronze&mdash;entirely gone. They had been taken from
+their hinges, and as we afterwards found, hurled from the stairway to the
+ground two hundred feet beneath. There in front of us was the semicircular
+standing-space, about twice the size of a large oval dining-table, and the ten
+curved black marble steps leading on to the main stair&mdash;and that was all.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap22"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
+HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR</h2>
+
+<p>
+We looked at one another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou seest,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;they have taken away the door. Is
+there aught with which we may fill the place? Speak quickly for they will be on
+us ere the daylight.&rdquo; I spoke thus, because I knew that we must hold this
+place or none, as there were no inner doors in the palace, the rooms being
+separated one from another by curtains. I also knew that if we could by any
+means defend this doorway the murderers could get in nowhere else; for the
+palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since the secret door by which
+Sorais had entered on that memorable night of attempted murder had, by
+Nyleptha&rsquo;s order, been closed up with masonry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have it,&rdquo; said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the
+emergency in a wonderful way. &ldquo;On the farther side of the courtyard are
+blocks of cut marble&mdash;the workmen brought them there for the bed of the
+new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block the door with them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remaining maidens down
+the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance from the docks below,
+where her father, who was a great merchant employing many men, had his
+dwelling-place, and set another to watch through the doorway, we made our way
+back across the courtyard to where the hewn marble lay; and here we met Kara
+returning from despatching the first two messengers. There were the marble
+blocks, sure enough, broad, massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing
+about eighty pounds each, and there, too, were a couple of implements like
+small stretchers, that the workmen used to carry them on. Without delay we got
+some of the blocks on to the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to
+the doorway.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen, Macumazahn,&rdquo; said Umslopogaas, &ldquo;if those low fellows
+come, it is I who will hold the stair against them till the door is built up.
+Nay, nay, it will be a man&rsquo;s death: gainsay me not, old friend. It has
+been a good day, let it now be good night. See, I throw myself down to rest on
+the marble there; when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me, not before, for
+I need my strength,&rdquo; and without a word he went outside and flung himself
+down on the marble, and was instantly asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down by the doorway,
+and content myself with directing operations. The girls brought the block,
+while Kara and Nyleptha built them up across the six-foot-wide doorway, a
+triple row of them, for less would be useless. But the marble had to be brought
+forty yards and then there were forty yards to run back, and though the girls
+laboured gloriously, even staggering along alone, each with a block in her
+arms, it was slow work, dreadfully slow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we heard a commotion
+at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faint clinking of armed men. As yet the
+wall was only two feet high, and we had been eight minutes at the building of
+it. So they had come. Alphonse had heard aright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of the dawning we could
+make out long files of men, some fifty or so in all, slowly creeping up the
+stair. They were now at the half-way standing place that rested on the great
+flying arch; and here, perceiving that something was going on above, they, to
+our great gain, halted for three or four minutes and consulted, then slowly and
+cautiously advanced again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and it was almost
+three feet high.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and swung
+Inkosi-kaas round his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel as a young man once more. My
+strength has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before it dies. Fear
+not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new heart
+into me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and I stood
+together on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast as a spirit,
+Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy flesh, but I could not see what was
+the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us, old hunter. So be it:
+we have had our time, but I would that in it I had seen some more such fights
+as yesterday&rsquo;s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set my
+eyes towards Zululand;&rdquo; and he took my hand and shook it, and then turned
+to face the advancing foe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered over our
+improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his stand by the
+Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What, comest thou too?&rdquo; laughed out the old warrior.
+&ldquo;Welcome&mdash;a welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can
+die like a man; ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are
+ready. We wet our beaks like eagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our
+assegais, and are hungry to fight. Who comes to give greeting to the
+Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is
+death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I,
+Umslopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu, a
+captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the son of
+Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal blood of
+T&rsquo;Chaka, I of the King&rsquo;s House, I the Ringed Man, I the Induna, I
+call to them as a buck calls, I challenge them, I await them. Ow! it is thou,
+it is thou!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed men, among whom in
+the growing light I recognized both Nasta and Agon, came streaming up the stair
+with a rush, and one big fellow, armed with a heavy spear, dashed up the ten
+semicircular steps ahead of his comrades and struck at the great Zulu with the
+spear. Umslopogaas moved his body but not his legs, so that the blow missed
+him, and next instant Inkosi-kaas crashed through headpiece, hair and skull,
+and the man&rsquo;s corpse was rattling down the steps. As he dropped, his
+round hippopotamus-hide shield fell from his hand on to the marble, and the
+Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then began a scene
+the like of which has not been known to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as they came,
+the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down they rolled again, dead or dying.
+And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu&rsquo;s eye seemed to get quicker
+and his arm stronger. He shouted out his war-cries and the names of chiefs whom
+he had slain, and the blows of his awful axe rained straight and true, shearing
+through everything they fell on. There was none of the scientific method he was
+so fond of about this last immortal fight of his; he had no time for it, but
+struck with his full strength, and at every stroke a man sank in his tracks,
+and went rattling down the marble steps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding him in a dozen
+places till he streamed red with blood; but the shield protected his head and
+the chain-shirt his vitals, and for minute after minute, aided by the gallant
+Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last Kara&rsquo;s sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled
+down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the brave man that he was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned. Shouting out some
+wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and another, till at
+last they drew back from the slippery blood-stained steps, and stared at him
+with amazement, thinking that he was no mortal man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hope rose in my heart
+as I leaned there against it a miserable helpless log, and ground my teeth, and
+watched that glorious struggle. I could do no more for I had lost my revolver
+in the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint as he was with
+wounds, he mocked them, he called them &ldquo;women&rdquo;&mdash;the grand old
+warrior, standing there one against so many! And for a breathing space none
+would come against him, notwithstanding Nasta&rsquo;s exhortations, till at
+last old Agon, who, to do him justice, was a brave man, mad with baffled rage,
+and seeing that the wall would soon be built and his plans defeated, shook the
+great spear he held, and rushed up the dripping steps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, ah!&rdquo; shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest&rsquo;s
+flowing white beard, &ldquo;it is thou, old &lsquo;witch-finder&rsquo;! Come
+on! I await thee, white &lsquo;medicine man&rsquo;; come on! come on! I have
+sworn to slay thee, and I ever keep my faith.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear with such force at
+Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough shield and pierced him in the
+neck. The Zulu cast down the transfixed shield, and that moment was
+Agon&rsquo;s last, for before he could free his spear and strike again, with a
+shout of &ldquo;<i>There&rsquo;s for thee, Rain-maker!</i>&rdquo; Umslopogaas
+gripped Inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled on high and drave her right on
+to his venerable head, so that Agon rolled down dead among the corpses of his
+fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him and his plots altogether. And
+even as he fell, a great cry rose from the foot of the stair, and looking out
+through the portion of the doorway that was yet unclosed, we saw armed men
+rushing up to the rescue, and called an answer to their shouts. Then the
+would-be murderers who yet remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw
+several priests, turned to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were butchered as
+they fled. Only one man stayed, and he was the great lord Nasta,
+Nyleptha&rsquo;s suitor, and the father of the plot. For a moment the
+black-bearded Nasta stood with bowed face leaning on his long sword as though
+in despair, and then, with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at the Zulu, and,
+swinging the glittering sword around his head, dealt him such a mighty blow
+beneath his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the
+chain armour and deep into Umslopogaas&rsquo; side, for a moment paralysing him
+and causing him to drop his axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an end of him, but little
+he knew his foe. With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu gathered himself
+together and sprang straight at Nasta&rsquo;s throat, as I have sometimes seen
+a wounded lion spring. He struck him full as his foot was on the topmost stair,
+and his long arms closing round him like iron bands, down they rolled together
+struggling furiously. Nasta was a strong man and a desperate, but he could not
+match the strongest man in Zululand, sore wounded though he was, whose strength
+was as the strength of a bull. In a minute the end came. I saw old Umslopogaas
+stagger to his feet&mdash;ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing up
+the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight over the
+parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to powder on the rocks two hundred feet
+below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passed down the stair
+before the assassins passed up was at hand, and the loud shouts which reached
+us from the outer gates told us that the town was also aroused, and the men
+awakened by the women were calling to be admitted. Some of Nyleptha&rsquo;s
+brave ladies, who in their night-shifts and with their long hair streaming down
+their backs, just as they had been aroused from rest, went off to admit them at
+the side entrance, whilst others, assisted by the rescuing party outside,
+pushed and pulled down the marble blocks they had placed there with so much
+labour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followed by a crowd of
+rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a glorious figure.
+The man was a mass of wounds, and a glance at his wild eye told me that he was
+dying. The &ldquo;keshla&rdquo; gum-ring upon his head was severed in two
+places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in his skull, and the
+blood poured down his face from the gashes. Also on the right side of his neck
+was a stab from a spear, inflicted by Agon; there was a deep cut on his left
+arm just below where the mail shirt-sleeve stopped, and on the right side of
+his body the armour was severed by a gash six inches long, where Nasta&rsquo;s
+mighty sword had bitten through it and deep into its wearer&rsquo;s vitals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid savage, and the
+ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and cheered him, as well
+they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With outstretched arms and tottering
+gait he pursued his way, followed by us all along the broad shell-strewn walk
+that ran through the courtyard, past the spot where the blocks of marble lay,
+through the round arched doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it,
+down the short passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with
+hastily-armed men, who poured through the side entrance. Straight up the hall
+he went, leaving behind him a track of blood on the marble pavement, till at
+last he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the centre of it, and here his
+strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped and leaned upon his axe. Then
+suddenly he lifted up his voice and cried aloud&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I die, I die&mdash;but it was a kingly fray. Where are they who came up
+the great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou gone
+before to wait for me in the dark whither I go? The blood blinds me&mdash;the
+place turns round&mdash;I hear the voice of waters.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red axe and kissed
+the blade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Nay, nay, we will go
+together; we cannot part, thou and I. We have lived too long one with another,
+thou and I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke! a strong
+stroke!&rdquo; and, drawing himself to his full height, with a wild
+heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl the axe round his head
+till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly, with awful force
+he brought it down straight on to the crown of the mass of sacred stone. A
+shower of sparks flew up, and such was the almost superhuman strength of the
+blow, that the massive marble split with a rending sound into a score of
+pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there remained but some fragments of steel and a
+fibrous rope of shattered horn that had been the handle. Down with a crash on
+to the pavement fell the fragments of the holy stone, and down with a crash on
+to them, still grasping the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old
+Zulu&mdash;<i>dead</i>. And thus the hero died.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessed the
+extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, &ldquo;<i>The prophecy! the
+prophecy!</i> He has shattered the sacred stone!&rdquo; and at once a murmuring
+arose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishes her.
+&ldquo;Ay, my people, he has shattered the stone, and behold the prophecy is
+fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis. Incubu, my lord, hath beat
+Sorais back, and I fear her no more, and to him who hath saved the Crown it
+shall surely be. And this man,&rdquo; she said, turning to me and laying her
+hand upon my shoulder, &ldquo;wot ye that, though wounded in the fight of
+yesterday, he rode with that old warrior who lies there, one hundred miles
+&ldquo;twixt sun set and rise to save me from the plots of cruel men. Ay, and
+he has saved me, by a very little, and therefore because of the deeds that they
+have done&mdash;deeds of glory such as our history cannot show the
+like&mdash;therefore I say that the name of Macumazahn and the name of dead
+Umslopogaas, ay, and the name of Kara, my servant, who aided him to hold the
+stair, shall be blazoned in letters of gold above my throne, and shall be
+glorious for ever while the land endures. I, the Queen, have said it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said that after all we
+had only done our duty, as it is the fashion of both Englishmen and Zulus to
+do, and there was nothing to make an outcry about; at which they cheered still
+more, and then I was supported across the outer courtyard to my old quarters,
+in order that I might be put to bed. As I went, my eyes lit upon the brave
+horse Daylight that lay there, his white head outstretched on the pavement,
+exactly as he had fallen on entering the yard; and I bade those who supported
+me take me near him, that I might look on the good beast once more before he
+was dragged away. And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyes and,
+lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly. I could have shouted for joy to
+find that he was not dead, only unfortunately I had not a shout left in me; but
+as it was, grooms were sent for and he was lifted up and wine poured down his
+throat, and in a fortnight he was as well and strong as ever, and is the pride
+and joy of all the people of Milosis, who, whenever they see him, point him out
+to the little children as the &ldquo;horse which saved the White Queen&rsquo;s
+life&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had my mail shirt
+removed. They hurt me a great deal in getting it off, and no wonder, for on my
+left breast and side was a black bruise the size of a saucer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outside the palace
+wall, some ten hours later. I raised myself and asked what was the news, and
+they told me that a large body of cavalry sent by Curtis to assist the Queen
+had arrived from the scene of the battle, which they had left two hours after
+sundown. When they left, the wreck of Sorais&rsquo; army was in full retreat
+upon M&rsquo;Arstuna, followed by all our effective cavalry. Sir Henry was
+encamping the remains of his worn-out forces on the site (such is the fortune
+of war) that Sorais had occupied the night before, and proposed marching to
+M&rsquo;Arstuna on the morrow. Having heard this, I felt that I could die with
+a light heart, and then everything became a blank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc of a sympathetic
+eyeglass, behind which was Good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How are you getting on, old chap?&rdquo; said a voice from the
+neighbourhood of the eyeglass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you doing here?&rdquo; I asked faintly. &ldquo;You ought to be
+at M&rsquo;Arstuna&mdash;have you run away, or what?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;M&rsquo;Arstuna,&rdquo; he replied cheerfully. &ldquo;Ah,
+M&rsquo;Arstuna fell last week&mdash;you&rsquo;ve been unconscious for a
+fortnight, you see&mdash;with all the honours of war, you know&mdash;trumpets
+blowing, flags flying, just as though they had had the best of it; but for all
+that, weren&rsquo;t they glad to go. Israel made for his tents, I can tell
+you&mdash;never saw such a sight in my life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Sorais?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sorais&mdash;oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the
+scoundrels,&rdquo; he added, with a change of tone&mdash;&ldquo;sacrificed the
+Queen to save their skins, you see. She is being brought up here, and I
+don&rsquo;t know what will happen to her, poor soul!&rdquo; and he sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is Curtis?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is with Nyleptha. She rode out to meet us today, and there was a
+grand to-do, I can tell you. He is coming to see you tomorrow; the doctors (for
+there is a medical &lsquo;faculty&rsquo; in Zu-Vendis as elsewhere) thought
+that he had better not come today.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstanding the
+doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when a man is newly married
+and has just gained a great victory, he is apt to listen to the advice of
+doctors, and quite right too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that &ldquo;Monsieur must now
+couch himself,&rdquo; and looking up perceived Alphonse&rsquo;s enormous black
+mustachios curling away in the distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So you are here?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instincts are
+satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse&rsquo;s
+failings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up to the level of his
+heroic grandfather in this particular, showing thereby how true is the saying
+that it is a bad thing to be overshadowed by some great ancestral name), a
+better or kinder nurse never lived. Poor Alphonse! I hope he will always think
+of me as kindly as I think of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he told me the whole
+history of what had happened since Umslopogaas and I galloped wildly away from
+the battle to save the life of the Queen. It seemed to me that he had managed
+the thing exceedingly well, and showed great ability as a general. Of course,
+however, our loss had been dreadfully heavy&mdash;indeed, I am afraid to say
+how many perished in the desperate battle I have described, but I know that the
+slaughter has appreciably affected the male population of the country. He was
+very pleased to see me, dear fellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in
+his eyes for the little that I had been able to do. I saw him, however, start
+violently when his eyes fell upon my face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that &ldquo;her dear
+lord&rdquo; had come back with no other injury than an ugly scar on his
+forehead. I do not believe that she allowed all the fearful slaughter that had
+taken place to weigh ever so little in the balance against this one fact, or
+even to greatly diminish her joy; and I cannot blame her for it, seeing that it
+is the nature of loving woman to look at all things through the spectacles of
+her love, and little does she reck of the misery of the many if the happiness
+of the <i>one</i> be assured. That is human nature, which the Positivists tell
+us is just perfection; so no doubt it is all right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what art thou going to do with Sorais?&rdquo; I asked her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sorais,&rdquo; she said, with a little stamp of the foot; &ldquo;ah, but
+Sorais!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow,&rdquo; he
+said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shook my head and laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t deceive yourselves,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I may be about for
+a little, but I shall never be all right again. I am a dying man, Curtis. I may
+die slow, but die I must. Do you know I have been spitting blood all the
+morning? I tell you there is something working away into my lung; I can feel
+it. There, don&rsquo;t look distressed; I have had my day, and am ready to go.
+Give me the mirror, will you? I want to look at myself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and at last he handed
+me one of the discs of polished silver set in a wooden frame like a
+hand-screen, which serve as looking-glasses in Zu-Vendis. I looked and put it
+down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; I said quietly, &ldquo;I thought so; and you talk of my
+getting all right!&rdquo; I did not like to let them see how shocked I really
+was at my own appearance. My grizzled stubby hair was turned snow-white, and my
+yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman&rsquo;s and had two deep purple rings
+painted beneath the eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject, telling me
+that the artists had taken a cast of the dead body of old Umslopogaas, and that
+a great statue in black marble was to be erected of him in the act of splitting
+the sacred stone, which was to be matched by another statue in white marble of
+myself and the horse Daylight as he appeared when, at the termination of that
+wild ride, he sank beneath me in the courtyard of the palace. I have since seen
+these statues, which at the time of writing this, six months after the battle,
+are nearly finished; and very beautiful they are, especially that of
+Umslopogaas, which is exactly like him. As for that of myself, it is good, but
+they have idealized my ugly face a little, which is perhaps as well, seeing
+that thousands of people will probably look at it in the centuries to come, and
+it is not pleasant to look at ugly things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they told me that Umslopogaas&rsquo; last wish had been carried out, and
+that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, after the usual custom here, he
+had been tied up, Zulu fashion, with his knees beneath his chin, and, having
+been wrapped in a thin sheet of beaten gold, entombed in a hole hollowed out of
+the masonry of the semicircular space at the top of the stair he defended so
+splendidly, which faces, as far as we can judge, almost exactly towards
+Zululand. There he sits, and will sit for ever, for they embalmed him with
+spices, and put him in an air-tight stone coffer, keeping his grim watch
+beneath the spot he held alone against a multitude; and the people say that at
+night his ghost rises and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas at phantom
+foes. Certainly they fear during the dark hours to pass the place where the
+hero is buried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the land in that
+unaccountable way in which such things do arise among barbarous and
+semi-civilized people, blowing, like the wind, no man knows whence. According
+to this saying, so long as the old Zulu sits there, looking down the stairway
+he defended when alive, so long will the New House of the Stairway, springing
+from the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha, endure and flourish; but when he
+is taken from thence, or when, ages after, his bones at last crumble into dust,
+the House will fall, and the Stairway shall fall, and the Nation of the
+Zu-Vendi shall cease to be a Nation.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap23"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
+I HAVE SPOKEN</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was a week after Nyleptha&rsquo;s visit, when I had begun to get about a
+little in the middle of the day, that a message came to me from Sir Henry to
+say that Sorais would be brought before them in the Queen&rsquo;s first
+antechamber at midday, and requesting my attendance if possible. Accordingly,
+greatly drawn by curiosity to see this unhappy woman once more, I made shift,
+with the help of that kind little fellow Alphonse, who is a perfect treasure to
+me, and that of another waiting-man, to reach the antechamber. I got there,
+indeed, before anybody else, except a few of the great Court officials who had
+been bidden to be present, but I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was
+brought in by a party of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever, but
+with a worn expression on her proud face. She was, as usual, dressed in her
+royal &ldquo;kaf&rdquo;, emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun, and in her
+right hand she still held the toy spear of silver. A pang of admiration and
+pity went through me as I looked at her, and struggling to my feet I bowed
+deeply, at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my
+condition, to remain standing before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. &ldquo;Thou dost forget,
+Macumazahn,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I am no more a Queen, save in blood; I am
+an outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should scorn, and none show
+deference to.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At least,&rdquo; I replied, &ldquo;thou art still a lady, and therefore
+one to whom deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it
+is doubly due.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she answered, with a little laugh, &ldquo;thou dost forget
+that I would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the
+angel&rsquo;s trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I answered, &ldquo;I assure thee that I forgot it not;
+indeed, I often thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass
+was turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and I am still here, though
+perchance not for long, so why talk of it now?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;the battle! the battle! Oh, would that I
+were once more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would take such a
+vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need; that it should
+only be spoken of in whispers; those women, those pigeon-hearted half-breeds
+who suffered themselves to be overcome!&rdquo; and she choked in her wrath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ay, and that little coward beside thee,&rdquo; she went on, pointing at
+Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very uncomfortable; &ldquo;he
+escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried to make a general of him, telling the
+soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him&rdquo; (here Alphonse
+shivered at some unhappy recollection), &ldquo;but it was of no avail. He hid
+beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans. I would that I had
+slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And thou, Macumazahn, I have heard of what thou didst; thou art brave,
+and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he was <i>a man</i>. I would
+fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;I pray thee now
+plead with the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy unto
+thee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She laughed out loud. &ldquo;<i>I</i> plead for mercy!&rdquo; she said and at
+that moment the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took her
+seat with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely ill at ease.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Greeting, Sorais!&rdquo; said Nyleptha, after a short pause. &ldquo;Thou
+hast rent the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of my people to the
+sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder, thou hast
+sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from the Stairway. What
+hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die? Speak, O Sorais!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the
+indictment,&rdquo; answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. &ldquo;It runs
+thus: &lsquo;Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu.&rsquo; It is
+for this crime that my sister will slay me, not because I levied war. It is
+perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love too
+late.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; she went on, raising her voice. &ldquo;I have nought to
+say save that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou with me even as thou
+wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there&rdquo; (pointing to Sir
+Henry)&mdash;&ldquo;for now will he be King&mdash;carry out the sentence, as it
+is meet he should, for as he is the beginning of the evil, let him also be the
+end.&rdquo; And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her
+deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could not catch,
+and then the Queen spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our father died,
+and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit upon the
+throne with me, I being the elder, I gave my voice for thee and said,
+&lsquo;Nay, let her sit. She is twin with me; we were born at a birth;
+wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?&rsquo; And so has it
+ever been &ldquo;twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in what
+sort thou hast repaid me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit,
+Sorais. And yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we played
+together when we were little and loved each other much, and at night we slept
+in the same cot with our arms each around the other&rsquo;s neck, and therefore
+even now does my heart go out to thee, Sorais.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence has been too
+heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy even to the ground. Also,
+while thou dost live the land will never be at peace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hath begged
+thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as a marriage gift give I it
+to him, to do with even as he wills, knowing that, though thou dost love him,
+he loves thee not, Sorais, for all thy beauty. Nay, though thou art lovely as
+the night in all her stars, O Lady of the Night, yet it is me his wife whom he
+loves, and not thee, and therefore do I give thy life to him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do not think that I ever
+saw a man look more miserable than did Sir Henry at that moment. Somehow,
+Nyleptha&rsquo;s way of putting the thing, though true and forcible enough, was
+not altogether pleasant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I understood,&rdquo; stammered Curtis, looking at Good, &ldquo;I
+understood that you were attached&mdash;eh&mdash;attached to&mdash;to the Queen
+Sorais. I am&mdash;eh&mdash;not aware what the&mdash;in short, the state of
+your feelings may be just now; but if they happened to be that way inclined, it
+has struck me that&mdash;in short, it might put a satisfactory end to an
+unpleasant business. The lady also has ample private estates, where I am sure
+she would be at liberty to live unmolested as far as we are concerned, eh,
+Nyleptha? Of course, I only suggest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So far as I am concerned,&rdquo; said Good, colouring up, &ldquo;I am
+quite willing to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinks me worth
+the taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes, and try to make her a
+good husband.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that same slow smile upon
+her beautiful face which I had noticed the first time that I ever saw her. She
+paused a little while, and cleared her throat, and then thrice she curtseyed
+low, once to Nyleptha, once to Curtis, and once to Good, and began to speak in
+measured tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for the
+loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especially in that
+thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate as a gift to the Lord
+Incubu&mdash;the King that is to be. May prosperity, peace and plenty deck the
+life-path of one so merciful and so tender, even as flowers do. Long mayst thou
+reign, O great and glorious Queen, and hold thy husband&rsquo;s love in both
+thy hands, and many be the sons and daughters of thy beauty. And I thank thee,
+my Lord Incubu&mdash;the King that is to be&mdash;I thank thee a thousand times
+in that thou hast been pleased to accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on
+to thy comrade in arms and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan. Surely the act is
+worthy of thy greatness, my Lord Incubu. And now, lastly, I thank thee also, my
+Lord Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deigned to accept me and my poor beauty. I
+thank thee a thousand times, and I will add that thou art a good and honest
+man, and I put my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that I could say
+thee &lsquo;yea&rsquo;. And now that I have rendered thanks to all in
+turn&rdquo;&mdash;and again she smiled&mdash;&ldquo;I will add one short word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords, if ye know
+not that for me there is no middle path; that I scorn your pity and hate you
+for it; that I cast off your forgiveness as though it were a serpent&rsquo;s
+sting; and that standing here, betrayed, deserted, insulted, and alone, I yet
+triumph over you, mock you, and defy you, one and all, and <i>thus</i> I answer
+ye.&rdquo; And then, of a sudden, before anybody guessed what she intended to
+do, she drove the little silver spear she carried in her hand into her side
+with such a strong and steady aim that the keen point projected through her
+back, and she fell prone upon the pavement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight, while the rest of
+us rushed towards her. But Sorais of the Night lifted herself upon her hand,
+and for a moment fixed her glorious eyes intently on Curtis&rsquo; face, as
+though there were some message in the glance, then dropped her head and sighed,
+and with a sob her dark but splendid spirit passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that a great ceremony
+was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis was formally declared King-Consort of
+Zu-Vendis. I was too ill to go myself; and indeed, I hate all that sort of
+thing, with the crowds and the trumpet-blowing and banner-waving; but Good, who
+was there (in his full-dress uniform), came back much impressed, and told me
+that Nyleptha had looked lovely, and Curtis had borne himself in a right royal
+fashion, and had been received with acclamations that left no doubt as to his
+popularity. Also he told me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the
+procession, the populace had shouted &ldquo;<i>Macumazahn,
+Macumazahn!</i>&rdquo; till they were hoarse, and would only be appeased when
+he, Good, rose in his chariot and told them that I was too ill to be present.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me, looking very
+tired, and vowing that he had never been so bored in his life; but I dare say
+that that was a slight exaggeration. It is not in human nature that a man
+should be altogether bored on such an extraordinary occasion; and, indeed, as I
+pointed out to him, it was a marvellous thing that a man, who but little more
+than one short year before had entered a great country as an unknown wanderer,
+should today be married to its beautiful and beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst
+public rejoicings, to its throne. I even went the length to exhort him in the
+future not to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute power, but
+always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian gentleman, and next
+a public servant, called by Providence to a great and almost unprecedented
+trust. These remarks, which he might fairly have resented, he was so good as to
+receive with patience, and even to thank me for making them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to be moved to the
+house where I am now writing. It is a very pleasant country seat, situated
+about two miles from the Frowning City, on to which it looks. That was five
+months ago, during the whole of which time I have, being confined to a kind of
+couch, employed my leisure in compiling this history of our wanderings from my
+journal and from our joint memories. It is probable that it will never be read,
+but it does not much matter whether it is or not; at any rate, it has served to
+while away many hours of suffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain lately.
+Thank God, however, there will not be much more of it.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my pen for the last
+time, for I know that the end is at hand. My brain is still clear and I can
+manage to write, though with difficulty. The pain in my lung, which has been
+very bad during the last week, has suddenly quite left me, and been succeeded
+by a feeling of numbness of which I cannot mistake the meaning. And just as the
+pain has gone, so with it all fear of that end has departed, and I feel only as
+though I were going to sink into the arms of an unutterable rest. Happily,
+contentedly, and with the same sense of security with which an infant lays
+itself to sleep in its mother&rsquo;s arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of
+the Angel Death. All the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which have
+haunted me through a life that seems long as I look back upon it, have left me
+now; the storms have passed, and the Star of our Eternal Hope shines clear and
+steady on the horizon that seems so far from man, and yet is so very near to me
+tonight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so this is the end of it&mdash;a brief space of troubling, a few restless,
+fevered, anguished years, and then the arms of that great Angel Death. Many
+times have I been near to them, and now it is my turn at last, and it is well.
+Twenty-four hours more and the world will be gone from me, and with it all its
+hopes and all its fears. The air will close in over the space that my form
+filled and my place know me no more; for the dull breath of the world&rsquo;s
+forgetfulness will first dim the brightness of my memory, and then blot it out
+for ever, and of a truth I shall be dead. So is it with us all. How many
+millions have lain as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been
+forgotten!&mdash;thousands upon thousands of years ago they thought them, those
+dying men of the dim past; and thousands on thousands of years hence will their
+descendants think them and be in their turn forgotten. &ldquo;As the breath of
+the oxen in winter, as the quick star that runs along the sky, as a little
+shadow that loses itself at sunset,&rdquo; as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi
+put it, such is the order of our life, the order that passeth away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, it is not a good world&mdash;nobody can say that it is, save those who
+wilfully blind themselves to facts. How can a world be good in which Money is
+the moving power, and Self-interest the guiding star? The wonder is not that it
+is so bad, but that there should be any good left in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, glad to have known
+the dear breath of woman&rsquo;s love, and that true friendship which can even
+surpass the love of woman, glad to have heard the laughter of little children,
+to have seen the sun and the moon and the stars, to have felt the kiss of the
+salt sea on my face, and watched the wild game trek down to the water in the
+moonlight. But I should not wish to live again!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everything is changing to me. The darkness draws near, and the light departs.
+And yet it seems to me that through that darkness I can already see the shining
+welcome of many a long-lost face. Harry is there, and others; one above all, to
+my mind the sweetest and most perfect woman that ever gladdened this grey
+earth. But of her I have already written elsewhere, and at length, so why speak
+of her now? Why speak of her after this long silence, now that she is again so
+near to me, now that I go where she has gone?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple to a fiery
+flame, and my fingers tire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can think one kindly
+thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand from the far-off shore and bid
+a long farewell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commit my spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have spoken,&rdquo; as the Zulus say.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
+BY ANOTHER HAND</h2>
+
+<p>
+A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermain wrote the words
+&ldquo;<i>I have spoken</i>&rdquo; at the end of his record of our adventures.
+Nor should I have ventured to make any additions to the record had it not
+happened that by a most strange accident a chance has arisen of its being
+conveyed to England. The chance is but a faint one, it is true; but, as it is
+not probable that another will arise in our lifetimes, Good and myself think
+that we may as well avail ourselves of it, such as it is. During the last six
+months several Frontier Commissions have been at work on the various boundaries
+of Zu-Vendis, with a view of discovering whether there exists any possible
+means of ingress or egress from the country, with the result that a channel of
+communication with the outer world hitherto overlooked has been discovered.
+This channel, apparently the only one (for I have discovered that it was by it
+that the native who ultimately reached Mr Mackenzie&rsquo;s mission station,
+and whose arrival in the country, together with the fact of his
+expulsion&mdash;for he <i>did</i> arrive about three years before
+ourselves&mdash;was for reasons of their own kept a dead secret by the priests
+to whom he was brought), is about to be effectually closed. But before this is
+done, a messenger is to be despatched bearing with him this manuscript, and
+also one or two letters from Good to his friends, and from myself to my brother
+George, whom it deeply grieves me to think I shall never see again, informing
+them, as our next heirs, that they are welcome to our effects in England, if
+the Court of Probate will allow them to take them,<a href="#fn-23" name="fnref-23" id="fnref-23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>}
+inasmuchas as we have made up our minds never to return to Europe. Indeed, it
+would be impossible for us to leave Zu-Vendis even if we wished to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-23" id="fn-23"></a> <a href="#fnref-23">[23]</a>
+Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of the sort.&mdash;Editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The messenger who is to go&mdash;and I wish him joy of his journey&mdash;is
+Alphonse. For a long while he has been wearied to death of Zu-Vendis and its
+inhabitants. &ldquo;Oh, oui, c&rsquo;est beau,&rdquo; he says, with an
+expressive shrug; &ldquo;mais je m&rsquo;ennuie; ce n&rsquo;est pas
+chic.&rdquo; Again, he complains dreadfully of the absence of cafes and
+theatres, and moans continually for his lost Annette, of whom he says he dreams
+three times a week. But I fancy his secret cause of disgust at the country,
+putting aside the homesickness to which every Frenchman is subject, is that the
+people here laugh at him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of the
+great battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hid beneath a
+banner in Sorais&rsquo;s tent in order to avoid being sent forth to fight,
+which he says would have gone against his conscience. Even the little boys call
+out at him in the streets, thereby offending his pride and making his life
+unbearable. At any rate, he has determined to brave the horrors of a journey of
+almost unprecedented difficulty and danger, and also to run the risk of falling
+into the hands of the French police to answer for a certain little indiscretion
+of his own some years old (though I do not consider that a very serious
+matter), rather than remain in <i>ce triste pays</i>. Poor Alphonse! we shall
+be very sorry to part with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and
+also for the sake of this history, which is, I think, worth giving to the
+world, that he may arrive in safety. If he does, and can carry the treasure we
+have provided him with in the shape of bars of solid gold, he will be,
+comparatively speaking, a rich man for life, and well able to marry his
+Annette, if she is still in the land of the living and willing to marry her
+Alphonse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two to dear old
+Quatermain&rsquo;s narrative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote the last words of
+the last chapter. Nyleptha, Good and myself were present, and a most touching
+and yet in its way beautiful scene it was. An hour before the daybreak it
+became apparent to us that he was sinking, and our distress was very keen.
+Indeed, Good melted into tears at the idea&mdash;a fact that called forth a
+last gentle flicker of humour from our dying friend, for even at that hour he
+could be humorous. Good&rsquo;s emotion had, by loosening the muscles,
+naturally caused his eyeglass to fall from its accustomed place, and
+Quatermain, who always observed everything, observed this also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At last,&rdquo; he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, &ldquo;I have
+seen Good without his eyeglass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that he said no more till the day broke, when he asked to be lifted up to
+watch the rising of the sun for the last time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In a very few minutes,&rdquo; he said, after gazing earnestly at it,
+&ldquo;I shall have passed through those golden gates.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedly in the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together.
+Think of me sometimes,&rdquo; he murmured. &ldquo;God bless you all. I shall
+wait for you.&rdquo; And with a sigh he fell back dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfection as any
+it has ever been my lot to encounter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualities that go to
+make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a man of action and a citizen of
+the world. I never knew any one so competent to form an accurate judgment of
+men and their motives. &ldquo;I have studied human nature all my life,&rdquo;
+he would say, &ldquo;and I ought to know something about it,&rdquo; and he
+certainly did. He had but two faults&mdash;one was his excessive modesty, and
+the other a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of anybody on whom he
+concentrated his affections. As regards the first of these points, anybody who
+reads what he has written will be able to form his own opinion; but I will add
+one last instance of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trick of his to talk
+of himself as a timid man, whereas really, though very cautious, he possessed a
+most intrepid spirit, and, what is more, never lost his head. Well, in the
+great battle of the Pass, where he got the wound that finally killed him, one
+would imagine from the account which he gives of the occurrence that it was a
+chance blow that fell on him in the scrimmage. As a matter of fact, however, he
+was wounded in a most gallant and successful attempt to save Good&rsquo;s life,
+at the risk and, as it ultimately turned out, at the cost of his own. Good was
+down on the ground, and one of Nasta&rsquo;s highlanders was about to dispatch
+him, when Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form and received the
+blow on his own body, and then, rising, killed the soldier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justice to myself
+and Nyleptha will suffice. The reader will, perhaps, recollect that in one or
+two places he speaks as though Nyleptha monopolised me, and he was left by both
+of us rather out in the cold. Now Nyleptha is not perfect, any more than any
+other woman is, and she may be a little <i>exigeante</i> at times, but as
+regards Quatermain the whole thing is pure imagination. Thus when he complains
+about my not coming to see him when he is ill, the fact was that, in spite of
+my entreaties, the doctors positively forbade it. Those little remarks of his
+pained me very much when I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as
+though he were my own father, and should never have dreamed of allowing my
+marriage to interfere with that affection. But let it pass; it is, after all,
+but one little weakness, which makes no great show among so many and such
+lovable virtues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in the presence of
+Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, in deference to the popular
+clamour, accorded a great public funeral, or rather cremation. I could not help
+thinking, however, as I marched in that long and splendid procession up to the
+Temple, how he would have hated the whole thing could he have been there to see
+it, for he had a horror of ostentation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night after his death, they
+laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar, and waited for the last ray
+of the setting sun to fall upon his face. Presently it came, and struck him
+like a golden arrow, crowning the pale brows with glory, and then the trumpets
+blew, and the flooring revolved, and all that remained of our beloved friend
+fell into the furnace below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years. He was the ablest
+man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend, the finest sportsman, and, I
+believe, the best shot in all Africa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of Hunter Quatermain.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Since then things have gone very well with us. Good has been, and still is,
+busily employed in the construction of a navy on Lake Milosis and another of
+the large lakes, by means of which we hope to be able to increase trade and
+commerce, and also to overcome some very troublesome and warlike sections of
+the population who live upon their borders. Poor fellow! he is beginning to get
+over the sad death of that misguided but most attractive woman, Sorais, but it
+is a sad blow to him, for he was really deeply attached to her. I hope,
+however, that he will in time make a suitable marriage and get that unhappy
+business out of his head. Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view,
+especially a daughter of Nasta&rsquo;s (who was a widower), a very fine
+imperial-looking girl, but with too much of her father&rsquo;s intriguing, and
+yet haughty, spirit to suit my taste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I set to work to
+describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed, and content myself
+with saying that, on the whole, I am getting on very well in my curious
+position of King-Consort&mdash;better, indeed, than I had any right to expect.
+But, of course, it is not all plain sailing, and I find the responsibilities
+very heavy. Still, I hope to be able to do some good in my time, and I intend
+to devote myself to two great ends&mdash;namely, to the consolidation of the
+various clans which together make up the Zu-Vendi people, under one strong
+central government, and to the sapping of the power of the priesthood. The
+first of these reforms will, if it can be carried out, put an end to the
+disastrous civil wars that have for centuries devastated this country; and the
+second, besides removing a source of political danger, will pave the road for
+the introduction of true religion in the place of this senseless Sun worship. I
+yet hope to see the shadow of the Cross of Christ lying on the golden dome of
+the Flower Temple; or, if I do not, that my successors may.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, and that is the
+total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis. Not, indeed, that any more
+are ever likely to get here, but if they do, I warn them fairly that they will
+be shown the shortest way out of the country. I do not say this from any sense
+of inhospitality, but because I am convinced of the sacred duty that rests upon
+me of preserving to this, on the whole, upright and generous-hearted people the
+blessings of comparative barbarism. Where would all my brave army be if some
+enterprising rascal were to attack us with field-guns and Martini-Henrys? I
+cannot see that gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily newspapers, universal
+suffrage, etc., etc., have made mankind one whit the happier than they used to
+be, and I am certain that they have brought many evils in their train. I have
+no fancy for handing over this beautiful country to be torn and fought for by
+speculators, tourists, politicians and teachers, whose voice is as the voice of
+Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the valley of the underground river
+tore and fought for the body of the wild swan; nor will I endow it with the
+greed, drunkenness, new diseases, gunpowder, and general demoralization which
+chiefly mark the progress of civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples. If
+in due course it pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open to the world, that
+is another matter; but of myself I will not take the responsibility, and I may
+add that Good entirely approves of my decision. Farewell.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+H<small>ENRY</small> C<small>URTIS</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+December 15, 18&mdash;.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p1">
+PS&mdash;I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha (who is very
+well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautiful than ever) presented me with a
+son and heir. He is a regular curly-haired, blue-eyed young Englishman in
+looks, and, though he is destined, if he lives, to inherit the throne of
+Zu-Vendis, I hope I may be able to bring him up to become what an English
+gentleman should be, and generally is&mdash;which is to my mind even a prouder
+and a finer thing than being born heir apparent to the great House of the
+Stairway, and, indeed, the highest rank that a man can reach upon this earth.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+H. C.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap25"></a>NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting of my dear brother
+Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead, and bearing the Aden postmark,
+reached me in safety on December 20, 18&mdash;, or a little more than two years
+after it left his hands in the far centre of Africa, and I hasten to give the
+astonishing story it contains to the world. Speaking for myself, I have read it
+with very mixed feelings; for though it is a great relief to know that he and
+Good are alive and strangely prosperous, I cannot but feel that for me and for
+all their friends they might as well be dead, since we can never hope to see
+them more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They have cut themselves off from old England and from their homes and their
+relations for ever, and perhaps, under the circumstances, they were right and
+wise to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover; but I
+presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, that the little Frenchman,
+Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journey in safety. I have, however,
+advertised for him and caused various inquiries to be made in Marseilles and
+elsewhere with a view of discovering his whereabouts, but so far without the
+slightest success. Possibly he is dead, and the packet was posted by another
+hand; or possibly he is now happily wedded to his Annette, but still fears the
+vengeance of the law, and prefers to remain incognito. I cannot say, I have not
+yet abandoned my hopes of finding him, but I am bound to say that they grow
+fainter day by day, and one great obstacle to my search is that nowhere in the
+whole history does Mr Quatermain mention his surname. He is always spoken of as
+&ldquo;Alphonse&rdquo;, and there are so many Alphonses. The letters which my
+brother Henry says he is sending with the packet of manuscript have never
+arrived, so I presume that they are lost or destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George Curtis
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap26"></a>AUTHORITIES</h2>
+
+<p>
+A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his
+&ldquo;Quellen&rdquo;. As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in
+the past, some reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge my
+indebtedness to Mr Thomson&rsquo;s admirable history of travel &ldquo;Through
+Masai Land&rdquo; for much information as to the habits and customs of the
+tribes inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and the country where they
+live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard, RN, HBM&rsquo;s consul at
+Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished by him of
+the mode of life and war of those engaging people the Masai; also to my
+sister-in-law, Mrs John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p. 183 into rhyme
+for me; also to an extract in a review from some book of travel of which I
+cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea of the great crabs in the
+valley of the subterranean river.<a href="#fn-24" name="fnref-24" id="fnref-24"><sup>[24]</sup></a>
+But if I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritated projected their
+eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that I was not able to
+&ldquo;plagiarize&rdquo; this effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and
+doubtless do, behave thus in real life, in romance they &ldquo;will not do
+so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-24" id="fn-24"></a> <a href="#fnref-24">[24]</a>
+It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the &lsquo;Falcon&rsquo;,
+with which work I am personally unacquainted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is an underground river in &ldquo;Peter Wilkins&rdquo;, but at the time
+of writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaint but entertaining
+work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similarity between the scene
+of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with his axe and a scene in Far from the
+Madding Crowd. I regret this coincidence, and believe that the talented author
+of that work will not be inclined to accuse me of literary immorality on its
+account.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain&rsquo;s little Frenchman appears to
+belong to the same class of beings as those English ladies whose long yellow
+teeth and feet of enormous size excite our hearty amusement in the pages of the
+illustrated Gallic press.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+The Writer of &ldquo;Allan Quatermain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Allan Quatermain
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2004 [EBook #711]
+Last Updated: November 26, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ng E-Ching, Singapore
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+I inscribe this book of adventure to my son ARTHUR JOHN RIDER HAGGARD in
+the hope that in days to come he, and many other boys whom I shall
+never know, may, in the acts and thoughts of Allan Quatermain and his
+companions, as herein recorded, find something to help him and them
+to reach to what, with Sir Henry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank
+whereto we can attain--the state and dignity of English gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+          INTRODUCTION
+   I      THE CONSUL'S YARN
+   II     THE BLACK HAND
+   III    THE MISSION STATION
+   IV     ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+   V      UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+   VI     THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+   VII    A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+   VIII   ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+   IX     INTO THE UNKNOWN
+   X      THE ROSE OF FIRE
+   XI     THE FROWNING CITY
+   XII    THE SISTER QUEENS
+   XIII   ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+   XIV    THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+   XV     SORAIS' SONG
+   XVI    BEFORE THE STATUE
+   XVII   THE STORM BREAKS
+   XVIII  WAR! RED WAR!
+   XIX    A STRANGE WEDDING
+   XX     THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+   XXI    AWAY! AWAY!
+   XXII   HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+   XXIII  I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+December 23
+
+'I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I was so proud,
+and my heart is broken. It is very hard having only one son to lose him
+thus, but God's will be done. Who am I that I should complain? The great
+wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all in turn,
+some soon, some late--it does not matter when, in the end, it crushes us
+all. We do not prostrate ourselves before it like the poor Indians; we
+fly hither and thither--we cry for mercy; but it is of no use, the black
+Fate thunders on and in its season reduces us to powder.
+
+'Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening to him. He was
+doing so well at the hospital, he had passed his last examination with
+honours, and I was proud of them, much prouder than he was, I think. And
+then he must needs go to that smallpox hospital. He wrote to me that he
+was not afraid of smallpox and wanted to gain the experience; and now
+the disease has killed him, and I, old and grey and withered, am left
+to mourn over him, without a chick or child to comfort me. I might have
+saved him, too--I have money enough for both of us, and much more than
+enough--King Solomon's Mines provided me with that; but I said, "No, let
+the boy earn his living, let him labour that he may enjoy rest." But the
+rest has come to him before the labour. Oh, my boy, my boy!
+
+'I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and builded
+barns--goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in; and now his
+soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate. I would that it
+had been my soul and not my boy's!
+
+'We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey and ancient
+tower of the church of this village where my house is. It was a dreary
+December afternoon, and the sky was heavy with snow, but not much was
+falling. The coffin was put down by the grave, and a few big flakes lit
+upon it. They looked very white upon the black cloth! There was a little
+hitch about getting the coffin down into the grave--the necessary ropes
+had been forgotten: so we drew back from it, and waited in silence
+watching the big flakes fall gently one by one like heavenly
+benedictions, and melt in tears on Harry's pall. But that was not all.
+A robin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon the coffin and
+began to sing. And then I am afraid that I broke down, and so did Sir
+Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as for Captain Good, I saw
+him turn away too; even in my own distress I could not help noticing
+it.'
+
+
+The above, signed 'Allan Quatermain', is an extract from my diary
+written two years and more ago. I copy it down here because it seems to
+me that it is the fittest beginning to the history that I am about to
+write, if it please God to spare me to finish it. If not, well it does
+not matter. That extract was penned seven thousand miles or so from the
+spot where I now lie painfully and slowly writing this, with a pretty
+girl standing by my side fanning the flies from my august countenance.
+Harry is there and I am here, and yet somehow I cannot help feeling that
+I am not far off Harry.
+
+When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house--at least
+I call it a fine house, speaking comparatively, and judging from
+the standard of the houses I have been accustomed to all my life in
+Africa--not five hundred yards from the old church where Harry is
+asleep, and thither I went after the funeral and ate some food; for it
+is no good starving even if one has just buried all one's earthly
+hopes. But I could not eat much, and soon I took to walking, or rather
+limping--being permanently lame from the bite of a lion--up and down,
+up and down the oak-panelled vestibule; for there is a vestibule in my
+house in England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were placed
+pairs of horns--about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which I had
+shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I never keep any horns
+which are not in every way perfect, unless it may be now and again on
+account of the associations connected with them. In the centre of the
+room, however, over the wide fireplace, there was a clear space left on
+which I had fixed up all my rifles. Some of them I have had for forty
+years, old muzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays. One was an
+elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed round the stock
+and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen--a 'roer' they call
+it. That gun, the Boer I bought it from many years ago told me, had been
+used by his father at the battle of the Blood River, just after Dingaan
+swept into Natal and slaughtered six hundred men, women, and children,
+so that the Boers named the place where they died 'Weenen', or the
+'Place of Weeping'; and so it is called to this day, and always will be
+called. And many an elephant have I shot with that old gun. She always
+took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce ball, and kicked like
+the very deuce.
+
+Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the horns which
+the guns had brought low; and as I did so there rose up in me a great
+craving:--I would go away from this place where I lived idly and at
+ease, back again to the wild land where I had spent my life, where I met
+my dear wife and poor Harry was born, and so many things, good, bad, and
+indifferent, had happened to me. The thirst for the wilderness was on
+me; I could tolerate this place no more; I would go and die as I had
+lived, among the wild game and the savages. Yes, as I walked, I began to
+long to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the wide veldt and
+mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of game travelling down the
+ridges to the water. The ruling passion is strong in death, they say,
+and my heart was dead that night. But, independently of my trouble, no
+man who has for forty years lived the life I have, can with impunity go
+coop himself in this prim English country, with its trim hedgerows
+and cultivated fields, its stiff formal manners, and its well-dressed
+crowds. He begins to long--ah, how he longs!--for the keen breath of the
+desert air; he dreams of the sight of Zulu impis breaking on their foes
+like surf upon the rocks, and his heart rises up in rebellion against
+the strict limits of the civilized life.
+
+Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to? For forty years and
+more I lived among savages, and studied them and their ways; and now for
+several years I have lived here in England, and have in my own stupid
+manner done my best to learn the ways of the children of light; and what
+have I found? A great gulf fixed? No, only a very little one, that a
+plain man's thought may spring across. I say that as the savage is, so
+is the white man, only the latter is more inventive, and possesses the
+faculty of combination; save and except also that the savage, as I have
+known him, is to a large extent free from the greed of money, which
+eats like a cancer into the heart of the white man. It is a depressing
+conclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the child of
+civilization are identical. I dare say that the highly civilized lady
+reading this will smile at an old fool of a hunter's simplicity when
+she thinks of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so will the superfine
+cultured idler scientifically eating a dinner at his club, the cost of
+which would keep a starving family for a week. And yet, my dear young
+lady, what are those pretty things round your own neck?--they have a
+strong family resemblance, especially when you wear that _very_ low
+dress, to the savage woman's beads. Your habit of turning round and
+round to the sound of horns and tom-toms, your fondness for pigments
+and powders, the way in which you love to subjugate yourself to the rich
+warrior who has captured you in marriage, and the quickness with which
+your taste in feathered head-dresses varies--all these things suggest
+touches of kinship; and you remember that in the fundamental principles
+of your nature you are quite identical. As for you, sir, who also laugh,
+let some man come and strike you in the face whilst you are enjoying
+that marvellous-looking dish, and we shall soon see how much of the
+savage there is in _you_.
+
+There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good? Civilization is
+only savagery silver-gilt. A vainglory is it, and like a northern
+light, comes but to fade and leave the sky more dark. Out of the soil
+of barbarism it has grown like a tree, and, as I believe, into the
+soil like a tree it will once more, sooner or later, fall again, as the
+Egyptian civilization fell, as the Hellenic civilization fell, and as
+the Roman civilization and many others of which the world has now lost
+count, fell also. Do not let me, however, be understood as decrying our
+modern institutions, representing as they do the gathered experience
+of humanity applied for the good of all. Of course they have great
+advantages--hospitals for instance; but then, remember, we breed
+the sickly people who fill them. In a savage land they do not exist.
+Besides, the question will arise: How many of these blessings are due to
+Christianity as distinct from civilization? And so the balance sways and
+the story runs--here a gain, there a loss, and Nature's great average
+struck across the two, whereof the sum total forms one of the factors in
+that mighty equation in which the result will equal the unknown quantity
+of her purpose.
+
+I make no apology for this digression, especially as this is an
+introduction which all young people and those who never like to think
+(and it is a bad habit) will naturally skip. It seems to me very
+desirable that we should sometimes try to understand the limitations
+of our nature, so that we may not be carried away by the pride of
+knowledge. Man's cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an
+elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round
+and round it, you can polish it highly, you can even flatten it a little
+on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the other, but you will
+_never_, while the world endures and man is man, increase its total
+circumference. It is the one fixed unchangeable thing--fixed as the
+stars, more enduring than the mountains, as unalterable as the way of
+the Eternal. Human nature is God's kaleidoscope, and the little bits
+of coloured glass which represent our passions, hopes, fears, joys,
+aspirations towards good and evil and what not, are turned in His mighty
+hand as surely and as certainly as it turns the stars, and continually
+fall into new patterns and combinations. But the composing elements
+remain the same, nor will there be one more bit of coloured glass nor
+one less for ever and ever.
+
+This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselves
+into twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we must look
+to the nineteen savage portions of our nature, if we would really
+understand ourselves, and not to the twentieth, which, though so
+insignificant in reality, is spread all over the other nineteen, making
+them appear quite different from what they really are, as the blacking
+does a boot, or the veneer a table. It is on the nineteen rough
+serviceable savage portions that we fall back on emergencies, not on the
+polished but unsubstantial twentieth. Civilization should wipe away our
+tears, and yet we weep and cannot be comforted. Warfare is abhorrent
+to her, and yet we strike out for hearth and home, for honour and fair
+fame, and can glory in the blow. And so on, through everything.
+
+So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in the dust,
+civilization fails us utterly. Back, back, we creep, and lay us like
+little children on the great breast of Nature, she that perchance may
+soothe us and make us forget, or at least rid remembrance of its sting.
+Who has not in his great grief felt a longing to look upon the outward
+features of the universal Mother; to lie on the mountains and watch the
+clouds drive across the sky and hear the rollers break in thunder on the
+shore, to let his poor struggling life mingle for a while in her life;
+to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and to forget his woes, and
+let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptibly moving energy of
+her of whom we are, from whom we came, and with whom we shall again be
+mingled, who gave us birth, and will in a day to come give us our burial
+also.
+
+And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelled vestibule
+of my house there in Yorkshire, I longed once more to throw myself into
+the arms of Nature. Not the Nature which you know, the Nature that waves
+in well-kept woods and smiles out in corn-fields, but Nature as she was
+in the age when creation was complete, undefiled as yet by any human
+sinks of sweltering humanity. I would go again where the wild game was,
+back to the land whereof none know the history, back to the savages,
+whom I love, although some of them are almost as merciless as Political
+Economy. There, perhaps, I should be able to learn to think of poor
+Harry lying in the churchyard, without feeling as though my heart would
+break in two.
+
+And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shall be
+no more of it. But if you whose eyes may perchance one day fall upon my
+written thoughts have got so far as this, I ask you to persevere, since
+what I have to tell you is not without its interest, and it has never
+been told before, nor will again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I THE CONSUL'S YARN
+
+
+A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and one
+evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there
+was a ring at the outer door. Going down the steps I opened it myself,
+and in came my old friends Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good,
+RN. They entered the vestibule and sat themselves down before the wide
+hearth, where, I remember, a particularly good fire of logs was burning.
+
+'It is very kind of you to come round,' I said by way of making a
+remark; 'it must have been heavy walking in the snow.'
+
+They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and lit it with
+a burning ember. As he leant forward to do so the fire got hold of a
+gassy bit of pine and flared up brightly, throwing the whole scene into
+strong relief, and I thought, What a splendid-looking man he is! Calm,
+powerful face, clear-cut features, large grey eyes, yellow beard and
+hair--altogether a magnificent specimen of the higher type of humanity.
+Nor did his form belie his face. I have never seen wider shoulders or a
+deeper chest. Indeed, Sir Henry's girth is so great that, though he is
+six feet two high, he does not strike one as a tall man. As I looked at
+him I could not help thinking what a curious contrast my little dried-up
+self presented to his grand face and form. Imagine to yourself a small,
+withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thin hands, large brown
+eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and standing up like a half-worn
+scrubbing-brush--total weight in my clothes, nine stone six--and you
+will get a very fair idea of Allan Quatermain, commonly called Hunter
+Quatermain, or by the natives 'Macumazahn'--Anglic�, he who keeps a
+bright look-out at night, or, in vulgar English, a sharp fellow who is
+not to be taken in.
+
+Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short, dark,
+stout--_very_ stout--with twinkling black eyes, in one of which an
+eyeglass is everlastingly fixed. I say stout, but it is a mild term;
+I regret to state that of late years Good has been running to fat in a
+most disgraceful way. Sir Henry tells him that it comes from idleness
+and over-feeding, and Good does not like it at all, though he cannot
+deny it.
+
+We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that stood
+ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary, as it is
+apt to do when one has a short week ago buried the hope of one's life.
+Next, I opened a cupboard in the wainscoting and got a bottle of whisky
+and some tumblers and water. I always like to do these things for
+myself: it is irritating to me to have somebody continually at my elbow,
+as though I were an eighteen-month-old baby. All this while Curtis and
+Good had been silent, feeling, I suppose, that they had nothing to say
+that could do me any good, and content to give me the comfort of their
+presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only their second visit since
+the funeral. And it is, by the way, from the _presence_ of others that
+we really derive support in our dark hours of grief, and not from their
+talk, which often only serves to irritate us. Before a bad storm the
+game always herd together, but they cease their calling.
+
+They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood by the fire
+also smoking and looking at them.
+
+At last I spoke. 'Old friends,' I said, 'how long is it since we got
+back from Kukuanaland?'
+
+'Three years,' said Good. 'Why do you ask?'
+
+'I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell of
+civilization. I am going back to the veldt.'
+
+Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed one of his
+deep laughs. 'How very odd,' he said, 'eh, Good?'
+
+Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured, 'Yes,
+odd--very odd.'
+
+'I don't quite understand,' said I, looking from one to the other, for I
+dislike mysteries.
+
+'Don't you, old fellow?' said Sir Henry; 'then I will explain. As Good
+and I were walking up here we had a talk.'
+
+'If Good was there you probably did,' I put in sarcastically, for Good
+is a great hand at talking. 'And what may it have been about?'
+
+'What do you think?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+I shook my head. It was not likely that I should know what Good might be
+talking about. He talks about so many things.
+
+'Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed--namely, that if
+you were willing we should pack up our traps and go off to Africa on
+another expedition.'
+
+I fairly jumped at his words. 'You don't say so!' I said.
+
+'Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don't you, Good?'
+
+'Rather,' said that gentleman.
+
+'Listen, old fellow,' went on Sir Henry, with considerable animation of
+manner. 'I'm tired of it too, dead-tired of doing nothing more except
+play the squire in a country that is sick of squires. For a year or more
+I have been getting as restless as an old elephant who scents danger. I
+am always dreaming of Kukuanaland and Gagool and King Solomon's Mines.
+I can assure you I have become the victim of an almost unaccountable
+craving. I am sick of shooting pheasants and partridges, and want to
+have a go at some large game again. There, you know the feeling--when
+one has once tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid to the
+palate. That year we spent together up in Kukuanaland seems to me worth
+all the other years of my life put together. I dare say that I am a fool
+for my pains, but I can't help it; I long to go, and, what is more, I
+mean to go.' He paused, and then went on again. 'And, after all, why
+should I not go? I have no wife or parent, no chick or child to keep me.
+If anything happens to me the baronetcy will go to my brother George and
+his boy, as it would ultimately do in any case. I am of no importance to
+any one.'
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'I thought you would come to that sooner or later. And
+now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; have you got one?'
+
+'I have,' said Good, solemnly. 'I never do anything without a reason;
+and it isn't a lady--at least, if it is, it's several.'
+
+I looked at him again. Good is so overpoweringly frivolous. 'What is
+it?' I said.
+
+'Well, if you really want to know, though I'd rather not speak of a
+delicate and strictly personal matter, I'll tell you: I'm getting too
+fat.'
+
+'Shut up, Good!' said Sir Henry. 'And now, Quatermain, tell us, where do
+you propose going to?'
+
+I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering.
+
+'Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?' I asked.
+
+'Don't know the place,' said Good.
+
+'Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?' I asked again.
+
+'No. Stop, though--isn't it a place about 300 miles north of Zanzibar?'
+
+'Yes. Now listen. What I have to propose is this. That we go to Lamu and
+thence make our way about 250 miles inland to Mt Kenia; from Mt Kenia on
+inland to Mt Lekakisera, another 200 miles, or thereabouts, beyond which
+no white man has to the best of my belief ever been; and then, if we get
+so far, right on into the unknown interior. What do you say to that, my
+hearties?'
+
+'It's a big order,' said Sir Henry, reflectively.
+
+'You are right,' I answered, 'it is; but I take it that we are all three
+of us in search of a big order. We want a change of scene, and we are
+likely to get one--a thorough change. All my life I have longed to visit
+those parts, and I mean to do it before I die. My poor boy's death has
+broken the last link between me and civilization, and I'm off to my
+native wilds. And now I'll tell you another thing, and that is, that
+for years and years I have heard rumours of a great white race which is
+supposed to have its home somewhere up in this direction, and I have a
+mind to see if there is any truth in them. If you fellows like to come,
+well and good; if not, I'll go alone.'
+
+'I'm your man, though I don't believe in your white race,' said Sir
+Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my shoulder.
+
+'Ditto,' remarked Good. 'I'll go into training at once. By all means
+let's go to Mt Kenia and the other place with an unpronounceable name,
+and look for a white race that does not exist. It's all one to me.'
+
+'When do you propose to start?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'This day month,' I answered, 'by the British India steamboat; and
+don't you be so certain that things have no existence because you do not
+happen to have heard of them. Remember King Solomon's mines!'
+
+
+Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this
+conversation, and this history goes on its way in very different
+surroundings.
+
+After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion that our
+best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood of the
+mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place over 100 miles
+nearer Zanzibar. This conclusion we arrived at from information given to
+us by a German trader whom we met upon the steamer at Aden. I think that
+he was the dirtiest German I ever knew; but he was a good fellow, and
+gave us a great deal of valuable information. 'Lamu,' said he, 'you
+goes to Lamu--oh ze beautiful place!' and he turned up his fat face and
+beamed with mild rapture. 'One year and a half I live there and never
+change my shirt--never at all.'
+
+And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarked
+with all our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go, marched
+boldly up to the house of Her Majesty's Consul, where we were most
+hospitably received.
+
+Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand out most
+clearly in my memory in connection with it are its exceeding dirtiness
+and its smells. These last are simply awful. Just below the Consulate is
+the beach, or rather a mud bank that is called a beach. It is left quite
+bare at low tide, and serves as a repository for all the filth, offal,
+and refuse of the town. Here it is, too, that the women come to bury
+coconuts in the mud, leaving them there till the outer husk is quite
+rotten, when they dig them up again and use the fibres to make mats
+with, and for various other purposes. As this process has been going on
+for generations, the condition of the shore can be better imagined than
+described. I have smelt many evil odours in the course of my life, but
+the concentrated essence of stench which arose from that beach at Lamu
+as we sat in the moonlit night--not under, but _on_ our friend the
+Consul's hospitable roof--and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them
+very poor and faint. No wonder people get fever at Lamu. And yet the
+place was not without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, though
+possibly--indeed probably--it was one which would quickly pall.
+
+'Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?' asked our friend the
+hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
+
+'We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,' answered
+Sir Henry. 'Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about there being a
+white race up in the unknown territories beyond.'
+
+The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard something
+of that, too.
+
+'What have you heard?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so ago I got
+a letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, "The
+Highlands", is placed at the highest navigable point of the Tana River,
+in which he said something about it.'
+
+'Have you the letter?' I asked.
+
+'No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man had
+arrived at his station who declared that two months' journey beyond Mt
+Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited--at least, so far as
+I know--he found a lake called Laga, and that then he went off to the
+north-east, a month's journey, over desert and thorn veldt and great
+mountains, till he came to a country where the people are white and live
+in stone houses. Here he was hospitably entertained for a while, till
+at last the priests of the country set it about that he was a devil, and
+the people drove him away, and he journeyed for eight months and reached
+Mackenzie's place, as I heard, dying. That's all I know; and if you ask
+me, I believe that it is a lie; but if you want to find out more about
+it, you had better go up the Tana to Mackenzie's place and ask him for
+information.'
+
+Sir Henry and I looked at each other. Here was something tangible.
+
+'I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie's,' I said.
+
+'Well,' answered the Consul, 'that is your best way, but I warn you that
+you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear that the Masai are
+about, and, as you know, they are not pleasant customers. Your best plan
+will be to choose a few picked men for personal servants and hunters,
+and to hire bearers from village to village. It will give you an
+infinity of trouble, but perhaps on the whole it will prove a cheaper
+and more advantageous course than engaging a caravan, and you will be
+less liable to desertion.'
+
+Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a party of Wakwafi Askari
+(soldiers). The Wakwafi, who are a cross between the Masai and the
+Wataveta, are a fine manly race, possessing many of the good qualities
+of the Zulu, and a great capacity for civilization. They are also great
+hunters. As it happened, these particular men had recently been on a
+long trip with an Englishman named Jutson, who had started from
+Mombasa, a port about 150 miles below Lamu, and journeyed right round
+Kilimanjaro, one of the highest known mountains in Africa. Poor fellow,
+he had died of fever when on his return journey, and within a day's
+march of Mombasa. It does seem hard that he should have gone off thus
+when within a few hours of safety, and after having survived so many
+perils, but so it was. His hunters buried him, and then came on to Lamu
+in a dhow. Our friend the Consul suggested to us that we had better try
+and hire these men, and accordingly on the following morning we started
+to interview the party, accompanied by an interpreter.
+
+In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts of the town.
+Three of the men were sitting outside the hut, and fine frank-looking
+fellows they were, having a more or less civilized appearance. To them
+we cautiously opened the object of our visit, at first with very scant
+success. They declared that they could not entertain any such idea, that
+they were worn and weary with long travelling, and that their hearts
+were sore at the loss of their master. They meant to go back to their
+homes and rest awhile. This did not sound very promising, so by way of
+effecting a diversion I asked where the remainder of them were. I was
+told there were six, and I saw but three. One of the men said they slept
+in the hut, and were yet resting after their labours--'sleep weighed
+down their eyelids, and sorrow made their hearts as lead: it was best
+to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness. But the men should be
+awakened.'
+
+Presently they came out of the hut, yawning--the first two men being
+evidently of the same race and style as those already before us; but the
+appearance of the third and last nearly made me jump out of my skin.
+He was a very tall, broad man, quite six foot three, I should say, but
+gaunt, with lean, wiry-looking limbs. My first glance at him told me
+that he was no Wakwafi: he was a pure bred Zulu. He came out with his
+thin aristocratic-looking hand placed before his face to hide a yawn, so
+I could only see that he was a 'Keshla' or ringed man {Endnote 1}, and
+that he had a great three-cornered hole in his forehead. In another
+second he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zulu face, with
+a humorous mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged with grey, and a pair of
+brown eyes keen as a hawk's. I knew my man at once, although I had not
+seen him for twelve years. 'How do you do, Umslopogaas?' I said quietly
+in Zulu.
+
+The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known as the
+'Woodpecker', and also as the 'Slaughterer') started, and almost let
+the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fall in his astonishment.
+Next second he had recognized me, and was saluting me in an outburst of
+sonorous language which made his companions the Wakwafi stare.
+
+'Koos' (chief), he began, 'Koos-y-Pagete! Koos-y-umcool! (Chief from of
+old--mighty chief) Koos! Baba! (father) Macumazahn, old hunter, slayer
+of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one! watchful one! brave one!
+quick one! whose shot never misses, who strikes straight home, who
+grasps a hand and holds it to the death (i.e. is a true friend) Koos!
+Baba! Wise is the voice of our people that says, "Mountain never meets
+with mountain, but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with
+man." Behold! a messenger came up from Natal, "Macumazahn is dead!"
+cried he. "The land knows Macumazahn no more." That is years ago. And
+now, behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn, my
+friend. There is no room for doubt. The brush of the old jackal has
+gone a little grey; but is not his eye as keen, and are not his teeth as
+sharp? Ha! ha! Macumazahn, mindest thou how thou didst plant the ball in
+the eye of the charging buffalo--mindest thou--'
+
+I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm was
+producing a marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi, who
+appeared to understand something of his talk; but now I thought it time
+to put a stop to it, for there is nothing that I hate so much as this
+Zulu system of extravagant praising--'bongering' as they call it.
+'Silence!' I said. 'Has all thy noisy talk been stopped up since last
+I saw thee that it breaks out thus, and sweeps us away? What doest thou
+here with these men--thou whom I left a chief in Zululand? How is it
+that thou art far from thine own place, and gathered together with
+strangers?'
+
+Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe (which
+was nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handle of rhinoceros
+horn), and his grim face grew sad.
+
+'My Father,' he answered, 'I have a word to tell thee, but I cannot
+speak it before these low people (umfagozana),' and he glanced at the
+Wakwafi Askari; 'it is for thine own ear. My Father, this will I say,'
+and here his face grew stern again, 'a woman betrayed me to the death,
+and covered my name with shame--ay, my own wife, a round-faced girl,
+betrayed me; but I escaped from death; ay, I broke from the very hands
+of those who came to slay me. I struck but three blows with this mine
+axe Inkosikaas--surely my Father will remember it--one to the right, one
+to the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead. And then I
+fled, and, as my Father knows, even now that I am old my feet are as the
+feet of the Sassaby {Endnote 2}, and there breathes not the man who, by
+running, can touch me again when once I have bounded from his side. On I
+sped, and after me came the messengers of death, and their voice was as
+the voice of dogs that hunt. From my own kraal I flew, and, as I passed,
+she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring. I fleeted by
+her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smote with mine axe, and
+lo! her head fell: it fell into the water pan. Then I fled north. Day
+after day I journeyed on; for three moons I journeyed, resting not,
+stopping not, but running on towards forgetfulness, till I met the
+party of the white hunter who is now dead, and am come hither with his
+servants. And nought have I brought with me. I who was high-born, ay,
+of the blood of Chaka, the great king--a chief, and a captain of the
+regiment of the Nkomabakosi--am a wanderer in strange places, a man
+without a kraal. Nought have I brought save this mine axe; of all my
+belongings this remains alone. They have divided my cattle; they have
+taken my wives; and my children know my face no more. Yet with this
+axe'--and he swung the formidable weapon round his head, making the
+air hiss as he clove it--'will I cut another path to fortune. I have
+spoken.'
+
+I shook my head at him. 'Umslopogaas,' I said, 'I know thee from of
+old. Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fear me that thou hast
+overreached thyself at last. Years ago, when thou wouldst have plotted
+against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warned thee, and thou didst listen.
+But now, when I was not by thee to stay thy hand, thou hast dug a pit
+for thine own feet to fall in. Is it not so? But what is done is done.
+Who can make the dead tree green, or gaze again upon last year's light?
+Who can recall the spoken word, or bring back the spirit of the fallen?
+That which Time swallows comes not up again. Let it be forgotten!
+
+'And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warrior and a
+brave man, faithful to the death. Even in Zululand, where all the men
+are brave, they called thee the "Slaughterer", and at night told stories
+round the fire of thy strength and deeds. Hear me now. Thou seest this
+great man, my friend'--and I pointed to Sir Henry; 'he also is a warrior
+as great as thou, and, strong as thou art, he could throw thee over his
+shoulder. Incubu is his name. And thou seest this one also; him with the
+round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant face. Bougwan (glass
+eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true, being of a curious
+tribe who pass their life upon the water, and live in floating kraals.
+
+'Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo Egere,
+the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the unknown beyond.
+We know not what we shall find there; we go to hunt and seek adventures,
+and new places, being tired of sitting still, with the same old things
+around us. Wilt thou come with us? To thee shall be given command of all
+our servants; but what shall befall thee, that I know not. Once before
+we three journeyed thus, in search of adventure, and we took with us
+a man such as thou--one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him the king of
+a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), each of 3,000 plumed
+warriors, waiting on his word. How it shall go with thee, I know not;
+mayhap death awaits thee and us. Wilt thou throw thyself to Fortune and
+come, or fearest thou, Umslopogaas?'
+
+The great man smiled. 'Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,' he
+said; 'I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition that led me to
+my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to say it, a fair woman's
+face. Let it pass. So we are going to see something like the old times
+again, Macumazahn, when we fought and hunted in Zululand? Ay, I will
+come. Come life, come death, what care I, so that the blows fall fast
+and the blood runs red? I grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought
+enough! And yet am I a warrior among warriors; see my scars'--and he
+pointed to countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skin of
+his chest and legs and arms. 'See the hole in my head; the brains gushed
+out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, and live. Knowest thou how
+many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-hand combat, Macumazahn? See,
+here is the tale of them'--and he pointed to long rows of notches cut
+in the rhinoceros-horn handle of his axe. 'Number them, Macumazahn--one
+hundred and three--and I have never counted but those whom I have
+ripped open {Endnote 3}, nor have I reckoned those whom another man had
+struck.'
+
+'Be silent,' I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever on
+him; 'be silent; well art thou called the "Slaughterer". We would not
+hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comest with us, we fight
+not save in self-defence. Listen, we need servants. These men,' and I
+pointed to the Wakwafi, who had retired a little way during our 'indaba'
+(talk), 'say they will not come.'
+
+'Will not come!' shouted Umslopogaas; 'where is the dog who says he will
+not come when my Father orders? Here, thou'--and with a single bound he
+sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first spoken, and, seizing him
+by the arm, dragged him towards us. 'Thou dog!' he said, giving the
+terrified man a shake, 'didst thou say that thou wouldst not go with my
+Father? Say it once more and I will choke thee'--and his long fingers
+closed round his throat as he said it--'thee, and those with thee. Hast
+thou forgotten how I served thy brother?'
+
+'Nay, we will come with the white man,' gasped the man.
+
+'White man!' went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a very
+little provocation would have made real enough; 'of whom speakest thou,
+insolent dog?'
+
+'Nay, we will go with the great chief.'
+
+'So!' said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released his
+hold, so that the man fell backward. 'I thought you would.'
+
+'That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency over his
+companions,' Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II THE BLACK HAND
+
+
+
+In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found ourselves
+at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having gone through many
+adventures which need not be recorded here. Amongst other things we
+visited a ruined city, of which there are many on this coast, and
+which must once, to judge from their extent and the numerous remains of
+mosques and stone houses, have been very populous places. These ruined
+cities are immeasurably ancient, having, I believe, been places of
+wealth and importance as far back as the Old Testament times, when they
+were centres of trade with India and elsewhere. But their glory has
+departed now--the slave trade has finished them--and where wealthy
+merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and bargained
+in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court at night, and
+instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager voices of the
+bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined corridors. At this
+particular place we discovered on a mound, covered up with rank growth
+and rubbish, two of the most beautiful stone doorways that it is
+possible to conceive. The carving on them was simply exquisite, and I
+only regret that we had no means of getting them away. No doubt they had
+once been the entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were
+now to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising mound.
+
+Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like the nobles and
+the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities have had their
+day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris
+will one day be. Nothing may endure. That is the inexorable law. Men
+and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers,
+mountains, rivers, and unfathomed seas, worlds, spaces, and universes,
+all have their day, and all must go. In this ruined and forgotten place
+the moralist may behold a symbol of the universal destiny. For this
+system of ours allows no room for standing still--nothing can loiter on
+the road and check the progress of things upwards towards Life, or the
+rush of things downwards towards Death. The stern policeman Fate moves
+us and them on, on, uphill and downhill and across the level; there is
+no resting-place for the weary feet, till at last the abyss swallows us,
+and from the shores of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the
+Eternal.
+
+At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers we
+had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort large extra
+payment from us. In the result he threatened to set the Masai--about
+whom more anon--on to us. That night he, with all our hired bearers,
+ran away, stealing most of the goods which had been entrusted to them
+to carry. Luckily, however, they had not happened to steal our rifles,
+ammunition, and personal effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling
+on their part, but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the
+charge of the five Wakwafis. After that, it was clear to us that we had
+had enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we had not much left for
+a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?
+
+It was Good who solved the question. 'Here is water,' he said, pointing
+to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of natives hunting
+hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie's mission station
+is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoes and paddle up to it?'
+
+This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with
+acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes from
+the surrounding natives. I succeeded after a delay of three days in
+obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single log of some
+light wood, and capable of holding six people and baggage. For these two
+canoes we had to pay nearly all our remaining cloth, and also many other
+articles.
+
+On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected a
+start. In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three of our
+Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas, and the other two
+Wakwafis. As our course lay upstream, we had to keep four paddles at
+work in each canoe, which meant that the whole lot of us, except Good,
+had to row away like galley-slaves; and very exhausting work it was. I
+say, except Good, for, of course, the moment that Good got into a boat
+his foot was on his native heath, and he took command of the party. And
+certainly he worked us. On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered man,
+and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in a boat was
+a perfect demon. To begin with, he knew all about it, and we didn't. On
+all nautical subjects, from the torpedo fittings of a man-of-war down
+to the best way of handling the paddle of an African canoe, he was a
+perfect mine of information, which, to say the least of it, we were not.
+Also his ideas of discipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he
+came the royal naval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid us
+out amply for all the chaff we were wont to treat him to on land;
+but, on the other hand, I am bound to say that he managed the boats
+admirably.
+
+After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some cloth and a
+couple of poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, which lightened our
+labours not a little. But the current ran very strong against us, and at
+the best we were not able to make more than twenty miles a day. Our
+plan was to start at dawn, and paddle along till about half-past ten,
+by which time the sun got too hot to allow of further exertion. Then we
+moored our canoes to the bank, and ate our frugal meal; after which
+we ate or otherwise amused ourselves till about three o'clock, when we
+again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown, when we called
+a halt for the night. On landing in the evening, Good would at once set
+to work, with the help of the Askari, to build a little 'scherm', or
+small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes, and to light a fire. I, with
+Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, would go out to shoot something for the pot.
+Generally this was an easy task, for all sorts of game abounded on the
+banks of the Tana. One night Sir Henry shot a young cow-giraffe, of
+which the marrow-bones were excellent; on another I got a couple of
+waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction,
+Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile shot with a rifle) managed
+to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent him. Sometimes
+we varied our food by shooting some guinea-fowl, or bush-bustard
+(paau)--both of which were numerous--with a shot-gun, or by catching
+a supply of beautiful yellow fish, with which the waters of the Tana
+swarmed, and which form, I believe, one of the chief food-supplies of
+the crocodiles.
+
+Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred. We were just
+drawing in to the bank to make our camp as usual for the night, when
+we caught sight of a figure standing on a little knoll not forty
+yards away, and intensely watching our approach. One glance was
+sufficient--although I was personally unacquainted with the tribe--to
+tell me that he was a Masai Elmoran, or young warrior. Indeed, had I
+had any doubts, they would have quickly been dispelled by the terrified
+ejaculation of '_Masai_!' that burst simultaneously from the lips of our
+Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, themselves bastard
+Masai.
+
+And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savage war-gear!
+Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life, I do not think that I
+have ever before seen anything quite so ferocious or awe-inspiring. To
+begin with, the man was enormously tall, quite as tall as Umslopogaas, I
+should say, and beautifully, though somewhat slightly, shaped; but with
+the face of a devil. In his right hand he held a spear about five and a
+half feet long, the blade being two and a half feet in length, by nearly
+three inches in width, and having an iron spike at the end of the
+handle that measured more than a foot. On his left arm was a large
+and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo hide, on which were painted
+strange heraldic-looking devices. On his shoulders was a huge cape of
+hawk's feathers, and round his neck was a 'naibere', or strip of cotton,
+about seventeen feet long, by one and a half broad, with a stripe of
+colour running down the middle of it. The tanned goatskin robe, which
+formed his ordinary attire in times of peace, was tied lightly round his
+waist, so as to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck,
+on the right and left sides respectively, his short pear-shaped sime, or
+sword, which is made of a single piece of steel, and carried in a wooden
+sheath, and an enormous knobkerrie. But perhaps the most remarkable
+feature of his attire consisted of a headdress of ostrich-feathers,
+which was fixed on the chin, and passed in front of the ears to the
+forehead, and, being shaped like an ellipse, completely framed the face,
+so that the diabolical countenance appeared to project from a sort of
+feather fire-screen. Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair,
+and, projecting from the upper portion of the calves, to which they were
+attached, were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts of
+the beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey. Such was the
+elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watching the approach of
+our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen;
+only those who see it do not often live to describe it. Of course I
+could not make out all these details of his full dress on the occasion
+of this my first introduction, being, indeed, amply taken up with the
+consideration of the general effect, but I had plenty of subsequent
+opportunities of becoming acquainted with the items that went to make it
+up.
+
+Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drew himself
+up in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us, and, turning,
+vanished on the further side of the slope.
+
+'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; 'our friend the
+caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the Masai after us.
+Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'
+
+I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had
+no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we could eat raw,
+so it was difficult to know what to do. At last Umslopogaas simplified
+matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping
+off into the bush like a snake, while we hung off in the stream waiting
+for him. In half an hour he returned, and told us that there was not a
+Masai to be seen anywhere about, but that he had discovered a spot where
+they had recently been encamped, and that from various indications he
+judged that they must have moved on an hour or so before; the man we saw
+having, no doubt, been left to report upon our movements.
+
+Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded to cook and
+eat our evening meal. This done, we took the situation into our serious
+consideration. Of course, it was possible that the apparition of the
+Masai warrior had nothing to do with us, that he was merely one of a
+band bent upon some marauding and murdering expedition against another
+tribe. But when we recalled the threat of the caravan leader, and
+reflected on the ominous way in which the warrior had shaken his spear
+at us, this did not appear very probable. On the contrary, what did
+seem probable was that the party was after us and awaiting a favourable
+opportunity to attack us. This being so, there were two things that
+we could do--one of which was to go on, and the other to go back. The
+latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious that we
+should encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance; and, besides,
+we had made up our minds to journey onwards at any price. Under these
+circumstances, however, we did not consider it safe to sleep ashore, so
+we got into our canoes, and, paddling out into the middle of the stream,
+which was not very wide here, managed to anchor them by means of big
+stones fastened to ropes made of coconut-fibre, of which there were
+several fathoms in each canoe.
+
+Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined with
+anxiety as to our position, effectually prevented me from sleeping as
+the others were doing, notwithstanding the attacks of the aforesaid Tana
+mosquitoes. And so I lay awake, smoking and reflecting on many things,
+but, being of a practical turn of mind, chiefly on how we were to give
+those Masai villains the slip. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and,
+notwithstanding the mosquitoes, and the great risk we were running from
+fever from sleeping in such a spot, and forgetting that I had the cramp
+very badly in my right leg from squatting in a constrained position
+in the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was sleeping beside me smelt
+horribly, I really began to enjoy myself. The moonbeams played upon the
+surface of the running water that speeded unceasingly past us towards
+the sea, like men's lives towards the grave, till it glittered like
+a wide sheet of silver, that is in the open where the trees threw no
+shadows. Near the banks, however, it was very dark, and the night wind
+sighed sadly in the reeds. To our left, on the further side of the
+river, was a little sandy bay which was clear of trees, and here I could
+make out the forms of numerous antelopes advancing to the water,
+till suddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon they all made off
+hurriedly. Then after a pause I caught sight of the massive form of His
+Majesty the Lion, coming down to drink his fill after meat. Presently he
+moved on, then came a crashing of the reeds about fifty yards above us,
+and a few minutes later a huge black mass rose out of the water, about
+twenty yards from me, and snorted. It was the head of a hippopotamus.
+Down it went without a sound, only to rise again within five yards
+of where I sat. This was decidedly too near to be comfortable, more
+especially as the hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense
+curiosity to know what on earth our canoes were. He opened his great
+mouth, to yawn, I suppose, and gave me an excellent view of his ivories;
+and I could not help reflecting how easily he could crunch up our frail
+canoe with a single bite. Indeed, I had half a mind to give him a ball
+from my eight-bore, but on reflection determined to let him alone unless
+he actually charged the boat. Presently he sank again as noiselessly as
+before, and I saw no more of him. Just then, on looking towards the bank
+on our right, I fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting
+between the tree trunks. I have very keen sight, and I was almost sure
+that I saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or man I could not
+say. At the moment, however, a dark cloud passed over the moon, and I
+saw no more of it. Just then, too, although all the other sounds of
+the forest had ceased, a species of horned owl with which I was well
+acquainted began to hoot with great persistency. After that, save for
+the rustling of trees and reeds when the wind caught them, there was
+complete silence.
+
+But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become
+nervous. There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond the
+ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller, and yet I
+undoubtedly was. If there is one thing more than another of which I
+have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief, it is of
+presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filled with and
+possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of approaching evil. I would
+not give way to it, however, although I felt the cold perspiration stand
+out upon my forehead. I would not arouse the others. Worse and worse I
+grew, my pulse fluttered like a dying man's, my nerves thrilled with
+the horrible sense of impotent terror which anybody who is subject to
+nightmare will be familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my
+fears, and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the
+bow of the canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view of
+Umslopogaas and the two Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside of and
+beyond me.
+
+In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then the owl
+hooted again in a kind of unnatural screaming note {Endnote 4}, and
+the wind began to moan plaintively through the trees, making a
+heart-chilling music. Above was the black bosom of the cloud, and
+beneath me swept the black flood of the water, and I felt as though I
+and Death were utterly alone between them. It was very desolate.
+
+Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heart to stand
+still. Was it fancy, or were we moving? I turned my eyes to look for
+the other canoe which should be alongside of us. I could not see it, but
+instead I saw a lean and clutching black hand lifting itself above
+the gunwale of the little boat. Surely it was a nightmare! At the same
+instant a dim but devilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the
+water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife,
+and an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (the
+same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something warm
+spurted into my face. In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that it
+was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by swimming Masai. Snatching
+at the first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be Umslopogaas'
+battleaxe, I struck with all my force in the direction in which I
+had seen the flash of the knife. The blow fell upon a man's arm, and,
+catching it against the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely
+severed it from the body just above the wrist. As for its owner, he
+uttered no sound or cry. Like a ghost he came, and like a ghost he went,
+leaving behind him a bloody hand still gripping a great knife, or rather
+a short sword, that was buried in the heart of our poor servant.
+
+Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied, rightly
+or wrongly, that I made out several dark heads gliding away towards the
+right-hand bank, whither we were rapidly drifting, for the rope by which
+we were moored had been severed with a knife. As soon as I had realized
+this fact, I also realized that the scheme had been to cut the boat
+loose so that it should drift on to the right bank (as it would have
+done with the natural swing of the current), where no doubt a party of
+Masai were waiting to dig their shovel-headed spears into us. Seizing
+one paddle myself, I told Umslopogaas to take another (for the remaining
+Askari was too frightened and bewildered to be of any use), and together
+we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the stream; and not an
+instant too soon, for in another minute we should have been aground, and
+then there would have been an end of us.
+
+As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoe upstream
+again to where the other was moored; and very hard and dangerous work
+it was in the dark, and with nothing but the notes of Good's stentorian
+shouts, which he kept firing off at intervals like a fog-horn, to guide
+us. But at last we fetched up, and were thankful to find that they
+had not been molested at all. No doubt the owner of the same hand that
+severed our rope should have severed theirs also, but was led away from
+his purpose by an irresistible inclination to murder when he got the
+chance, which, while it cost us a man and him his hand, undoubtedly
+saved all the rest of us from massacre. Had it not been for that ghastly
+apparition over the side of the boat--an apparition that I shall never
+forget till my dying hour--the canoe would undoubtedly have drifted
+ashore before I realized what had happened, and this history would never
+have been written by me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III THE MISSION STATION
+
+
+
+We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, and sat waiting
+for the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon our merciful escape,
+which really seemed to result more from the special favour of Providence
+than from our own care or prowess. At last it came, and I have not
+often been more grateful to see the light, though so far as my canoe was
+concerned it revealed a ghastly sight. There in the bottom of the little
+boat lay the unfortunate Askari, the sime, or sword, in his bosom, and
+the severed hand gripping the handle. I could not bear the sight, so
+hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to the other canoe,
+we made it fast to the murdered man and dropped him overboard, and down
+he went to the bottom, leaving nothing but a train of bubbles behind
+him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him leave nothing but
+bubbles behind, to show that we have been, and the bubbles soon burst.
+The hand of his murderer we threw into the stream, where it slowly sank.
+The sword, of which the handle was ivory, inlaid with gold (evidently
+Arab work), I kept and used as a hunting-knife, and very useful it
+proved.
+
+Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once more started on
+in very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortable as to the future,
+but fondly hoping to arrive at the 'Highlands' station by night. To make
+matters worse, within an hour of sunrise it came on to rain in torrents,
+wetting us to the skin, and even necessitating the occasional baling
+of the canoes, and as the rain beat down the wind we could not use the
+sails, and had to get along as best as we could with our paddles.
+
+At eleven o'clock we halted on an open piece of ground on the left bank
+of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managed to make a fire and
+catch and broil some fish. We did not dare to wander about to search for
+game. At two o'clock we got off again, taking a supply of broiled fish
+with us, and shortly afterwards the rain came on harder than ever. Also
+the river began to get exceedingly difficult to navigate on account of
+the numerous rocks, reaches of shallow water, and the increased force of
+the current; so that it soon became clear to us that we should not reach
+the Rev. Mackenzie's hospitable roof that night--a prospect that did
+not tend to enliven us. Toil as we would, we could not make more than
+an average of a mile an hour, and at five o'clock in the afternoon (by
+which time we were all utterly worn out) we reckoned that we were still
+quite ten miles below the station. This being so, we set to work to
+make the best arrangements we could for the night. After our recent
+experience, we simply did not dare to land, more especially as the banks
+of the Tana were clothed with dense bush that would have given cover to
+five thousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going to have
+another night of it in the canoes. Fortunately, however, we espied a
+little rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles or so square, situated
+nearly in the middle of the river. For this we paddled, and, making fast
+the canoes, landed and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances
+would permit, which was very uncomfortable indeed. As for the weather,
+it continued to be simply vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we
+were chilled to the marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a
+fire. There was, however, one consoling circumstance about this rain;
+our Askari declared that nothing would induce the Masai to make an
+attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in the wet,
+perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea of washing. We
+ate some insipid and sodden cold fish--that is, with the exception of
+Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannot bear fish--and took a pull of
+brandy, of which we fortunately had a few bottles left, and then began
+what, with one exception--when we same three white men nearly perished
+of cold on the snow of Sheba's Breast in the course of our journey to
+Kukuanaland--was, I think, the most trying night I ever experienced. It
+seemed absolutely endless, and once or twice I feared that two of the
+Askari would have died of the wet, cold, and exposure. Indeed, had it
+not been for timely doses of brandy I am sure that they would have died,
+for no African people can stand much exposure, which first paralyses and
+then kills them. I could see that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas
+felt it keenly; though, in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who
+groaned and bemoaned their fate unceasingly, he never uttered a single
+complaint. To make matters worse, about one in the morning we again
+heard the owl's ominous hooting, and had at once to prepare ourselves
+for another attack; though, if it had been attempted, I do not think
+that we could have offered a very effective resistance. But either the
+owl was a real one this time, or else the Masai were themselves too
+miserable to think of offensive operations, which, indeed, they rarely,
+if ever, undertake in bush veldt. At any rate, we saw nothing of them.
+
+At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreaths of
+ghostly mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; and then, out
+came the glorious sun, sucking up the mists and warming the chill air.
+Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselves to our feet, and
+went and stood in the bright rays, and were thankful for them. I can
+quite understand how it is that primitive people become sun worshippers,
+especially if their conditions of life render them liable to exposure.
+
+In half an hour more we were once again making fair progress with the
+help of a good wind. Our spirits had returned with the sunshine, and
+we were ready to laugh at difficulties and dangers that had been almost
+crushing on the previous day.
+
+And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o'clock. Just as we were
+thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shoot something to eat,
+a sudden bend in the river brought us in sight of a substantial-looking
+European house with a veranda round it, splendidly situated upon a hill,
+and surrounded by a high stone wall with a ditch on the outer side.
+Right against and overshadowing the house was an enormous pine, the
+top of which we had seen through a glass for the last two days, but of
+course without knowing that it marked the site of the mission station.
+I was the first to see the house, and could not restrain myself from
+giving a hearty cheer, in which the others, including the natives,
+joined lustily. There was no thought of halting now. On we laboured,
+for, unfortunately, though the house seemed quite near, it was still a
+long way off by river, until at last, by one o'clock, we found ourselves
+at the bottom of the slope on which the building stood. Running the
+canoes to the bank, we disembarked, and were just hauling them up on
+to the shore, when we perceived three figures, dressed in ordinary
+English-looking clothes, hurrying down through a grove of trees to meet
+us.
+
+'A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl,' ejaculated Good, after
+surveying the trio through his eyeglass, 'walking in a civilized
+fashion, through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place. Hang me,
+if this isn't the most curious thing we have seen yet!'
+
+Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place--more like a
+scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a real tangible fact;
+and the sense of unreality was not lessened when we heard ourselves
+addressed in good broad Scotch, which, however, I cannot reproduce.
+
+'How do you do, sirs,' said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angular man,
+with a kindly face and red cheeks; 'I hope I see you very well. My
+natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes with white men in them
+coming up the river; so we have just come down to meet you.'
+
+'And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let me tell
+you,' put in the lady--a charming and refined-looking person.
+
+We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce
+ourselves.
+
+'And now,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'you must all be hungry and weary; so come
+on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see you. The last white
+who visited us was Alphonse--you will see Alphonse presently--and that
+was a year ago.'
+
+Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower
+portion of which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fences and
+sometimes with rough stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, just now full
+of crops of mealies, pumpkins, potatoes, etc. In the corners of these
+gardens were groups of neat mushroom-shaped huts, occupied by Mr
+Mackenzie's mission natives, whose women and children came pouring
+out to meet us as we walked. Through the centre of the gardens ran the
+roadway up which we were walking. It was bordered on each side by a line
+of orange trees, which, although they had only been planted ten years,
+had in the lovely climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of
+which is about 5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to
+imposing proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. After
+a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so--for the hillside was
+steep--we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered with fruit,
+which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of about four acres
+of ground that contained his private garden, house, church, and
+outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop. And what a garden it was!
+I have always loved a good garden, and I could have thrown up my hands
+for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie's. First there were rows upon rows of
+standard European fruit-trees, all grafted; for on top of this hill the
+climate was so temperate that nearly all the English vegetables, trees,
+and flowers flourished luxuriantly, even including several varieties
+of the apple, which, generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and
+obstinately refuses to fruit. Then there were strawberries and tomatoes
+(such tomatoes!), and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of
+vegetable and fruit.
+
+'Well, you have something like a garden!' I said, overpowered with
+admiration not untouched by envy.
+
+'Yes,' answered the missionary, 'it is a very good garden, and has well
+repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I have to thank. If you
+stick a peach-stone into the ground it will bear fruit the fourth year,
+and a rose-cutting will bloom in a year. It is a lovely clime.'
+
+Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full of water, on
+the other side of which was a loopholed stone wall eight feet high, and
+with sharp flints plentifully set in mortar on the coping.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall, 'this is my
+magnum opus; at least, this and the church, which is the other side of
+the house. It took me and twenty natives two years to dig the ditch and
+build the wall, but I never felt safe till it was done; and now I can
+defy all the savages in Africa, for the spring that fills the ditch
+is inside the wall, and bubbles out at the top of the hill winter and
+summer alike, and I always keep a store of four months' provision in the
+house.'
+
+Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in the wall, we
+entered into what Mrs Mackenzie called _her_ domain--namely, the flower
+garden, the beauty of which is really beyond my power to describe. I
+do not think I ever saw such roses, gardenias, or camellias (all reared
+from seeds or cuttings sent from England); and there was also a patch
+given up to a collection of bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss
+Flossie, Mr Mackenzie's little daughter, from the surrounding country,
+some of which were surpassingly beautiful. In the middle of this garden,
+and exactly opposite the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear water
+bubbled up from the ground, and fell into a stone-work basin which had
+been carefully built to receive it, whence the overflow found its way by
+means of a drain to the moat round the outer wall, this moat in its
+turn serving as a reservoir, whence an unfailing supply of water
+was available to irrigate all the gardens below. The house itself, a
+massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of stone,
+and had a handsome veranda in front. It was built on three sides of
+a square, the fourth side being taken up by the kitchens, which stood
+separate from the house--a very good plan in a hot country. In the
+centre of this square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable
+object that we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a
+single tree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely on the
+highlands of this part of Africa. This splendid tree, which Mr Mackenzie
+informed us was a landmark for fifty miles round, and which we had
+ourselves seen for the last forty miles of our journey, must have been
+nearly three hundred feet in height, the trunk measuring about sixteen
+feet in diameter at a yard from the ground. For some seventy feet it
+rose a beautiful tapering brown pillar without a single branch, but at
+that height splendid dark green boughs, which, looked at from below, had
+the appearance of gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out horizontally from
+the trunk, projecting right over the house and flower-garden, to both of
+which they furnished a grateful proportion of shade, without--being so
+high up--offering any impediment to the passage of light and air.
+
+'What a beautiful tree!' exclaimed Sir Henry.
+
+'Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree. There is not another like
+it in all the country round, that I know of,' answered Mr Mackenzie. 'I
+call it my watch tower. As you see, I have a rope ladder fixed to the
+lowest bough; and if I want to see anything that is going on within
+fifteen miles or so, all I have to do is to run up it with a spyglass.
+But you must be hungry, and I am sure the dinner is cooked. Come in,
+my friends; it is but a rough place, but well enough for these savage
+parts; and I can tell you what, we have got--a French cook.' And he led
+the way on to the veranda.
+
+As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he could mean by
+this, there suddenly appeared, through the door that opened on to the
+veranda from the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue
+cotton suit, with shoes made of tanned hide, and remarkable for a
+bustling air and most enormous black mustachios, shaped into an
+upward curve, and coming to a point for all the world like a pair of
+buffalo-horns.
+
+'Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved. Messieurs, my
+compliments;' then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who was loitering
+along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw up his hands
+in astonishment. 'Ah, mais quel homme!' he ejaculated in French, 'quel
+sauvage affreux! Take but note of his huge choppare and the great pit in
+his head.'
+
+'Ay,' said Mr Mackenzie; 'what are you talking about, Alphonse?'
+
+'Talking about!' replied the little Frenchman, his eyes still fixed upon
+Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate him; 'why I
+talk of him'--and he rudely pointed--'of ce monsieur noir.'
+
+At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceiving that he
+was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he had a most lordly
+dislike of anything like a personal liberty.
+
+'Parbleu!' said Alphonse, 'he is angered--he makes the grimace. I like
+not his air. I vanish.' And he did with considerable rapidity.
+
+Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which we indulged
+in. 'He is a queer character--Alphonse,' he said. 'By and by I will tell
+you his history; in the meanwhile let us try his cooking.'
+
+'Might I ask,' said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent
+dinner, 'how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?'
+
+'Oh,' answered Mrs Mackenzie, 'he arrived here of his own accord about
+a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service. He had got into some
+trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an application
+had been made by the French Government for his extradition. Whereupon
+he rushed off up-country, and fell in, when nearly starved, with our
+caravan of men, who were bringing us our annual supply of goods, and was
+brought on here. You should get him to tell you the story.'
+
+When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded to give
+our host a description of our journey up here, over which he looked very
+grave.
+
+'It is evident to me,' he said, 'that those rascally Masai are following
+you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this house in
+safety. I do not think that they will dare to attack you here. It is
+unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men have gone down to the coast
+with ivory and goods. There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and
+the consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for
+defensive purposes in case they should attack us. But, still, I will
+just give a few orders;' and, calling a black man who was loitering
+about outside in the garden, he went to the window, and addressed him in
+a Swahili dialect. The man listened, and then saluted and departed.
+
+'I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamity upon
+you,' said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. 'Rather than
+bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears, we will move on and
+take our chance.'
+
+'You will do nothing of the sort. If the Masai come, they come, and
+there is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty warm
+greeting. I would not show any man the door for all the Masai in the
+world.'
+
+'That reminds me,' I said, 'the Consul at Lamu told me that he had had
+a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrived here who
+reported that he had come across a white people in the interior. Do you
+think that there was any truth in his story? I ask, because I have once
+or twice in my life heard rumours from natives who have come down from
+the far north of the existence of such a race.'
+
+Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned,
+bringing with him a most curious sword. It was long, and all the blade,
+which was very thick and heavy, was to within a quarter of an inch of
+the cutting edge worked into an ornamental pattern exactly as we work
+soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however, being invariably pierced
+in such a way as not to interfere with the strength of the sword. This
+in itself was sufficiently curious, but what was still more so was that
+all the edges of the hollow spaces cut through the substance of the
+blade were most beautifully inlaid with gold, which was in some way that
+I cannot understand welded on to the steel {Endnote 5}.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'did you ever see a sword like that?'
+
+We all examined it and shook our heads.
+
+'Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the man who said
+he had seen the white people brought with him, and because it does more
+or less give an air of truth to what I should otherwise have set down
+as a lie. Look here; I will tell you all that I know about the matter,
+which is not much. One afternoon, just before sunset, I was sitting on
+the veranda, when a poor, miserable, starved-looking man came limping up
+and squatted down before me. I asked him where he came from and what he
+wanted, and thereon he plunged into a long rambling narrative about how
+he belonged to a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was destroyed
+by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven still further
+north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, he made his way to
+another lake that lay up in the mountains, "a lake without a bottom"
+he called it, and here his wife and brother died of an infectious
+sickness--probably smallpox--whereon the people drove him out of their
+villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over mountains
+for ten days, after which he got into dense thorn forest, and was one
+day found there by some _white men_ who were hunting, and who took him
+to a place where all the people were white and lived in stone houses.
+Here he remained a week shut up in a house, till one night a man with
+a white beard, whom he understood to be a "medicine-man", came and
+inspected him, after which he was led off and taken through the thorn
+forest to the confines of the wilderness, and given food and this sword
+(at least so he said), and turned loose.'
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathless interest,
+'and what did he do then?'
+
+'Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone through sufferings
+and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weeks on roots and
+berries, and such things as he could catch and kill. But somehow he did
+live, and at last by slow degrees made his way south and reached this
+place. What the details of his journey were I never learnt, for I told
+him to return on the morrow, bidding one of my headmen look after him
+for the night. The headman took him away, but the poor man had the itch
+so badly that the headman's wife would not have him in the hut for fear
+of catching it, so he was given a blanket and told to sleep outside.
+As it happened, we had a lion hanging about here just then, and most
+unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer, and, springing on him,
+bit his head almost off without the people in the hut knowing anything
+about it, and there was an end of him and his story about the white
+people; and whether or no there is any truth in it is more than I can
+tell you. What do you think, Mr Quatermain?'
+
+I shook my head, and answered, 'I don't know. There are so many queer
+things hidden away in the heart of this great continent that I should
+be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to try
+and find out. We intend to journey to Lekakisera, and thence, if we live
+to get so far, to this Lake Laga; and, if there are any white people
+beyond, we will do our best to find them.'
+
+'You are very venturesome people,' said Mr Mackenzie, with a smile, and
+the subject dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+
+
+
+After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and grounds
+of the station, which I consider the most successful as well as the most
+beautiful place of the sort that I have seen in Africa. We then returned
+to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaas taking advantage of this
+favourable opportunity to clean all the rifles thoroughly. This was the
+only _work_ that he ever did or was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it
+was beneath his dignity to work with his hands; but such as it was he
+did it very well. It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu sitting
+there upon the floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall behind
+him, whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily employed,
+delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism of the
+breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One--a double four-bore
+belonging to Sir Henry--was the Thunderer; another, my 500 Express,
+which had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'the little one who spoke like
+a whip'; the Winchester repeaters were 'the women, who talked so fast
+that you could not tell one word from another'; the six Martinis were
+'the common people'; and so on with them all. It was very curious to
+hear him addressing each gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an
+individual, and in a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the same with
+his battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend,
+and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over all his old
+adventures with it--and dreadful enough some of them were. By a piece of
+grim humour, he had named this axe 'Inkosi-kaas', which is the Zulu word
+for chieftainess. For a long while I could not make out why he gave it
+such a name, and at last I asked him, when he informed me that the axe
+was very evidently feminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very
+deep into things, and that she was clearly a chieftainess because all
+men fell down before her, struck dumb at the sight of her beauty and
+power. In the same way he would consult 'Inkosi-kaas' if in any dilemma;
+and when I asked him why he did so, he informed me it was because she
+must needs be wise, having 'looked into so many people's brains'.
+
+I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon. It was,
+as I have said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an
+enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet three inches long, about an
+inch and a quarter thick, and with a knob at the end as large as a
+Maltese orange, left there to prevent the hand from slipping. This
+horn haft, though so massive, was as flexible as cane, and practically
+unbreakable; but, to make assurance doubly sure, it was whipped round
+at intervals of a few inches with copper wire--all the parts where the
+hands grip being thus treated. Just above where the haft entered the
+head were scored a number of little nicks, each nick representing a man
+killed in battle with the weapon. The axe itself was made of the
+most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though
+Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken it from the
+hand of a chief he had killed in battle many years before. It was not
+very heavy, the head weighing two and a half pounds, as nearly as I
+could judge. The cutting part was slightly concave in shape--not convex,
+as it generally the case with savage battleaxes--and sharp as a razor,
+measuring five and three-quarter inches across the widest part. From the
+back of the axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last two
+of which it was hollow, and shaped like a leather punch, with an opening
+for anything forced into the hollow at the punch end to be pushed
+out above--in fact, in this respect it exactly resembled a butcher's
+pole-axe. It was with this punch end, as we afterwards discovered, that
+Umslopogaas usually struck when fighting, driving a neat round hole
+in his adversary's skull, and only using the broad cutting edge for a
+circular sweep, or sometimes in a melee. I think he considered the
+punch a neater and more sportsmanlike tool, and it was from his habit
+of pecking at his enemy with it that he got his name of 'Woodpecker'.
+Certainly in his hands it was a terribly efficient one.
+
+Such was Umslopogaas' axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and fatal
+hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished as
+much as his own life. It scarcely ever left his hand except when he was
+eating, and then he always sat with it under his leg.
+
+Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie came up and took
+me off to see her collection of flowers, African liliums, and blooming
+shrubs, some of which are very beautiful, many of the varieties being
+quite unknown to me and also, I believe, to botanical science. I asked
+her if she had ever seen or heard of the 'Goya' lily, which Central
+African explorers have told me they have occasionally met with and whose
+wonderful loveliness has filled them with astonishment. This lily, which
+the natives say blooms only once in ten years, flourishes in the
+most arid soil. Compared to the size of the bloom, the bulb is small,
+generally weighing about four pounds. As for the flower itself (which
+I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to impress its appearance
+fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe its beauty and
+splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its perfume. The
+flower--for it has only one bloom--rises from the crown of the bulb on
+a thick fleshy and flat-sided stem, the specimen that I saw measured
+fourteen inches in diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the
+bloom of an ordinary 'longiflorum' set vertically. First there is
+the green sheath, which in its early stage is not unlike that of a
+water-lily, but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and
+curls back gracefully towards the stem. Then comes the bloom itself, a
+single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richest velvety
+crimson, from the heart of which rises a golden-coloured pistil. I have
+never seen anything to equal this bloom in beauty or fragrance, and as
+I believe it is but little known, I take the liberty to describe it at
+length. Looking at it for the first time I well remember that I realized
+how even in a flower there dwells something of the majesty of its Maker.
+To my great delight Miss Flossie told me that she knew the flower well
+and had tried to grow it in her garden, but without success, adding,
+however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of the year she
+thought that she could procure me a specimen.
+
+After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here among all
+these savage people and without any companions of her own age.
+
+'Lonely?' she said. 'Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day is long,
+and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried
+in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell
+the difference! Here,' she said, giving her head a little toss, 'I am I;
+and every native for miles around knows the "Water-lily",--for that is
+what they call me--and is ready to do what I want, but in the books that
+I have read about little girls in England it is not like that. Everybody
+thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistress
+likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage like that and not
+to be free--free as the air.'
+
+'Would you not like to learn?' I asked.
+
+'So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.'
+
+'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'
+
+'Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that
+I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair hair.
+And look here,' and diving her little hand into the bodice of her dress
+she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry
+that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once
+I shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. It
+frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead,
+and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!' she went on in an altered
+voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, 'I
+said just now that I had companions; there is one of them.'
+
+I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight the glory of
+Mount Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always been hidden in mist, but
+now its radiant beauty was unveiled for many thousand feet, although
+the base was still wrapped in vapour so that the lofty peak or pillar,
+towering nearly twenty thousand feet into the sky, appeared to be a
+fairy vision, hanging between earth and heaven, and based upon the
+clouds. The solemn majesty and beauty of this white peak are together
+beyond the power of my poor pen to describe. There it rose straight and
+sheer--a glittering white glory, its crest piercing the very blue of
+heaven. As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my whole heart
+lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a moment great and
+wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, even as the arrows of
+the setting sun were breaking upon Kenia's snows. Mr Mackenzie's natives
+call the mountain the 'Finger of God', and to me it did seem eloquent
+of immortal peace and of the pure high calm that surely lies above this
+fevered world. Somewhere I had heard a line of poetry,
+
+     A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
+
+and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughly
+understood what it meant. Base, indeed, would be the man who could look
+upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile--that white old tombstone of the
+years--and not feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatever name
+he calls Him, worship God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of
+the spirit; they throw wide the windows of the chamber of our small
+selfishness and let in a breath of that air that rushes round the
+rolling spheres, and for a while illumine our darkness with a far-off
+gleam of the white light which beats upon the Throne.
+
+Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I can well
+understand what little Flossie meant when she talked of Kenia as her
+companion. As Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu that he was, said when I
+pointed out to him the peak hanging in the glittering air: 'A man might
+look thereon for a thousand years and yet be hungry to see.' But he gave
+rather another colour to his poetical idea when he added in a sort of
+chant, and with a touch of that weird imagination for which the man was
+remarkable, that when he was dead he should like his spirit to sit upon
+that snow-clad peak for ever, and to rush down the steep white sides
+in the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash of the lightning, and
+'slay, and slay, and slay'.
+
+'Slay what, you old bloodhound?' I asked.
+
+This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered--
+
+'The other shadows.'
+
+'So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?' I said.
+
+'I murder not,' he answered hotly; 'I kill in fair fight. Man is born to
+kill. He who kills not when his blood is hot is a woman, and no man. The
+people who kill not are slaves. I say I kill in fair fight; and when
+I am "in the shadow", as you white men say, I hope to go on killing in
+fair fight. May my shadow be accursed and chilled to the bone for ever
+if it should fall to murdering like a bushman with his poisoned arrows!'
+And he stalked away with much dignity, and left me laughing.
+
+Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morning to find
+out if there were any traces of our Masai friends about, returned,
+and reported that the country had been scoured for fifteen miles round
+without a single Elmoran being seen, and that they believed that those
+gentry had given up the pursuit and returned whence they came. Mr
+Mackenzie gave a sigh of relief when he heard this, and so indeed did
+we, for we had had quite enough of the Masai to last us for some time.
+Indeed, the general opinion was that, finding we had reached the mission
+station in safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the pursuit
+of us as a bad job. How ill-judged that view was the sequel will show.
+
+After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retired for
+the night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, and Sir Henry, who
+is a very good French scholar, got him to tell us how he came to visit
+Central Africa, which he did in a most extraordinary lingo, that for the
+most part I shall not attempt to reproduce.
+
+'My grandfather,' he began, 'was a soldier of the Guard, and served
+under Napoleon. He was in the retreat from Moscow, and lived for ten
+days on his own leggings and a pair he stole from a comrade. He used to
+get drunk--he died drunk, and I remember playing at drums on his coffin.
+My father--'
+
+Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come to the point.
+
+'Bien, messieurs!' replied this comical little man, with a polite bow.
+'I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principle is not
+hereditary. My grandfather was a splendid man, six feet two high, broad
+in proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters. Also he was remarkable
+for his moustache. To me there remains the moustache and--nothing more.
+
+'I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles. In that dear
+town I spent my happy youth. For years and years I washed the dishes at
+the Hotel Continental. Ah, those were golden days!' and he sighed. 'I am
+a Frenchman. Need I say, messieurs, that I admire beauty? Nay, I adore
+the fair. Messieurs, we admire all the roses in a garden, but we pluck
+one. I plucked one, and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger. She was
+a chambermaid, her name Annette, her figure ravishing, her face
+an angel's, her heart--alas, messieurs, that I should have to
+own it!--black and slippery as a patent leather boot. I loved to
+desperation, I adored her to despair. She transported me--in every
+sense; she inspired me. Never have I cooked as I cooked (for I had been
+promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette, smiled on me.
+Never'--and here his manly voice broke into a sob--'never shall I cook
+so well again.' Here he melted into tears.
+
+'Come, cheer up!' said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartly on the
+back. 'There's no knowing what may happen, you know. To judge from your
+dinner today, I should say you were in a fair way to recovery.'
+
+Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back. 'Monsieur,' he
+said, 'doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy. To continue:
+we loved, and were happy in each other's love. The birds in their little
+nest could not be happier than Alphonse and his Annette. Then came the
+blow--sapristi!--when I think of it. Messieurs will forgive me if I wipe
+away a tear. Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the conscription.
+Fortune would be avenged on me for having won the heart of Annette.
+
+'The evil moment came; I had to go. I tried to run away, but I was
+caught by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with the butt-end
+of muskets till my mustachios curled with pain. I had a cousin a
+linen-draper, well-to-do, but very ugly. He had drawn a good number,
+and sympathized when they thumped me. "To thee, my cousin," I said, "to
+thee, in whose veins flows the blue blood of our heroic grandparent, to
+thee I consign Annette. Watch over her whilst I hunt for glory in the
+bloody field."
+
+'"Make your mind easy," said he; "I will." As the sequel shows, he did!
+
+'I went. I lived in barracks on black soup. I am a refined man and a
+poet by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarse horror of my
+surroundings. There was a drill sergeant, and he had a cane. Ah, that
+cane, how it curled! Alas, never can I forget it!
+
+'One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin.
+The drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced. I--I made
+enquiries about Tonquin. They were not satisfactory. In Tonquin are
+savage Chinese who rip you open. My artistic tastes--for I am also an
+artist--recoiled from the idea of being ripped open. The great man makes
+up his mind quickly. I made up my mind. I determined not to be ripped
+open. I deserted.
+
+'I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man. I went to the house of
+my cousin--he in whom runs my grandfather's heroic blood--and there sat
+Annette. It was the season of cherries. They took a double stalk. At
+each end was a cherry. My cousin put one into his mouth, Annette put
+the other in hers. Then they drew the stalks in till their eyes met--and
+alas, alas that I should have to say it!--they kissed. The game was
+a pretty one, but it filled me with fury. The heroic blood of my
+grandfather boiled up in me. I rushed into the kitchen. I struck my
+cousin with the old man's crutch. He fell--I had slain him. Alas, I
+believe that I did slay him. Annette screamed. The gendarmes came. I
+fled. I reached the harbour. I hid aboard a vessel. The vessel put to
+sea. The captain found me and beat me. He took an opportunity. He posted
+a letter from a foreign port to the police. He did not put me ashore
+because I cooked so well. I cooked for him all the way to Zanzibar. When
+I asked for payment he kicked me. The blood of my heroic grandfather
+boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his face and vowed to have my
+revenge. He kicked me again. At Zanzibar there was a telegram. I cursed
+the man who invented telegraphs. Now I curse him again. I was to be
+arrested for desertion, for murder, and que sais-je? I escaped from
+the prison. I fled, I starved. I met the men of Monsieur le Cure. They
+brought me here. I am full of woe. But I return not to France. Better to
+risk my life in these horrible places than to know the Bagne.'
+
+He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turn our faces
+away.
+
+'Ah! you weep, messieurs,' he said. 'No wonder--it is a sad story.'
+
+'Perhaps,' said Sir Henry, 'the heroic blood of your grandparent will
+triumph after all; perhaps you will still be great. At any rate we shall
+see. And now I vote we go to bed. I am dead tired, and we had not much
+sleep on that confounded rock last night.'
+
+And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white sheets
+seemed to us after our recent experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+
+
+
+Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was.
+
+'Well,' said her mother, 'when I got up this morning I found a note put
+outside my door in which--But here it is, you can read it for yourself,'
+and she gave me the slip of paper on which the following was written:--
+
+'Dearest M--,--It is just dawn, and I am off to the hills to get Mr Q--a
+bloom of the lily he wants, so don't expect me till you see me. I have
+taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple of boys are coming with
+me--also something to eat, as I may be away all day, for I am determined
+to get the lily if I have to go twenty miles for it.--Flossie.'
+
+
+'I hope she will be all right,' I said, a little anxiously; 'I never
+meant her to trouble after the flower.'
+
+'Ah, Flossie can look after herself,' said her mother; 'she often goes
+off in this way like a true child of the wilderness.' But Mr Mackenzie,
+who came in just then and saw the note for the first time, looked rather
+grave, though he said nothing.
+
+After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whether it would
+not be possible to send after the girl and get her back, having in view
+the possibility of there still being some Masai hanging about, at whose
+hands she might come to harm.
+
+'I fear it would be of no use,' he answered. 'She may be fifteen miles
+off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken.
+There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long range of rising ground
+stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana,
+but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five miles
+short of the house.
+
+Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over the house and
+search the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie
+had given some orders to his people to try and follow Flossie's spoor,
+we did.
+
+The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance, even
+with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up, at least to a
+landsman; but Good came up like a lamplighter.
+
+On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs sprang
+from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon a platform made
+of boards, nailed from one bough to another, and large enough to
+accommodate a dozen people. As for the view, it was simply glorious.
+In every direction the bush rolled away in great billows for miles and
+miles, as far as the glass would show, only here and there broken by the
+brighter green of patches of cultivation, or by the glittering surface
+of lakes. To the northwest, Kenia reared his mighty head, and we could
+trace the Tana river curling like a silver snake almost from his feet,
+and far away beyond us towards the ocean. It is a glorious country, and
+only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productive one.
+
+But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and her donkey,
+so at last we had to come down disappointed. On reaching the veranda I
+found Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightly sharpening his axe
+with a small whetstone he always carried with him.
+
+'What doest thou, Umslopogaas?' I asked.
+
+'I smell blood,' was the answer; and I could get no more out of him.
+
+After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surrounding
+country with a spyglass, but without result. When we came down
+Umslopogaas was still sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she already had
+an edge like a razor. Standing in front of him, and regarding him with a
+mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse. And certainly he did seem
+an alarming object--sitting there, Zulu fashion, on his haunches, a wild
+look upon his intensely savage and yet intellectual face, sharpening,
+sharpening, sharpening at the murderous-looking axe.
+
+'Oh, the monster, the horrible man!' said the little French cook,
+lifting his hands in amazement. 'See but the hole in his head; the skin
+beats on it up and down like a baby's! Who would nurse such a baby?' and
+he burst out laughing at the idea.
+
+For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and a sort of
+evil light played in his dark eyes.
+
+'What does the little "buffalo-heifer" [so named by Umslopogaas, on
+account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say? Let him be
+careful, or I will cut his horns. Beware, little man monkey, beware!'
+
+Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him, went on
+laughing at 'ce drole d'un monsieur noir'. I was about to warn him to
+desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded off the veranda on to the
+open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort
+of malicious enthusiasm, and began swinging the axe round and round over
+the Frenchman's head.
+
+'Stand still,' I shouted; 'do not move as you value your life--he will
+not hurt you;' but I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being, fortunately for
+himself, almost petrified with horror.
+
+Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or rather of
+axemanship, that I ever saw. First of all the axe went flying round
+and round over the top of Alphonse's head, with an angry whirl and such
+extraordinary swiftness that it looked like a continuous band of steel,
+ever getting nearer and yet nearer to that unhappy individual's skull,
+till at last it grazed it as it flew. Then suddenly the motion was
+changed, and it seemed to literally flow up and down his body and limbs,
+never more than an eighth of an inch from them, and yet never striking
+them. It was a wonderful sight to see the little man fixed there, having
+apparently realized that to move would be to run the risk of sudden
+death, while his black tormentor towered over him, and wrapped him round
+with the quick flashes of the axe. For a minute or more this went
+on, till suddenly I saw the moving brightness travel down the side of
+Alphonse's face, and then outwards and stop. As it did so a tuft of
+something black fell to the ground; it was the tip of one of the little
+Frenchman's curling mustachios.
+
+Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke into a long,
+low laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank into a sitting posture
+on the ground, while we stood astonished at this exhibition of almost
+superhuman skill and mastery of a weapon. 'Inkosi-kaas is sharp enough,'
+he shouted; 'the blow that clipped the "buffalo-heifer's" horn would
+have split a man from the crown to the chin. Few could have struck it
+but I; none could have struck it and not taken off the shoulder too.
+Look, thou little heifer! Am I a good man to laugh at, thinkest thou?
+For a space hast thou stood within a hair's-breadth of death. Laugh not
+again, lest the hair's-breadth be wanting. I have spoken.'
+
+'What meanest thou by such mad tricks?' I asked of Umslopogaas,
+indignantly. 'Surely thou art mad. Twenty times didst thou go near to
+slaying the man.'
+
+'And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not. Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flew the spirit
+entered into me to end him, and send her crashing through his skull; but
+I did not. Nay, it was but a jest; but tell the "heifer" that it is not
+well to mock at such as I. Now I go to make a shield, for I smell blood,
+Macumazahn--of a truth I smell blood. Before the battle hast thou not
+seen the vulture grow of a sudden in the sky? They smell the blood,
+Macumazahn, and my scent is more keen than theirs. There is a dry
+ox-hide down yonder; I go to make a shield.'
+
+'That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours,' said Mr Mackenzie, who had
+witnessed this extraordinary scene. 'He has frightened Alphonse out of
+his wits; look!' and he pointed to the Frenchman, who, with a scared
+white face and trembling limbs, was making his way into the house. 'I
+don't think that he will ever laugh at "le monsieur noir" again.'
+
+'Yes,' answered I, 'it is ill jesting with such as he. When he is roused
+he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heart in his own fierce way.
+I remember years ago seeing him nurse a sick child for a week. He is a
+strange character, but true as steel, and a strong stick to rest on in
+danger.'
+
+'He says he smells blood,' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I only trust he is not
+right. I am getting very fearful about my little girl. She must have
+gone far, or she would be home by now. It is half-past three o'clock.'
+
+I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likely would
+not in the ordinary course of events return till nightfall; but I myself
+felt very anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayed itself.
+
+Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent out to search
+for Flossie returned, stating that they had followed the spoor of the
+donkey for a couple of miles and had then lost it on some stony ground,
+nor could they discover it again. They had, however, scoured the country
+far and wide, but without success.
+
+After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening, there
+still being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew very keen. As for the
+poor mother, she was quite prostrated by her fears, and no wonder, but
+the father kept his head wonderfully well. Everything that could be done
+was done: people were sent out in all directions, shots were fired, and
+a continuous outlook kept from the great tree, but without avail.
+
+And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired little Flossie.
+
+At eight o'clock we had supper. It was but a sorrowful meal, and Mrs
+Mackenzie did not appear at it. We three also were very silent, for in
+addition to our natural anxiety as to the fate of the child, we were
+weighed down by the sense that we had brought this trouble on the head
+of our kind host. When supper was nearly at an end I made an excuse to
+leave the table. I wanted to get outside and think the situation over. I
+went on to the veranda and, having lit my pipe, sat down on a seat about
+a dozen feet from the right-hand end of the structure, which was, as
+the reader may remember, exactly opposite one of the narrow doors of the
+protecting wall that enclosed the house and flower garden. I had been
+sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thought I heard the
+door move. I looked in that direction and I listened, but, being unable
+to make out anything, concluded that I must have been mistaken. It was a
+darkish night, the moon not having yet risen.
+
+Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell with a soft
+but heavy thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda, and came
+bounding and rolling along past me. For a moment I did not rise, but sat
+wondering what it could be. Finally, I concluded it must have been an
+animal. Just then, however, another idea struck me, and I got up quick
+enough. The thing lay quite still a few feet beyond me. I put down my
+hand towards it and it did not move: clearly it was not an animal. My
+hand touched it. It was soft and warm and heavy. Hurriedly I lifted it
+and held it up against the faint starlight.
+
+_It was a newly severed human head!_
+
+I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastly sight
+made me feel sick. How had the thing come there? Whose was it? I put it
+down and ran to the little doorway. I could see nothing, hear nobody. I
+was about to go out into the darkness beyond, but remembering that to do
+so was to expose myself to the risk of being stabbed, I drew back,
+shut the door, and bolted it. Then I returned to the veranda, and in as
+careless a voice as I could command called Curtis. I fear, however, that
+my tones must have betrayed me, for not only Sir Henry but also Good and
+Mackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out.
+
+'What is it?' said the clergyman, anxiously.
+
+Then I had to tell them.
+
+Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin. We were standing
+opposite the hall door, and there was a light in it so that I could see.
+He snatched the head up by the hair and held it against the light.
+
+'It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie,' he said with
+a gasp. 'Thank God it is not hers!'
+
+We all stood and stared at each other aghast. What was to be done?
+
+Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted, and a
+voice cried, 'Open, my father, open!'
+
+The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man. He was one of the
+spies who had been sent out.
+
+'My father,' he cried, 'the Masai are on us! A great body of them have
+passed round the hill and are moving towards the old stone kraal down
+by the little stream. My father, make strong thy heart! In the midst
+of them I saw the white ass, and on it sat the Water-lily [Flossie]. An
+Elmoran [young warrior] led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse
+weeping. The men who went with her in the morning I saw not.'
+
+'Was the child alive?' asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
+
+'She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passed quite close
+to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw her face against the
+sky.'
+
+'God help her and us!' groaned the clergyman.
+
+'How many are there of them?' I asked.
+
+'More than two hundred--two hundred and half a hundred.'
+
+Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done? Just then
+there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
+
+'Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald--a herald to speak
+with thee.' Thus cried the voice.
+
+Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms to the
+coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over.
+
+'I see but one man,' he said. 'He is armed, and carries a basket in his
+hand.'
+
+'Open the door,' I said. 'Umslopogaas, take thine axe and stand thereby.
+Let one man pass. If another follows, slay.'
+
+The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas, his
+axe raised above his head to strike. Just then the moon came out. There
+was a moment's pause, and then in stalked a Masai Elmoran, clad in the
+full war panoply that I have already described, but bearing a large
+basket in his hand. The moonlight shone bright upon his great spear
+as he walked. He was physically a splendid man, apparently about
+thirty-five years of age. Indeed, none of the Masai that I saw were
+under six feet high, though mostly quite young. When he got opposite to
+us he halted, put down the basket, and stuck the spike of his spear into
+the ground, so that it stood upright.
+
+'Let us talk,' he said. 'The first messenger we sent to you could not
+talk;' and he pointed to the head which lay upon the paving of the
+stoep--a ghastly sight in the moonlight; 'but I have words to speak
+if ye have ears to hear. Also I bring presents;' and he pointed to the
+basket and laughed with an air of swaggering insolence that is perfectly
+indescribable, and yet which one could not but admire, seeing that he
+was surrounded by enemies.
+
+'Say on,' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'I am the "Lygonani" [war captain] of a party of the Masai of the Guasa
+Amboni. I and my men followed these three white men,' and he pointed
+to Sir Henry, Good, and myself, 'but they were too clever for us, and
+escaped hither. We have a quarrel with them, and are going to kill
+them.'
+
+'Are you, my friend?' said I to myself.
+
+'In following these men we this morning caught two black men, one
+black woman, a white donkey, and a white girl. One of the black men we
+killed--there is his head upon the pavement; the other ran away. The
+black woman, the little white girl, and the white ass we took and
+brought with us. In proof thereof have I brought this basket that she
+carried. Is it not thy daughter's basket?'
+
+Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on.
+
+'Good! With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor do we wish to
+harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have already gathered, two
+hundred and forty head--a beast for every man's father.' {Endnote 6}
+
+Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herd of
+cattle, which he bred with much care and trouble.
+
+'So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially,' he added
+frankly, glancing at the wall, 'as this place would be a difficult one
+to take. But as to these men it is otherwise; we have followed them
+for nights and days, and must kill them. Were we to return to our kraal
+without having done so, all the girls would make a mock of us. So,
+however troublesome it may be, they must die.
+
+'Now I have a proposition for thee. We would not harm the little girl;
+she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit. Give us one of
+these three men--a life for a life--and we will let her go, and throw in
+the black woman with her also. This is a fair offer, white man. We ask
+but for one, not for the three; we must take another opportunity to kill
+the other two. I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer the
+big one,' pointing to Sir Henry; 'he looks strong, and would die more
+slowly.'
+
+'And if I say I will not yield the man?' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'Nay, say not so, white man,' answered the Masai, 'for then thy daughter
+dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hast no other child. Were
+she older I would take her for a servant; but as she is so young I will
+slay her with my own hand--ay, with this very spear. Thou canst come and
+see, an' thou wilt. I give thee a safe conduct;' and the fiend laughed
+aloud as his brutal jest.
+
+Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies, and
+had come to the conclusion that I would exchange myself against
+Flossie. I scarcely like to mention the matter for fear it should be
+misunderstood. Pray do not let any one be misled into thinking that
+there was anything heroic about this, or any such nonsense. It was
+merely a matter of common sense and common justice. My life was an old
+and worthless one, hers was young and valuable. Her death would pretty
+well kill her father and mother also, whilst nobody would be much the
+worse for mine; indeed, several charitable institutions would have cause
+to rejoice thereat. It was indirectly through me that the dear little
+girl was in her present position. Lastly, a man was better fitted to
+meet death in such a peculiarly awful form than a sweet young girl. Not,
+however, that I meant to let these gentry torture me to death--I am far
+too much of a coward to allow that, being naturally a timid man; my plan
+was to see the girl safely exchanged and then to shoot myself, trusting
+that the Almighty would take the peculiar circumstances of the case into
+consideration and pardon the act. All this and more went through my mind
+in very few seconds.
+
+'All right, Mackenzie,' I said, 'you can tell the man that I will
+exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that she shall be
+safely in this house before they kill me.'
+
+'Eh?' said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously. 'That you don't.'
+
+'No, no,' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I will have no man's blood upon my hands.
+If it please God that my daughter should die this awful death, His will
+be done. You are a brave man (which I am not by any means) and a noble
+man, Quatermain, but you shall not go.'
+
+'If nothing else turns up I shall go,' I said decidedly.
+
+'This is an important matter,' said Mackenzie, addressing the Lygonani,
+'and we must think it over. You shall have our answer at dawn.'
+
+'Very well, white man,' answered the savage indifferently; 'only
+remember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will never grow into
+a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this,' and he touched the
+spear. 'I should have thought that thou wouldst play a trick and attack
+us at night, but I know from the woman with the girl that your men are
+down at the coast, and that thou hast but twenty men here. It is not
+wise, white man,' he added with a laugh, 'to keep so small a garrison
+for your "boma" [kraal]. Well, good night, and good night to you also,
+other white men, whose eyelids I shall soon close once and for all. At
+dawn thou wilt bring me word. If not, remember it shall be as I have
+said.' Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the while been standing
+behind him and shepherding him as it were, 'Open the door for me,
+fellow, quick now.'
+
+This was too much for the old chief's patience. For the last ten minutes
+his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positively watering over the
+Masai Lygonani, and this he could not stand. Placing his long hand
+on the Elmoran's shoulder he gripped it and gave him such a twist
+as brought him face to face with himself. Then, thrusting his fierce
+countenance to within a few inches of the Masai's evil feather-framed
+features, he said in a low growling voice:--
+
+'Seest thou me?'
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see thee.'
+
+'And seest thou this?' and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes.
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?'
+
+'Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of little girls,
+with this "toy" will I hew thee limb from limb. Well for thee that thou
+art a herald, or even now would I strew thy members about the grass.'
+
+The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long as he
+answered, 'I would that thou stoodst against me man to man, and we would
+see,' and again he turned to go still laughing.
+
+'Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid,' replied
+Umslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice. 'Thou shalt stand face
+to face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of the people of the
+Amazulu, a captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi, as many have done
+before, and bow thyself to Inkosi-kaas, as many have done before. Ay,
+laugh on, laugh on! tomorrow night shall the jackals laugh as they
+crunch thy ribs.'
+
+When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening the basket
+he had brought as a proof that Flossie was really their prisoner. On
+lifting the lid it was found to contain a most lovely specimen of both
+bulb and flower of the Goya lily, which I have already described, in
+full bloom and quite uninjured, and what was more a note in Flossie's
+childish hand written in pencil upon a greasy piece of paper that had
+been used to wrap up some food in:--
+
+'Dearest Father and Mother,' ran the note, 'The Masai caught us when we
+were coming home with the lily. I tried to escape but could not. They
+killed Tom: the other man ran away. They have not hurt nurse and me, but
+say that they mean to exchange us against one of Mr Quatermain's party.
+_I will have nothing of the sort_. Do not let anybody give his life
+for me. Try and attack them at night; they are going to feast on three
+bullocks they have stolen and killed. I have my pistol, and if no
+help comes by dawn I will shoot myself. They shall not kill me. If so,
+remember me always, dearest father and mother. I am very frightened,
+but I trust in God. I dare not write any more as they are beginning to
+notice. Goodbye.--Flossie.'
+
+
+Scrawled across the outside of this was 'Love to Mr Quatermain. They are
+going to take the basket, so he will get the lily.'
+
+When I read those words, written by that brave little girl in an hour
+of danger sufficiently near and horrible to have turned the brain of
+a strong man, I own I wept, and once more in my heart I vowed that she
+should not die while my life could be given to save her.
+
+Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussing the
+situation. Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzie negatived
+it, and Curtis and Good, like the true men that they are, vowed that, if
+I did, they would go with me, and die back to back with me.
+
+'It is,' I said at last, 'absolutely necessary that an effort of some
+sort should be made before the morning.'
+
+'Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and take our
+chance,' said Sir Henry.
+
+'Ay, ay,' growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; 'spoken like a man, Incubu. What
+is there to be afraid of? Two hundred and fifty Masai, forsooth! How
+many are we? The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] has twenty men, and thou,
+Macumazahn, hast five men, and there are also five white men--that is,
+thirty men in all--enough, enough. Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who art
+very clever and old in war. What says the maid? These men eat and make
+merry; let it be their funeral feast. What said the dog whom I hope to
+hew down at daybreak? That he feared no attack because we were so few.
+Knowest thou the old kraal where the men have camped? I saw it this
+morning; it is thus:' and he drew an oval on the floor; 'here is the big
+entrance, filled up with thorn bushes, and opening on to a steep rise.
+Why, Incubu, thou and I with axes will hold it against an hundred men
+striving to break out! Look, now; thus shall the battle go. Just as the
+light begins to glint upon the oxen's horns--not before, or it will be
+too dark, and not later, or they will be awakening and perceive us--let
+Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top end of the kraal, where the
+narrow entrance is. Let them silently slay the sentry there so that he
+makes no sound, and stand ready. Then, Incubu, let thee and me and one
+of the Askari--the one with the broad chest--he is a brave man--creep to
+the wide entrance that is filled with thorn bushes, and there also slay
+the sentry, and armed with battleaxes take our stand also one on each
+side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond to deal with such as
+pass the twain at the gate. It is there that the rush will come. That
+will leave sixteen men. Let these men be divided into two parties, with
+one of which shalt thou go, Macumazahn, and with one the "praying man"
+[Mr Mackenzie], and, all armed with rifles, let them make their way
+one to the right side of the kraal and one to the left; and when thou,
+Macumazahn, lowest like an ox, all shall open fire with the guns upon
+the sleeping men, being very careful not to hit the little maid. Then
+shall Bougwan at the far end and his ten men raise the war-cry, and,
+springing over the wall, put the Masai there to the sword. And it shall
+happen that, being yet heavy with food and sleep, and bewildered by the
+firing of the guns, the falling of men, and the spears of Bougwan, the
+soldiers shall rise and rush like wild game towards the thorn-stopped
+entrance, and there the bullets from either side shall plough through
+them, and there shall Incubu and the Askari and I wait for those who
+break across. Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if thou hast a better, name
+it.'
+
+When he had done, I explained to the others such portions of his
+scheme as they had failed to understand, and they all joined with me in
+expressing the greatest admiration of the acute and skilful programme
+devised by the old Zulu, who was indeed, in his own savage fashion,
+the finest general I ever knew. After some discussion we determined to
+accept the scheme, as it stood, it being the only one possible under the
+circumstances, and giving the best chance of success that such a forlorn
+hope would admit of--which, however, considering the enormous odds and
+the character of our foe, was not very great.
+
+'Ah, old lion!' I said to Umslopogaas, 'thou knowest how to lie in wait
+as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as where to hang on.'
+
+'Ay, ay, Macumazahn,' he answered. 'For thirty years have I been a
+warrior, and have seen many things. It will be a good fight. I smell
+blood--I tell thee, I smell blood.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+
+
+
+As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire
+population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the
+stout stone wall, and were now to be seen--men, women, and countless
+children--huddled up together in little groups, and all talking at once
+in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners and customs, and of the
+fate that they had to expect if those bloodthirsty savages succeeded in
+getting over the stone wall.
+
+Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of action
+as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four sharp boys of
+from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatched them to various
+points where they could keep an outlook upon the Masai camp, with others
+to report from time to time what was going on. Other lads and even women
+were stationed at intervals along the wall in order to guard against the
+possibility of surprise.
+
+After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting force
+were summoned by our host into the square formed by the house, and
+there, standing by the bole of the great conifer, he earnestly addressed
+them and our four Askari. Indeed, it formed a very impressive scene--one
+not likely to be forgotten by anybody who witnessed it. Immediately by
+the tree stood the angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched
+as he talked, and the other resting against the giant bole, his hat off,
+and his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of his mind.
+Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair, had her face
+hidden in her hand. On the other side of her was Alphonse, looking
+exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood the three of us, with
+Umslopogaas' grim and towering form in the background, resting, as
+usual, on his axe. In front stood and squatted the group of armed
+men--some with rifles in their hands, and others with spears and
+shields--following with eager attention every word that fell from the
+speaker's lips. The white light of the moon peering in beneath the
+lofty boughs threw a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the
+melancholy soughing of the night wind passing through the millions of
+pine needles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already a
+sufficiently tragic occasion.
+
+'Men,' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances of the
+case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them the proposed
+plan of our forlorn hope--'men, for years I have been a good friend to
+you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding you and yours from harm, and
+ye have prospered with me. Ye have seen my child--the Water-lily, as ye
+call her--grow year by year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood,
+and from childhood on towards maidenhood. She has been your children's
+playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved her.'
+
+'We have,' said a deep voice, 'and we will die to save her.'
+
+'I thank you from my heart--I thank you. Sure am I that now, in this
+hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to be cut off
+by cruel and savage men--who of a truth "know not what they do"--ye will
+strive your best to save her, and to save me and her mother from broken
+hearts. Think, too, of your own wives and children. If she dies, her
+death will be followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even
+if we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your
+goods and cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a man of peace.
+Never in all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man's blood; but
+now I say strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect our
+lives and homes. Swear to me,' he went on with added fervour--'swear to
+me that whilst a man of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost
+with me and with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody
+and cruel death.'
+
+'Say no more, my father,' said the same deep voice, that belonged to
+a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'we swear it. May we and ours die the
+death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals and the kites,
+if we break the oath! It is a fearful thing to do, my father, so few to
+strike at so many, yet will we do it or die in the doing. We swear!'
+
+'Ay, thus say we all,' chimed in the others.
+
+'Thus say we all,' said I.
+
+'It is well,' went on Mr Mackenzie. 'Ye are true men and not broken
+reeds to lean on. And now, friends--white and black together--let us
+kneel and offer up our humble supplication to the Throne of Power,
+praying that He in the hollow of Whose hand lie all our lives, Who
+giveth life and giveth death, may be pleased to make strong our arms
+that we may prevail in what awaits us at the morning's light.'
+
+And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas,
+who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas. The
+fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unless it were his
+battleaxe.
+
+'Oh God of gods!' began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous with
+emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof; 'Protector of
+the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian of the helpless, hear
+Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Thee we come in supplication.
+Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one child hast Thou given us--an innocent
+child, nurtured in Thy knowledge--and now she lies beneath the shadow of
+the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men. Be
+with her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly Father! Oh
+God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to fight,
+in Whose strength are hid the destinies of men, be Thou with us in the
+hour of strife. When we go forth into the shadow of death, make Thou
+us strong to conquer. Breathe Thou upon our foes and scatter them;
+turn Thou their strength to water, and bring their high-blown pride to
+nought; compass us about with Thy protection; throw over us the shield
+of Thy power; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; help
+us now that the cruel man would dash our little ones against the stones!
+Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on earth
+in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy Presence on
+the Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away their
+offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits pass, oh
+receive Thou them into the haven of the just. Go forth, oh Father, go
+forth with us into the battle, as with the Israelites of old. Oh God of
+battle, hear Thou our prayer!'
+
+He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and then began our
+preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop
+'talking' and get to business. The men who were to form each little
+party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely
+instructed as to what was to be done. After much consideration it was
+agreed that the ten men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the
+camp, were not to carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good
+himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword--the Masai 'sime'
+which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered
+in the canoe. We feared that if they had firearms the result of three
+cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own people
+would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the work they
+had to do would best be carried out with cold steel--especially to
+Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great advocate of cold steel. We had
+with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis.
+I armed myself with one of the repeaters--my own; an excellent weapon
+for this kind of work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and
+fitted with ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome sliding
+mechanism which they generally have. Mr Mackenzie took another, and the
+two remaining ones were given to two of his men who understood the
+use of them and were noted shots. The Martinis and some rifles of
+Mr Mackenzie's were served out, together with a plentiful supply of
+ammunition, to the other natives who were to form the two parties whose
+duty it was to be to open fire from separate sides of the kraal on the
+sleeping Masai, and who were fortunately all more or less accustomed to
+the use of a gun.
+
+As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed--with an axe. It may be
+remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of the Askari were to
+hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal against the anticipated
+rush of men striving to escape. Of course, for such a purpose as this
+guns were useless. Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm
+themselves in like fashion. It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his
+little store a selection of the very best and English-made hammer-backed
+axe-heads. Sir Henry selected one of these weighing about two and a half
+pounds and very broad in the blade, and the Askari took another a size
+smaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on these two
+axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which Mr Mackenzie
+fortunately had some in stock, made of a light but exceedingly tough
+native wood, something like English ash, only more springy. When two
+suitable helves had been selected with great care and the ends of the
+hafts notched to prevent the hand from slipping, the axe-heads were
+fixed on them as firmly as possible, and the weapons immersed in a
+bucket of water for half an hour. The result of this was to swell the
+wood in the socket in such a fashion that nothing short of burning would
+get it out again. When this important matter had been attended to
+by Umslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a little
+tin-lined deal case, which contained--what do you think?--nothing more
+or less than four mail shirts.
+
+It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had made in
+another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts of native make,
+and remembering this, I had suggested before we started on our present
+hazardous expedition that we should have some made to fit us. There
+was a little difficulty about this, as armour-making is pretty well an
+extinct art, but they can do most things in the way of steel work in
+Birmingham if they are put to it and you will pay the price, and the
+end of it was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts it is
+possible to see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the web being
+composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny rings of the
+best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved and high-necked
+jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but
+browned like the barrel of a gun; and mine weighed exactly seven pounds
+and fitted me so well that I found I could wear it for days next to my
+skin without being chafed. Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary
+make, viz. a jersey with little dependent flaps meant to afford some
+protection to the upper part of the thighs, and another of his
+own design fashioned on the pattern of the garments advertised as
+'combinations' and weighing twelve pounds. This combination shirt, of
+which the seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down
+to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to be
+laced up at the back and, of course, involved some extra weight. With
+these shirts were what looked like four brown cloth travelling caps with
+ear pieces. Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel links so
+as to afford a most valuable protection for the head.
+
+It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days of
+bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but where one
+has to do with savages, armed with cutting weapons such as assegais or
+battleaxes, they afford the most valuable protection, being, if well
+made, quite invulnerable to them. I have often thought that if only the
+English Government had in our savage wars, and more especially in the
+Zulu war, thought fit to serve out light steel shirts, there would be
+many a man alive today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten.
+
+To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in bringing
+these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had not been stolen
+by our rascally bearers when they ran away with our goods. As Curtis had
+two, and after considerable deliberation, had made up his mind to wear
+his combination one himself--the extra three or four pounds' weight
+being a matter of no account to so strong a man, and the protection
+afforded to the thighs being a very important matter to a fighting man
+not armed with a shield of any kind--I suggested that he should lend the
+other to Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory of his
+post. He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who came bearing Sir
+Henry's axe, which he had now fixed up to his satisfaction, with him.
+When we showed him the steel shirt, and explained to him that we wanted
+him to wear it, he at first declined, saying that he had fought in his
+own skin for thirty years, and that he was not going to begin now to
+fight in an iron one. Thereupon I took a heavy spear, and, spreading the
+shirt upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my strength,
+the weapon rebounding without leaving a mark upon the tempered steel.
+This exhibition half converted him; and when I pointed out to him how
+necessary it was that he should not let any old-fashioned prejudices he
+might possess stand in the way of a precaution which might preserve a
+valuable life at a time when men were scarce, and also that if he wore
+this shirt he might dispense with a shield, and so have both hands free,
+he yielded at once, and proceeded to invest his frame with the 'iron
+skin'. And indeed, although made for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu
+like a skin. The two men were almost of a height; and, though Curtis
+looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that the difference was
+more imaginary than real, the fact being that, although he was plumper
+and rounder, he was not really bigger, except in the arm. Umslopogaas
+had, comparatively speaking, thin arms, but they were as strong as wire
+ropes. At any rate, when they both stood, axe in hand, invested in
+the brown mail, which clung to their mighty forms like a web garment,
+showing the swell of every muscle and the curve of every line, they
+formed a pair that any ten men might shrink from meeting.
+
+It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning, and the spies reported
+that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormous
+quantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round their
+watchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each opening of the
+kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting not far from the wall in the
+centre of the western side of the kraal, and by her were the nurse and
+the white donkey, which was tethered to a peg. Her feet were bound with
+a rope, and warriors were lying about all round her.
+
+As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then we all
+took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of hours. I could
+not help admiring the way in which old Umslopogaas flung himself upon
+the floor, and, unmindful of what was hanging over him, instantly sank
+into a deep sleep. I do not know how it was with the others, but I could
+not do as much. Indeed, as is usual with me on these occasions, I am
+sorry to say that I felt rather frightened; and, now that some of the
+enthusiasm had gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate what we
+had undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did not like it.
+We were but thirty men all told, a good many of whom were no doubt quite
+unused to fighting, and we were going to engage two hundred and fifty
+of the fiercest, bravest, and most formidable savages in Africa, who,
+to make matters worse, were protected by a stone wall. It was, indeed,
+a mad undertaking, and what made it even madder was the exceeding
+improbability of our being able to take up our positions without
+attracting the notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did
+that--and any slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun,
+might do it--we were done for, for the whole camp would be up in a
+second, and our only hope lay in surprise.
+
+The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflections was
+near an open window that looked on to the veranda, through which came an
+extraordinary sound of groaning and weeping. For a time I could not make
+out what it was, but at last I got up and, putting my head out of the
+window, stared about. Presently I saw a dim figure kneeling on the end
+of the veranda and beating his breast--in which I recognized Alphonse.
+Not being able to understand his French talk or what on earth he was at,
+I called to him and asked him what he was doing.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he sighed, 'I do make prayer for the souls of those whom
+I shall slay tonight.'
+
+'Indeed,' I said, 'then I wish that you would do it a little more
+quietly.'
+
+Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And so the time
+passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisper through the
+window, for of course everything had now to be done in the most absolute
+silence. 'Three o'clock,' he said: 'we must begin to move at half-past.'
+
+I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound to say
+that if it had not been that just then I had not got a laugh anywhere
+about me, I should have exploded at the sight he presented armed for
+battle. To begin with, he had on a clergyman's black swallow-tail and
+a kind of broad-rimmed black felt hat, both of which he had donned on
+account, he said, of their dark colour. In his hand was the Winchester
+repeating rifle we had lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing
+belt, like those worn by English boys, were, first, a huge
+buckhorn-handled carving knife with a guard to it, and next a
+long-barrelled Colt's revolver.
+
+'Ah, my friend,' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'you are
+looking at my "carver". I thought it might come in handy if we came to
+close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many is the pig I have killed
+with it.'
+
+By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light Norfolk
+jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy to hold my
+cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good did the same, but Sir Henry
+put on nothing except his mail shirt, steel-lined cap, and a pair of
+'veldt-schoons' or soft hide shoes, his legs being bare from the knees
+down. His revolver he strapped on round his middle outside the armoured
+shirt.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under the big
+tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly armed, etc. At
+the last moment we made one change. Finding that two of the men who were
+to have gone with the firing parties knew little or nothing of guns,
+but were good spearsmen, we took away their rifles, supplied them with
+shields and long spears of the Masai pattern, and took them off to join
+Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the Askari in holding the wide opening; it
+having become clear to us that three men, however brave and strong, were
+too few for the work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+
+
+
+Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent darkness
+waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the most trying
+time of all--that slow, slow quarter of an hour. The minutes seemed
+to drag along with leaden feet, and the quiet, the solemn hush,
+that brooded over all--big, as it were, with a coming fate, was most
+oppressive to the spirits. I once remember having to get up before
+dawn to see a man hanged, and I then went through a very similar set of
+sensations, only in the present instance my feelings were animated by
+that more vivid and personal element which naturally appertains rather
+to the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic spectator.
+The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the short passage of
+an hour would mean for some, and perhaps all of them, the last great
+passage to the unknown or oblivion; the bated whispers in which they
+spoke; even Sir Henry's continuous and thoughtful examination of his
+woodcutter's axe and the fidgety way in which Good kept polishing his
+eyeglass, all told the same tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to
+breaking-point. Only Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and
+taking an occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly and
+completely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
+
+The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer and
+nearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the world in
+darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern sky that palely
+heralded the dawn.
+
+Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm and
+striving to stifle her sobs.
+
+'Twenty minutes to four,' he said, 'it ought to be light enough to
+attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better be moving,
+he will want three or four minutes' start.'
+
+Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a jocular
+sort of way--which I could not help feeling it must have cost him
+something to muster up--and, ever polite, took off his steel-lined cap
+to Mrs Mackenzie and started for his position at the head of the kraal,
+to reach which he had to make a detour by some paths known to the
+natives.
+
+Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody in the
+Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who were walking
+up and down in front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fast
+asleep. Then the rest of us took the road. First came the guide, then
+Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi Askari, and Mr Mackenzie's
+two mission natives armed with long spears and shields. I followed
+immediately after with Alphonse and five natives all armed with guns,
+and Mr Mackenzie brought up the rear with the six remaining natives.
+
+The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot of the
+hill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about eight hundred
+yards from the Mission buildings. The first five hundred yards of this
+distance we traversed quietly indeed, but at a good pace; after that we
+crept forward as silently as a leopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts
+from bush to bush and stone to stone. When I had gone a little way I
+chanced to look behind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggering
+along with white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which was at
+full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back. Having halted and
+carefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again, and all went well
+till we were within one hundred yards or so of the kraal, when his teeth
+began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
+
+'If you don't stop that I will kill you,' I whispered savagely; for the
+idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering cook was
+too much for me. I began to fear that he would betray us, and heartily
+wished we had left him behind.
+
+'But, monsieur, I cannot help it,' he answered, 'it is the cold.'
+
+Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the pocket of
+the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that I had used some
+time before to clean a gun with. 'Put this in your mouth,' I whispered
+again, giving him the rag; 'and if I hear another sound you are a dead
+man.' I knew that that would stifle the clatter of his teeth. I must
+have looked as if I meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and
+continued his journey in silence.
+
+Then we crept on again.
+
+At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us and it was
+an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa bush and a couple of
+tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in fairly
+thick bush. It was beginning to grow light. The stars had paled and a
+sickly gleam played about the east and was reflected on the earth. We
+could see the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also make
+out the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires. We
+halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at the opening.
+Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly up and down
+within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to catch
+him napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide awake. If
+we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. There
+we crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces
+ahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go
+down on his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when
+the sentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grass
+without a sound.
+
+The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas
+crept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived and
+there waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently he turned
+and looked over the wall into the camp. Instantly the human snake who
+was stalking him glided on ten yards and got behind one of the tussocks
+of the thistle-like plant, reaching it as the Elmoran turned again. As
+he did so his eye fell upon this patch of thistles, and it seemed to
+strike him that it did not look quite right. He advanced a pace towards
+it--halted, yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw
+it at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the armour
+shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us. Luckily, too,
+the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which would certainly have
+been detected. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing wrong, he
+then gave over his investigations and contented himself with leaning
+on his spear and standing gazing idly at the tuft. For at least three
+minutes did he stand thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and
+there we lay in the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment
+that we should be discovered or that some untoward accident would
+happen. I could hear Alphonse's teeth going like anything on the oiled
+rag, and turning my head round made an awful face at him. But I am bound
+to state that my own heart was at much the same game as the Frenchman's
+castanets, while the perspiration was pouring from my body, causing the
+wash-leather-lined shirt to stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether I
+was in the pitiable state known by schoolboys as a 'blue fright'.
+
+At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at the east, and
+appeared to note with satisfaction that his period of duty was coming to
+an end--as indeed it was, once and for all--for he rubbed his hands and
+began to walk again briskly to warm himself.
+
+The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again, and
+reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces of
+his return beat.
+
+Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterly
+unconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it. Had he looked
+down he could scarcely have failed to see, but he did not do so.
+
+He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and with
+outstretched hand followed in his tracks.
+
+A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the great
+Zulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could see his long lean
+hands close round the Masai's throat. Then followed a convulsive twining
+of the two dark bodies, and in another second I saw the Masai's head
+bent back, and heard a sharp crack, something like that of a dry
+twig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground, his limbs moving
+spasmodically.
+
+Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the warrior's
+neck.
+
+For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat till he
+was sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he rose
+and beckoned to us to advance, which we did on all fours, like a colony
+of huge apes. On reaching the kraal we saw that the Masai had still
+further choked this entrance, which was about ten feet wide--no doubt in
+order to guard against attack--by dragging four or five tops of mimosa
+trees up to it. So much the better for us, I reflected; the more
+obstruction there was the slower would they be able to come through.
+Here we separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadow
+of the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas took their
+stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmen and the
+Askari lying down in front of it. I and my men crept on up the right
+side of the kraal, which was about fifty paces long.
+
+When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances of
+four paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however. Then
+I peeped for the first time over the wall. It was getting fairly light
+now, and the first thing I saw was the white donkey, exactly opposite
+to me, and close by it I could make out the pale face of little Flossie,
+who was sitting as the lad had described, some ten paces from the wall.
+Round her lay many warriors, sleeping. At distances all over the surface
+of the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which slept some
+five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food. Now and then
+a man would raise himself, yawn, and look at the east, which was turning
+primrose; but none got up. I determined to wait another five minutes,
+both to allow the light to increase, so that we could make better
+shooting, and to give Good and his party--of whom we could see or hear
+nothing--every opportunity to make ready.
+
+The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain and
+forest and river--mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence of eternal snows,
+looked out across the earth--till presently a beam from the unrisen sun
+lit upon his heaven-kissing crest and purpled it with blood; the sky
+above grew blue, and tender as a mother's smile; a bird began to pipe
+his morning song, and a little breeze passing through the bush shook
+down the dewdrops in millions to refresh the waking world. Everywhere
+was peace and the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in the
+heart of cruel man!
+
+Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having already
+selected my man on whom I meant to open fire--a great fellow sprawling
+on the ground within three feet of little Flossie--Alphonse's teeth
+began to chatter again like the hoofs of a galloping giraffe, making a
+great noise in the silence. The rag had dropped out in the agitation of
+his mind. Instantly a Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting
+up, gazed about him, looking for the cause of the sound. Moved beyond
+myself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pit of the
+Frenchman's stomach. This stopped his chattering; but, as he doubled up,
+he managed to let off his gun in such a manner that the bullet passed
+within an inch of my head.
+
+There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraal broke
+out a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing with a
+snap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he was jumping up.
+Then from the top end of the kraal there rang an awful yell, in which
+I rejoiced to recognize Good's piercing notes rising clear and shrill
+above the din, and in another second followed such a scene as I have
+never seen before nor shall again. With an universal howl of terror and
+fury the brawny crowd of savages within the kraal sprang to their feet,
+many of them to fall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead before
+they had moved a yard. For a moment they stood undecided, and then
+hearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the top end
+of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they as by one
+impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they went we
+kept pouring our fire with terrible effect into the thickening mob as
+fast as we could load. I had emptied my repeater of the ten shots it
+contained and was just beginning to slip in some more when I bethought
+me of little Flossie. Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lying
+kicking, having been knocked over either by one of our bullets or a
+Masai spear-thrust. There were no living Masai near, but the black nurse
+was on her feet and with a spear cutting the rope that bound Flossie's
+feet. Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and began to climb
+over it, an example which the little girl followed. But Flossie was
+evidently very stiff and cramped, and could only go slowly, and as she
+went two Masai flying down the kraal caught sight of her and rushed
+towards her to kill her. The first fellow came up just as the poor
+little girl, after a desperate effort to climb the wall, fell back into
+the kraal. Up flashed the great spear, and as it did so a bullet from my
+rifle found its home in the holder's ribs, and over he went like a shot
+rabbit. But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had only that
+one cartridge in the magazine! Flossie had scrambled to her feet and was
+facing the second man, who was advancing with raised spear. I turned my
+head aside and felt sick as death. I could not bear to see him stab her.
+Glancing up again, to my surprise I saw the Masai's spear lying on the
+ground, while the man himself was staggering about with both hands to
+his head. Suddenly I saw a puff of smoke proceeding apparently from
+Flossie, and the man fell down headlong. Then I remembered the Derringer
+pistol she carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it at
+him, thereby saving her life. In another instant she had made an effort,
+and assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top, had scrambled over
+the wall, and I knew that she was, comparatively speaking, safe.
+
+All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took more than
+fifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazine of the repeater filled
+again with cartridges, and once more opened fire, not on the seething
+black mass which was gathering at the end of the kraal, but on fugitives
+who bethought them to climb the wall. I picked off several of these men,
+moving down towards the end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving at
+the corner, or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see, and by means
+of my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took place there.
+
+By this time some two hundred Masai--allowing that we had up to the
+present accounted for fifty--had gathered together in front of the
+thorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spears of Good's men,
+whom they doubtless supposed were a large force instead of being but ten
+strong. For some reason it never occurred to them to try and rush the
+wall, which they could have scrambled over with comparative ease;
+they all made for the fence, which was really a strongly interwoven
+fortification. With a bound the first warrior went at it, and even
+before he touched the ground on the other side I saw Sir Henry's great
+axe swing up and fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, and
+he sank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell and a crash they
+began to break through as they might, and ever as they came the great
+axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead one by one, each
+man thus helping to build up a barrier against his fellows. Those who
+escaped the axes of the pair fell at the hands of the Askari and the two
+Mission Kaffirs, and those who passed scatheless from them were brought
+low by my own and Mackenzie's fire.
+
+Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai would spring
+upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of the
+axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts,
+the result was always the same. Presently there was a great swing of the
+axe, a crashing sound, and another dead Masai. That is, if the man was
+engaged with Sir Henry. If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with the
+result indeed would be the same, but it would be differently attained.
+It was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handed
+stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continually at his
+adversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end of the axe as a
+woodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood. Presently a peck would go
+home, and his enemy would drop down with a neat little circular hole
+in his forehead or skull, exactly similar to that which a cheese-scoop
+makes in a cheese. He never used the broad blade of the axe except when
+hard pressed, or when striking at a shield. He told me afterwards that
+he did not consider it sportsmanlike.
+
+Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had to cease
+firing into the mass for fear of killing some of them (as it was, one of
+them was slain in this way). Mad and desperate with fear, the Masai by
+a frantic effort burst through the thorn fence and piled-up dead, and,
+sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the other three before them, into the
+open. And now it was that we began to lose men fast. Down went our poor
+Askari who was armed with the axe, a great spear standing out a foot
+behind his back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood with
+him went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others of our party
+shared their fate. For a moment I feared the fight was lost--certainly
+it trembled in the balance. I shouted to my men to cast down their
+rifles, and to take spears and throw themselves into the melee. They
+obeyed, their blood being now thoroughly up, and Mr Mackenzie's people
+followed their example.
+
+This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung in the
+balance.
+
+Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the dark mass
+of Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And ever
+above the din rose Good's awful yell of encouragement as he plunged to
+wherever the fight was thickest; and ever, with an almost machine-like
+regularity, the two axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablement
+at every stroke. But I could see that the strain was beginning to tell
+upon Sir Henry, who was bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breath
+was coming in gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blue
+and knotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, was hard
+pressed. I noticed that he had given up 'woodpecking', and was now using
+the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, 'browning' his enemy wherever he could
+hit him, instead of drilling scientific holes in his head. I myself did
+not go into the melee, but hovered outside like the swift 'back' in a
+football scrimmage, putting a bullet through a Masai whenever I got a
+chance. I was more use so. I fired forty-nine cartridges that morning,
+and I did not miss many shots.
+
+Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise against
+us. We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left now, and the
+Masai had at least fifty. Of course if they had kept their heads, and
+shaken themselves together, they could soon have made an end of the
+matter; but that is just what they did not do, not having yet recovered
+from their start, and some of them having actually fled from their
+sleeping-places without their weapons. Still by now many individuals
+were fighting with their normal courage and discretion, and this alone
+was sufficient to defeat us. To make matters worse just then, when
+Mackenzie's rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a 'sime',
+or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his gun, and
+drawing his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had dropped
+out in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle. Presently, locked
+in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on the ground behind the
+wall, and for some time I, being amply occupied with my own affairs, and
+in keeping my skin from being pricked, remained in ignorance of his fate
+or how the duel had ended.
+
+To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex of
+a human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for us. Just
+then, however, a fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either by
+accident or design, broke out of the ring and engaged a warrior at some
+few paces from it. As he did so, another man ran up and struck him with
+all his force between his shoulders with his great spear, which, falling
+on the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it and rebounded. For a
+moment the man stared aghast--protective armour being unknown among
+these tribes--and then he yelled out at the top of his voice--
+
+'_They are devils--bewitched, bewitched!_' And seized by a sudden panic,
+he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cut short his career with
+a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic spread to
+the others.
+
+'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in every
+direction, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most part
+even throwing down their shields and spears.
+
+On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It was a
+slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked or given. One
+incident, however, is worth detailing. Just as I was hoping that it was
+all done with, suddenly from under a heap of slain where he had been
+hiding, an unwounded warrior sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying
+dead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards the
+spot where I was standing at the moment. But he was not alone, for
+Umslopogaas came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like
+motion for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in the
+Masai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, run as he would,
+his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and turned round to give
+battle. Umslopogaas also pulled up.
+
+'Ah, ah,' he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, 'it is thou whom I
+talked with last night--the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer of little
+girls--he who would kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to stand man
+to man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe of
+the Maquilisini, of the people of the Amazulu? Behold, thy prayer is
+granted! And I didst swear to hew thee limb from limb, thou insolent
+dog. Behold, I will do it even now!'
+
+The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu with
+his spear. As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swinging
+Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad blade
+down with such fearful force from behind upon the Masai's shoulder just
+where the neck is set into the frame, that its razor edge shore right
+through bone and flesh and muscle, almost severing the head and one arm
+from the body.
+
+'_Ou!_' ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe; 'I
+have kept my word. It was a good stroke.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII  ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+
+
+And so the fight was ended. On returning from the shocking scene it
+suddenly struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse since the moment,
+some twenty minutes before--for though this fight has taken a long while
+to describe, it did not take long in reality--when I had been forced
+to hit him in the wind with the result of nearly getting myself shot.
+Fearing that the poor little man had perished in the battle, I began to
+hunt among the dead for his body, but, not being able either to see or
+hear anything of it, I concluded that he must have survived, and walked
+down the side of the kraal where we had first taken our stand, calling
+him by name. Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal wall stood a
+very ancient tree of the banyan species. So ancient was it that all the
+inside had in the course of ages decayed away, leaving nothing but a
+shell of bark.
+
+'Alphonse,' I called, as I walked down the wall. 'Alphonse!'
+
+'Oui, monsieur,' answered a voice. 'Here am I.'
+
+I looked round but could see nobody. 'Where?' I cried.
+
+'Here am I, monsieur, in the tree.'
+
+I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of the banyan
+about five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face and a pair of large
+mustachios, one clipped short and the other as lamentably out of curl
+as the tail of a newly whipped pug. Then, for the first time, I realized
+what I had suspected before--namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward.
+I walked up to him. 'Come out of that hole,' I said.
+
+'Is it finished, monsieur?' he asked anxiously; 'quite finished? Ah, the
+horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!'
+
+'Come out, you little wretch,' I said, for I did not feel amiable; 'it
+is all over.'
+
+'So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed? I emerge,' and he did.
+
+As we were walking down together to join the others, who were gathered
+in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which now resembled a
+veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped so far and been hiding
+under a bush, suddenly sprang up and charged furiously at us. Off went
+Alphonse with a howl of terror, and after him flew the Masai, bent upon
+doing some execution before he died. He soon overtook the poor little
+Frenchman, and would have finished him then and there had I not, just
+as Alphonse made a last agonized double in the vain hope of avoiding the
+yard of steel that was flashing in his immediate rear, managed to plant
+a bullet between the Elmoran's broad shoulders, which brought matters
+to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman was concerned. But
+just then he tripped and fell flat, and the body of the Masai fell right
+on the top of him, moving convulsively in the death struggle. Thereupon
+there arose such a series of piercing howls that I concluded that before
+he died the savage must have managed to stab poor Alphonse. I ran up
+in a hurry and pulled the Masai off, and there beneath him lay Alphonse
+covered with blood and jerking himself about like a galvanized frog.
+Poor fellow! thought I, he is done for, and kneeling down by him I began
+to search for his wound as well as his struggles would allow.
+
+'Oh, the hole in my back!' he yelled. 'I am murdered. I am dead. Oh,
+Annette!'
+
+I searched again, but could see no wound. Then the truth dawned on
+me--the man was frightened, not hurt.
+
+'Get up!' I shouted, 'Get up. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You are
+not touched.'
+
+Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse. 'But, monsieur, I thought I
+was,' he said apologetically; 'I did not know that I had conquered.'
+Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick, he ejaculated triumphantly,
+'Ah, dog of a black savage, thou art dead; what victory!'
+
+Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself, which he
+did by following me like a shadow, and proceeded to join the others by
+the large entrance. The first thing that I saw was Mackenzie, seated on
+a stone with a handkerchief twisted round his thigh, from which he was
+bleeding freely, having, indeed, received a spear-thrust that passed
+right through it, and still holding in his hand his favourite carving
+knife now bent nearly double, from which I gathered that he had been
+successful in his rough and tumble with the Elmoran.
+
+'Ah, Quatermain!' he sang out in a trembling, excited voice, 'so we have
+conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;' and then breaking
+into broad Scotch and glancing at the bent knife in his hand, 'It fashes
+me sair to have bent my best carver on the breastbone of a savage,' and
+he laughed hysterically. Poor fellow, what between his wound and the
+killing excitement he had undergone his nerves were much shaken, and
+no wonder! It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart to be called
+upon to join in such a gruesome business. But there, fate puts us
+sometimes into very comical positions!
+
+At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one. The slaughter was
+over by now, and the wounded men had been put out of their pain, for no
+quarter had been given. The bush-closed entrance was trampled flat, and
+in place of bushes it was filled with the bodies of dead men. Dead men,
+everywhere dead men--they lay about in knots, they were flung by ones
+and twos in every position upon the open spaces, for all the world like
+the people on the grass in one of the London parks on a particularly hot
+Sunday in August. In front of this entrance, on a space which had been
+cleared of dead and of the shields and spears which were scattered in
+all directions as they had fallen or been thrown from the hands of their
+owners, stood and lay the survivors of the awful struggle, and at their
+feet were four wounded men. We had gone into the fight thirty strong,
+and of the thirty but fifteen remained alive, and five of them
+(including Mr Mackenzie) were wounded, two mortally. Of those who held
+the entrance, Curtis and the Zulu alone remained. Good had lost five men
+killed, I had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out of
+the six with him. As for the survivors they were, with the exception of
+myself who had never come to close quarters, red from head to foot--Sir
+Henry's armour might have been painted that colour--and utterly
+exhausted, except Umslopogaas, who, as he grimly stood on a little
+mound above a heap of dead, leaning as usual upon his axe, did not seem
+particularly distressed, although the skin over the hole in his head
+palpitated violently.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn!' he said to me as I limped up, feeling very sick, 'I
+told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has. Never have I seen a
+better, or one more bravely fought. As for this iron shirt, surely it is
+"tagati" [bewitched]; nothing could pierce it. Had it not been for the
+garment I should have been _there_,' and he nodded towards the great
+pile of dead men beneath him.
+
+'I give it thee; thou art a brave man,' said Sir Henry, briefly.
+
+'Koos!' answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift and the
+compliment. 'Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as a man, but I must
+give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dost waste thy strength.'
+
+Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatly
+relieved when one of the men said he had seen her flying towards the
+house with the nurse. Then bearing such of the wounded as could be moved
+at the moment with us, we slowly made our way towards the Mission-house,
+spent with toil and bloodshed, but with the glorious sense of victory
+against overwhelming odds glowing in our hearts. We had saved the life
+of the little maid, and taught the Masai of those parts a lesson that
+they will not forget for ten years--but at what a cost!
+
+Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little more than an
+hour before, we had descended under such different circumstances. At the
+gate of the wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us. When her eyes fell
+upon us, however, she shrieked out, and covered her face with her
+hands, crying, 'Horrible, horrible!' Nor were her fears allayed when she
+discovered her worthy husband being borne upon an improvized stretcher;
+but her doubts as to the nature of his injury were soon set at rest.
+Then when in a few brief words I had told her the upshot of the struggle
+(of which Flossie, who had arrived in safety, had been able to explain
+something) she came up to me and solemnly kissed me on the forehead.
+
+'God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child's life,' she
+said simply.
+
+Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds; I am
+glad to say I had none, and Sir Henry's and Good's were, thanks to those
+invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmless nature, and to be
+dealt with by means of a few stitches and sticking-plaster. Mackenzie's,
+however, were serious, though fortunately the spear had not severed any
+large artery. After that we had a bath, and what a luxury it was! And
+having clad ourselves in ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dining-room,
+where breakfast was set as usual. It was curious sitting down there,
+drinking tea and eating toast in an ordinary nineteenth-century sort
+of way just as though we had not employed the early hours in a regular
+primitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind of struggle. As Good said,
+the whole thing seemed more as though one had had a bad nightmare just
+before being called, than as a deed done. When we were finishing our
+breakfast the door opened, and in came little Flossie, very pale
+and tottery, but quite unhurt. She kissed us all and thanked us. I
+congratulated her on the presence of mind she had shown in shooting the
+Masai with her Derringer pistol, and thereby saving her own life.
+
+'Oh, don't talk of it!' she said, beginning to cry hysterically; 'I
+shall never forget his face as he went turning round and round, never--I
+can see it now.'
+
+I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did, and awoke
+in the evening quite recovered, so far as her strength was concerned. It
+struck me as an odd thing that a girl who could find the nerve to shoot
+a huge black ruffian rushing to kill her with a spear should have been
+so affected at the thought of it afterwards; but it is, after all,
+characteristic of the sex. Poor Flossie! I fear that her nerves will not
+get over that night in the Masai camp for many a long year. She told
+me afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful, having to sit
+there hour after hour through the livelong night utterly ignorant as to
+whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescue her. She said that
+on the whole she did not expect it, knowing how few of us, and how many
+of the Masai--who, by the way, came continually to stare at her, most of
+them never having seen a white person before, and handled her arms and
+hair with their filthy paws. She said also that she had made up her mind
+that if she saw no signs of succour by the time the first rays of the
+rising sun reached the kraal she would kill herself with the pistol, for
+the nurse had heard the Lygonani say that they were to be tortured to
+death as soon as the sun was up if one of the white men did not come in
+their place. It was an awful resolution to have to take, but she meant
+to act on it, and I have little doubt but what she would have done so.
+Although she was at an age when in England girls are in the schoolroom
+and come down to dessert, this 'child of the wilderness' had more
+courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a woman of mature
+age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefully drilled and
+educated out of any originality or self-resource that nature may have
+endowed them with.
+
+When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep, only
+getting up in time for dinner; after which meal we once more adjourned,
+together with all the available population--men, women, youths, and
+girls--to the scene of the morning's slaughter, our object being to bury
+our own dead and get rid of the Masai by flinging them into the Tana
+River, which ran within fifty yards of the kraal. On reaching the spot
+we disturbed thousands upon thousands of vultures and a sort of brown
+bush eagle, which had been flocking to the feast from miles and
+miles away. Often have I watched these great and repulsive birds, and
+marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arrive on a scene
+of slaughter. A buck falls to your rifle, and within a minute high in
+the blue ether appears a speck that gradually grows into a vulture, then
+another, and another. I have heard many theories advanced to account for
+the wonderful power of perception nature has given these birds. My own,
+founded on a good deal of observation, is that the vultures, gifted
+as they are with powers of sight greater than those given by the most
+powerful glass, quarter out the heavens among themselves, and hanging
+in mid-air at a vast height--probably from two to three miles above the
+earth--keep watch, each of them, over an enormous stretch of country.
+Presently one of them spies food, and instantly begins to sink towards
+it. Thereon his next neighbour in the airy heights sailing leisurely
+through the blue gulf, at a distance perhaps of some miles, follows his
+example, knowing that food has been sighted. Down he goes, and all the
+vultures within sight of him follow after, and so do all those in sight
+of them. In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be summoned
+to the feast in a few minutes.
+
+We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to read the
+Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie, confined to
+bed), as he was generally allowed to possess the best voice and most
+impressive manner. It was melancholy in the extreme, but, as Good said,
+it might have been worse, for we might have had 'to bury ourselves'. I
+pointed out that this would have been a difficult feat, but I knew what
+he meant.
+
+Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been brought round
+from the Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, having first
+collected the spears, shields, and other arms. We loaded the wagon five
+times, about fifty bodies to the load, and emptied it into the Tana.
+From this it was evident that very few of the Masai could have escaped.
+The crocodiles must have been well fed that night. One of the last
+bodies we picked up was that of the sentry at the upper end. I asked
+Good how he managed to kill him, and he told me that he had crept up
+much as Umslopogaas had done, and stabbed him with his sword. He groaned
+a good deal, but fortunately nobody heard him. As Good said, it was a
+horrible thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly like cold-blooded
+murder.
+
+And so with the last body that floated away down the current of the
+Tana ended the incident of our attack on the Masai camp. The spears and
+shields and other arms we took up to the Mission, where they filled an
+outhouse. One incident, however, I must not forget to mention. As we
+were returning from performing the obsequies of our Masai friends
+we passed the hollow tree where Alphonse had secreted himself in
+the morning. It so happened that the little man himself was with us
+assisting in our unpleasant task with a far better will than he had
+shown where live Masai were concerned. Indeed, for each body that he
+handled he found an appropriate sarcasm. Alphonse throwing Masai into
+the Tana was a very different creature from Alphonse flying for dear
+life from the spear of a live Masai. He was quite merry and gay, he
+clapped his hands and warbled snatches of French songs as the grim dead
+warriors went 'splash' into the running waters to carry a message of
+death and defiance to their kindred a hundred miles below. In short,
+thinking that he wanted taking down a peg, I suggested holding a
+court-martial on him for his conduct in the morning.
+
+Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, and
+proceeded to sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining to him in the
+very best French the unheard-of cowardice and enormity of his conduct,
+more especially in letting the oiled rag out of his mouth, whereby he
+nearly aroused the Masai camp with teeth-chattering and brought about
+the failure of our plans: ending up with a request for an explanation.
+
+But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him to open shame
+we were destined to be disappointed. He bowed and scraped and smiled,
+and acknowledged that his conduct might at first blush appear strange,
+but really it was not, inasmuch as his teeth were not chattering from
+fear--oh, dear no! oh, certainly not! he marvelled how the 'messieurs'
+could think of such a thing--but from the chill air of the morning. As
+for the rag, if monsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being
+compounded indeed of a mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and
+gunpowder, monsieur himself would have spat it out. But he did nothing
+of the sort; he determined to keep it there till, alas! his stomach
+'revolted', and the rag was ejected in an access of involuntary
+sickness.
+
+'And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?' asked Sir
+Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty.
+
+'But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it was thus: I
+stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieur hit me in
+the stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battle began. I watched
+whilst recovering myself from monsieur's cruel blow; then, messieurs, I
+felt the heroic blood of my grandfather boil up in my veins. The sight
+made me mad. I ground my teeth! Fire flashed from my eyes! I shouted
+"En avant!" and longed to slay. Before my eyes there rose a vision of
+my heroic grandfather! In short, I was mad! I was a warrior indeed!
+But then in my heart I heard a small voice: "Alphonse," said the voice,
+"restrain thyself, Alphonse! Give not way to this evil passion! These
+men, though black, are brothers! And thou wouldst slay them? Cruel
+Alphonse!" The voice was right. I knew it; I was about to perpetrate the
+most horrible cruelties: to wound! to massacre! to tear limb from limb!
+And how restrain myself? I looked round; I saw the tree, I perceived the
+hole. "Entomb thyself," said the voice, "and hold on tight! Thou wilt
+thus overcome temptation by main force!" It was bitter, just when the
+blood of my heroic grandfather boiled most fiercely; but I obeyed! I
+dragged my unwilling feet along; I entombed myself! Through the hole I
+watched the battle! I shouted curses and defiance on the foe! I noted
+them fall with satisfaction! Why not? I had not robbed them of their
+lives. Their gore was not upon my head. The blood of my heroic--'
+
+'Oh, get along with you, you little cur!' broke out Sir Henry, with a
+shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick which sent him flying
+off with a rueful face.
+
+In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who was suffering
+a good deal from his wounds, which Good, who was a skilful though
+unqualified doctor, was treating him for. He told me that this
+occurrence had taught him a lesson, and that, if he recovered safely, he
+meant to hand over the Mission to a younger man, who was already on his
+road to join him in his work, and return to England.
+
+'You see, Quatermain,' he said, 'I made up my mind to it, this very
+morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages. "If we live
+through this and rescue Flossie alive," I said to myself, "I will go
+home to England; I have had enough of savages." Well, I did not think
+that we should live through it at the time; but thanks be to God and you
+four, we have lived through it, and I mean to stick to my resolution,
+lest a worse thing befall us. Another such time would kill my poor wife.
+And besides, Quatermain, between you and me, I am well off; it is thirty
+thousand pounds I am worth today, and every farthing of it made by
+honest trade and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for living here costs
+me next to nothing. So though it will be hard to leave this place, which
+I have made to blossom like a rose in the wilderness, and harder still
+to leave the people I have taught, I shall go.'
+
+'I congratulate you on your decision,' answered I, 'for two reasons.
+The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter, and more
+especially to the latter, who should receive some education and mix with
+girls of her own race, otherwise she will grow up wild, shunning her
+kind. The other is, that as sure as I am standing here, sooner or later
+the Masai will try to avenge the slaughter inflicted on them today. Two
+or three men are sure to have escaped the confusion who will carry
+the story back to their people, and the result will be that a great
+expedition will one day be sent against you. It might be delayed for
+a year, but sooner or later it will come. Therefore, if only for that
+reason, I should go. When once they have learnt that you are no longer
+here they may perhaps leave the place alone.' {Endnote 8}
+
+'You are quite right,' answered the clergyman. 'I will turn my back upon
+this place in a month. But it will be a wrench, it will be a wrench.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX INTO THE UNKNOWN
+
+
+
+A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in the Mission
+dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits, for the reason that
+we were going to say goodbye to our kind friends, the Mackenzies, and
+depart upon our way at dawn on the morrow. Nothing more had been seen
+or heard of the Masai, and save for a spear or two which had been
+overlooked and was rusting in the grass, and a few empty cartridges
+where we had stood outside the wall, it would have been difficult to
+tell that the old cattle kraal at the foot of the slope had been the
+scene of so desperate a struggle. Mackenzie was, thanks chiefly to his
+being so temperate a man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and could
+get about on a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, one
+had died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery. Mr
+Mackenzie's caravan of men had also returned from the coast, so that the
+station was now amply garrisoned.
+
+Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing as were the
+invitations for us to stay, that it was time to move on, first to Mount
+Kenia, and thence into the unknown in search of the mysterious white
+race which we had set our hearts on discovering. This time we were going
+to progress by means of the humble but useful donkey, of which we had
+collected no less than a dozen, to carry our goods and chattels, and, if
+necessary, ourselves. We had now but two Wakwafis left for servants, and
+found it quite impossible to get other natives to venture with us into
+the unknown parts we proposed to explore--and small blame to them.
+After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was odd that three men, each of
+whom possessed many of those things that are supposed to make life worth
+living--health, sufficient means, and position, etc.--should from their
+own pleasure start out upon a wild-goose chase, from which the chances
+were they never would return. But then that is what Englishmen are,
+adventurers to the backbone; and all our magnificent muster-roll of
+colonies, each of which will in time become a great nation, testify to
+the extraordinary value of the spirit of adventure which at first sight
+looks like a mild form of lunacy. 'Adventurer'--he that goes out to meet
+whatever may come. Well, that is what we all do in the world one way or
+another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud of the title, because it
+implies a brave heart and a trust in Providence. Besides, when many and
+many a noted Croesus, at whose feet the people worship, and many and
+many a time-serving and word-coining politician are forgotten, the names
+of those grand-hearted old adventurers who have made England what she
+is, will be remembered and taught with love and pride to little children
+whose unshaped spirits yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be. Not
+that we three can expect to be numbered with such as these, yet have we
+done something--enough, perhaps, to throw a garment over the nakedness
+of our folly.
+
+That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smoking a pipe
+before turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse, and, with a
+magnificent bow, announce his wish for an interview. Being requested to
+'fire away', he explained at some length that he was anxious to attach
+himself to our party--a statement that astonished me not a little,
+knowing what a coward the little man was. The reason, however, soon
+appeared. Mr Mackenzie was going down to the coast, and thence on to
+England. Now, if he went down country, Alphonse was persuaded that he
+would be seized, extradited, sent to France, and to penal servitude.
+This was the idea that haunted him, as King Charles's head haunted Mr
+Dick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggerated the danger
+ten times. As a matter of fact, the probability is that his offence
+against the laws of his country had long ago been forgotten, and that
+he would have been allowed to pass unmolested anywhere except in France;
+but he could not be got to see this. Constitutional coward as the little
+man was, he infinitely preferred to face the certain hardships and great
+risks and dangers of such an expedition as ours, than to expose himself,
+notwithstanding his intense longing for his native land, to the
+possible scrutiny of a police officer--which is after all only another
+exemplification of the truth that, to the majority of men, a far-off
+foreseen danger, however shadowy, is much more terrible than the most
+serious present emergency. After listening to what he had to say, we
+consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with Mr Mackenzie's
+knowledge and consent, to accept his offer. To begin with, we were very
+short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, active fellow, who could turn
+his hand to anything, and cook--ah, he _could_ cook! I believe that
+he would have made a palatable dish of those gaiters of his heroic
+grandfather which he was so fond of talking about. Then he was a
+good-tempered little man, and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous,
+vainglorious talk was a source of infinite amusement to us; and what is
+more, he never bore malice. Of course, his being so pronounced a coward
+was a great drawback to him, but now that we knew his weakness we could
+more or less guard against it. So, after warning him of the undoubted
+risks he was exposing himself to, we told him that we would accept
+his offer on condition that he would promise implicit obedience to our
+orders. We also promised to give him wages at the rate of ten pounds a
+month should he ever return to a civilized country to receive them. To
+all of this he agreed with alacrity, and retired to write a letter
+to his Annette, which Mr Mackenzie promised to post when he got down
+country. He read it to us afterwards, Sir Henry translating, and a
+wonderful composition it was. I am sure the depth of his devotion and
+the narration of his sufferings in a barbarous country, 'far, far from
+thee, Annette, for whose adored sake I endure such sorrow,' ought to
+have touched the feelings of the stoniest-hearted chambermaid.
+
+Well, the morrow came, and by seven o'clock the donkeys were all loaded,
+and the time of parting was at hand. It was a melancholy business,
+especially saying goodbye to dear little Flossie. She and I were great
+friends, and often used to have talks together--but her nerves had never
+got over the shock of that awful night when she lay in the power of
+those bloodthirsty Masai. 'Oh, Mr Quatermain,' she cried, throwing her
+arms round my neck and bursting into tears, 'I can't bear to say goodbye
+to you. I wonder when we shall meet again?'
+
+'I don't know, my dear little girl,' I said, 'I am at one end of life
+and you are at the other. I have but a short time before me at best, and
+most things lie in the past, but I hope that for you there are many long
+and happy years, and everything lies in the future. By-and-by you will
+grow into a beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild life will be
+like a far-off dream to you; but I hope, even if we never do meet again,
+that you will think of your old friend and remember what I say to you
+now. Always try to be good, my dear, and to do what is right, rather
+than what happens to be pleasant, for in the end, whatever sneering
+people may say, what is good and what is happy are the same. Be
+unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping hand to others--for the
+world is full of suffering, my dear, and to alleviate it is the noblest
+end that we can set before us. If you do that you will become a sweet
+and God-fearing woman, and make many people's lives a little brighter,
+and then you will not have lived, as so many of your sex do, in vain.
+And now I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so I am
+going to give you something to sweeten it with. You see this little
+piece of paper. It is what is called a cheque. When we are gone give it
+to your father with this note--not before, mind. You will marry one day,
+my dear little Flossie, and it is to buy you a wedding present which
+you are to wear, and your daughter after you, if you have one, in
+remembrance of Hunter Quatermain.'
+
+Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of her bright
+hair in return, which I still have. The cheque I gave her was for a
+thousand pounds (which being now well off, and having no calls upon
+me except those of charity, I could well afford), and in the note I
+directed her father to invest it for her in Government security, and
+when she married or came of age to buy her the best diamond necklace
+he could get for the money and accumulated interest. I chose diamonds
+because I think that now that King Solomon's Mines are lost to the
+world, their price will never be much lower than it is at present, so
+that if in after-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, she
+will be able to turn them into money.
+
+Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving, and also
+farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weeping copiously (for he
+has a warm heart) at parting with his master and mistress; and I was
+not sorry for it at all, for I hate those goodbyes. Perhaps the most
+affecting thing of all was to witness Umslopogaas' distress at parting
+with Flossie, for whom the grim old warrior had conceived a strong
+affection. He used to say that she was as sweet to see as the only star
+on a dark night, and was never tired of loudly congratulating himself
+on having killed the Lygonani who had threatened to murder her. And that
+was the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house--a true oasis in
+the desert--and of European civilization. But I often think of the
+Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, and if they are now
+safe and well in England, and will ever see these words. Dear little
+Flossie! I wonder how she fares there where there are no black folk to
+do her imperious bidding, and no sky-piercing snow-clad Kenia for her to
+look at when she gets up in the morning. And so goodbye to Flossie.
+
+After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparatively
+unmolested, past the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call 'Donyo
+Egere', or the 'speckled mountain', on account of the black patches
+of rock that appear upon its mighty spire, where the sides are too
+precipitous to allow of the snow lying on them; then on past the
+lonely lake Baringo, where one of our two remaining Askari, having
+unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died of snake-bite, in spite of
+all our efforts to save him. Thence we proceeded a distance of about a
+hundred and fifty miles to another magnificent snow-clad mountain called
+Lekakisera, which has never, to the best of my belief, been visited
+before by a European, but which I cannot now stop to describe. There
+we rested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless and
+uninhabited forest of a vast district called Elgumi. In this forest
+alone there are more elephants than I ever met with or heard of before.
+The mighty mammals literally swarm there entirely unmolested by man, and
+only kept down by the natural law that prevents any animals increasing
+beyond the capacity of the country they inhabit to support them.
+Needless to say, however, we did not shoot many of them, first because
+we could not afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock was getting
+perilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept away in
+fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could not carry away
+the ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sake of slaughter. So
+we let the great beasts be, only shooting one or two in self-protection.
+In this district, the elephants, being unacquainted with the hunter and
+his tender mercies, would allow one to walk up to within twenty yards of
+them in the open, while they stood, with their great ears cocked for all
+the world like puzzled and gigantic puppy-dogs, and stared at that new
+and extraordinary phenomenon--man. Occasionally, when the inspection did
+not prove satisfactory, the staring ended in a trumpet and a charge,
+but this did not often happen. When it did we had to use our rifles.
+Nor were elephants the only wild beasts in the great Elgumi forest. All
+sorts of large game abounded, including lions--confound them! I have
+always hated the sight of a lion since one bit my leg and lamed me for
+life. As a consequence, another thing that abounded was the dreadful
+tsetse fly, whose bite is death to domestic animals. Donkeys have,
+together with men, hitherto been supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity
+from its attacks; but all I have to say, whether it was on account
+of their poor condition, or because the tsetse in those parts is
+more poisonous than usual, I do not know, but ours succumbed to its
+onslaught. Fortunately, however, that was not till two months or so
+after the bites had been inflicted, when suddenly, after a two days'
+cold rain, they all died, and on removing the skins of several of them I
+found the long yellow streaks upon the flesh which are characteristic of
+death from bites from the tsetse, marking the spot where the insect had
+inserted his proboscis. On emerging from the great Elgumi forest,
+we, still steering northwards, in accordance with the information Mr
+Mackenzie had collected from the unfortunate wanderer who reached him
+only to die so tragically, struck the base in due course of the large
+lake, called Laga by the natives, which is about fifty miles long by
+twenty broad, and of which, it may be remembered, he made mention.
+Thence we pushed on nearly a month's journey over great rolling uplands,
+something like those in the Transvaal, but diversified by patches of
+bush country.
+
+All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of about one
+hundred feet every ten miles. Indeed the country was on a slope which
+appeared to terminate at a mass of snow-tipped mountains, for which we
+were steering, and where we learnt the second lake of which the wanderer
+had spoken as the lake without a bottom was situated. At length we
+arrived there, and, having ascertained that there _was_ a large lake on
+top of the mountains, ascended three thousand feet more till we came to
+a precipitous cliff or edge, to find a great sheet of water some
+twenty miles square lying fifteen hundred feet below us, and evidently
+occupying an extinct volcanic crater or craters of vast extent.
+Perceiving villages on the border of this lake, we descended with
+great difficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed the
+precipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by the people, a
+simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or even heard of a white man
+before, and treated us with great reverence and kindness, supplying us
+with as much food and milk as we could eat and drink. This wonderful
+and beautiful lake lay, according to our aneroid, at a height of no less
+than 11,450 feet above sea-level, and its climate was quite cold, and
+not at all unlike that of England. Indeed, for the first three days of
+our stay there we saw little or nothing of the scenery on account of an
+unmistakable Scotch mist which prevailed. It was this rain that set the
+tsetse poison working in our remaining donkeys, so that they all died.
+
+This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had now no
+means of transport whatever, though on the other hand we had not much to
+carry. Ammunition, too, was very short, amounting to but one hundred and
+fifty rounds of rifle cartridges and some fifty shot-gun cartridges.
+How to get on we did not know; indeed it seemed to us that we had about
+reached the end of our tether. Even if we had been inclined to abandon
+the object of our search, which, shadow as it was, was by no means the
+case, it was ridiculous to think of forcing our way back some seven
+hundred miles to the coast in our present plight; so we came to the
+conclusion that the only thing to be done was to stop where we were--the
+natives being so well disposed and food plentiful--for the present, and
+abide events, and try to collect information as to the countries beyond.
+
+Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enough to hold
+us all and our baggage, from the headman of the village we were staying
+in, presenting him with three empty cold-drawn brass cartridges by way
+of payment, with which he was perfectly delighted, we set out to make
+a tour of the lake in order to find the most favourable place to make a
+camp. As we did not know if we should return to this village, we put all
+our gear into the canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water-buck, which
+when young is delicious eating, and off we set, natives having already
+gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitants of the other
+villages of our approach.
+
+As we were puddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the extraordinary
+deep blue colour of the water, and said that he understood from the
+natives, who were great fishermen--fish, indeed, being their principal
+food--that the lake was supposed to be wonderfully deep, and to have
+a hole at the bottom through which the water escaped and put out some
+great fire that was raging below.
+
+I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legend
+arising from a tradition among the people which dated back to the time
+when one of the extinct parasitic volcanic cones was in activity. We saw
+several round the borders of the lake which had no doubt been working
+at a period long subsequent to the volcanic death of the central crater
+which now formed the bed of the lake itself. When it finally became
+extinct the people would imagine that the water from the lake had run
+down and put out the big fire below, more especially as, though it was
+constantly fed by streams running from the snow-tipped peaks about,
+there was no visible exit to it.
+
+The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, to consist
+of a vast perpendicular wall of rock, which held the water without any
+intermediate sloping bank, as elsewhere. Accordingly we paddled parallel
+with this precipice, at a distance of about a hundred paces from it,
+shaping our course for the end of the lake, where we knew that there was
+a large village.
+
+As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floating
+rushes, weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Good
+supposed, to this spot by some current, which he was much puzzled to
+account for. Whilst we were speculating about this, Sir Henry pointed
+out a flock of large white swans, which were feeding on the drift some
+little way ahead of us. Now I had already noticed swans flying about
+this lake, and, having never come across them before in Africa, was
+exceedingly anxious to obtain a specimen. I had questioned the natives
+about them, and learnt that they came from over the mountain, always
+arriving at certain periods of the year in the early morning, when it
+was very easy to catch them, on account of their exhausted condition.
+I also asked them what country they came from, when they shrugged their
+shoulders, and said that on the top of the great black precipice was
+stony inhospitable land, and beyond that were mountains with snow, and
+full of wild beasts, where no people lived, and beyond the mountains
+were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, so thick that even the
+elephants could not get through it, much less men. Next I asked them if
+they had ever heard of white people like ourselves living on the farther
+side of the mountains and the thorn forest, whereat they laughed. But
+afterwards a very old woman came and told me that when she was a little
+girl her grandfather had told her that in his youth _his_ grandfather
+had crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the thorn forest,
+and seen a white people who lived in stone kraals beyond. Of course,
+as this took the tale back some two hundred and fifty years, the
+information was very indefinite; but still there it was again, and on
+thinking it over I grew firmly convinced that there was some truth in
+all these rumours, and equally firmly determined to solve the mystery.
+Little did I guess in what an almost miraculous way my desire was to be
+gratified.
+
+Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing, as they
+fed, nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at last we pushed the canoe
+under shelter of a patch of drift within forty yards of them. Sir Henry
+had the shot-gun, loaded with No. 1, and, waiting for a chance, got two
+in a line, and, firing at their necks, killed them both. Up rose the
+rest, thirty or more of them, with a mighty splashing; and, as they did
+so, he gave them the other barrel. Down came one fellow with a broken
+wing, and I saw the leg of another drop and a few feathers start out of
+his back; but he went on quite strong. Up went the swans, circling ever
+higher till at last they were mere specks level with the top of the
+frowning precipice, when I saw them form into a triangle and head off
+for the unknown north-east. Meanwhile we had picked up our two dead
+ones, and beautiful birds they were, weighing not less than about thirty
+pounds each, and were chasing the winged one, which had scrambled over
+a mass of driftweed into a pool of clear water beyond. Finding a
+difficulty in forcing the canoe through the rubbish, I told our only
+remaining Wakwafi servant, whom I knew to be an excellent swimmer, to
+jump over, dive under the drift, and catch him, knowing that as there
+were no crocodiles in this lake he could come to no harm. Entering into
+the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was dodging about after
+the winged swan in fine style, getting gradually nearer to the rock
+wall, against which the water washed as he did so.
+
+Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cry out
+that he was being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that, though he was
+swimming with all his strength towards us, he was being drawn slowly to
+the precipice. With a few desperate strokes of our paddles we pushed the
+canoe through the crust of drift and rowed towards the man as hard as we
+could, but, fast as we went, he was drawn faster to the rock. Suddenly I
+saw that before us, just rising eighteen inches or so above the surface
+of the lake, was what looked like the top of the arch of a submerged
+cave or railway tunnel. Evidently, from the watermark on the rock
+several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged; but there
+had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented the snow from melting
+as freely as usual; so the lake was low and the arch showed. Towards
+this arch our poor servant was being sucked with frightful rapidity. He
+was not more than ten fathoms from it, and we were about twenty when I
+saw it, and with little help from us the canoe flew along after him.
+He struggled bravely, and I thought that we should have saved him, when
+suddenly I perceived an expression of despair come upon his face, and
+there before our eyes he was sucked down into the cruel swirling blue
+depths, and vanished. At the same moment I felt our canoe seized as with
+a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force towards the rock.
+
+We realized our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiously in
+our attempt to get out of the vortex. In vain; in another second we were
+flying straight for the arch like an arrow, and I thought that we were
+lost. Luckily I retained sufficient presence of mind to shout out,
+instantly setting the example by throwing myself into the bottom of the
+canoe, 'Down on your faces--down!' and the others had the sense to take
+the hint. In another instant there was a grinding noise, and the boat
+was pushed down till the water began to trickle over the sides, and I
+thought that we were gone. But no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we
+could again feel the canoe flying along. I turned my head a little--I
+dared not lift it--and looked up. By the feeble light that yet reached
+the canoe, I could make out that a dense arch of rock hung just over our
+heads, and that was all. In another minute I could not even see as much
+as that, for the faint light had merged into shadow, and the shadows had
+been swallowed up in darkness, utter and complete.
+
+For an hour or so we lay there, not daring to lift our heads for fear
+lest the brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcely able to speak
+even, on account of the noise of the rushing water which drowned our
+voices. Not, indeed, that we had much inclination to speak, seeing that
+we were overwhelmed by the awfulness of our position and the imminent
+fear of instant death, either by being dashed against the sides of the
+cavern, or on a rock, or being sucked down in the raging waters, or
+perhaps asphyxiated by want of air. All of these and many other modes of
+death presented themselves to my imagination as I lay at the bottom
+of the canoe, listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters which ran
+whither we knew not. One only other sound could I hear, and that was
+Alphonse's intermittent howl of terror coming from the centre of the
+canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural. Indeed, the whole thing
+overpowered my brain, and I began to believe that I was the victim of
+some ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X THE ROSE OF FIRE
+
+
+
+On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticed that
+the sound of the water was not half so deafening as it had been, and
+concluded that this must be because there was more room for the echoes
+to disperse in. I could now hear Alphonse's howls much more distinctly;
+they were made up of the oddest mixture of invocations to the Supreme
+Power and the name of his beloved Annette that it is possible to
+conceive; and, in short, though their evident earnestness saved them
+from profanity, were, to say the least, very remarkable. Taking up a
+paddle I managed to drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking that
+the end had come, howled louder than ever. Then I slowly and cautiously
+raised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, but could touch
+no roof. Next I took the paddle and lifted it above my head as high as
+I could, but with the same result. I also thrust it out laterally to the
+right and left, but could touch nothing except water. Then I bethought
+me that there was in the boat, amongst our other remaining possessions,
+a bull's-eye lantern and a tin of oil. I groped about and found it, and
+having a match on me carefully lit it, and as soon as the flame had got
+a hold of the wick I turned it on down the boat. As it happened, the
+first thing the light lit on was the white and scared face of Alphonse,
+who, thinking that it was all over at last, and that he was witnessing
+a preliminary celestial phenomenon, gave a terrific yell and was with
+difficulty reassured with the paddle. As for the other three, Good was
+lying on the flat of his back, his eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and
+gazing blankly into the upper darkness. Sir Henry had his head resting
+on the thwarts of the canoe, and with his hand was trying to test the
+speed of the water. But when the beam of light fell upon old Umslopogaas
+I could really have laughed. I think I have said that we had put a roast
+quarter of water-buck into the canoe. Well, it so happened that when we
+all prostrated ourselves to avoid being swept out of the boat and into
+the water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas's head had come down uncommonly
+near this roast buck, and so soon as he had recovered a little from
+the first shock of our position it occurred to him that he was hungry.
+Thereupon he coolly cut off a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now
+employed in eating it with every appearance of satisfaction. As he
+afterwards explained, he thought that he was going 'on a long journey',
+and preferred to start on a full stomach. It reminded me of the people
+who are going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in the
+English daily papers to have made 'an excellent breakfast'.
+
+As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp, we
+bundled Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with a threat which
+calmed him down wonderfully, that if he would insist upon making the
+darkness hideous with his cries we would put him out of suspense by
+sending him to join the Wakwafi and wait for Annette in another sphere,
+and began to discuss the situation as well as we could. First, however,
+at Good's suggestion, we bound two paddles mast-fashion in the bows so
+that they might give us warning against any sudden lowering of the
+roof of the cave or waterway. It was clear to us that we were in an
+underground river or, as Alphonse defined it, 'main drain', which
+carried off the superfluous waters of the lake. Such rivers are well
+known to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not often been the
+evil fortune of explorers to travel by them. That the river was wide we
+could clearly see, for the light from the bull's-eye lantern failed to
+reach from shore to shore, although occasionally, when the current swept
+us either to one side or the other, we could distinguish the rock wall
+of the tunnel, which, as far as we could make out, appeared to arch
+about twenty-five feet above our heads. As for the current itself, it
+ran, Good estimated, at least eight knots, and, fortunately for us, was,
+as is usual, fiercest in the middle of the stream. Still, our first act
+was to arrange that one of us, with the lantern and a pole there was in
+the canoe, should always be in the bows ready, if possible, to prevent
+us from being stove in against the side of the cave or any projecting
+rock. Umslopogaas, having already dined, took the first turn. This was
+absolutely, with one exception, all that we could do towards preserving
+our safety. The exception was that another of us took up a position in
+the stern with a paddle by means of which it was possible to steer the
+canoe more or less and to keep her from the sides of the cave. These
+matters attended to, we made a somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck's
+meat (for we did not know how long it might have to last us), and then
+feeling in rather better spirits I gave my opinion that, serious as
+it undoubtedly was, I did not consider our position altogether without
+hope, unless, indeed, the natives were right, and the river plunged
+straight down into the bowels of the earth. If not, it was clear that it
+must emerge somewhere, probably on the other side of the mountains, and
+in that case all we had to think of was to keep ourselves alive till
+we got there, wherever 'there' might be. But, of course, as Good
+lugubriously pointed out, on the other hand we might fall victims to
+a hundred unsuspected horrors--or the river might go on winding away
+inside the earth till it dried up, in which case our fate would indeed
+be an awful one.
+
+'Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for the worst,'
+said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited--a very tower
+of strength in the time of trouble. 'We have come out of so many queer
+scrapes together, that somehow I almost fancy we shall come out of
+this,' he added.
+
+This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each in our
+separate way--that is, except Alphonse, who had by now sunk into a sort
+of terrified stupor. Good was at the helm and Umslopogaas in the bows,
+so there was nothing left for Sir Henry and myself to do except to lie
+down in the canoe and think. It certainly was a curious, and indeed
+almost a weird, position to be placed in--rushing along, as we were,
+through the bowels of the earth, borne on the bosom of a Stygian river,
+something after the fashion of souls being ferried by Charon, as Curtis
+said. And how dark it was! The feeble ray from our little lamp did but
+serve to show the darkness. There in the bows sat old Umslopogaas, like
+Pleasure in the poem, {Endnote 9} watchful and untiring, the pole ready
+to his hand, and behind in the shadow I could just make out the form
+of Good peering forward at the ray of light in order to make out how
+to steer with the paddle that he held and now and again dipped into the
+water.
+
+'Well, well,' thought I, 'you have come in search of adventures, Allan
+my boy, and you have certainly got them. At your time of life, too! You
+ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehow you are not, and, awful as
+it all is, perhaps you will pull through after all; and if you don't,
+why, you cannot help it, you see! And when all's said and done an
+underground river will make a very appropriate burying-place.'
+
+At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon the nerves was
+very great. It is trying to the coolest and most experienced person not
+to know from one hour to another if he has five minutes more to live,
+but there is nothing in this world that one cannot get accustomed to,
+and in time we began to get accustomed even to that. And, after all,
+our anxiety, though no doubt natural, was, strictly speaking, illogical,
+seeing that we never know what is going to happen to us the next minute,
+even when we sit in a well-drained house with two policemen patrolling
+under the window--nor how long we have to live. It is all arranged for
+us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?
+
+It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, and we had set
+our watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreed that it should
+be of a duration of five hours. At seven o'clock, accordingly, Sir Henry
+and I went on, Sir Henry at the bow and I at the stern, and the other
+two lay down and went to sleep. For three hours all went well, Sir Henry
+only finding it necessary once to push us off from the side; and I that
+but little steering was required to keep us straight, as the violent
+current did all that was needed, though occasionally the canoe showed
+a tendency which had to be guarded against to veer and travel broadside
+on. What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful river
+was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt,
+but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably
+unpleasant. The only explanation that I can suggest is that the water of
+the lake had sufficient air in it to keep the atmosphere of the tunnel
+from absolute stagnation, this air being given out as it proceeded on
+its headlong way. Of course I only give the solution of the mystery for
+what it is worth, which perhaps is not much.
+
+When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began to notice a
+decided change in the temperature, which was getting warmer. At first I
+took no notice of it, but when, at the expiration of another half-hour,
+I found that it was getting hotter and hotter, I called to Sir Henry and
+asked him if he noticed it, or if it was only my imagination. 'Noticed
+it!' he answered; 'I should think so. I am in a sort of Turkish bath.'
+Just about then the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin
+to discard their clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, for he did
+not wear any to speak of, except a moocha.
+
+Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely breathe,
+and the perspiration poured out of us. Half an hour more, and though we
+were all now stark naked, we could hardly bear it. The place was like
+an antechamber of the infernal regions proper. I dipped my hand into
+the water and drew it out almost with a cry; it was nearly boiling. We
+consulted a little thermometer we had--the mercury stood at 123 degrees.
+From the surface of the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse
+groaned out that we were already in purgatory, which indeed we were,
+though not in the sense that he meant it. Sir Henry suggested that we
+must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanic fire, and
+I am inclined to think, especially in the light of what subsequently
+occurred, that he was right. Our sufferings for some time after this
+really pass my powers of description. We no longer perspired, for all
+the perspiration had been sweated out of us. We simply lay in the
+bottom of the boat, which we were now physically incapable of directing,
+feeling like hot embers, and I fancy undergoing very much the same
+sensations that the poor fish do when they are dying on land--namely,
+that of slow suffocation. Our skins began to crack, and the blood to
+throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine.
+
+This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the river turned
+a little, and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bows in a hoarse,
+startled voice, and, looking up, saw a most wonderful and awful thing.
+About half a mile ahead of us, and a little to the left of the centre of
+the stream--which we could now see was about ninety feet broad--a huge
+pillar-like jet of almost white flame rose from the surface of the water
+and sprang fifty feet into the air, when it struck the roof and spread
+out some forty feet in diameter, falling back in curved sheets of fire
+shaped like the petals of a full-blown rose. Indeed this awful gas jet
+resembled nothing so much as a great flaming flower rising out of the
+black water. Below was the straight stalk, a foot or more thick, and
+above the dreadful bloom. And as for the fearfulness of it and its
+fierce and awesome beauty, who can describe it? Certainly I cannot.
+Although we were now some five hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding
+the steam, lit up the whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see
+that the roof was here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly
+smooth with water. The rock was black, and here and there I could make
+out long shining lines of ore running through it like great veins, but
+of what metal they were I know not.
+
+On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercer than any
+furnace ever lit by man.
+
+'Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain--to the right,' shouted Sir
+Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless.
+Alphonse had already gone. Good was the next to go. There they lay as
+though dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses. We were within
+fifty yards of it now, and I saw the Zulu's head fall forward on his
+hands. He had gone too, and I was alone. I could not breathe; the fierce
+heat dried me up. For yards and yards round the great rose of fire the
+rock-roof was red-hot. The wood of the boat was almost burning. I saw
+the feathers on one of the dead swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but
+I would not give in. I knew that if I did we should pass within three or
+four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably. I set the paddle so as
+to turn the canoe as far from it as possible, and held on grimly.
+
+My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed lids I
+could see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now; it roared like
+all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiously around it. Five
+seconds more. We were past; I heard the roar behind me.
+
+Then I too fell senseless. The next thing that I recollect is feeling
+a breath of air upon my face. My eyes opened with great difficulty. I
+looked up. Far, far above me there was light, though around me was great
+gloom. Then I remembered and looked. The canoe still floated down the
+river, and in the bottom of it lay the naked forms of my companions.
+'Were they dead?' I wondered. 'Was I left alone in this awful place?'
+I knew not. Next I became conscious of a burning thirst. I put my hand
+over the edge of the boat into the water and drew it up again with a
+cry. No wonder: nearly all the skin was burnt off the back of it. The
+water, however, was cold, or nearly so, and I drank pints and splashed
+myself all over. My body seemed to suck up the fluid as one may see a
+brick wall suck up rain after a drought; but where I was burnt the touch
+of it caused intense pain. Then I bethought myself of the others, and,
+dragging myself towards them with difficulty, I sprinkled them with
+water, and to my joy they began to recover--Umslopogaas first, then the
+others. Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges. Then,
+feeling chilly--a queer contrast to our recent sensations--we began as
+best we could to get into our clothes. As we did so Good pointed to the
+port side of the canoe: it was all blistered with heat, and in places
+actually charred. Had it been built like our civilized boats, Good said
+that the planks would certainly have warped and let in enough water to
+sink us; but fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a
+single great tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottom four
+inches thick. What that awful flame was we never discovered, but I
+suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole in the bed of
+the river through which a vast volume of gas forced its way from its
+volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towards the upper air. How
+it first became ignited is, of course, impossible to say--probably, I
+should think, from some spontaneous explosion of mephitic gases.
+
+As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselves together
+a little, we set to work to make out where we were now. I have said that
+there was light above, and on examination we found that it came from the
+sky. Our river that was, Sir Henry said, a literal realization of the
+wild vision of the poet {Endnote 10}, was no longer underground, but
+was running on its darksome way, not now through 'caverns measureless to
+man', but between two frightful cliffs which cannot have been less than
+two thousand feet high. So high were they, indeed, that though the sky
+was above us, where we were was dense gloom--not darkness indeed, but
+the gloom of a room closely shuttered in the daytime. Up on either side
+rose the great straight cliffs, grim and forbidding, till the eye grew
+dizzy with trying to measure their sheer height. The little space of
+sky that marked where they ended lay like a thread of blue upon their
+soaring blackness, which was unrelieved by any tree or creeper. Here
+and there, however, grew ghostly patches of a long grey lichen, hanging
+motionless to the rock as the white beard to the chin of a dead man. It
+seemed as though only the dregs or heavier part of the light had sunk to
+the bottom of this awful place. No bright-winged sunbeam could fall so
+low: they died far, far above our heads.
+
+By the river's edge was a little shore formed of round fragments of rock
+washed into this shape by the constant action of water, and giving the
+place the appearance of being strewn with thousands of fossil cannon
+balls. Evidently when the water of the underground river is high there
+is no beach at all, or very little, between the border of the stream
+and the precipitous cliffs; but now there was a space of seven or eight
+yards. And here, on this beach, we determined to land, in order to rest
+ourselves a little after all that we had gone through and to stretch our
+limbs. It was a dreadful place, but it would give an hour's respite from
+the terrors of the river, and also allow of our repacking and arranging
+the canoe. Accordingly we selected what looked like a favourable spot,
+and with some little difficulty managed to beach the canoe and scramble
+out on to the round, inhospitable pebbles.
+
+'My word,' called out Good, who was on shore the first, 'what an awful
+place! It's enough to give one a fit.' And he laughed.
+
+Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying them a
+hundred times. '_Give one a fit--Ho! ho! ho!'--'A fit, Ho! ho! ho!_'
+answered another voice in wild accents from far up the cliff--_a fit! a
+fit! a fit!_ chimed in voice after voice--each flinging the words to
+and fro with shouts of awful laughter to the invisible lips of the other
+till the whole place echoed with the words and with shrieks of fiendish
+merriment, which at last ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
+
+'Oh, mon Dieu!' yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of such self-command
+as he possessed.
+
+'_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_' the Titanic echoes thundered,
+shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone.
+
+'Ah,' said Umslopogaas calmly, 'I clearly perceive that devils live
+here. Well, the place looks like it.'
+
+I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub was a very
+remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
+
+'Ah,' he said, 'I know an echo when I hear one. There was one lived
+opposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] used to talk
+with it. But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mine at home can only
+have been a baby. No, no--they are devils up there. But I don't think
+much of them, though,' he added, taking a pinch of snuff. 'They can
+copy what one says, but they don't seem to be able to talk on their
+own account, and they dare not show their faces,' and he relapsed into
+silence, and apparently paid no further attention to such contemptible
+fiends.
+
+After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation down to a
+whisper--for it was really unbearable to have every word one uttered
+tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipice called to precipice.
+
+But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurs till at
+last they died away in long-drawn sighs of sound. Echoes are delightful
+and romantic things, but we had more than enough of them in that
+dreadful gulf.
+
+As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones, we
+went on to wash and dress our burns as well as we could. As we had but a
+little oil for the lantern, we could not spare any for this purpose,
+so we skinned one of the swans, and used the fat off its breast, which
+proved an excellent substitute. Then we repacked the canoe, and finally
+began to take some food, of which I need scarcely say we were in need,
+for our insensibility had endured for many hours, and it was, as our
+watches showed, midday. Accordingly we seated ourselves in a circle, and
+were soon engaged in discussing our cold meat with such appetite as we
+could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much, as I felt
+sick and faint after my sufferings of the previous night, and had
+besides a racking headache. It was a curious meal. The gloom was so
+intense that we could scarcely see the way to cut our food and convey
+it to our mouths. Still we got on pretty well, till I happened to look
+behind me--my attention being attracted by a noise of something crawling
+over the stones, and perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear
+a huge species of black freshwater crab, only it was five times the size
+of any crab I ever saw. This hideous and loathsome-looking animal had
+projecting eyes that seemed to glare at one, very long and flexible
+antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws. Nor was I especially favoured
+with its company. From every quarter dozens of these horrid brutes were
+creeping up, drawn, I suppose, by the smell of the food, from between
+the round stones and out of holes in the precipice. Some were already
+quite close to us. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and
+as I did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and give
+the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up with a howl,
+and set the 'wild echoes flying' in sober earnest. Just then, too,
+another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse's leg, and declined
+to part with it, and, as may be imagined, a considerable scene ensued.
+Umslopogaas took his axe and cracked the shell of one with the flat of
+it, whereon it set up a horrid screaming which the echoes multiplied
+a thousandfold, and began to foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew
+hundreds more of its friends out of unsuspected holes and corners.
+Those on the spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like
+creditors on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with their
+huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the fragments
+to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy, such as stones
+or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters--whose numbers were
+increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose stench was overpowering.
+So fast as we cracked their armour others seized the injured ones and
+devoured them, foaming at the mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor
+did the brutes stop at that. When they could they nipped hold of us--and
+awful nips they were--or tried to steal the meat. One enormous fellow
+got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to drag it off. Instantly
+a score of others flung themselves upon the prey, and then began a
+ghastly and disgusting scene. How the monsters foamed and screamed, and
+rent the flesh, and each other! It was a sickening and unnatural sight,
+and one that will haunt all who saw it till their dying day--enacted as
+it was in the deep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of
+the many-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it may seem to say
+so, there was something so shockingly human about these fiendish
+creatures--it was as though all the most evil passions and desires of
+man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and gone mad. They were
+so dreadfully courageous and intelligent, and they looked as if they
+_understood_. The whole scene might have furnished material for another
+canto of Dante's 'Inferno', as Curtis said.
+
+
+'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all go off our
+heads,' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the hint. Pushing
+the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling by hundreds and
+making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks, we bundled into it and got
+out into mid-stream, leaving behind us the fragments of our meal and the
+screaming, foaming, stinking mass of monsters in full possession of the
+ground.
+
+'Those are the devils of the place,' said Umslopogaas with the air of
+one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt almost inclined to
+agree with him.
+
+Umslopogaas' remarks were like his axe--very much to the point.
+
+'What's to be done next?' said Sir Henry blankly.
+
+'Drift, I suppose,' I answered, and we drifted accordingly. All the
+afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in the gloom beneath
+the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing when day ended and night
+began, for down in that vast gulf the difference was not marked, till
+at length Good pointed out a star hanging right above us, which, having
+nothing better to do, we observed with great interest. Suddenly it
+vanished, the darkness became intense, and a familiar murmuring sound
+filled the air. 'Underground again,' I said with a groan, holding up the
+lamp. Yes, there was no doubt about it. I could just make out the roof.
+The chasm had come to an end and the tunnel had recommenced. And then
+there began another long, long night of danger and horror. To describe
+all its incidents would be too wearisome, so I will simply say that
+about midnight we struck on a flat projecting rock in mid-stream and
+were as nearly as possible overturned and drowned. However, at last we
+got off, and went upon the uneven tenor of our way. And so the hours
+passed till it was nearly three o'clock. Sir Henry, Good, and Alphonse
+were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at the bow with the pole,
+and I was steering, when I perceived that the rate at which we
+were travelling had perceptibly increased. Then, suddenly, I heard
+Umslopogaas make an exclamation, and next second came a sound as of
+parting branches, and I became aware that the canoe was being forced
+through hanging bushes or creepers. Another minute, and the breath of
+sweet open air fanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged from the
+tunnel and were floating upon clear water. I say felt, for I could
+see nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it often is just
+before the dawn. But even this could scarcely damp my joy. We were out
+of that dreadful river, and wherever we might have got to this at least
+was something to be thankful for. And so I sat down and inhaled the
+sweet night air and waited for the dawn with such patience as I could
+command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI THE FROWNING CITY
+
+
+
+For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile gone to
+sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge misty shapes
+moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten dawns.
+They were the vapours rising from their watery bed to greet the sun.
+Then the grey turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next,
+glorious bars of light sprang up across the eastern sky, and through
+them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy
+way, scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with
+a kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to longitude.
+Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself
+came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and a
+flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and covered
+her with brightness, and it was day.
+
+But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for
+over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole
+surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees,
+however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we were afloat
+upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make out the
+shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there stretched as
+far as the eye could reach a range of precipitous hills that formed a
+retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through
+some entrance in these hills that the subterranean river found its way
+into the open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be the
+fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary strength and
+directness of the current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even
+at this distance, was still answering to it. Presently, too, I,
+or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just then, discovered another
+indication, and a very unpleasant one it was. Perceiving some whitish
+object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my attention to it, and with
+a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to the spot, whereupon
+we discovered that the object was the body of a man floating face
+downwards. This was bad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas
+having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the
+sunken features the lineaments of--whom do you suppose? None other than
+our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the waters
+of the subterranean river. It quite frightened me. I thought that we had
+left him behind for ever, and behold! borne by the current, he had
+made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His
+appearance also was dreadful, for he bore traces of having touched the
+pillar of fire--one arm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair
+being burnt off. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they
+preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon
+his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight
+unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone
+through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly and without any warning
+the body began to sink just as though it had had a mission, which having
+been accomplished, it retired; the real reason no doubt being that
+turning it on its back allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went
+to the transparent depths--fathom after fathom we could trace its course
+till at last a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each
+other to the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At length
+these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant.
+Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
+
+'What did he follow us for?' he asked. ''Tis an ill omen for thee and
+me, Macumazahn.' And he laughed.
+
+I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions.
+If people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keep them
+to themselves. I detest individuals who make on the subject of their
+disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream that they saw one
+hanged as a common felon, or some such horror, will insist upon telling
+one all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do
+it.
+
+Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly
+at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more beneath
+the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions as to what
+we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was that, as we were
+excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoever left to eat except a few
+scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained
+of our provisions to those horrible freshwater crabs, we determined to
+make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not know where
+the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs through which the
+subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wide expanse
+of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that the long flights of
+aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that they were
+advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the
+lake, and accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they
+came, and began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze
+sprang up, blowing directly in the direction we wanted, so we improvized
+a sail with a blanket and the pole, which took us along merrily. This
+done, we devoured the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the
+sweet lake water, and then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn
+up.
+
+When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the
+horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he saw
+land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour of the water,
+he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a river. In another
+minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul's,
+piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the
+world it could be, Good reported another and still more important
+discovery, namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing towards us.
+This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our
+own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this
+unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that
+they possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more minutes it
+became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancing boat
+had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the wind as though in
+doubt, and then came tacking towards us with great swiftness. In ten
+more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we saw that she was a
+neat little boat--not a canoe 'dug out', but built more or less in the
+European fashion with planks, and carrying a singularly large sail for
+her size. But our attention was soon diverted from the boat to her crew,
+which consisted of a man and a woman, _nearly as white as ourselves_.
+
+We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be mistaken;
+but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but the two
+people in the boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished from a
+black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It was a
+patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power
+beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I could have
+shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing;
+and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on the
+unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I heard rumours
+of a white race that existed in the highlands of this vast continent,
+and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own
+eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was
+right when he wrote 'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', which he tells me
+means that out of Africa there always comes some new thing.
+
+The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique,
+and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an
+intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something
+like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of
+the same material. The legs and feet were bare. Round the right arm and
+left leg he wore thick rings of yellow metal that I judged to be gold.
+The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling
+brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the man's, and
+consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen under-garment
+that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip of cloth,
+about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the body in
+graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder so that the end,
+which was dyed blue or purple or some other colour, according to the
+social standing of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm
+and breast being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress,
+especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was young and
+pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. Good (who has an eye for
+such things) was greatly struck with it, and so indeed was I. It was so
+simple and yet so effective.
+
+Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and
+woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for the
+man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for a while
+hovered round our canoe, but would not approach. At last, however,
+he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language that
+sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we could not understand
+one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German,
+Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I
+am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these
+tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she
+was busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the
+compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding
+that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man,
+being unable to make anything of us, suddenly turned his boat round and
+began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming away before
+the wind like a swallow. As she passed across our bows the man turned to
+attend to the large sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss
+his hand to the young lady. I was horrified at this proceeding, both on
+general grounds and because I feared that she might take offence, but
+to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and seeing that her
+husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged, she promptly kissed
+hers back.
+
+'Ah!' said I. 'It seems that we have at last found a language that the
+people of this country understand.'
+
+'In which case,' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an invaluable
+interpreter.'
+
+I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities, and he knows
+it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. 'It is very
+clear to me,' I said, 'that the man will be back before long with a host
+of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we are going
+to receive them.'
+
+'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir Henry.
+
+As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin
+case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under a pile of
+baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with Good about this tin case,
+inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never
+given any very explicit account as to its contents; but he had insisted
+on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very useful one
+day.
+
+'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'Do--why dress, of course! You don't expect me to appear in a new
+country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to his soiled and worn
+garments, which were however, like all Good's things, very tidy, and
+with every tear neatly mended.
+
+We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless interest.
+His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly competent in
+such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the most approved fashion.
+I think that if he had had some hot water and a cake of soap at hand
+he would have shaved off the latter; but he had not. This done, he
+suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all take a
+bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and astonishment of Alphonse,
+who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were indeed a
+wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred
+Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of
+swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild
+amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water,
+and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced
+first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had left a London steam
+laundry, and then some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white,
+and finally in silver paper. We watched this undoing with the tenderest
+interest and much speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks
+that hid their splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece
+of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its
+golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's
+full-dress uniform--dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots
+and all. We literally gasped.
+
+'_What!_' we said, '_what!_ Are you going to put those things on?'
+
+'Certainly,' he answered composedly; 'you see so much depends upon a
+first impression, especially,' he added, 'as I observe that there are
+ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.'
+
+We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we
+considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the contents of
+that box for all these months. Only one suggestion did we make--namely,
+that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he
+feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the
+sun to take the creases out, but finally consented to this precautionary
+measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see
+old Umslopogaas's astonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's
+transformation. When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to
+the medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still waters
+of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient
+history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love with his own
+shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings.
+
+'Oh, Bougwan!' he said. 'Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee an ugly
+little man, and fat--fat as the cows at calving time; and now thou art
+like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts
+my eyes to look at thee.'
+
+Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell the
+truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had brought him
+down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased at Umslopogaas's
+admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted.
+
+'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air--the air of the warrior. It
+is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is
+complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand--'
+
+Here we stopped Alphonse.
+
+As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of
+emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves up
+as well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to do was to
+array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes, of which we
+each had several, all the fine clothes in the world could never make it
+otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but Sir Henry looked what he
+is, a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit, gaiters, and boots.
+Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn to his
+enormous moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way
+given to the vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern
+and a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone
+like Good's patent leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir
+Henry had given him and his 'moocha', and, having cleaned up Inkosi-kaas
+a little, stood forth complete.
+
+All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had finished
+bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or, rather, for
+the mouth of a great river. Presently--in all about an hour and a half
+after the little boat had left us--we saw emerging from the river
+or harbour a large number of boats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons
+burden. One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of
+the rest sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the
+row-boat was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of
+uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of venerable
+appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword strapped to his
+side, who was evidently the commander of the craft. The other boats were
+apparently occupied by people brought out by curiosity, and were rowing
+or sailing towards us as quickly as they could.
+
+'Now for it,' said I. 'What is the betting? Are they going to be
+friendly or to put an end to us?'
+
+Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike
+appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little anxious.
+
+Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about two
+hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to
+impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them
+if possible. This, unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and
+accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore rifles, for which we still
+had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action. There were four
+of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three
+parts grown. We got up to them without difficulty, the great animals
+contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again
+a few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as
+being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards
+away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown young
+one. The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing
+through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leaving a long train of blood
+behind it. At the same moment I fired at the cow, and Good at the
+old bull. My shot took effect, but not fatally, and down went the
+hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only to rise again presently
+blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round her crimson,
+when I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who is an execrable shot,
+missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting the
+side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I had fired my
+second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen among were
+evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternation
+caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious.
+Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear; others turned
+and made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentleman with the
+sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted his big row-boat.
+We had, however, but little time for observation, for just then the old
+bull, rendered furious by the wound he had received, rose fair within
+forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and hit him in
+various places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now began to
+overcome the fear of the onlookers, and some of them sailed on up close
+to us, amongst these being the man and woman whom we had first seen a
+couple of hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside. Just then
+the great brute rose again within ten yards of their base, and instantly
+with a roar of fury made at it open-mouthed. The woman shrieked, and the
+man tried to give the boat way, but without success. In another second
+I saw the huge red jaws and gleaming ivories close with a crunch on the
+frail craft, taking an enormous mouthful out of its side and capsizing
+it. Down went the boat, leaving its occupants struggling in the water.
+Next moment, before we could do anything towards saving them, the huge
+and furious creature was up again and making open-mouthed at the poor
+girl, who was struggling in the water. Lifting my rifle just as the
+grinding jaws were about to close on her, I fired over her head right
+down the hippopotamus's throat. Over he went, and commenced turning
+round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of blood through his
+nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however, I let him have the
+other barrel in the side of the throat, and that finished him. He
+never moved or struggled again, but instantly sank. Our next effort
+was directed towards saving the girl, the man having swum off towards
+another boat; and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling
+her into the canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably
+exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and we could
+see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened,
+were consulting what to do. Without giving them time for further
+consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to ourselves,
+we instantly took our paddles and advanced towards them, Good standing
+in the bow and taking off his cocked hat politely in every direction,
+his amiable features suffused by a bland but intelligent smile. Most of
+the craft retreated as we advanced, but a few held their ground, while
+the big row-boat came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and
+I could see that our appearance--and especially Good's and
+Umslopogaas's--filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment,
+not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the same fashion as the man
+we first met, except that his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of
+pure white linen hemmed with purple. The kilt, however, was identical,
+and so were the thick rings of gold around the arm and beneath the
+left knee. The rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to
+the waist. Good took off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra
+flourish, and inquired after his health in the purest English, to
+which he replied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand
+horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a moment, which
+we took as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed some
+remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished our first
+interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did not understand by
+shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse,
+being to the manner born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way that
+nobody could take any offence. Then we came a standstill, till I, being
+exceedingly hungry, thought I might as well call attention to the fact,
+and did so first by opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then
+rubbing my stomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly understood,
+for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed towards the harbour; and
+at the same time one of the men on his boat threw us a line and motioned
+to us to make it fast, which we did. The row-boat then took us in tow,
+and went with great rapidity towards the mouth of the river, accompanied
+by all the other boats. In about twenty minutes more we reached the
+entrance to the harbour, which was crowded with boats full of people who
+had come out to see us. We observed that all the occupants were more or
+less of the same type, though some were fairer than others. Indeed, we
+noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness;
+and the darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that of a rather
+swarthy Spaniard. Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did
+so an exclamation of astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we
+caught our first view of the place that we afterwards knew as Milosis,
+or the Frowning City (from mi, which means city, and losis, a frown).
+
+At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bank rose a
+sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in height, which had
+no doubt once formed the bank itself--the intermediate space of land
+now utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by draining, and
+deepening and embanking the stream.
+
+On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same granite
+that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth
+side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its base by a
+little door. This imposing place we afterwards discovered was the palace
+of the queen, or rather of the queens. At the back of the palace the
+town sloped gently upwards to a flashing building of white marble,
+crowned by the golden dome which we had already observed. The city was,
+with the exception of this one building, entirely built of red granite,
+and laid out in regular blocks with splendid roadways between. So far
+as we could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached, with
+gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye wearied with the
+vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a road of extraordinary
+width stretched away up the hill for a distance of a mile and a half or
+so, and appeared to terminate at an open space surrounding the gleaming
+building that crowned the hill. But right in front of us was the
+wonder and glory of Milosis--the great staircase of the palace, the
+magnificence of which took our breath away. Let the reader imagine,
+if he can, a splendid stairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to
+balustrade, consisting of two vast flights, each of one hundred and
+twenty-five steps of eight inches in height by three feet broad,
+connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and running from
+the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet a waterway
+or canal cut to its foot from the river. This marvellous staircase
+was supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which the
+resting-place between the two flights formed the crown; that is, the
+connecting open space lay upon it. From this archway sprang a subsidiary
+flying arch, or rather something that resembled a flying arch in shape,
+such as none of us had seen in any other country, and of which the
+beauty and wonder surpassed all that we had ever imagined. Three hundred
+feet from point to point, and no less than five hundred and fifty round
+the curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for a
+space of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the parent
+archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of the side of the
+precipice.
+
+This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which any living
+man might have been proud, both on account of its magnitude and its
+surpassing beauty. Four times, as we afterwards learnt, did the work,
+which was commenced in remote antiquity, fail, and was then abandoned
+for three centuries when half-finished, till at last there rose a
+youthful engineer named Rademas, who said that he would complete it
+successfully, and staked his life upon it. If he failed he was to be
+hurled from the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded,
+he was to be rewarded by the hand of the king's daughter. Five years was
+given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour and
+material. Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeing failure
+to be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on the morrow of the
+third collapse. That night, however, a beautiful woman came to him in a
+dream and touched his forehead, and of a sudden he saw a vision of the
+completed work, and saw too through the masonry and how the difficulties
+connected with the flying arch that had hitherto baffled his genius were
+to be overcome. Then he awoke and once more commenced the work, but on
+a different plan, and behold! he achieved it, and on the last day of
+the five years he led the princess his bride up the stair and into
+the palace. And in due course he became king by right of his wife, and
+founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this day called the
+'House of the Stairway', thus proving once more how energy and talent
+are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And to commemorate his
+triumph he fashioned a statue of himself dreaming, and of the fair woman
+who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in the great hall of the
+palace, and there it stands to this day.
+
+Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond. No wonder
+they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly those mighty works in
+solid granite did seem to frown down upon our littleness in their sombre
+splendour. This was so even in the sunshine, but when the storm-clouds
+gathered on her imperial brow Milosis looked more like a supernatural
+dwelling-place, or some imagining of a poet's brain, than what she is--a
+mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations out of the red
+silence of the mountain side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII THE SISTER QUEENS
+
+
+
+The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almost to the foot
+of the vast stairway, and then halted at a flight of steps leading to
+the landing-place. Here the old gentleman disembarked, and invited us to
+do so likewise, which, having no alternative, and being nearly starved,
+we did without hesitation--taking our rifles with us, however. As each
+of us landed, our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and bowed
+deeply, at the same time ordering back the crowds which had assembled to
+gaze on us. The last to leave the canoe was the girl we had picked out
+of the water, for whom her companion was waiting. Before she went away
+she kissed my hand, I suppose as a token of gratitude for having saved
+her from the fury of the hippopotamus; and it seemed to me that she had
+by this time quite got over any fear she might have had of us, and was
+by no means anxious to return in such a hurry to her lawful owners. At
+any rate, she was going to kiss Good's hand as well as mine, when the
+young man interfered and led her off. As soon as we were on shore, a
+number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possession of our few
+goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendid staircase,
+our guide indicating to us by means of motions that the things were
+perfectly safe. This done, he turned to the right and led the way to
+a small house, which was, as I afterwards discovered, an inn. Entering
+into a good-sized room, we saw that a wooden table was already furnished
+with food, presumably in preparation for us. Here our guide motioned
+us to be seated on a bench that ran the length of the table. We did
+not require a second invitation, but at once fell to ravenously on the
+viands before us, which were served on wooden platters, and consisted
+of cold goat's-flesh, wrapped up in some kind of leaf that gave it a
+delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling lettuces, brown bread,
+and red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs. This wine was peculiarly
+soft and good, having something of the flavour of Burgundy. Twenty
+minutes after we sat down at that hospitable board we rose from it,
+feeling like new men. After all that we had gone through we needed two
+things, food and rest, and the food of itself was a great blessing to
+us. Two girls of the same charming cast of face as the first whom we had
+seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely they did it. They were
+also dressed in the same fashion namely, in a white linen petticoat
+coming to the knee, and with the toga-like garment of brown cloth,
+leaving bare the right arm and breast. I afterwards found out that
+this was the national dress, and regulated by an iron custom, though of
+course subject to variations. Thus, if the petticoat was pure white,
+it signified that the wearer was unmarried; if white, with a straight
+purple stripe round the edge, that she was married and a first or legal
+wife; if with a black stripe, that she was a widow. In the same way the
+toga, or 'kaf', as they call it, was of different shades of colour, from
+pure white to the deepest brown, according to the rank of the wearer,
+and embroidered at the end in various ways. This also applies to the
+'shirts' or tunics worn by the men, which varied in material and colour;
+but the kilts were always the same except as regards quality. One
+thing, however, every man and woman in the country wore as the national
+insignia, and that was the thick band of gold round the right arm above
+the elbow, and the left leg beneath the knee. People of high rank also
+wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observed that our guide had
+one on.
+
+So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor, who had
+been standing all the while, regarding us with inquiring eyes, and our
+guns with something as like fear as his pride would allow him to show,
+bowed towards Good, whom he evidently took for the leader of the party
+on account of the splendour of his apparel, and once more led the way
+through the door and to the foot of the great staircase. Here we paused
+for a moment to admire two colossal lions, each hewn from a single block
+of pure black marble, and standing rampant on the terminations of
+the wide balustrades of the staircase. These lions are magnificently
+executed, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the great prince
+who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt, to judge from the
+many beautiful examples of his art that we saw afterwards, one of the
+finest sculptors who ever lived, either in this or any other country.
+Then we climbed almost with a feeling of awe up that splendid stair,
+a work executed for all time and that will, I do not doubt, be admired
+thousands of years hence by generations unborn unless an earthquake
+should throw it down. Even Umslopogaas, who as a general rule made it
+a point of honour not to show astonishment, which he considered
+undignified, was fairly startled out of himself, and asked if the
+'bridge had been built by men or devils', which was his vague way of
+alluding to any supernatural power. But Alphonse did not care about it.
+Its solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous little Frenchman, who said
+that it was all 'tres magnifique, mais triste--ah, triste!' and went on
+to suggest that it would be improved if the balustrades were _gilt_.
+
+On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps, across
+the broad platform joining it to the second flight, where we paused
+to admire the glorious view of one of the most beautiful stretches of
+country that the world can show, edged by the blue waters of the lake.
+Then we passed on up the stair till at last we reached the top, where we
+found a large standing space to which there were three entrances, all
+of small size. Two of these opened on to rather narrow galleries or
+roadways cut in the face of the precipice that ran round the palace
+walls and led to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were
+used by the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks. These were
+defended by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwards learnt, it was
+possible to let down a portion of the roadways themselves by withdrawing
+certain bolts, and thus render it quite impracticable for an enemy
+to pass. The third entrance consisted of a flight of ten curved black
+marble steps leading to a doorway cut in the palace wall. This wall was
+in itself a work of art, being built of huge blocks of granite to
+the height of forty feet, and so fashioned that its face was concave,
+whereby it was rendered practically impossible for it to be scaled. To
+this doorway our guide led us. The door, which was massive, and made
+of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed; but on our
+approach it was thrown wide, and we were met by the challenge of a
+sentry, who was armed with a heavy triangular-bladed spear, not unlike a
+bayonet in shape, and a cutting sword, and protected by breast and back
+plates of skilfully prepared hippopotamus hide, and a small round shield
+fashioned of the same tough material. The sword instantly attracted our
+attention; it was practically identical with the one in the possession
+of Mr Mackenzie which he had obtained from the ill-starred wanderer.
+There was no mistaking the gold-lined fretwork cut in the thickness of
+the blade. So the man had told the truth after all. Our guide instantly
+gave a password, which the soldier acknowledged by letting the iron
+shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement, and we
+passed on through the massive wall into the courtyard of the palace.
+This was about forty yards square, and laid out in flower-beds full of
+lovely shrubs and plants, many of which were quite new to me. Through
+the centre of this garden ran a broad walk formed of powdered shells
+brought from the lake in the place of gravel. Following this we came
+to another doorway with a round heavy arch, which is hung with thick
+curtains, for there are no doors in the palace itself. Then came another
+short passage, and we were in the great hall of the palace, and once
+more stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeur of the
+place.
+
+The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet long by
+eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved wood. Down
+the entire length of the building there are on either side, and at a
+distance of twenty feet from the wall, slender shafts of black marble
+springing sheer to the roof, beautifully fluted, and with carved
+capitals. At one end of this great place which these pillars support is
+the group of which I have already spoken as executed by the King Rademas
+to commemorate his building of the staircase; and really, when we had
+time to admire it, its loveliness almost struck us dumb. The group, of
+which the figures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is
+about half as large again as life, and represents a young man of
+noble countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One arm is
+carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his head reposes upon
+the other, its curling locks partially hiding it. Bending over him,
+her hand resting on his forehead, is a draped female form of such white
+loveliness as to make the beholder's breath stand still. And as for the
+calm glory that shines upon her perfect face--well, I can never hope to
+describe it. But there it rests like the shadow of an angel's smile; and
+power, love, and divinity all have their part in it. Her eyes are fixed
+upon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most extraordinary thing about
+this beautiful work is the success with which the artist has succeeded
+in depicting on the sleeper's worn and weary face the sudden rising of
+a new and spiritual thought as the spell begins to work within his mind.
+You can see that an inspiration is breaking in upon the darkness of the
+man's soul as the dawn breaks in upon the darkness of night. It is a
+glorious piece of statuary, and none but a genius could have conceived
+it. Between each of the black marble columns is some such group of
+figures, some allegorical, and some representing the persons and wives
+of deceased monarchs or great men; but none of them, in our opinion,
+comes up to the one I have described, although several are from the hand of
+the sculptor and engineer, King Rademas.
+
+In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marble about
+the size of a baby's arm-chair, which it rather resembled in appearance.
+This, as we afterwards learnt, was the sacred stone of this remarkable
+people, and on it their monarchs laid their hand after the ceremony
+of coronation, and swore by the sun to safeguard the interests of the
+empire, and to maintain its customs, traditions, and laws. This stone
+was evidently exceedingly ancient (as indeed all stones are), and was
+scored down its sides with long marks or lines, which Sir Henry said
+proved it to have been a fragment that at some remote period in its
+history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers. There was a
+curious prophecy about this block of marble, which was reported among
+the people to have fallen from the sun, to the effect that when it was
+shattered into fragments a king of alien race should rule over the
+land. As the stone, however, looked remarkably solid, the native princes
+seemed to have a fair chance of keeping their own for many a long year.
+
+At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, on which
+two thrones are set side by side. These thrones are shaped like great
+chairs, and made of solid gold. The seats are richly cushioned, but
+the backs are left bare, and on each is carved the emblem of the sun,
+shooting out his fiery rays in all directions. The footstools are golden
+lions couchant, with yellow topazes set in them for eyes. There are no
+other gems about them.
+
+The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed high up,
+cut on the principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancient castles, but
+innocent of glass, which was evidently unknown here.
+
+Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which we now found
+ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledge of it.
+On this occasion we had but little time for observation, for when we
+entered we perceived that a large number of men were gathered together
+in front of the two thrones, which were unoccupied. The principal among
+them were seated on carved wooden chairs ranged to the right and the
+left of the thrones, but not in front of them, and were dressed in white
+tunics, with various embroideries and different coloured edgings, and
+armed with the usual pierced and gold-inlaid swords. To judge from the
+dignity of their appearance, they seemed one and all to be individuals
+of very great importance. Behind each of these great men stood a small
+knot of followers and attendants.
+
+Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne, were
+six men of a different stamp. Instead of wearing the ordinary kilt, they
+were clothed in long robes of pure white linen, with the same symbol of
+the sun that is to be seen on the back of the chairs, emblazoned in gold
+thread upon the breast. This garment was girt up at the waist with a
+simple golden curb-like chain, from which hung long elliptic plates of
+the same metal, fashioned in shiny scales like those of a fish, that, as
+their wearers moved, jingled and reflected the light. They were all men
+of mature age and of a severe and impressive cast of features, which was
+rendered still more imposing by the long beards they wore.
+
+The personality of one individual among them, however, impressed us
+at once. He seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuse to be
+overlooked. He was very old--eighty at least--and extremely tall, with
+a long snow-white beard that hung nearly to his waist. His features were
+aquiline and deeply cut, and his eyes were grey and cold-looking. The
+heads of the others were bare, but this man wore a round cap entirely
+covered with gold embroidery, from which we judged that he was a person
+of great importance; and indeed we afterwards discovered that he was
+Agon, the High Priest of the country. As we approached, all these men,
+including the priests, rose and bowed to us with the greatest courtesy,
+at the same time placing the two fingers across the lips in salutation.
+Then soft-footed attendants advanced from between the pillars, bearing
+seats, which were placed in a line in front of the thrones. We three sat
+down, Alphonse and Umslopogaas standing behind us. Scarcely had we done
+so when there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to the right,
+and a similar blare from the left. Next a man with a long white wand
+of ivory appeared just in front of the right-hand throne, and cried out
+something in a loud voice, ending with the word _Nyleptha_, repeated
+three times; and another man, similarly attired, called out a similar
+sentence before the other throne, but ending with the word _Sorais_,
+also repeated thrice. Then came the tramp of armed men from each
+side entrance, and in filed about a score of picked and magnificently
+accoutred guards, who formed up on each side of the thrones, and let
+their heavy iron-handled spears fall simultaneously with a clash upon
+the black marble flooring. Another double blare of trumpets, and in
+from either side, each attended by six maidens, swept the two Queens of
+Zu-Vendis, everybody in the hall rising to greet them as they came.
+
+I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer thrown into
+transports at the sight of a pretty face; but language fails me when I
+try to give some idea of the blaze of loveliness that then broke upon
+us in the persons of these sister Queens. Both were young--perhaps
+five-and-twenty years of age--both were tall and exquisitely formed;
+but there the likeness stopped. One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling
+fairness; her right arm and breast bare, after the custom of her people,
+showed like snow even against her white and gold-embroidered 'kaf', or
+toga. And as for her sweet face, all I can say is, that it was one that
+few men could look on and forget. Her hair, a veritable crown of gold,
+clustered in short ringlets over her shapely head, half hiding the ivory
+brow, beneath which eyes of deep and glorious grey flashed out in tender
+majesty. I cannot attempt to describe her other features, only the
+mouth was most sweet, and curved like Cupid's bow, and over the whole
+countenance there shone an indescribable look of loving-kindness, lit
+up by a shadow of delicate humour that lay upon her face like a touch of
+silver on a rosy cloud.
+
+She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usual
+torques of gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; and her dress
+was of pure white linen of excessive fineness, plentifully embroidered
+with gold and with the familiar symbols of the sun.
+
+Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type of beauty.
+Her hair was wavy like Nyleptha's but coal-black, and fell in masses
+on her shoulders; her complexion was olive, her eyes large, dark, and
+lustrous; the lips were full, and I thought rather cruel. Somehow her
+face, quiet and even cold as it is, gave an idea of passion in repose,
+and caused one to wonder involuntarily what its aspect would be if
+anything occurred to break the calm. It reminded me of the deep sea,
+that even on the bluest days never loses its visible stamp of power, and
+in its murmuring sleep is yet instinct with the spirit of the storm.
+Her figure, like her sister's, was almost perfect in its curves and
+outlines, but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was absolutely the
+same.
+
+As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones, amid the
+deep attentive silence of the Court, I was bound to confess to myself
+that they did indeed fulfil my idea of royalty. Royal they were in
+every way--in form, in grace, and queenly dignity, and in the barbaric
+splendour of their attendant pomp. But methought that they needed no
+guards or gold to proclaim their power and bind the loyalty of wayward
+men. A glance from those bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips,
+and while the red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as these
+will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
+
+But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and therefore
+not devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seats I saw both of
+them glance swiftly in our direction. I saw, too, that their eyes passed
+by me, seeing nothing to charm them in the person of an insignificant
+and grizzled old man. Then they looked with evident astonishment on
+the grim form of old Umslopogaas, who raised his axe in salutation.
+Attracted next by the splendour of Good's apparel, for a second their
+glance rested on him like a humming moth upon a flower, then off it
+darted to where Sir Henry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a window
+playing upon his yellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the outlines
+of his massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat gloomy hall.
+He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha's full, and thus for
+the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has ever been my lot
+to see looked one upon another. And why it was I know not, but I saw the
+swift blood run up Nyleptha's skin as the pink lights run up the morning
+sky. Red grew her fair bosom and shapely arm, red the swanlike neck; the
+rounded cheeks blushed red as the petals of a rose, and then the crimson
+flood sank back to whence it came and left her pale and trembling.
+
+I glanced at Sir Henry. He, too, had coloured up to the eyes.
+
+'Oh, my word!' thought I to myself, 'the ladies have come on the stage,
+and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.' And I sighed and
+shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a woman is like the beauty
+of the lightning--a destructive thing and a cause of desolation. By
+the time that I had finished my reflections both the Queens were on the
+thrones, for all this had happened in about six seconds. Once more the
+unseen trumpets blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen
+Sorais motioned to us to do likewise.
+
+Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward our
+guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding by the
+hand the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescued from the
+hippopotamus. Having made obeisance he proceeded to address the Queens,
+evidently describing to them the way and place where we had been found.
+It was most amusing to watch the astonishment, not unmixed with fear,
+reflected upon their faces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they
+could not understand how we had reached the lake and been found floating
+on it, and were inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural
+causes. Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequent
+appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we had shot
+the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there was something
+very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history was frequently
+interrupted by indignant exclamations from the little group of
+white-robed priests and even from the courtiers, while the two Queens
+listened with an amazed expression, especially when our guide pointed to
+the rifles in our hands as being the means of destruction. And here, to
+make matters clear, I may as well explain at once that the inhabitants
+of Zu-Vendis are sun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another
+the hippopotamus is sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it,
+because at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands--which
+are specially preserved in large lakes up the country--and use their
+hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent them from
+considering these animals as sacred to the sun. {Endnote 11} Now, as ill
+luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we had shot were a family
+of tame animals that were kept in the mouth of the port and daily fed by
+priests whose special duty it was to attend to them. When we shot them
+I thought that the brutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we
+afterwards ascertained, the cause of it. Thus it came about that in
+attempting to show off we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated
+nature.
+
+When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long beard
+and round cap, whose appearance I have already described, and who was,
+as I have said, the High Priest of the country, and known by the name
+of Agon, rose and commenced an impassioned harangue. I did not like the
+look of his cold grey eye as he fixed it on us. I should have liked it
+still less had I known that in the name of the outraged majesty of his
+god he was demanding that the whole lot of us should be offered up as a
+sacrifice by means of being burnt alive.
+
+After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him in a soft
+and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his gestures of dissent,
+to be putting the other side of the question before him. Then Nyleptha
+spoke in liquid accents. Little did we know that she was pleading for
+our lives. Finally, she turned and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of
+middle age with a black beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as
+we afterwards learnt, was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the
+country; apparently appealing to him for support. Now when Sir Henry
+had caught her eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that the
+incident had not escaped this man's notice, and, what is more, that
+it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lip and his
+hand tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learnt that he was an
+aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage, which accounted for it.
+This being so, Nyleptha could not have appealed to a worse person, for,
+speaking in slow, heavy tones, he appeared to confirm all that the High
+Priest Agon had said. As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee,
+and, resting her chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile
+upon her lips, as though she saw through the man, and was determined to
+be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed, her eyes
+flashed, and she did indeed look lovely. Finally she turned to Agon and
+seemed to give some sort of qualified assent, for he bowed at her words;
+and as she spoke she moved her hands as though to emphasize what she
+said; while all the time Sorais kept her chin on her hand and smiled.
+Then suddenly Nyleptha made a sign, the trumpets blew again, and
+everybody rose to leave the hall save ourselves and the guards, whom she
+motioned to stay.
+
+When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly, partially
+by signs and partially by exclamations made it clear to us that she
+was very anxious to know where we came from. The difficulty was how to
+explain, but at last an idea struck me. I had my large pocket-book in
+my pocket and a pencil. Taking it out, I made a little sketch of a lake,
+and then as best I could I drew the underground river and the lake
+at the other end. When I had done this I advanced to the steps of the
+throne and gave it to her. She understood it at once and clapped her
+hands with delight, and then descending from the throne took it to her
+sister Sorais, who also evidently understood. Next she took the pencil
+from me, and after examining it with curiosity proceeded to make a
+series of delightful little sketches, the first representing herself
+holding out both hands in welcome, and a man uncommonly like Sir Henry
+taking them. Next she drew a lovely little picture of a hippopotamus
+rolling about dying in the water, and of an individual, in whom we had
+no difficulty in recognizing Agon the High Priest, holding up his
+hands in horror on the bank. Then followed a most alarming picture of a
+dreadful fiery furnace and of the same figure, Agon, poking us into it
+with a forked stick. This picture perfectly horrified me, but I was a
+little reassured when she nodded sweetly and proceeded to make a fourth
+drawing--a man again uncommonly like Sir Henry, and of two women, in
+whom I recognized Sorais and herself, each with one arm around him, and
+holding a sword in protection over him. To all of these Sorais, who
+I saw was employed in carefully taking us all in--especially
+Curtis--signified her approval by nodding.
+
+At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicating that
+she must go, and that we should meet on the following morning; whereat
+Sir Henry looked so disappointed that she saw it, and, I suppose by
+way of consolation, extended her hand to him to kiss, which he did with
+pious fervour. At the same time Sorais, off whom Good had never taken
+his eyeglass during the whole indaba [interview], rewarded him by giving
+him her hand to kiss, though, while she did so, her eyes were fixed
+upon Sir Henry. I am glad to say that I was not implicated in these
+proceedings; neither of them gave _me_ her hand to kiss.
+
+Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to be in
+command of the bodyguard, apparently from her manner and his frequent
+obeisances, giving him very stringent and careful orders; after which,
+with a somewhat coquettish nod and smile, she left the hall, followed by
+Sorais and most of the guards.
+
+When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressed
+came forward and with many tokens of deep respect led us from the hall
+through various passages to a sumptuous set of apartments opening out of
+a large central room lighted with brazen swinging lamps (for it was now
+dusk) and richly carpeted and strewn with couches. On a table in the
+centre of the room was set a profusion of food and fruit, and, what is
+more, flowers. There was a delicious wine also in ancient-looking sealed
+earthenware flagons, and beautifully chased golden and ivory cups to
+drink it from. Servants, male and female, also were there to minister to
+us, and whilst we ate, from some recess outside the apartment
+
+
+   'The silver lute did speak between
+    The trumpet's lordly blowing;'
+
+
+and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradise which
+was only disturbed by the vision of that disgusting High Priest who
+intended to commit us to the flames. But so very weary were we with
+our labours that we could scarcely keep ourselves awake through the
+sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was over we indicated that we desired
+to sleep. As a further precaution against surprise we left Umslopogaas
+with his axe to sleep in the main chamber near the curtained doorways
+leading to the apartments which we occupied respectively, Good and I in
+the one, and Sir Henry and Alphonse in the other. Then throwing off our
+clothes, with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered it
+safer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxurious
+couches, and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us.
+
+In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused by Good's
+voice.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he said, 'did you ever see such eyes?'
+
+'Eyes!' I said, crossly; 'what eyes?'
+
+'Why, the Queen's, of course! Sorais, I mean--at least I think that is
+her name.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' I yawned; 'I didn't notice them much: I suppose they
+are good eyes,' and again I dropped off.
+
+Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' said the voice.
+
+'Well,' I answered testily, 'what is it now?'
+
+'Did you notice her ankle? The shape--'
+
+This was more than I could stand. By my bed stood the veldtschoons I had
+been wearing. Moved quite beyond myself, I took them up and threw them
+straight at Good's head--and hit it.
+
+Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleep it must
+be. As for Good, I don't know if he went to sleep or if he continued to
+pass Sorais' beauties in mental review, and, what is more, I don't care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+
+
+
+And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in this
+novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should except
+Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in
+her bed of state encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, and
+all the other people and appurtenances that surround a throne, and yet
+not able to slumber for thinking of the strangers who had visited a
+country where no such strangers had ever come before, and wondering, as
+she lay awake, who they were and what their past has been, and if she
+was ugly compared to the women of their native place. I, however, not
+being poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some
+account of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needless
+to state, from information which we subsequently collected.
+
+The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis,
+from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendis, 'place or country'. Why it is called the
+Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor do
+the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given, each
+of which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the name
+owes its origin to the great quantity of gold that is found in the land.
+Indeed, in this respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the precious
+metal being extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collected from
+purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and which
+are situated within a day's journey from Milosis, being mostly found in
+pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce up to six or seven pounds
+in weight. But other diggings of a similar nature are known to exist,
+and I have besides seen great veins of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendis
+gold is a much commoner metal than silver, and thus it has curiously
+enough come to pass that silver is the legal tender of the country.
+
+The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year the native
+grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow
+as ripe corn; and the third arises from a tradition that the people
+were originally yellow skinned, but grew white after living for many
+generations upon these high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about the size
+of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every side
+cut off from the surrounding territory by illimitable forests of
+impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of miles of
+morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, high
+tableland rising up in the centre of the dark continent, much as
+in southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the
+surrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a
+level of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the land
+is even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, I
+believe, about eleven thousand feet. As a consequence the climate
+is, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar to that of
+southern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however,
+exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits and
+timber to perfection; and in the lower-lying parts even produces a hardy
+variety of sugar-cane. Coal is found in great abundance, and in many
+places crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both black and
+white. The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, which
+is scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of mountains in the
+north.
+
+Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery,
+including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundary
+beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing the
+country from north to south, and passing at a distance of about eighty
+miles from Milosis, from which town its higher peaks are distinctly
+visible. This range forms the chief watershed of the land. There are
+also three large lakes--the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and
+which is named Milosis after the city, covering some two hundred square
+miles of country--and numerous small ones, some of them salt.
+
+The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense,
+numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almost
+purely agricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes as
+in civilized countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerable
+middle class, formed principally of merchants, officers of the army,
+etc.; but the great bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who live
+upon the lands of the lords, from whom they hold under a species of
+feudal tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think I
+have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; but
+the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any negro or
+other African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no certain
+information. Their written records, which extend back for about a
+thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does
+indeed, in alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talk
+of it as having probably originally 'come down with the people from the
+coast', but that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of the
+Zu-Vendi is lost in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what race
+they are no man knows. Their architecture and some of their sculptures
+suggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin; but it is well
+known that their present remarkable style of building has only sprung up
+within the last eight hundred years, and they certainly retain no traces
+of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their appearance and some
+of their habits are rather Jewish; but here again it seems hardly
+conceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewish
+religion. Still, for aught I know, they may be one of the lost ten
+tribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over the world, or
+they may not. I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find
+them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of it,
+if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which is exceedingly
+doubtful.
+
+And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard a
+theory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young lady
+said in mitigation of her baby. This theory is founded on a legend which
+I have heard among the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the effect
+that 'more than two thousand years ago' there were troubles in the
+country which was known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of
+Persians came down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by
+the north-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, according to
+the legend, 'the sun and fire worshippers' fell into conflict with the
+belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on the east coast, and
+finally broke their way through them, and, vanishing into the interior,
+were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at least possible that the
+Zu-Vendi people are the descendants of these 'sun and fire worshippers'
+who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a matter of fact, there
+is a good deal in their characters and customs that tallies with the
+somewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we have no books
+of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not fail
+him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500 BC, whereon
+a vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is a
+well-established fact that there have been many separate emigrations
+of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to as
+lately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on
+the east coast, still in good repair, which bear dates showing them to
+be just seven hundred years old. {Endnote 12}
+
+In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly
+enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the exigencies of
+their position make war upon other nations, they fight among each other
+like the famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the population
+never outgrows the power of the country to support it. This habit of
+theirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country.
+The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it is
+tempered by the power of the priests and the informal council of the
+great lords; but, as in many other institutions, the king's writ does
+not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land. In
+short, the whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdom
+or slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally from the
+throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the
+power of life and death, waging war against and making peace with
+their neighbours as the whim or their interests lead them, and even
+on occasion rising in open rebellion against their royal master or
+mistress, and, safely shut up in their castles and fenced cities, as far
+from the seat of government, successfully defying them for years.
+
+Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that will
+be well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have sat
+upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took
+its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple
+after a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the country
+things were a little better than they had been for some centuries,
+the last king, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an
+exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he kept
+down the power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two years before
+we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were, following
+an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an attempt to exclude
+either would instantly have provoked a sanguinary civil war; but it
+was generally felt in the country that this measure was a most
+unsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be permanent.
+Indeed, as it was, the various intrigues that were set on foot by
+ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or other of the queens in
+marriage had disquieted the country, and the general opinion was that
+there would be bloodshed before long.
+
+I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which
+is nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced and highly
+developed character. Around this sun-worship is grouped the entire
+social system of the Zu-Vendi. It sends its roots through every
+institution and custom of the land. From the cradle to the grave the
+Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying. As an infant he
+is solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to 'the symbol of
+good, the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity', the ceremony
+answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point
+out the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god,
+and he worships it at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when still
+quite small, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother's
+'kaf' (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and
+there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the golden
+central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the
+white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees the
+people fall down to adore, and then, amidst the blowing of the golden
+trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneath
+the altar. Here he comes again to be declared 'a man' by the priests,
+and consecrated to war and to good works; here before the solemn altar
+he leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise,
+he divorces her.
+
+And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is travelled, and
+he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man. Here
+they bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling brazen doors before
+the eastern altar, and when the last ray from the setting sun falls
+upon his white face the bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the raging
+furnace beneath and is ended.
+
+The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as young men
+specially devoted to the work by their parents and supported by the
+State. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood lies with
+the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed, and
+it is scarcely too much to say that they really rule the land. To begin
+with, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so that
+an order issued by the High Priest at Milosis will be instantly and
+unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little country
+town three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the land,
+criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of
+the district, and from him to the king; and they have, of course,
+practically unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offences,
+together with a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of
+more highly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, their
+rights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here
+that the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and do not
+push things too far. It is but very seldom that they go to extremes
+against anybody, being more inclined to exercise the prerogative of
+mercy than run the risk of exasperating the powerful and vigorous-minded
+people on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise and
+break it off altogether.
+
+Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopoly
+of learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, which
+enables them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipses
+and even comets. In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can read
+and write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and are
+therefore looked upon as learned men.
+
+The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs
+in several respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law of
+England is much more severe upon offences against property than against
+the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. A man
+may half kick his wife to death or inflict horrible sufferings upon his
+children at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound for
+the theft of a pair of old boots. In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there
+they rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of more consequence
+than goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort of necessary
+appendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is death, for treason
+death, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, and
+for attempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a sacrilege)
+death. In each case the method of execution is the same, and a rather
+awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneath
+one of the altars to the Sun. For all other offences, including the
+offence of idleness, the punishment is forced labour upon the vast
+national buildings which are always going on in some part of the
+country, with or without periodical floggings, according to the crime.
+
+The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to the
+individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customs
+of the country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of them
+have only one wife on account of the expense. By law a man is bound to
+provide a separate establishment for each wife. The first wife also is
+the legal wife, and her children are said to be 'of the house of the
+Father'. The children of the other wives are of the houses of their
+respective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon either
+mother or children. Again, a first wife can, on entering into the
+married state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other
+wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the great
+upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus numbers
+but gives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus practically
+the head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as primarily
+a civil contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a proper
+provision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both contracting
+parties, the divorce, or 'unloosing', being formally and ceremoniously
+accomplished by going through certain portions of the marriage ceremony
+backwards.
+
+The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-hearted
+people. They are not great traders and care little about money, only
+working to earn enough to support themselves in that class of life in
+which they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look with
+disfavour upon changes. Their legal tender is silver, cut into little
+squares of different weights; gold is the baser coin, and is about
+of the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized for its
+beauty, and largely used for ornaments and decorative purposes. Most of
+the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter, payment
+being made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of the country,
+and is really well understood and carried out, most of the available
+acreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also given to the
+breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any I
+have ever seen either in Europe or Africa.
+
+The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to the
+great lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on down
+to the little peasant farmer who works his forty 'reestu' (acres) on a
+system of half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact the whole system
+is, as I have said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much to meet
+with such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa.
+
+The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man's total
+earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on the remainder.
+But on the other hand, if a man through any cause falls into bona fide
+misfortune the State supports him in the position of life to which he
+belongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Government
+undertakings, and the State looks after his wives and children. The
+State also makes all the roads and builds all town houses, about which
+great care is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. It
+also keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provides
+watchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the priests attend to
+the service of the temples, carry out all religious ceremonies, and keep
+schools, where they teach whatever they think desirable, which is
+not very much. Some of the temples also possess private property, but
+priests as individuals cannot hold property.
+
+And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are
+the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one,
+sometimes the other. In some branches of art they have attained the
+very highest proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and their
+statuary. I do not think that the latter can be equalled either in
+beauty or imaginative power anywhere in the world, and as for the former
+it may have been rivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has
+never been since. But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant of
+many other arts. Till Sir Henry, who happened to know something about
+it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime, they could
+not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather primitive. A
+water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed, ours delighted
+them exceedingly. They know nothing about steam, electricity, or
+gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about printing or the
+penny post. Thus they are spared many evils, for of a truth our age has
+learnt the wisdom of the old-world saying, 'He who increaseth knowledge,
+increaseth sorrow.'
+
+As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative people
+who know no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to the
+sun and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannot justly be called
+elevating or spiritual. It is true that they do sometimes speak of the
+sun as the 'garment of the Spirit', but it is a vague term, and what
+they really adore is the fiery orb himself. They also call him the 'hope
+of eternity', but here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the
+phrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds. Some of them
+do indeed believe in a future life for the good--I know Nyleptha does
+firmly--but it is a private faith arising from the promptings of the
+spirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the whole I cannot say
+that I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicative of a civilized
+people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or however moral
+and high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I am sure,
+have their own opinions on the whole subject; though of course they have
+nothing but praise for a system which provides them with so many of the
+good things of this world.
+
+There are now only two more matters to which I need allude--namely,
+the language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it is
+soft-sounding, and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it sounds
+something like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it.
+It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiar
+quality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the sound of
+the words adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long before we
+mastered the language, we could frequently make out what was meant by
+the ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the language lends
+itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkable
+people are very fond. The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says, to
+be derived, like every other known system of letters, from a Phoenician
+source, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian
+hieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned
+in such matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists of
+twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not
+very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsy and puzzling.
+{Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to the writing
+of novels, or of anything except business documents and records of the
+briefest character, it answers their purpose well enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+
+
+
+It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning following
+our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly twelve hours, and
+I must say that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is
+sleep! and what a difference twelve hours of it or so makes to us after
+days and nights of toil and danger. It is like going to bed one man and
+getting up another.
+
+I sat up upon my silken couch--never had I slept upon such a bed
+before--and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass fixed on me
+from the recesses of his silken couch. There was nothing else of him to
+be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew from the look of it that he was
+awake, and waiting till I woke up to begin.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observe her
+skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.'
+
+'Now look here, Good,' I remonstrated, when there came a sound at the
+curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary, who signified by
+signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented, and
+were conducted to a delightful marble chamber, with a pool of running
+crystal water in the centre of it, into which we gaily plunged. When we
+had bathed, we returned to our apartment and dressed, and then went into
+the central room where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a
+morning meal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, though
+I should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfast we lounged
+round and admired the tapestries and carpets and some pieces of statuary
+that were placed about, wondering the while what was going to happen
+next. Indeed, by this time our minds were in such a state of complete
+bewilderment that we were, as a matter of fact, ready for anything
+that might arrive. As for our sense of astonishment, it was pretty well
+obliterated. Whilst we were still thus engaged, our friend the captain
+of the guard presented himself, and with many obeisances signified
+that we were to follow him, which we did, not without doubts and
+heart-searchings--for we guessed that the time had come when we should
+have to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with our
+cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However, there was no help for
+it, and personally I took great comfort in the promise of the protection
+of the sister Queens, knowing that if ladies have a will they can
+generally find a way; so off we started as though we liked it. A
+minute's walk through a passage and an outer court brought us to the
+great double gates of the palace that open on to the wide highway which
+runs uphill through the heart of Milosis to the Temple of the Sun a mile
+away, and thence down the slope on the farther side of the temple to the
+outer wall of the city.
+
+These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily beautiful
+work in metal. Between them--for one set is placed at the entrance to an
+interior, and one at that of the exterior wall--is a fosse, forty-five
+feet in width. This fosse is filled with water and spanned by a
+drawbridge, which when lifted makes the palace nearly impregnable to
+anything except siege guns. As we came, one half of the wide gates were
+flung open, and we passed over the drawbridge and presently stood gazing
+up one of the most imposing, if not the most imposing, roadways in the
+world. It is a hundred feet from curb to curb, and on either side,
+not cramped and crowded together, as is our European fashion, but each
+standing in its own grounds, and built equidistant from and in similar
+style to the rest, are a series of splendid, single-storied mansions,
+all of red granite. These are the town houses of the nobles of the
+Court, and stretch away in unbroken lines for a mile or more till the
+eye is arrested by the glorious vision of the Temple of the Sun that
+crowns the hill and heads the roadway.
+
+As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there
+suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn by two
+white horses. These chariots are two-wheeled, and made of wood. They are
+fitted with a stout pole, the weight of which is supported by leathern
+girths that form a portion of the harness. The wheels are made with four
+spokes only, are tired with iron, and quite innocent of springs. In the
+front of the chariot, and immediately over the pole, is a small seat for
+the driver, railed round to prevent him from being jolted off. Inside
+the machine itself are three low seats, one at each side, and one with
+the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door. The whole vehicle
+is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owing to the grace of the curves,
+though primitive, not half so ugly as might be expected.
+
+But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses did not.
+They were simply splendid, not very large but strongly built, and well
+ribbed up, with small heads, remarkably large and round hoofs, and a
+great look of speed and blood. I have often wondered whence this breed,
+which presents many distinct characteristics, came, but like that of its
+owners, it history is obscure. Like the people the horses have always
+been there. The first and last of these chariots were occupied by
+guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the driver, and to
+these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into the first, and Sir
+Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind, and then suddenly
+off we went. And we did go! Among the Zu-Vendi it is not usual to trot
+horses either riding or driving, especially when the journey to be made
+is a short one--they go at full gallop. As soon as we were seated the
+driver called out, the horses sprang forward, and we were whirled
+away at a speed sufficient to take one's breath, and which, till I got
+accustomed to it, kept me in momentary fear of an upset. As for the
+wretched Alphonse, he clung with a despairing face to the side of what
+he called this 'devil of a fiacre', thinking that every moment was his
+last. Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going, and
+I told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were going to be
+sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his face as he grasped the
+side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror.
+
+But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flying
+steeds and shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, bore away the
+sound of Alphonse's lamentations.
+
+And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling
+loveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun--the peculiar pride of the
+Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's, Temple was
+to the Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour of generations had been
+given to the building of this wonderful place, which had been only
+finally completed within the last fifty years. Nothing was spared that
+the country could produce, and the result was indeed worthy of the
+effort, not so much on account of its size--for there are larger fanes
+in the world--as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and
+beauty of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building
+(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden ground
+on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places of the priests)
+is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-covered central hall,
+from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts, each dedicated to one of
+the twelve months, and serving as the repositories of statues reared in
+memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle beneath the dome
+is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and
+the length of the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of
+their roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome
+exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised heart.
+Thus the exact measurement from the centre of the central altar to the
+extreme point of any one of the rounded rays would be three hundred feet
+(the width of the circle itself), or a total of six hundred feet from
+the rounded extremity of one ray or petal to the extremity of the
+opposite one. {Endnote 14}
+
+The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, which shows
+out in marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowning city, on
+whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diadem upon the forehead
+of a dusky queen. The outer surface of the dome and of the twelve petal
+courts is covered entirely with thin sheets of beaten gold; and from the
+extreme point of the roof of each of these petals a glorious golden form
+with a trumpet in its hand and widespread wings is figured in the very
+act of soaring into space. I really must leave whoever reads this to
+imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashing when the
+sun strikes--flashing like a thousand fires aflame on a mountain of
+polished marble--so fiercely that the reflection can be clearly seen
+from the great peaks of the range a hundred miles away.
+
+It is a marvellous sight--this golden flower upborne upon the cool white
+marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such another. What makes
+the whole effect even more gorgeous is that a belt of a hundred and
+fifty feet around the marble wall of the temple is planted with an
+indigenous species of sunflower, which were at the time when we first
+saw them a sheet of golden bloom.
+
+The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two
+northernmost of the rays or petal courts, and is protected first by the
+usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully
+carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid with gold. When these
+are passed there is only the thickness of the wall, which is, however,
+twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi build for all time), and another
+slight wall also of white marble, introduced in order to avoid causing a
+visible gap in the inner skin of the wall, and you stand in the circular
+hall under the great dome. Advancing to the central altar you look upon
+as beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive. You are in
+the middle of the holy place, and above you the great white marble dome
+(for the inner skin, like the outer, is of polished marble throughout)
+arches away in graceful curves something like that of St Paul's in
+London, only at a slighter angle, and from the funnel-like opening at
+the exact apex a bright beam of light pours down upon the golden altar.
+At the east and the west are other altars, and other beams of light stab
+the sacred twilight to the heart. In every direction, 'white, mystic,
+wonderful', open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a
+single arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and
+dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. {Endnote 15}
+
+Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which
+thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you turn to the
+central golden altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it
+now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned with curls of faint
+blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with pure gold, in shape round
+like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference.
+Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar, are twelve petals
+of beaten gold. All night and, except at one hour, all day also, these
+petals are closed over the altar itself exactly as the petals of a
+water-lily close over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the
+sun at midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon the
+golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only to
+close again when the ray has passed.
+
+Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distances from each
+other on the north and south of the sacred place are ten golden angels,
+or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped and draped. These figures,
+which are slightly larger than life-size, stand with bent heads in an
+attitude of adoration, their faces shadowed by their wings, and are most
+imposing and of exceeding beauty.
+
+There is but one thing further which calls for description in this
+altar, which is, that to the east the flooring in front of it is not of
+pure white marble, as elsewhere throughout the building, but of solid
+brass, and this is also the case in front of the other two altars.
+
+The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape, and
+placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and
+are not enfolded in golden petals. They are, however, also of gold, the
+sacred fire burns on each, and a golden-winged figure stands on either
+side of them. Two great golden rays run up the wall behind them, but
+where the third or middle one should be is an opening in the wall,
+wide on the outside, but narrow within, like a loophole turned inwards.
+Through the eastern loophole stream the first beams of the rising sun,
+and strike right across the circle, touching the folded petals of the
+great gold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the western altar.
+In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest for a
+while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It is the
+promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening to the dawn.
+
+With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures about
+them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly empty and
+devoid of ornamentation--a circumstance that to my fancy adds greatly to
+its splendour.
+
+Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to
+the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their complete
+simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so
+it is useless talking more about it. But when I compare this great
+work of genius to some of the tawdry buildings and tinsel ornamentation
+produced in these latter days by European ecclesiastical architects,
+I feel that even highly civilized art might learn something from the
+Zu-Vendi masterpieces. I can only say that the exclamation which sprang
+to my lips as soon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light
+of that glorious building, and its white and curving beauties, perfect
+and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by one, was,
+'Well! a dog would feel religious here.' It is vulgarly put, but perhaps
+it conveys my meaning more clearly than any polished utterance.
+
+At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers,
+who appeared to be under the orders of a priest; and by them we were
+conducted into one of the ray or 'petal' courts, as the priests call
+them, and there left for at least half-an-hour. Here we conferred
+together, and realizing that we stood in great danger of our lives,
+determined, if any attempt should be made upon us, to sell them as
+dearly as we could--Umslopogaas announcing his fixed intention of
+committing sacrilege on the person of Agon, the High Priest, by
+splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas. From where we stood we could
+perceive that an immense multitude were pouring into the temple,
+evidently in expectation of some unusual event, and I could not help
+fearing that we had to do with it. And here I may explain that every
+day, when the sunlight falls upon the central altar, and the trumpets
+sound, a burnt sacrifice is offered to the Sun, consisting generally of
+the carcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn. This event
+comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly at that hour, but
+as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line, although--being so
+high above the sea it is very temperate--midday and the falling of the
+sunlight on the altar were generally simultaneous. Today the sacrifice
+was to take place at about eight minutes past twelve.
+
+Just at twelve o'clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, and the
+officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected to advance,
+which we did with the best grace that we could muster, all except
+Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly began to chatter. In a
+few seconds we were out of the court and looking at a vast sea of human
+faces stretching away to the farthest limits of the great circle,
+all straining to catch a glimpse of the mysterious strangers who
+had committed sacrilege; the first strangers, mind you, who, to the
+knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis since such
+time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
+
+As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd that went
+echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush of excitement
+grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink light on a stretch of pale
+cloud, and a very curious effect it was. On we passed down a lane cut
+through the heart of the human mass, till presently we stood upon
+the brazen patch of flooring to the east of the central altar, and
+immediately facing it. For some thirty feet around the golden-winged
+figures the space was roped off, and the multitudes stood outside
+the ropes. Within were a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured priests
+holding long golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front of
+us was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap upon his
+head. His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage. We took
+our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing what was prepared for
+us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissing sound proceeding apparently
+from the floor for which I could not account. Then came a pause, and I
+looked around to see if there was any sign of the two Queens, Nyleptha
+and Sorais, but they were not there. To the right of us, however, was a
+bare space that I guessed was reserved for them.
+
+We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high up in
+the dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long
+lane, leading to the open space to our right, we saw the two Queens
+walking side by side. Behind them were some nobles of the Court, among
+whom I recognized the great lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of
+about fifty guards. These last I was very glad to see. Presently they
+had all arrived and taken their stand, the two Queens in the front,
+the nobles to the right and left, and the guards in a double semicircle
+behind them.
+
+Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caught my eye;
+it seemed to me that there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it
+narrowly. From my eye it travelled down to the brazen flooring, on
+the outer edge of which we stood. Then followed a slight and almost
+imperceptible sidelong movement of the head. I did not understand it,
+and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off
+the brazen floor. One more glance and I was sure of it--there was
+danger in standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one side of me,
+Umslopogaas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straight before me, I
+whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English, to draw slowly
+back inch by inch till half their feet were resting on the marble
+flooring where the brass ceased. Sir Henry whispered on to Good and
+Alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shifted backwards; so slowly
+that nobody, except Nyleptha and Sorais, who saw everything seemed to
+notice the movement. Then I glanced again at Nyleptha, and saw that,
+by an almost imperceptible nod, she indicated approval. All the while
+Agon's eyes were fixed upon the altar before him apparently in an
+ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small of his back
+in another sort of ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and in a
+solemn and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for convenience'
+sake I append a rough, a _very_ rough, translation here, though, of
+course, I did not then comprehend its meaning. It was an invocation to
+the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows:--
+
+  There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof!
+  Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird;
+  The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness,
+  Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star,
+  The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire;
+  The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted.
+  She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes,
+  And stretches her pale hands to the East.
+
+  Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light;
+  The Earth seeth and lifts herself.  She looks out from beneath
+  the hollow of her hand.
+  Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun,
+  They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up.
+  They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones;
+  Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night;
+  They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man,
+  And behold!  Thy glory comes, oh Sun!
+
+  Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire.
+  The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o'er them as a chariot.
+  The Earth is thy bride.  Thou dost embrace her and
+  she brings forth children;
+  Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase.
+  Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun.
+  The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness;
+  The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength.
+  Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!
+
+  When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face;
+  Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows.
+  Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed;
+  They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder:
+  They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain;
+  They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing.
+  The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale;
+  The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place
+  When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!
+
+  Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour--
+  Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror?
+  When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending?
+  Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit. {Endnote 16}
+  None did place Thee on high, for Thou was the Beginning.
+  Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten;
+  Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal.
+  Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and
+  measurest out the centuries.
+  Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!
+
+
+He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough thing
+after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive in the
+original; and then, after a moment's pause, he glanced up towards the
+funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added--
+
+Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!
+
+
+As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened. Down from on
+high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving the twilight like
+a sword of fire. Full upon the closed petals it fell and ran shimmering
+down their golden sides, and then the glorious flower opened as though
+beneath the bright influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals
+fell wide and revealed the golden altar on which the fire ever burns,
+the priests blew a blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people
+there rose a shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came
+echoing down the marble walls. And now the flower altar was open, and
+the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beat it down,
+so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow recesses whence
+it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes of the trumpets rolled out
+once more. Again the old priest flung up his hands and called aloud--
+
+We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!
+
+
+Once more I caught Nyleptha's eye; it was fixed upon the brazen
+flooring.
+
+'Look out,' I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bend forward and
+touch something on the altar. As he did so, the great white sea of faces
+around us turned red and then white again, and a deep breath went up
+like a universal sigh. Nyleptha leant forward, and with an involuntary
+movement covered her eyes with her hand. Sorais turned and whispered to
+the officer of the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the
+whole of the brazen flooring slid from before our feet, and there in its
+place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft terminating in a most
+awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big enough and hot enough to
+heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war.
+
+With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched
+Alphonse, who was paralysed with fear, and would have fallen into the
+fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had not Sir Henry caught
+him in his strong hand as he was vanishing and dragged him back.
+
+Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got back
+to back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle in his
+attempts to take shelter under our legs. We all had our revolvers
+on--for though we had been politely disarmed of our guns on leaving
+the palace, of course these people did not know what a revolver was.
+Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of which no effort had been made to
+deprive him, and now he whirled it round his head and sent his piercing
+Zulu war-shout echoing up the marble walls in fine defiant fashion.
+Next second, the priests, baffled of their prey, had drawn swords from
+beneath their white robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a
+stag at bay. I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or be
+lost, so as the first man came bounding along--and a great tall fellow
+he was--I sent a heavy revolver ball through him, and down he fell at
+the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking frantically, into the fiery
+gulf that had been prepared for us.
+
+Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect of
+the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests halted,
+paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come on again Sorais had
+called out something, and we, together with the two Queens and most
+of the courtiers, were being surrounded with a wall of armed men. In a
+moment it was done, and still the priests hesitated, and the people hung
+in the balance like a herd of startled buck as it were, making no sign
+one way or the other.
+
+The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had finished
+him, and a great silence fell upon the place.
+
+Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face of a
+devil. 'Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,' he cried to the Queens. 'Has
+not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers, and would ye, as
+Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over evildoers? Are not the
+creatures sacred to the Sun dead? And is not a priest of the Sun also
+dead, but now slain by the magic of these strangers, who come as the
+winds out of heaven, whence we know not, and who are what we know not?
+Beware, oh Queens, how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God, even
+before His high altar! There is a Power that is more than your power;
+there is a Justice that is higher than your justice. Beware how ye lift
+an impious hand against it! Let the sacrifice be sacrificed, oh Queens.'
+
+Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that always seemed to
+me to have a suspicion of mockery about them, however serious the theme:
+'Oh, Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy desire, and thou hast
+spoken truth. But it is thou who wouldst lift an impious hand
+against the justice of thy God. Bethink thee the midday sacrifice is
+accomplished; the Sun hath claimed his priest as a sacrifice.'
+
+This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it.
+
+'Bethink thee what are these men? They are strangers found floating on
+the bosom of a lake. Who brought them here? How came they here? How know
+you that they also are not servants of the Sun? Is this the hospitality
+that ye would have our nation show to those whom chance brings to
+them, to throw them to the flames? Shame on you! Shame on you! What is
+hospitality? To receive the stranger and show him favour. To bind up his
+wounds, and find a pillow for his head, and food for him to eat. But thy
+pillow is the fiery furnace, and thy food the hot savour of the flame.
+Shame on thee, I say!'
+
+She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the
+multitude, and seeing that it was favourable, changed her tone from one
+of remonstrance to one of command.
+
+'Ho! place there,' she cried; 'place, I say; make way for the Queens,
+and those whom the Queens cover with their "kaf" (mantle).'
+
+'And if I refuse, oh Queen?' said Agon between his teeth.
+
+'Then will I cut a path with my guards,' was the proud answer; 'ay,
+even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodies of thy
+priests.'
+
+Agon turned livid with baffled fury. He glanced at the people as though
+meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly that their sympathies were
+all the other way. The Zu-Vendi are a very curious and sociable people,
+and great as was their sense of the enormity that we had committed in
+shooting the sacred hippopotami, they did not like the idea of the only
+real live strangers they had seen or heard of being consigned to a fiery
+furnace, thereby putting an end for ever to their chance of extracting
+knowledge and information from, and gossiping about us. Agon saw this
+and hesitated, and then for the first time Nyleptha spoke in her soft
+sweet voice.
+
+'Bethink thee, Agon,' she said, 'as my sister Queen has said, these men
+may also be servants of the Sun. For themselves they cannot speak, for
+their tongues are tied. Let the matter be adjourned till such time as
+they have learnt our language. Who can be condemned without a hearing?
+When these men can plead for themselves, then it will be time to put
+them to the proof.'
+
+Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive old priest took
+it, little as he liked it.
+
+'So be it, oh Queens,' he said. 'Let the men go in peace, and when they
+have learnt our tongue then let them speak. And I, even I, will make
+humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence fall on the land by
+cause of the sacrilege.'
+
+These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in another
+minute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal
+guards.
+
+But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact substance
+of what had passed, and how hardly our lives had been wrung out of the
+cruel grip of the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in the face of which even the
+Queens were practically powerless. Had it not been for their strenuous
+efforts to protect us we should have been slain even before we set foot
+in the Temple of the Sun. The attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery
+pit as an offering was a last artifice to attain this end when several
+others quite unsuspected by us had already failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV SORAIS' SONG
+
+
+
+After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to our
+quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two Queens, the
+nobles and the people vied with each other in doing us honour and
+showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little incident of the
+hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were quite content to leave
+it. Every day deputations and individuals waited on us to examine our
+guns and clothing, our chain shirts, and our instruments, especially our
+watches, with which they were much delighted. In short, we became quite
+the rage, so much so that some of the fashionable young swells among
+the Zu-Vendi began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir
+Henry's shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
+and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion. This
+deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those who generally
+came to visit us. They were little insignificant men of an excessively
+polite, not to say servile, demeanour; and their attention appeared
+to be chiefly taken up with observing the details of Good's full-dress
+uniform, of which they took copious notes and measurements. Good was
+much flattered at the time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the
+six leading tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when
+on attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
+or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very fair
+imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind. I shall never
+forget his face of astonishment and disgust. It was after this, chiefly
+to avoid remark, and also because our clothes were wearing out and had
+to be saved up, that we resolved to adopt the native dress; and a very
+comfortable one we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked
+sufficiently ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas
+would have none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce
+old Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim and
+naked as his own battleaxe.
+
+Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made very
+good progress. On the morning following our adventure in the temple,
+three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves armed with
+manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and indicated that they
+had been sent to teach us. So, with the exception of Umslopogaas, we all
+buckled to with a will, doing four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he
+would have none of that either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's
+talk', not he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
+and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive way, much
+as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag under the nose of
+a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang up with a fierce oath and
+flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes of our learned friend, and there was
+an end of the attempt to teach _him_ Zu-Vendi.
+
+Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more and
+more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were given up to
+recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one to the gold mines and
+another to the marble quarries both of which I wish I had space and time
+to describe; and sometimes we went out hunting buck with dogs trained
+for that purpose, and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is
+full of agricultural enclosures and our horses were magnificent. This
+is not to be wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our
+command, in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given
+to us by Nyleptha.
+
+Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great favour
+among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a species of
+partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and strength of its
+flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird appears to lose its head,
+and, instead of seeking cover, flies high into the sky, thus offering
+wonderful sport. I have seen one of these partridges soar up almost out
+of sight when followed by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a
+variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful
+in this country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and
+highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging of the great
+snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and movements of the
+red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful one. Another variety of
+the same amusement is the hunting of a very small species of antelope
+with trained eagles; and it certainly is a marvellous sight to see the
+great bird soar and soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the
+sunlight, and then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon
+some cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
+but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the eagle takes
+the buck running.
+
+On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of the
+great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages clustering
+beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields and well-kept
+park-like grounds, with such timber in them as filled me with delight,
+for I do love a good tree. There it stands so strong and sturdy, and yet
+so beautiful, a very type of the best sort of man. How proudly it
+lifts its bare head to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it
+rejoices when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too,
+when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot equal the
+beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day it points to the
+sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus passionless, and yet
+full of life, it endures through the centuries, come storm, come shine,
+drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as
+the slow years roll by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of
+decay. And so on and on through generations, outliving individuals,
+customs, dynasties--all save the landscape it adorns and human
+nature--till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle and
+rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke to his
+fungus-fingered work.
+
+Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
+
+In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself to
+dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties--not every night, indeed, but
+about three or four times a week, whenever they had not much company, or
+the affairs of state would allow of it. And I am bound to say that those
+little suppers were quite the most charming things of their sort that
+I ever had to do with. How true is the saying that the very highest
+in rank are always the most simple and kindly. It is from your
+half-and-half sort of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the
+difference between the two being very much what one sees every day in
+England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family, and
+the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take the place'. I
+really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her sweet simplicity, and
+her kindly genuine interest even in little things. She is the simplest
+woman I ever knew, and where her passions are not involved, one of the
+sweetest; but she can look queenly enough when she likes, and be as
+fierce as any savage too.
+
+For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the first time
+was sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It came about in this
+way--all through Good's weakness for ladies' society. When we had been
+employed for some three months in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master
+Good that he was getting rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us
+the honour to lead us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded,
+without saying a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a
+peculiar fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the
+deeper intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by
+ladies--young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country, he
+pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking and most
+charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers who happened
+to come that way, etc.
+
+All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There was,
+they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation of the
+beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain porosity of
+mind similar to that produced upon the physical body by the healthful
+influences of sun and air. Consequently it was probable that we might
+absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little faster if suitable teachers could
+be found. Another thing was that, as the female sex was naturally
+loquacious, good practice would be gained in the viva voce department of
+our studies.
+
+To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
+departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our wishes
+in every way, and that, if possible, our views should be met.
+
+Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I trust and
+believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where we were accustomed
+to carry on our studies the following morning, we found, instead of
+our usual venerable tutors, three of the best-looking young women whom
+Milosis could produce--and that is saying a good deal--who blushed and
+smiled and curtseyed, and gave us to understand that they were there
+to carry on our instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in
+bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his
+memory before--but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous
+evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
+should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and appealed
+to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? If we sent
+them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings, eh? One doesn't
+like to be rough, you see; and they look regular _blues_, don't they,
+eh?'
+
+By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest of
+the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything went very
+well: the young ladies were certainly very clever, and they only smiled
+when we blundered. I never saw Good so attentive to his books before,
+and even Sir Henry appeared to tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest.
+'Ah,' thought I, 'will it always be thus?'
+
+Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed
+with questions about our native country, what the ladies were like
+there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could in Zu-Vendi,
+and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness was to the
+beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which she replied with a
+little toss of the head, that she was a plain teaching woman and nothing
+else, and that it was not kind 'to deceive a poor girl so'. Then we had
+a little singing that was really charming, so natural and unaffected.
+The Zu-Vendi love-songs are most touching. On the third day we were all
+quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his
+fair teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his own.
+I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian art, and
+never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to drop a specimen of
+the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst in the corner Sir Henry and
+his governess appeared, so far as I could judge, to be going through a
+lesson framed on the great educational principles laid down by Wackford
+Squeers Esq., though in a very modified or rather spiritualized form.
+The lady softly repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers;
+'eyes', and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and--but just at
+that moment _my_ young lady dropped the cockroach down my back and ran
+away laughing. Now if there is one thing I loathe more than another it
+is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself, and yet laughing at her
+impudence, I took up the cushion she had been sitting on and threw it
+after her. Imagine then my shame--my horror, and my distress--when the
+door opened, and, attended by two guards only, in walked _Nyleptha_.
+The cushion could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the
+guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried to look as
+though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing, and began to murder
+Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir Henry whistled and looked
+silly. As for the poor girls, they were utterly dumbfounded.
+
+And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower even
+above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red, and then
+pale as death.
+
+'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair but
+unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman.'
+
+The men hesitated, as well they might.
+
+'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice, 'or will ye
+not?'
+
+Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this time Sir
+Henry had recovered himself, and saw that the comedy was likely to turn
+into a tragedy.
+
+'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time getting in
+front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee, Nyleptha--shame! Thou shalt
+not kill her.'
+
+'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou couldst
+hardly do less in honour,' answered the infuriated Queen; 'but she shall
+die--she shall die,' and she stamped her little foot.
+
+'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thy servant,
+oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.' And he bowed towards her, and
+fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
+
+'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost make a
+mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and I suppose not
+knowing what else to do, she burst into such a storm of tears and looked
+so royally lovely in her passionate distress, that, old as I am, I must
+say I envied Curtis his task of supporting her. It was rather odd to see
+him holding her in his arms considering what had just passed--a thought
+that seemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself free
+and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
+
+Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message to the
+girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city and return to
+their homes in the country, and that no further harm would come to them;
+and accordingly they went, one of them remarking philosophically that
+it could not be helped, and that it was a satisfaction to know that they
+had taught us a little serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly
+nice girl, and, overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my
+favourite lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After
+that our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless to
+say to my great relief.
+
+That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal supper
+table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache. That
+headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth she was present
+at supper as usual, and with the most gracious and sweet smile gave Sir
+Henry her hand to lead her to the table. No allusion was made to the
+little affair described above beyond her saying, with a charming air of
+innocence, that when she came to see us at our studies the other day she
+had been seized with a giddiness from which she had only now recovered.
+She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was common to
+her, that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected
+her.
+
+In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not look
+quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those quick
+glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of a man must have
+gone through him like a knife, and the subject dropped entirely.
+Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended to put us through
+an examination to see what we had learnt, and to express herself well
+satisfied with the results. Indeed, she proceeded to give us, especially
+Sir Henry, a lesson on her own account, and very interesting we found
+it.
+
+And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and laughed,
+Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and look at us and
+read us all like a book, only from time to time saying a few words, and
+smiling that quick ominous smile of hers which was more like a flash of
+summer lightning on a dark cloud than anything else. And as near to her
+as he dared would sit Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he
+really was getting seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom,
+speaking personally, I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and
+soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at
+heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, and
+the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she _also_ was
+growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not be sure; it
+is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman; but I noticed one or
+two little things, and, as elephant hunters know, dried grass shows
+which way the wind has set.
+
+And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had all
+attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi language,
+which is an easy one to learn. And as the time went on we became great
+favourites with the people, and even with the courtiers, gaining an
+enormous reputation for cleverness, because, as I think I have said,
+Sir Henry was able to show them how to make glass, which was a national
+want, and also, by the help of a twenty-year almanac that we had
+with us, to predict various heavenly combinations which were
+quite unsuspected by the native astronomers. We even succeeded in
+demonstrating the principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the
+learned men, who were filled with amazement; and several other things of
+the same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made up their
+minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out of the country
+(which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if we had wished it),
+and we were advanced to great honour and made officers to the bodyguards
+of the sister Queens while permanent quarters were assigned to us in the
+palace, and our opinion was asked upon questions of national policy.
+
+But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on the
+horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotami,
+but it is not on that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was
+forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful priesthood headed by
+Agon appeased. On the contrary, it was burning the more fiercely because
+it was necessarily suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in bigotry
+was ending in downright direct hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the
+priests had been the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as
+well as from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration.
+But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange inventions
+and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow to this state of
+affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went far towards destroying
+the priestly prestige. A still worse affront to them, however, was the
+favour with which we were regarded, and the trust that was reposed in
+us. All these things tended to make us excessively obnoxious to the
+great sacerdotal clan, the most powerful because the most united faction
+in the kingdom.
+
+Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of
+the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to us had at best
+been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to break out into open
+flame. Nasta had for some years been a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in
+marriage, and when we appeared on the scene I fancy, from all I could
+gather, that though there were still many obstacles in his path, success
+was by no means out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy
+Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess
+the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to Sorais,
+only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain side. With a
+bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on him for
+ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the thirty thousand wild swordsmen
+who would pour down at his bidding through the northern mountain passes,
+and no doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with our heads.
+
+But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt and to
+demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the formal annual
+ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the
+Queens during the year.
+
+Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and
+with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us of it as we sat
+at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony of the law-giving.
+
+Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed
+his agitation.
+
+'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the great Lord?'
+asked I, in a jesting manner.
+
+'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names in
+Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder. 'Nay, I
+know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the wooer has thirty thousand
+swords wherewith to urge his love?' And from under her long lashes she
+glanced at Curtis.
+
+Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
+'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me. 'Listen. I have never
+spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love Nyleptha. What am I
+to do?'
+
+Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
+consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the
+wisest to me.
+
+'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,' I said. 'Now is your time, now or
+never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her, and whisper to
+her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue at the end of the
+great hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis.'
+
+We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her hands before
+her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way off was
+Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured tones.
+
+The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according
+to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir Henry had had no
+chance of saying a word in private: indeed, though we saw much of the
+royal sisters, it was by no means easy to see them alone. I racked my
+brains, and at last an idea came to me.
+
+'Will the Queen be pleased,' I said, bowing low before Sorais, 'to sing
+to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh Lady of
+the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among the people).
+
+'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart, yet
+will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she rose and went a
+few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither, and
+struck a few wandering chords.
+
+Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her rounded
+voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so eerie and sad
+a refrain, that it made the very blood stand still. Up, up soared the
+golden notes, that seemed to melt far away, and then to grow again and
+travel on, laden with all the sorrow of the world and all the despair of
+the lost. It was a marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to
+it properly. However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a
+translation of its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at
+all.
+
+
+  SORAIS' SONG
+
+  As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,
+  As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging,
+  So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.
+
+  As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,
+  As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
+  So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.
+
+  As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,
+  As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending,
+  So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.
+
+  So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,
+  A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
+  Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us.
+
+
+Refrain
+
+  Oh, the world is fair at the dawning--dawning--dawning,
+  But the red sun sinks in blood--the red sun sinks in blood.
+
+
+I only wish that I could write down the music too.
+
+'Now, Curtis, now,' I whispered, when she began the second verse, and
+turned my back.
+
+'Nyleptha,' he said--for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I
+could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais' divine
+notes--'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this night, upon my life I
+must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'
+
+'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before her;
+'Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched.'
+
+'Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas in
+the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can pass in.
+Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him the Zulu. Oh come,
+my Queen, deny me not.'
+
+'It is not seemly,' she murmured, 'and tomorrow--'
+
+Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and
+Sorais slowly turned her round.
+
+'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see that thou
+fail me not.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI BEFORE THE STATUE
+
+
+
+It was night--dead night--and the silence lay on the Frowning City like
+a cloud.
+
+Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself
+threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the great
+Throne Chamber. Once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge of the
+sentry. I gave the countersign, and the man grounded his spear and let
+us pass. Also we were officers of the Queens' bodyguard, and in that
+capacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
+
+We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even
+when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty
+walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof,
+like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that once
+they trod.
+
+It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw
+great pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings
+in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the
+marble floor, like white flowers on a coffin. One of these silver arrows
+fell upon the statue of the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bent
+over him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear
+light, reminding me of that with which Catholics illumine the altars of
+their cathedrals.
+
+Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I close
+together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could
+only just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an
+axe.
+
+So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the cold
+marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick catching
+breath. Then from far away there came a little sound as though the
+statues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some message
+of the ages.
+
+It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress. Nearer it grew, and nearer
+yet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and
+even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw
+the black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and
+Nyleptha was before us.
+
+Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the
+circle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her
+white bosom heaved beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf was
+loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering
+it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extent
+upon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid.
+There she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet so sweet. It
+was but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with her myself,
+and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like
+an angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman. Low we
+bowed before her, and then she spoke.
+
+'I have come,' she whispered, 'but it was at great risk. Ye know not how
+I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those great
+eyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me too.
+Oh, let him be careful!' and she stamped her foot. 'Let him be careful;
+I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too,
+and can still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving
+him my hand I take his head,' and she ended the outburst with a little
+sob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
+
+'Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu' (Curtis had taught her
+to call him so). 'Doubtless it is about business of the State, for I
+know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare
+and my people's. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I greatly
+fear the dark alone,' and again she laughed and gave him a glance from
+her grey eyes.
+
+At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets 'of the
+State' should not be made public property; but she would not let me go
+far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she
+feared surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard
+all that passed.
+
+'Thou knowest, Nyleptha,' said Sir Henry, 'that it was for none of these
+things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. Nyleptha,
+waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for--I love thee.'
+
+As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change.
+The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light
+of love which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marble
+angel overhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a touch
+of prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas limn, in the
+features of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of
+his own descendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struck
+by the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha's face, he glanced
+quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back again at his
+beloved.
+
+'Thou sayest thou dost love me,' she said in a low voice, 'and thy voice
+rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the truth?'
+
+'Though,' she went on with proud humility, and in the stately third
+person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, 'I be as nothing in the
+eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him, 'who comes from among
+a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am I
+a queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred
+thousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down the
+path of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in
+the eyes of my lord,' and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed
+again, 'yet here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever
+since I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel
+concerning me, as though forsooth,' she added with a flash of passion,
+'I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to
+be sold to the highest bidder. Let my lord pardon me if I weary my lord,
+but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen
+of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say that though my love and my
+hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.'
+
+'Oh!' she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and
+modifying her dignified mode of address. 'Oh, how can I know that thou
+lovest but me? How can I know that thou wilt not weary of me and seek
+thine own place again, leaving me desolate? Who is there to tell me but
+that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but
+who yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight?
+Tell me _how_ am I to know?' And she clasped her hands and stretched
+them out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
+
+'Nyleptha,' answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of speech; 'I
+have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how much I love
+thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that I
+have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say that
+I love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love thee
+now and shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe
+beyond my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music
+to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art
+there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as though
+the light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and now
+for thy dear sake I will forget my people and my father's house, yea,
+I renounce them all. By thy side will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side
+will I die.'
+
+He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily,
+and said never a word.
+
+'Look!' he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight played
+so brightly. 'Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon the
+forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soul
+flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch
+of the fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast awakened my
+soul and called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine,
+but _thine_ and thine only. There is no more for me to say; in thy hands
+is my life.' And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue,
+looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a
+god.
+
+Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all
+alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though
+to read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly
+as a silver bell.
+
+'Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be the
+day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I have
+believed a lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here
+from far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand upon
+thy hand thus, and thus I, whose lips have never kissed before, do kiss
+thee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss,
+ay, by my people's weal and by my throne that like enough I shall lose
+for thee--by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by the
+eternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live and die.
+And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till death, ay, and
+beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will shall be
+my will, and thy ways my ways.
+
+'Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; I,
+who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;'
+and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on
+the cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know, for
+I could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a
+little of old Umslopogaas' society, leaving them to settle it their own
+way, and a very long time they were about it.
+
+I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveying
+the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I suppose it is because I am getting old,
+but I don't think that I shall ever learn to understand the ways of you
+white people. Look there now, I pray thee, they are a pretty pair of
+doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn? He wants a wife, and
+she wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down {Endnote 17}
+like a man and have done with it? It would save a deal of trouble, and
+we should have had our night's sleep. But there they go, talk, talk,
+talk, and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!'
+
+Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 'pair of doves' came
+strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and Nyleptha
+remarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on the
+marble. Then, for she was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand and
+said that I was 'her Lord's' dear friend, and therefore most dear to
+her--not a word for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas'
+axe, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that
+he might soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
+
+After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance at
+her lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
+
+When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtis
+asked me jocularly what I was thinking about.
+
+'I am wondering,' I answered, 'on what principle it is arranged that
+some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with them,
+while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and I am also
+wondering how many brave men's lives this night's work will cost.' It
+was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings do not
+evaporate with age, and I could not help being a little jealous of my
+old friend's luck. Vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
+
+On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence,
+and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about the
+mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond, till
+they flowed over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet smiles
+go. The fact of the matter, however, was that not only was Good rejoiced
+about the thing on its own merits but also for personal reasons. He
+adored Sorais quite as earnestly as Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and his
+adoration had not altogether prospered. Indeed, it had seemed to him and
+to me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen favoured Curtis in her own
+curious inscrutable way much more than Good. Therefore it was a
+relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was permanently and
+satisfactorily attached in another direction. His face fell a little,
+however, when he was told that the whole thing was to be kept as secret
+as the dead, above all from Sorais for the present, inasmuch as the
+political convulsion which would follow such an announcement at the
+moment would be altogether too great to face and would very possibly, if
+prematurely made, shake Nyleptha from her throne.
+
+That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could not help
+smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting
+that, if walls could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
+
+What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in
+her blazoned 'kaf' or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when Sir
+Henry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an officer
+of her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely acknowledged
+his salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly aside. It was
+a very large Court, for not only did the signing of the laws attract
+many outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour
+that Nasta was going to publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriage
+had gone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowded to its
+utmost capacity. There were our friends the priests in force, headed by
+Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye; and a most imposing band
+they were, with their long white embroidered robes girt with a golden
+chain from which hung the fish-like scales. There, too, were a number
+of the lords, each with a band of brilliantly attired attendants, and
+prominent among them was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively
+and looking unusually pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight,
+especially when the officer after having read out each law handed them
+to the Queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the Queens'
+guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. This reading and
+signing of the laws took a long time, but at length it came to an end,
+the last one reciting that 'whereas distinguished strangers, etc.', and
+proceeding to confer on the three of us the rank of 'lords', together
+with certain military commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen.
+When it was read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as
+usual, but I saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, while
+Nasta ground his teeth. They did not like the favour that was shown to
+us, which under all the circumstances was not perhaps unnatural.
+
+Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly,
+though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of the
+Queen Nyleptha.
+
+Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the
+'well-beloved lord' to speak on, whereon in a few straightforward
+soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
+
+Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest Agon took
+up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out the
+many advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate the
+kingdom, for Nasta's dominions, of which he was virtually king, were to
+Zu-Vendis much what Scotland used to be to England; how it would gratify
+the wild mountaineers and be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta was
+a famous general; how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and
+would gain the blessing and approval of the 'Sun', i.e. of the office
+of the High Priest, and so on. Many of his arguments were undoubtedly
+valid, and there was, looking at it from a political point of view,
+everything to be said for the marriage. But unfortunately it is
+difficult to play the game of politics with the persons of young and
+lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies of themselves on a
+chessboard. Nyleptha's face, while Agon spouted away, was a perfect
+study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it set like a stone, and
+her eyes began to flash ominously.
+
+At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Before she did
+so, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficiently
+loud for me to catch what she said, 'Bethink thee well, my sister, ere
+thou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy words.'
+
+Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais leant back
+again and listened.
+
+'Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,' she said, 'that my poor
+hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that Agon here
+should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the Sun upon my union.
+Methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere the bride
+had said her say. Nasta, I thank thee, and I will bethink me of thy
+words, but now as yet I have no mind for marriage, that is a cup of
+which none know the taste until they begin to drink it. Again I thank
+thee, Nasta,' and she made as though she would rise.
+
+The great lord's face turned almost as black as his beard with fury, for
+he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
+
+'Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,' he said, restraining
+himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, 'my heart
+shall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon, namely, the
+royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north till
+such time as the Queen shall say my suit nay or yea. Mayhap,' he added,
+with a sneer, 'the Queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to bring
+with her these stranger lords,' and he scowled darkly towards us. 'It is
+but a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers,
+and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout a welcome
+to her.'
+
+This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was received
+in complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered it with
+spirit.
+
+'Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my train, and
+for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bring
+two from the lowlands who call me Queen, and we will see which is the
+staunchest breed. Till then farewell.'
+
+The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly broke
+up in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with a heavy heart
+foreseeing civil war.
+
+After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queen did
+not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the true
+relation in which they stood to each other to leak out; but do what they
+would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room, and yet
+quite as audible, began to hum round and round, and at last to settle on
+her throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII THE STORM BREAKS
+
+
+
+And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but a cloud as
+large as a man's hand began to loom very black and big upon our horizon,
+namely, Sorais' preference for Sir Henry. I saw the storm drawing nearer
+and nearer; and so, poor fellow, did he. The affection of so lovely and
+highly-placed a woman was not a thing that could in a general way be
+considered a calamity by any man, but, situated as Curtis was, it was a
+grievous burden to bear.
+
+To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it must be
+admitted, of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimes apt to
+visit on her lover's head her indignation at the marks of what Alphonse
+would have called the 'distinguished consideration' with which her
+royal sister favoured him. Then the enforced secrecy of his relation
+to Nyleptha prevented Curtis from taking some opportunity of putting a
+stop, or trying to put a stop, to this false condition of affairs, by
+telling Sorais, in a casual but confidential way, that he was going to
+marry her sister. A third sting in Sir Henry's honey was that he knew
+that Good was honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking
+but most attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed, poor Bougwan was wasting
+himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her, his face
+getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick in it; while she,
+with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave him encouragement enough
+to keep him going, thinking, no doubt, that he might be useful as a
+stalking-horse. I tried to give him a hint, in as delicate a way as
+I could, but he flew into a huff and would not listen to me, so I was
+determined to let ill along, for fear of making it worse. Poor Good, he
+really was very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all sorts
+of absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit. One
+of them was the writing--with the assistance of one of the grave and
+revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatever may have been the
+measure of his erudition, did not understand how to scan a line--of a
+most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song, of which the continually recurring
+refrain was something about 'I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will kiss
+thee!' Now among the Zu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless thing
+for young men to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do in the
+southern countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songs to
+them. The young men may or may not be serious; but no offence is meant
+and none is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank, who accept the
+whole thing as an English girl would a gracefully-turned compliment.
+
+Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that would serenade
+Sorais, whose private apartments, together with those of her maidens,
+were exactly opposite our own, on the further side of a narrow courtyard
+which divided one section of the great palace from another. Accordingly,
+having armed himself with a native zither, on which, being an adept
+with the light guitar, he had easily learned to strum, he proceeded at
+midnight--the fashionable hour for this sort of caterwauling--to make
+night hideous with his amorous yells. I was fast asleep when they began,
+but they soon woke me up--for Good possesses a tremendous voice and
+has no notion of time--and I ran to my window-place to see what was the
+matter. And there, standing in the full moonlight in the courtyard, I
+perceived Good, adorned with an enormous ostrich feather head-dress and
+a flowing silken cloak, which it is the right thing to wear upon these
+occasions, and shouting out the abominable song which he and the old
+gentleman had evolved, to a jerky, jingling accompaniment. From the
+direction of the quarters of the maids of honour came a succession of
+faint sniggerings; but the apartments of Sorais herself--whom I devoutly
+pitied if she happened to be there--were silent as the grave. There
+was absolutely no end to that awful song, with its eternal 'I will kiss
+thee!' and at last neither I nor Sir Henry, whom I had summoned to
+enjoy the sight, could stand it any longer; so, remembering the dear old
+story, I put my head to the window opening, and shouted, 'For Heaven's
+sake, Good, don't go on talking about it, but _kiss_ her and let's all
+go to sleep!' That choked him off, and we had no more serenading.
+
+The whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business. How
+deeply thankful we ought to be that even the most serious matters have
+generally a silver lining about them in the shape of a joke, if only
+people could see it. The sense of humour is a very valuable possession
+in life, and ought to be cultivated in the Board schools--especially in
+Scotland.
+
+Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, as is not
+uncommon in such cases, till at last things got very queer indeed.
+Evidently she was, by some strange perversity of mind, quite blinded to
+the true state of the case; and I, for one, greatly dreaded the moment
+of her awakening. Sorais was a dangerous woman to be mixed up with,
+either with or without one's consent. At last the evil moment came, as I
+saw it must come. One fine day, Good having gone out hawking, Sir Henry
+and I were sitting quietly talking over the situation, especially with
+reference to Sorais, when a Court messenger arrived with a written note,
+which we with some difficulty deciphered, and which was to the effect
+that 'the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance of the Lord Incubu in
+her private apartments, whither he would be conducted by the bearer'.
+
+'Oh my word!' groaned Sir Henry. 'Can't you go instead, old fellow?'
+
+'Not if I know it,' I said with vigour. 'I had rather face a wounded
+elephant with a shot-gun. Take care of your own business, my boy. If you
+will be so fascinating you must take the consequences. I would not be in
+your place for an empire.'
+
+'You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school and the other
+boys came to console me,' he said gloomily. 'What right has this Queen
+to command my attendance, I should like to know? I won't go.'
+
+'But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obey her, and
+she knows it. And after all it will soon be over.'
+
+'That's just what they used to say,' he said again. 'I only hope she
+won't put a knife into me. I believe that she is quite capable of it.'
+And off he started very faintheartedly, and no wonder.
+
+I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minutes he
+returned, looking a good deal worse than when he went.
+
+'Give me something to drink,' he said hoarsely.
+
+I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter.
+
+'What is the matter? Why if ever there was trouble there's trouble
+now. You know when I left you? Well, I was shown straight into Sorais'
+private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and there she sat, quite
+alone, upon a silken couch at the end of the room, playing gently upon
+that zither of hers. I stood before her, and for a while she took no
+notice of me, but kept on playing and singing a little, and very sweet
+music it was. At last she looked up and smiled.
+
+'"So thou art come," she said. "I thought perchance thou hadst gone
+about the Queen Nyleptha's business. Thou art ever on her business, and
+I doubt not a good servant and a true."
+
+'To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive the Queen's
+word.
+
+'"Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated. It wearies me to
+look so high," and she made room for me beside her on the couch, placing
+herself with her back against the end, so as to have a view of my face.
+
+'"It is not meet," I said, "that I should make myself equal with the
+Queen."
+
+'"I said be seated," was her answer, so I sat down, and she began to
+look at me with those dark eyes of hers. There she sat like an incarnate
+spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and when she did, very low, but
+all the while looking at me. There was a white flower in her black hair,
+and I tried to keep my eyes on it and count the petals, but it was of
+no use. At last, whether it was her gaze, or the perfume in her hair, or
+what I do not know, but I almost felt as though I was being mesmerized.
+At last she roused herself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said, "lovest thou power?"
+
+'I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said. "Lovest thou wealth?"
+
+'I said I liked wealth for what it brought.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said. "And lovest thou beauty?"
+
+'To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture,
+or something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and there was a
+pause. By this time my nerves were on such a stretch that I was shaking
+like a leaf. I knew that something awful was going to happen, but she
+held me under a kind of spell, and I could not help myself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said at length, "wouldst thou be a king? Listen, wouldst
+thou be a king? Behold, stranger, I am minded to make thee king of all
+Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night. Nay, peace and hear
+me. To no man among my people had I thus opened out my secret heart, but
+thou art an outlander and therefore I speak without shame, knowing all I
+have to offer and how hard it had been thee to ask. See, a crown lies at
+thy feet, my lord Incubu, and with that fortune a woman whom some have
+wished to woo. Now mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft shall thy
+words fall upon mine ears."
+
+'"Oh Sorais," I said, "I pray thee speak not thus"--you see I had
+not time to pick and choose my words--"for this thing cannot be. I am
+betrothed to thy sister Nyleptha, oh Sorais, and I love her and her
+alone."
+
+'Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, and I looked
+up to see the results. When I spoke, Sorais' face was hidden in her
+hands, and as my words reached her she slowly raised it, and I shrank
+back dismayed. It was ashy white, and her eyes were flaming. She rose to
+her feet and seemed to be choking, but the awful thing was that she was
+so quiet about it all. Once she looked at a side table, on which lay a
+dagger, and from it to me, as though she thought of killing me; but she
+did not take it up. At last she spoke one word, and one only--
+
+'"_Go!_"
+
+'And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and here I am. Give
+me another cup of wine, there's a good fellow, and tell me, what is to
+be done?'
+
+I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious. As one of the poets
+says,
+
+
+'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned',
+
+
+more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeed I
+feared the very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves.
+
+'Nyleptha had better be told of this at once,' I said, 'and perhaps I
+had better tell her; she might receive your account with suspicion.'
+
+'Who is captain of her guard tonight?' I went on.
+
+'Good.'
+
+'Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at. Don't look
+surprised. I don't think that her sister would stick at that. I suppose
+one must tell Good of what has happened.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' said Sir Henry. 'It would hurt his feelings, poor
+fellow! You see, he takes a lively personal interest in Sorais.'
+
+'That's true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him. He
+will find out the truth soon enough. Now, you mark my words, Sorais will
+throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in the North there,
+and there will be such a war as has not been known in Zu-Vendis for
+centuries. Look there!' and I pointed to two Court messengers, who were
+speeding away from the door of Sorais' private apartments. 'Now follow
+me,' and I ran up a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the
+roof of our quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out
+over the palace wall. The first thing we saw was one of the messengers
+speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the Queen's
+word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched in vain.
+Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously through the
+northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized the other messenger.
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting at once, and
+will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her, my boy, and the blood
+will flow in rivers before the stain is washed away, and yours with it,
+if she can get hold of you. Well, I'm off to Nyleptha. Just you stop
+where you are, old fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again.
+You'll need them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human
+nature in the rough for fifty years for nothing.' And off I went
+accordingly.
+
+I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expecting
+Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured face
+instead.
+
+'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits not upon
+me? Say, is he sick?'
+
+I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I plunged
+into my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh, what a rage she
+flew into! It was a sight to see her, she looked so lovely.
+
+'How darest thou come to me with such a tale?' she cried. 'It is a lie
+to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.'
+
+'Pardon me, oh Queen,' I answered, 'I said that Sorais was making love
+to thy lord.'
+
+'Spin me no spiders' webs of words. Is not the thing the same thing? The
+one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes, and what matters it
+which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, I hate her--Sorais is a queen
+and my sister. She had not stooped so low had he not shown the way.
+Oh, truly hath the poet said that man is like a snake, whom to touch is
+poison, and whom none can hold.'
+
+'The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread the
+poet. Nyleptha,' I went on, 'thou knowest well that thy words are empty
+foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.'
+
+'How darest thou?' she broke in, stamping her foot. 'Hast my false lord
+sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou, stranger, that thou
+shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after this sort? How darest thou?'
+
+'Yea, I dare. Listen. The moments which thou dost waste in idle anger
+may well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives. Already Sorais'
+horsemen go forth and call to arms. In three days' time Nasta will rouse
+himself in his fastnesses like a lion in the evening, and his growling
+will be heard throughout the North. The "Lady of the Night" (Sorais)
+hath a sweet voice, and she will not sing in vain. Her banner will be
+borne from range to range and valley to valley, and warriors will spring
+up in its track like dust beneath a whirlwind; half the army will echo
+her war-cry; and in every town and hamlet of this wide land the priests
+will call out against the foreigner and will preach her cause as holy. I
+have spoken, oh Queen!'
+
+Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; and putting
+off the character of a lovely headstrong lady, with a rapidity and
+completeness that distinguished her, she put on that of a queen and a
+woman of business. The transformation was sudden but entire.
+
+'Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn. Forgive me my folly. Ah, what a
+Queen I should be if only I had no heart! To be heartless--that is to
+conquer all. Passion is like the lightning, it is beautiful, and it
+links the earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!
+
+'And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war upon me. So be
+it. She shall not prevail against me. I, too, have my friends and my
+retainers. There are many, I say, who will shout "Nyleptha!" when my
+pennon runs up on peak and pinnacle, and the light of my beacon fires
+leaps tonight from crag to crag, bearing the message of my war. I will
+break her strength and scatter her armies. Eternal night shall be the
+portion of Sorais of the Night. Give me that parchment and the ink. So.
+Now summon the officer in the ante-room. He is a trusty man.'
+
+I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-looking gentleman
+of the guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low.
+
+'Take this parchment,' said Nyleptha; 'it is thy warrant; and guard
+every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of my sister Sorais,
+the "Lady of the Night", and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. Let none come in
+and none go out, or thy life shall pay the cost.'
+
+The man looked startled, but he merely said, 'The Queen's word be done,'
+and departed. Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to Sir Henry, and presently
+he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable. I thought that another
+outburst was about to follow, but wonderful are the ways of woman; she
+said not a word about Sorais and his supposed inconstancy, greeting him
+with a friendly nod, and stating simply that she required his advice
+upon high matters. All the same there was a look in her eye, and a sort
+of suppressed energy in her manner towards him, that makes me think
+that she had not forgotten the affair, but was keeping it for a private
+occasion.
+
+Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reported that Sorais
+was _gone_. The bird had flown to the Temple, stating that she was
+going, as was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendi ladies of rank, to
+spend the night in meditation before the altar. We looked at each other
+significantly. The blow had fallen very soon.
+
+Then we set to work.
+
+Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters, and
+as much of the State affairs as was thought desirable was told to each,
+strict injunctions being given to them to get all their available force
+together. The same was done with such of the more powerful lords as
+Nyleptha knew she could rely on, several of whom left that very day for
+distant parts of the country to gather up their tribesmen and retainers.
+Sealed orders were dispatched to the rulers of far-off cities, and some
+twenty messengers were sent off before nightfall with instructions to
+ride early and late till they reached the distant chiefs to whom their
+letters were addressed: also many spies were set to work. All the
+afternoon and evening we laboured, assisted by some confidential
+scribes, Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind that astonished
+me, and it was eight o'clock before we got back to our quarters. Here we
+heard from Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved because our non-return had
+spoilt his dinner (for he had turned cook again now), that Good had come
+back from his hawking and gone on duty. As instructions had already been
+given to the officer of the outer guard to double the sentries at the
+gate, and as we had no reason to fear any immediate danger, we did not
+think it worth while to hunt him up and tell him anything of what had
+passed, which at best was, under the peculiar circumstances of the case,
+one of those tasks that one prefers to postpone, so after swallowing
+our food we turned in to get some much-needed rest. Before we did
+so, however, it occurred to Curtis to tell old Umslopogaas to keep
+a look-out in the neighbourhood of Nyleptha's private apartments.
+Umslopogaas was now well known about the place, and by the Queen's order
+allowed to pass whither he would by the guards, a permission of which he
+often availed himself by roaming about the palace during the still
+hours in a nocturnal fashion that he favoured, and which is by no means
+uncommon amongst black men generally. His presence in the corridors
+would not, therefore, be likely to excite remark. Without any comment
+the Zulu took up his axe and departed, and we also departed to bed.
+
+I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakened by a
+peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I felt that somebody was in the room
+and looking at me, and instantly sat up, to see to my surprise that it
+was already dawn, and that there, standing at the foot of my couch and
+looking peculiarly grim and gaunt in the grey light, was Umslopogaas
+himself.
+
+'How long hast thou been there?' I asked testily, for it is not pleasant
+to be aroused in such a fashion.
+
+'Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn. I have a word for thee.'
+
+'Speak on,' I said, now wide enough awake.
+
+'As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queen and
+hid myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyond which is the
+sleeping-place of the Queen. Bougwan (Good) was in the first anteroom
+alone, and outside the curtain of that room was a sentry, but I had a
+mind to see if I could pass in unseen, and I did, gliding behind them
+both. There I waited for many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark
+figure coming secretly towards me. It was the figure of a woman, and in
+her hand she held a dagger. Behind that figure crept another unseen by
+the woman. It was Bougwan following in her tracks. His shoes were off,
+and for so fat a man he followed very well. The woman passed me, and the
+starlight shone upon her face.'
+
+'Who was it?' I asked impatiently.
+
+'The face was the face of the "Lady of the Night", and of a truth she is
+well named.
+
+'I waited, and Bougwan passed me also. Then I followed. So we went
+slowly and without a sound up the long chamber. First the woman, then
+Bougwan, and then I; and the woman saw not Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not
+me. At last the "Lady of the Night" came to the curtains that shut off
+the sleeping place of the White Queen, and put out her left hand to part
+them. She passed through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I. At the far
+end of the room is the bed of the Queen, and on it she lay very fast
+asleep. I could hear her breathe, and see one white arm lying on the
+coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry grass. The "Lady of the Night"
+doubled herself thus, and with the long knife lifted crept towards the
+bed. So straight did she gaze thereat that she never thought to look
+behind her. When she was quite close Bougwan touched her on the arm, and
+she caught her breath and turned, and I saw the knife flash, and heard
+it strike. Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of iron on him,
+or he had been pierced. Then for the first time he saw who the woman
+was, and without a word he fell back astonished, and unable to speak.
+She, too, was astonished, and spoke not, but suddenly she laid her
+finger on her lip, thus, and walked towards and through the curtain,
+and with her went Bougwan. So close did she pass to me that her dress
+touched me, and I was nigh to slaying her as she went. In the first
+outer room she spoke to Bougwan in a whisper and, clasping her hands
+thus, she pleaded with him, but what she said I know not. And so they
+passed on to the second outer room, she pleading and he shaking his
+head, and saying, "Nay, nay, nay". And it seemed to me that he was about
+to call the guard, when she stopped talking and looked at him with great
+eyes, and I saw that he was bewitched by her beauty. Then she stretched
+out her hand and he kissed it, whereon I gathered myself together to
+advance and take her, seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no
+longer knew the good from the evil, when behold! she was gone.'
+
+'Gone!' I ejaculated.
+
+'Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one asleep,
+and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came away also.'
+
+'Art thou sure, Umslopogaas,' said I, 'that thou hast not been a dreamer
+this night?'
+
+In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inches of a
+blade of a dagger of the finest steel. 'If I be, Macumazahn, behold what
+the dream left with me. The knife broke upon Bougwan's bosom and as I
+passed I picked this up in the sleeping-place of the White Queen.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII WAR! RED WAR!
+
+
+
+Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went off
+with him to Sir Henry's room, where the Zulu repeated his story word for
+word. It was a sight to watch Curtis' face as he heard it.
+
+'Great Heavens!' he said: 'here have I been sleeping away while Nyleptha
+was nearly murdered--and all through me, too. What a fiend that Sorais
+must be! It would have served her well if Umslopogaas had cut her down
+in the act.'
+
+'Ay,' said the Zulu. 'Fear not; I should have slain her ere she struck.
+I was but waiting the moment.'
+
+I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand
+doomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais the
+fate she meant for her sister. And, as the issue proved, I was right.
+
+After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedly to get his
+morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking.
+
+At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was no longer
+to be trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escape by some secret
+stair when it was his duty to have handed her over to justice. Indeed,
+he spoke in the most unmeasured terms on the matter. I let him run
+on awhile, reflecting to myself how easy we find it to be hard on the
+weaknesses of others, and how tender we are to our own.
+
+'Really, my dear fellow,' I said at length, 'one would never think, to
+hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interview with this
+same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficult to resist her
+fascinations, notwithstanding your ties to one of the loveliest and most
+loving women in the world. Now suppose it was Nyleptha who had tried to
+murder Sorais, and _you_ had caught her, and she had pleaded with you,
+would you have been so very eager to hand her over to an open shame, and
+to death by fire? Just look at the matter through Good's eyeglass for a
+minute before you denounce an old friend as a scoundrel.'
+
+He listened to this jobation submissively, and then frankly acknowledged
+that he had spoken hardly. It is one of the best points in Sir Henry's
+character that he is always ready to admit it when he is in the wrong.
+
+But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to the fact that,
+however natural his behaviour might be, it was obvious that he was being
+involved in a very awkward and disgraceful complication. A foul and
+wicked murder had been attempted, and he had let the murderess escape,
+and thereby, among other things, allowed her to gain a complete
+ascendency over himself. In fact, he was in a fair way to become her
+tool--and no more dreadful fate can befall a man than to become the tool
+of an unscrupulous woman, or indeed of any woman. There is but one
+end to it: when he is broken, or has served her purpose, he is thrown
+away--turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect. Whilst
+I was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done--for the whole
+subject was a thorny one--I suddenly heard a great clamour in the
+courtyard outside, and distinguished the voice of Umslopogaas and
+Alphonse, the former cursing furiously, and the latter yelling in
+terror.
+
+Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicrous sight.
+The little Frenchman was running up the courtyard at an extraordinary
+speed, and after him sped Umslopogaas like a great greyhound. Just as I
+came out he caught him, and, lifting him right off his legs, carried him
+some paces to a beautiful but very dense flowering shrub which bore a
+flower not unlike the gardenia, but was covered with short thorns. Next,
+despite his howls and struggles, he with one mighty thrust plunged poor
+Alphonse head first into the bush, so that nothing but the calves of his
+legs and heels remained in evidence. Then, satisfied with what he
+had done, the Zulu folded his arms and stood grimly contemplating the
+Frenchman's kicks, and listening to his yells, which were awful.
+
+'What art thou doing?' I said, running up. 'Wouldst thou kill the man?
+Pull him out of the bush!'
+
+With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonse by the
+ankle, and with a jerk that must have nearly dislocated it, tearing
+him out of the heart of the shrub. Never did I see such a sight as he
+presented, his clothes half torn off his back, and bleeding as he was
+in every direction from the sharp thorns. There he lay and yelled and
+rolled, and there was no getting anything out of him.
+
+At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me, cursed
+old Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowing by the blood of
+his heroic grandfather that he would poison him, and 'have his revenge'.
+
+At last I got to the truth of the matter. It appeared that Alphonse
+habitually cooked Umslopogaas's porridge, which the latter ate for
+breakfast in the corner of the courtyard, just as he would have done at
+home in Zululand, from a gourd, and with a wooden spoon. Now Umslopogaas
+had, like many Zulus, a great horror of fish, which he considered a
+species of water-snake; so Alphonse, who was as fond of playing tricks
+as a monkey, and who was also a consummate cook, determined to make him
+eat some. Accordingly he grated up a quantity of white fish very finely,
+and mixed it with the Zulu's porridge, who swallowed it nearly all down
+in ignorance of what he was eating. But, unfortunately for Alphonse, he
+could not restrain his joy at this sight, and came capering and peering
+round, till at last Umslopogaas, who was very clever in his way,
+suspected something, and, after a careful examination of the remains of
+his porridge, discovered 'the buffalo heifer's trick', and, in revenge,
+served him as I have said. Indeed, the little man was fortunate not
+to get a broken neck for his pains; for, as one would have thought, he
+might have learnt from the episode of his display of axemanship that 'le
+Monsieur noir' was an ill person to play practical jokes upon.
+
+This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrate it because
+it led to serious consequences. As soon as he had stanched the bleeding
+from his scratches and washed himself, Alphonse went off still cursing,
+to recover his temper, a process which I knew from experience would take
+a very long time. When he had gone I gave Umslopogaas a jobation and
+told him that I was ashamed of his behaviour.
+
+'Ah, well, Macumazahn,' he said, 'you must be gentle with me, for
+here is not my place. I am weary of it, weary to death of eating and
+drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage. I love not this soft
+life in stone houses that takes the heart out of a man, and turns his
+strength to water and his flesh to fat. I love not the white robes and
+the delicate women, the blowing of trumpets and the flying of hawks.
+When we fought the Masai at the kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth
+the living, but here is never a blow struck in anger, and I begin to
+think I shall go the way of my fathers and lift Inkosi-kaas no more,'
+and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow.
+
+'Ah,' I said, 'that is thy complaint, is it? Thou hast the
+blood-sickness, hast thou? And the Woodpecker wants a tree. And at thy
+age, too. Shame on thee! Umslopogaas.'
+
+'Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and more honest
+than some. Better is it to slay a man in fair fight than to suck out his
+heart's blood in buying and selling and usury after your white fashion.
+Many a man have I slain, yet is there never a one that I should fear to
+look in the face again, ay, many are there who once were friends, and
+whom I should be right glad to snuff with. But there! there! thou hast
+thy ways, and I mine: each to his own people and his own place. The
+high-veldt ox will die in the fat bush country, and so is it with me,
+Macumazahn. I am rough, I know it, and when my blood is warm I know not
+what to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the night swallows me and
+I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thou lovest me, my
+father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be nought but a broken-down Zulu
+war-dog--a chief for whom there is no room in his own kraal, an outcast
+and a wanderer in strange places: ay, I love thee, Macumazahn, for we
+have grown grey together, and there is that between us that cannot be
+seen, and yet is too strong for breaking;' and he took his snuff-box,
+which was made of an old brass cartridge, from the slit in his ear where
+he always carried it, and handed it to me for me to help myself.
+
+I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion. It was quite true, I was
+much attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian. I do not know what was
+the charm of his character, but it had a charm; perhaps it was its
+fierce honesty and directness; perhaps one admired his almost superhuman
+skill and strength, or it may have been simply that he was so absolutely
+unique. Frankly, with all my experience of savages, I never knew a man
+quite like him, he was so wise and yet such a child with it all; and
+though it seems laughable to say so, like the hero of the Yankee parody,
+he 'had a tender heart'. Anyway, I was very fond of him, though I should
+never have thought of telling him so.
+
+'Ay, old wolf,' I said, 'thine is a strange love. Thou wouldst split me
+to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow.'
+
+'Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came in the way of
+duty, but I should love thee all the same when the blow had gone fairly
+home. Is there any chance of some fighting here, Macumazahn?' he went on
+in an insinuating voice. 'Methought that what I saw last night did show
+that the two great Queens were vexed one with another. Else had the
+"Lady of the Night" not brought that dagger with her.'
+
+I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique and irritation
+existed between the ladies, and told him how things stood, and that they
+were quarrelling over Incubu.
+
+'Ah, is it so?' he exclaimed, springing up in delight; 'then will there
+be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains--war to the end. Women
+love the last blow as well as the last word, and when they fight for
+love they are pitiless as a wounded buffalo. See thou, Macumazahn, a
+woman will swim through blood to her desire, and think nought of it.
+With these eyes have I seen it once, and twice also. Ah, Macumazahn,
+we shall see this fine place of houses burning yet, and hear the battle
+cries come ringing up the street. After all, I have not wandered for
+nothing. Can this folk fight, think ye?'
+
+Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from another
+direction, looking very pale and hollow-eyed. The moment Umslopogaas saw
+the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him.
+
+'Ah, Bougwan,' he cried, 'greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou art surely
+weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?' Then, without waiting for an
+answer, he went on--
+
+'Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a woman,
+therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
+
+'There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a woman who loved
+the man's brother and was beloved of the man. But the man's brother had
+a favourite wife and loved not the woman, and he made a mock of her.
+Then the woman, being very cunning and fierce-hearted for revenge, took
+counsel with herself and said to the man, "I love thee, and if thou wilt
+make war upon thy brother I will marry thee." And he knew it was a lie,
+yet because of his great love of the woman, who was very fair, did he
+listen to her words and made war. And when many people had been killed
+his brother sent to him, saying, "Why slayest thou me? What hurt have I
+done unto thee? From my youth up have I not loved thee? When thou wast
+little did I not nurture thee, and have we not gone down to war together
+and divided the cattle, girl by girl, ox by ox, and cow by cow? Why
+slayest thou me, my brother, son of my own mother?"
+
+'Then the man's heart was heavy, and he knew that his path was evil,
+and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased to make war on his
+brother, and lived at peace in the same kraal with him. And after a time
+the woman came to him and said, "I have lost the past, I will be thy
+wife." And in his heart he knew that it was a lie and that she thought
+the evil thing, yet because of his love did he take her to wife.
+
+'And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plunged into a
+deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe from his hand and creep
+into the hut of his brother and slay him in his rest. Then did she slink
+back like a gorged lioness and place the thong of the red axe back upon
+his wrist and go her ways.
+
+'And at the dawning the people came shouting, "Lousta is slain in the
+night," and they came unto the hut of the man, and there he lay asleep
+and by him was the red axe. Then did they remember the war and say, "Lo!
+he hath of a surety slain his brother," and they would have taken and
+killed him, but he rose and fled swiftly, and as he fleeted by he slew
+the woman.
+
+'But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on him rested
+the weight of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcast and his name a
+scorn among his own people; for on him, and him only, resteth the burden
+of her who betrayed. And, therefore, does he wander afar, without a
+kraal and without an ox or a wife, and therefore will he die afar like a
+stricken buck and his name be accursed from generation to generation,
+in that the people say that he slew his brother, Lousta, by treachery in
+the night-time.'
+
+The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by his own
+story. Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed to his breast,
+and went on:
+
+'I was the man, Bougwan. Ou! I was that man, and now hark thou! Even as
+I am so wilt thou be--a tool, a plaything, an ox of burden to carry the
+evil deeds of another. Listen! When thou didst creep after the "Lady
+of the Night" I was hard upon thy track. When she struck thee with the
+knife in the sleeping place of the White Queen I was there also; when
+thou didst let her slip away like a snake in the stones I saw thee, and
+I knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man had abandoned the
+truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had taken a crooked
+way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but out of a full
+heart are they spoken. See her no more, so shalt thou go down with
+honour to the grave. Else because of the beauty of a woman that weareth
+as a garment of fur shalt thou be even as I am, and perchance with more
+cause. I have said.'
+
+Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly
+silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his own
+case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passed between
+him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently much distressed. And
+now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone of humility quite foreign
+to him.
+
+'I must say,' he said, with a bitter little laugh, 'that I scarcely
+thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but it just
+shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can understand how
+humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it is that I deserve it
+all. Of course I should have handed Sorais over to the guard, but
+I could not, and that is a fact. I let her go and I promised to say
+nothing, more is the shame to me. She told me that if I would side
+with her she would marry me and make me king of this country, but thank
+goodness I did find the heart to say that even to marry her I could not
+desert my friends. And now you can do what you like, I deserve it all.
+All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a woman with
+all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her,' and he turned to
+go.
+
+'Look here, old fellow,' said Sir Henry, 'just stop a minute. I have a
+little tale to tell you too.' And he went on to narrate what had taken
+place on the previous day between Sorais and himself.
+
+This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasant to any man
+to learn that he has been made a tool of, but when the circumstances are
+as peculiarly atrocious as in the present case, it is about as bitter a
+pill as anybody can be called on to swallow.
+
+'Do you know,' he said, 'I think that between you, you fellows have
+about worked a cure,' and he turned and walked away, and I for one felt
+very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would always carefully avoid the
+candle, how few burnt wings there would be!
+
+That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great hall and
+received petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and so forth, and
+thither we adjourned shortly afterwards. On our way we were joined by
+Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed.
+
+When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne and
+proceeding with business as usual, surrounded by councillors, courtiers,
+lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard. It was, however,
+easy to see from the air of excitement and expectation on the faces
+of everybody present that nobody was paying much attention to ordinary
+affairs, the fact being that the knowledge that civil war was imminent
+had now got abroad. We saluted Nyleptha and took our accustomed places,
+and for a little while things went on as usual, when suddenly the
+trumpets began to call outside the palace, and from the great crowd that
+was gathered there in anticipation of some unusual event there rose a
+roar of '_Sorais! Sorais!_'
+
+Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the great
+curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide and through them entered
+the 'Lady of the Night' herself. Nor did she come alone. Preceding her
+was Agon, the High Priest, arrayed in his most gorgeous vestments, and
+on either side were other priests. The reason for their presence was
+obvious--coming with them it would have been sacrilege to attempt to
+detain her. Behind her were a number of the great lords, and behind them
+a small body of picked guards. A glance at Sorais herself was enough to
+show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in place of her gold
+embroidered 'kaf' she wore a shining tunic formed of golden scales, and
+on her head a little golden helmet. In her hand, too, she bore a toy
+spear, beautifully made and fashioned of solid silver. Up the hall she
+came, looking like a lioness in her conscious pride and beauty, and as
+she came the spectators fell back bowing and made a path for her. By the
+sacred stone she halted, and laying her hand on it, she cried out with a
+loud voice to Nyleptha on the throne, 'Hail, oh Queen!'
+
+'All hail, my royal sister!' answered Nyleptha. 'Draw thou near. Fear
+not, I give thee safe conduct.'
+
+Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the hall till she
+stood right before the thrones.
+
+'A boon, oh Queen!' she cried again.
+
+'Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee who hath half
+our kingdom?'
+
+'Thou canst tell me a true word--me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art
+thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,' and she pointed
+to Sir Henry with her toy spear, 'to be a husband to thee, and share thy
+bed and throne?'
+
+Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to her in a low
+voice, 'Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names than wolf to call
+me by, oh Queen!' and I saw her bite her lips as, like a danger flag,
+the blood flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if
+not original, she, seeing that the thing was out, and that there was
+nothing further to be gained by concealment, answered the question in
+a novel and effectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly believe, by
+coquetry and a desire to triumph over her rival.
+
+Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all the glory
+of her royal grace on to where her lover stood. There she stopped and
+untwined the golden snake that was wound around her arm. Then she bade
+him kneel, and he dropped on one knee on the marble before her, and
+next, taking the golden snake with both her hands, she bent the pure
+soft metal round his neck, and when it was fast, deliberately kissed him
+on the brow and called him her 'dear lord'.
+
+'Thou seest,' she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators had
+died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, 'I
+have put my collar round the "wolf's" neck, and behold! he shall be my
+watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen Sorais, my sister, and to
+those with thee. Fear not,' she went on, smiling sweetly on her lover,
+and pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his massive
+throat, 'if my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not
+gall thee.'
+
+Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud tone, 'Ay,
+Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here gathered together, by
+this sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of
+you all. What, am I a Queen, and yet not free to choose the man whom
+I will love? Then should I be lower than the meanest girl in all my
+provinces. Nay, he hath won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and
+throne, and all I have--ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord
+fairer and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge
+of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so being what he
+is!' And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and holding it,
+stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her sweetness and the
+power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful she looked standing
+hand in hand there at her lover's side, so sure of him and of herself,
+and so ready to risk all things and endure all things for him, that most
+of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever
+forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her
+blushing face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke
+for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human nature
+in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and not afraid to
+break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible to appeals to its
+poetical side.
+
+And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the Night
+stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her
+sister's triumph, which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to win,
+and in the awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned white
+like an aspen in the wind. I think I have said somewhere of her that she
+reminded me of the sea on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping
+power about her. Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the
+furious ocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really handsome woman
+in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such beauty and such
+a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only say that the effect
+produced was well worthy of the two.
+
+She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple rings
+beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak and thrice she
+failed, but at last her voice came. Raising her silver spear, she shook
+it, and the light gleamed from it and from the golden scales of her
+cuirass.
+
+'And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,' she said in notes which pealed through
+the great hall like a clarion, 'thinkest thou that I, Sorais, a Queen
+of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander shall sit upon my
+father's throne and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great
+House of the Stairway? Never! never! while there is life in my bosom and
+a man to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my side? Who?
+
+'Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither to prey
+with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly sin
+against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War--red War! Ay, I say to
+thee that the path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing of
+thy towns and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On thy
+head rest the burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the
+dying and the cries of the widows and those who are left fatherless for
+ever and for ever.
+
+'I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from thy
+throne, and that thou shalt be hurled--ay, hurled even from the topmost
+stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered
+the name of the House of him who built it with black shame. And I tell
+ye strangers--all save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service
+I will save alive if thou wilt leave these men and follow me' (here
+poor Good shook his head vigorously and ejaculated 'Can't be done' in
+English)--'that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alive
+in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly east
+and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the Temple,
+so that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for thee,
+Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not tell thee
+now.'
+
+She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm,
+and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through the
+hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:
+
+'Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak as
+thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou
+wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against thee, for if my
+hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron when it grips thine
+armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee not. I weep for that which
+thou wilt bring upon our people and on thyself, but for myself I say--I
+fear thee not. Yet thou, who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover
+and my lord from me, whom today thou dost call a "foreign wolf", to be
+_thy_ lover and _thy_ lord' (here there was an immense sensation in the
+hall), 'thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst
+enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place--ay, even by
+a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay
+asleep--'
+
+'It is false, it is false!' rang out Agon's and a score of other voices.
+
+'It is _not_ false,' said I, producing the broken point of the dagger
+and holding it up. 'Where is the haft from which this flew, oh Sorais?'
+
+'It is not false,' cried Good, determined at last to act like a loyal
+man. 'I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen's bed, and on my
+breast the dagger broke.'
+
+'Who is on my side?' cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she
+saw that public sympathy was turning against her. 'What, Bougwan, thou
+comest not?' she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her,
+in a low, concentrated voice. 'Thou pale-souled fool, for a reward thou
+shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou
+mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold _thee_ in
+chains that cannot be broken.
+
+'_War! War! War!_' she cried. 'Here, with my hand upon the sacred stone
+that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the Zu-Vendi set their
+necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows
+Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?'
+
+Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable
+confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the 'Lady of
+the Night', but some came from her following to us. Amongst the former
+was an under officer of Nyleptha's own guard, who suddenly turned and
+made a run for the doorway through which Sorais' people were already
+passing. Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole scene in,
+seeing with admirable presence of mind that if this soldier got away
+others would follow his example, seized the man, who drew his sword
+and struck at him. Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and,
+avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe,
+till in a few seconds the man's fate overtook him and he fell with a
+clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
+
+This was the first blood spilt in the war.
+
+'Shut the gates,' I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch Sorais
+so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing sacrilege. But
+the order came too late, her guards were already passing through them,
+and in another minute the streets echoed with the furious galloping of
+horses and the rolling of her chariots.
+
+So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing like a
+whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her headquarters at
+M'Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north
+of Milosis.
+
+And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments
+and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once
+more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening
+Inkosi-kaas's razor edge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX A STRANGE WEDDING
+
+
+
+One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before the
+gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had every
+reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, and the heart and soul of her
+party. This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us for those
+hippopotami, or rather that was what he said. What he meant was that
+he would never brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and
+foreign learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping
+us out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system of religion,
+and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting to introduce it into
+Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had any religion in our country,
+and I told him that so far as I could remember we had ninety-five
+different ones. You might have knocked him down with a feather, and
+really it is difficult not to pity a high priest of a well-established
+cult who is haunted by the possible approach of one or all of
+ninety-five new religions.
+
+When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I discussed
+what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating him,
+but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous
+effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added, with a stamp of her
+foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen, I will break the power of
+those priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.' I only
+wished that old Agon could have heard her, it would have frightened him.
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I suppose that
+we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.'
+
+Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry
+little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'
+
+'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.'
+
+She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy
+as it was sweet.
+
+Then at last he understood.
+
+'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously. 'Dost thou mean
+that thou wilt marry me, even now?'
+
+'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid answer; 'but if my
+lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'--pointing to the
+entrance to a private chapel--'and am I not ready to do the will of my
+lord? Listen, oh my lord! In eight days or less thou must leave me and
+go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in war--men sometimes
+fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if
+only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and
+rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of a
+rose.
+
+'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and with my crown my
+life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very bitter, and if she
+prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future? Happiness is the
+world's White Bird, that alights seldom, and flies fast and far till one
+day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by
+any chance he rests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to
+neglect the present for the future, for who knows what the future will
+be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them, for when
+the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others bloom that we
+shall never see.' And she lifted her sweet face to him and smiled into
+his eyes, and once more I felt a curious pang of jealousy and turned and
+went away. They never took much notice of whether I was there or not,
+thinking, I suppose, that I was an old fool, and that it did not matter
+one way or the other, and really I believe that they were right.
+
+So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general, and
+watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window as a vulture
+whets his beak beside a dying ox.
+
+And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking
+very radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and even
+Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at a real wedding.
+Of course we said yes, and off we went to the chapel, where we found
+Agon looking as sulky as any High Priest possibly could, and no wonder.
+It appeared that he and Nyleptha had a slight difference of opinion
+about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to
+allow any of his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry
+and told him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to
+be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the Eighth to
+perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be married, she would be
+married, and that he should marry her. {Endnote 18}
+
+He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched her
+argument thus--
+
+'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
+prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his
+subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars down on
+Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I _can_ leave him to contemplate the
+altar of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is his natural
+vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon! thou shalt be placed
+before the altar yonder with nought but a little water till such time as
+thou hast reconsidered the matter.'
+
+Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning without his
+breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so he presently modified
+his views and consented to marry them, saying at the same time that he
+washed his hands of all responsibility in the matter.
+
+So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite
+maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and downcast
+eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any sort, as seems
+to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries of the world. She
+did not wear a single ornament, even her gold circlets were removed,
+and I thought that if possible she looked more lovely than ever without
+them, as really superbly beautiful women do.
+
+She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand and led him
+up before the altar, and after a little pause, in a slow, clear voice
+uttered the following words, which are customary in Zu-Vendis if the
+bride desires and the man consents:--
+
+'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman to wife
+unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?'
+
+'I swear it,' answered Sir Henry; adding in English, 'One is quite
+enough for me.'
+
+Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, came forward
+and gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate that I could not
+follow it, but it appeared to be an invocation to the Sun to bless
+the union and make it fruitful. I observed that Nyleptha listened very
+closely to every word, and afterwards discovered that she was afraid
+lest Agon should play her a trick, and by going through the invocations
+backwards divorce them instead of marry them. At the end of the
+invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they took each other
+for husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each other
+before the altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites were
+concerned. But it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, and
+so I produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together with the 'Ingoldsby
+Legends', that I often read when I lie awake at night, accompanied me in
+all my later wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy Harry years ago, and
+after his death I found it among his things and took it back again.
+
+'Curtis,' I said, 'I am not a clergyman, and I do not know if what I am
+going to propose is allowable--I know it is not legal--but if you and
+the Queen have no objection I should like to read the English marriage
+service over you. It is a solemn step which you are taking, and I think
+that you ought, so far as circumstances will allow, to give it the
+sanction of your own religion.'
+
+'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I wish you would. I do not feel
+half married yet.'
+
+Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husband
+wished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailing in
+his own country, and so I set to work and read the service, from 'Dearly
+beloved' to 'amazement', as well as I could; and when I came to 'I,
+Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,' I translated, and also 'I, Nyleptha, take
+thee, Henry,' which she repeated after me very well. Then Sir Henry took
+a plain gold ring from his little finger and placed it on hers, and so
+on to the end. The ring had been Curtis' mother's wedding-ring, and I
+could not help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire lady would
+have been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ring was to serve
+a similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
+
+As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this second ceremony
+was going on, for he at once understood that it was religious in its
+nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five new faiths which
+loomed so ominously in his eyes. Indeed, he at once set me down as a
+rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly. However, in the end off he
+went, positively bristling with indignation, and I knew that we might
+look out for danger from his direction.
+
+And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving the happy
+pair to themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriages are supposed
+to be cheerful things, but my experience is that they are very much the
+reverse to everybody, except perhaps the two people chiefly interested.
+They mean the breaking-up of so many old ties as well as the undertaking
+of so many new ones, and there is always something sad about the passing
+away of the old order. Now to take this case for instance: Sir Henry
+Curtis is the best and kindest fellow and friend in the world, but he
+has never been quite the same since that little scene in the chapel.
+It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that--Nyleptha, in short,
+from morning till night in one way or another, either expressed or
+understood. And as for the old friends--well, of course they have taken
+the place that old friends ought to take, and which ladies are as a rule
+very careful to see they do take when a man marries, and that is, the
+second place. Yes, he would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a
+fact for all that. He is not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet
+and very charming, but I think that she likes him to understand that she
+has married _him_, and not Quatermain, Good, and Co. But there! what is
+the use of grumbling? It is all very right and proper, as any married
+lady would have no difficulty in explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous
+old man, though I hope I never show it.
+
+So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in an extra fine
+flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and presently one of
+our attendants came and told a story that gave us something to think
+about.
+
+It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel with Umslopogaas,
+Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper to sulk over his
+scratches. Well, it appears that he walked right past the Temple to the
+Sun, down the wide road on the further side of the slope it crowns, and
+thence on into the beautiful park, or pleasure gardens, which are laid
+out just beyond the outer wall. After wandering about there for a little
+he started to return, but was met near the outer gate by Sorais' train
+of chariots, which were galloping furiously along the great northern
+road. When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais halted her train and
+called to him. On approaching he was instantly seized and dragged
+into one of the chariots and carried off, 'crying out loudly', as our
+informant said, and as from my general knowledge of him I can well
+believe.
+
+At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais could have had in
+carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She could hardly stoop so low
+as to try to wreak her fury on one whom she knew was only a servant. At
+last, however, an idea occurred to me. We three were, as I think I have
+said, much revered by the people of Zu-Vendis at large, both because
+we were the first strangers they had ever seen, and because we were
+supposed to be the possessors of almost supernatural wisdom. Indeed,
+though Sorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves'--or, to translate it
+more accurately, 'foreign hyenas'--was sure to go down very well with
+the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely to be
+particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The Zu-Vendi
+people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seeking for some new thing,
+and just because we were so new our presence was on the whole acceptable
+to them. Again, Sir Henry's magnificent personal appearance made a deep
+impression upon a race who possess a greater love of beauty than any
+other I have ever been acquainted with. Beauty may be prized in other
+countries, but in Zu-Vendis it is almost worshipped, as indeed
+the national love of statuary shows. The people said openly in the
+market-places that there was not a man in the country to touch Curtis in
+personal appearance, as with the exception of Sorais there was no woman
+who could compete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that
+they should marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husband for
+their Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen that the outcry against
+us was to a considerable extent fictitious, and nobody knew it better
+than Sorais herself. Consequently it struck me that it might have
+occurred to her that down in the country and among the country people,
+it would be better to place the reason of her conflict with her sister
+upon other and more general grounds than Nyleptha's marriage with the
+stranger. It would be easy in a land where there had been so many civil
+wars to rake out some old cry that would stir up the recollection of
+buried feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one. This being
+so, it was of great importance to her to have one of the strangers with
+her whom she could show to the common people as a great Outlander, who
+had been so struck by the justice of her cause that he had elected to
+leave his companions and follow her standard.
+
+This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold of Good, whom
+she would have used till he ceased to be of service and then cast off.
+But Good having drawn back she grasped at the opportunity of securing
+Alphonse, who was not unlike him in personal appearance though smaller,
+no doubt with the object of showing him off in the cities and country as
+the great Bougwan himself. I told Good that I thought that that was her
+plan, and his face was a sight to see--he was so horrified at the idea.
+
+'What,' he said, 'dress up that little wretch to represent me? Why, I
+shall have to get out of the country! My reputation will be ruined for
+ever.'
+
+I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant to be
+personated all over a strange country by an arrant little coward, and I
+can quite sympathize with his vexation.
+
+Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitary grandeur,
+feeling very much as though we had just returned from burying a friend
+instead of marrying one, and next morning the work began in good
+earnest. The messages and orders which had been despatched by Nyleptha
+two days before now began to take effect, and multitudes of armed men
+came pouring into the city. We saw, as may be imagined, but very little
+of Nyleptha and not too much of Curtis during those next few days,
+but Good and I sat daily with the council of generals and loyal
+lords, drawing up plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the
+distribution of commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came
+in freely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosis were
+spotted with the banners of lords arriving from their distant places to
+rally round Nyleptha.
+
+After the first few days it became clear that we should be able to
+take the field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty thousand
+cavalry, a very respectable force considering how short was the time we
+had to collect it, and that about half the regular army had elected to
+follow Sorais.
+
+But if our force was large, Sorais' was, according to the reports
+brought in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had taken up her
+headquarters at a very strong town called M'Arstuna, situated, as I have
+said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countryside was flocking to
+her standard. Nasta had poured down from his highlands and was on
+his way to join her with no less than twenty-five thousand of his
+mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to face in all Zu-Vendis.
+Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who lived in the great
+horse-breeding district, had come in with twelve thousand cavalry, and
+so on. Indeed, what between one thing and another, it seemed certain
+that she would gather a fully armed host of nearly one hundred thousand
+men.
+
+And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up her camp and
+march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the country as she came.
+Thereon arose the question whether it would be best to meet her at
+Milosis or to go out and give her battle. When our opinion was asked
+upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatingly gave it in favour of an
+advance. If we were to shut ourselves up in the city and wait to be
+attacked, it seemed to us that our inaction would be set down to fear.
+It is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very
+little will suffice to turn men's opinions one way or the other, to be
+up and doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate if the
+cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore we cast our vote
+for moving out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting till we
+were drawn from our walls like a badger from a hole.
+
+Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to say, did
+that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready to flash out fire.
+A great map of the country was brought and spread out before her. About
+thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna, where Sorais lay, and ninety odd
+miles from Milosis, the road ran over a neck of land some two and a half
+miles in width, and flanked on either side by forest-clad hills
+which, without being lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite
+impracticable for a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked
+earnestly at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in
+some women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger upon this
+neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband, said, with a proud
+air of confidence and a toss of the golden head--
+
+'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies. I know the spot, here shalt thou
+meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before the storm.'
+
+But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+
+
+
+It was on the third morning after this incident of the map that Sir
+Henry and I started. With the exception of a small guard, all the great
+host had moved on the night before, leaving the Frowning City very
+silent and empty. Indeed, it was found impossible to leave any garrison
+with the exception of a personal guard for Nyleptha, and about a
+thousand men who from sickness or one cause or another were unable to
+proceed with the army; but as Milosis was practically impregnable, and
+as our enemy was in front of and not behind us, this did not so much
+matter.
+
+Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nyleptha accompanied
+Sir Henry and myself to the city gates, riding a magnificent white horse
+called Daylight, which was supposed to be the fleetest and most enduring
+animal in Zu-Vendis. Her face bore traces of recent weeping, but there
+were no tears in her eyes now, indeed she was bearing up bravely against
+what must have been a bitter trial to her. At the gate she reined in
+her horse and bade us farewell. On the previous day she had reviewed and
+addressed the officers of the great army, speaking to them such high,
+eloquent words, and expressing so complete a confidence in their valour
+and in their ultimate victory, that she quite carried their hearts
+away, and as she rode from rank to rank they cheered her till the ground
+shook. And now today the same mood seemed to be on her.
+
+'Fare thee well, Macumazahn!' she said. 'Remember, I trust to thy wits,
+which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared to those of my people,
+to save us from Sorais. I know that thou wilt do thy duty.'
+
+I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fear lest I
+should lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turned to Curtis.
+
+'Fare thee well, my lord!' she said. 'Come back with victory, and as a
+king, or on thy soldiers' spears.' {Endnote 19}
+
+Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps he had a bit
+of a lump in his throat. One gets over it afterwards, but these sort of
+partings are trying when one has only been married a week.
+
+'Here,' added Nyleptha, 'will I greet thee when ye return in triumph.
+And now, my lords, once more, farewell!'
+
+Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yards or so,
+we turned and perceived her still sitting on her horse at the same spot,
+and looking out after us beneath her hand, and that was the last we saw
+of her. About a mile farther on, however, we heard galloping behind
+us, and looking round, saw a mounted soldier coming towards us, leading
+Nyleptha's matchless steed--Daylight.
+
+'The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to her Lord
+Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetest and most
+enduring horse in all the land,' said the soldier, bending to his
+saddle-bow before us.
+
+At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying that he was
+too good for such rough work, but I persuaded him to do so, thinking
+that Nyleptha would be hurt if he did not. Little did I guess at the
+time what service that noble horse would render in our sorest need. It
+is curious to look back and realize upon what trivial and apparently
+coincidental circumstances great events frequently turn as easily and
+naturally as a door on its hinges.
+
+Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfect pleasure
+to see him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetings and thanks,
+we proceeded on our journey.
+
+By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of which
+Sir Henry then formally took over the command. It was a heavy
+responsibility, and it oppressed him very much, but the Queen's
+injunctions on the point were such as did not admit of being
+trifled with. He was beginning to find out that greatness has its
+responsibilities as well as its glories.
+
+Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almost indeed
+without seeing anybody, for the populations of the towns and villages
+along our route had for the most part fled, fearing lest they should
+be caught between the two rival armies and ground to powder like grain
+between the upper and the nether stones.
+
+On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so great a
+multitude was necessarily slow, we camped two miles this side of the
+neck or ridge I have spoken of, and our outposts brought us word that
+Sorais with all her power was rolling down upon us, and had pitched her
+camp that night ten miles the farther side of the neck.
+
+Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalry to seize
+the position. Scarcely had they occupied it, however, before they were
+attacked by about as many of Sorais' horsemen, and a very smart little
+cavalry fight ensued, with a loss to us of about thirty men killed. On
+the advance of our supports, however, Sorais' force drew off, carrying
+their dead and wounded with them.
+
+The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time, and I must
+say that Nyleptha's judgment had not failed her, it was an admirable
+place to give battle in, especially to a superior force.
+
+The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken to admit of
+the handling of any considerable force, till it reached the crest of a
+great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentle slope to the banks
+of a little stream, and then rolled away again up a still gentler slope
+to the plain beyond, the distance from the crest of the land-wave down
+to the stream being a little over half a mile, and from the stream up to
+the plain beyond a trifle less. The length of this wave of land at its
+highest point, which corresponded exactly with the width of the neck of
+the land between the wooded hills, was about two miles and a quarter,
+and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky, bush-clad ground,
+that afforded a most valuable cover to the flanks of the army and
+rendered it almost impossible for them to be turned.
+
+It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encamped
+his army in the same formation that he had, after consultation with the
+various generals, Good, and myself, determined that they should occupy
+in the great pitched battle which now appeared to be imminent.
+
+Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, divided
+as follows. In the centre was a dense body of twenty thousand
+foot-soldiers, armed with spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hide shields,
+breast and back plates. {Endnote 20} These formed the chest of the army,
+and were supported by five thousand foot, and three thousand horse in
+reserve. On either side of this chest were stationed seven thousand
+horse arranged in deep, majestic squadrons; and beyond and on either
+side but slightly in front of them again were two bodies, each numbering
+about seven thousand five hundred spearmen, forming the right and left
+wings of the army, and each supported by a contingent of some fifteen
+hundred cavalry. This makes in all sixty thousand men.
+
+Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousand horse
+between the chest and right wing, which was commanded by Good, and the
+other battalions and squadrons were entrusted to Zu-Vendis generals.
+
+Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais' vast army began to
+swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front of us, till the whole
+place seemed alive with the multitude of her spearpoints, and the ground
+shook with the tramp of her battalions. It was evident that the spies
+had not exaggerated; we were outnumbered by at least a third. At first
+we expected that Sorais was going to attack us at once, as the clouds
+of cavalry which hung upon her flanks executed some threatening
+demonstrations, but she thought better of it, and there was no fight
+that day. As for the formation of her great forces I cannot now describe
+it with accuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I did, but I
+may say, generally, that in its leading features it resembled our own,
+only her reserve was much greater.
+
+Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais' left wing, was a great army
+of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shield only, which,
+I was informed, was composed of Nasta's twenty-five thousand savage
+hillsmen.
+
+'My word, Good,' said I, when I saw them, 'you will catch it tomorrow
+when those gentlemen charge!' whereat Good not unnaturally looked rather
+anxious.
+
+All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at last night
+fell, and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on the slopes, to
+wane and die one by one like the stars they resembled. As the hours wore
+on, the silence gradually gathered more deeply over the opposing hosts.
+
+It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endless things that
+had to be attended to, there was our gnawing suspense to reckon
+with. The fray which tomorrow would witness would be so vast, and the
+slaughter so awful, that stout indeed must the heart have been that was
+not overwhelmed at the prospect. And when I thought of all that hung
+upon it, I own I felt ill, and it made me very sad to reflect that
+these mighty forces were gathered for destruction, simply to gratify the
+jealous anger of a woman. This was the hidden power which was to send
+those dense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts across
+the plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as clouds when
+hurricane meets hurricane. It was a dreadful thought, and set one
+wondering about the responsibilities of the great ones of the earth.
+Deep into the night we sat, with pale faces and heavy hearts, and took
+counsel, whilst the sentries tramped up and down, down and up, and the
+armed and plumed generals came and went, grim and shadow-like.
+
+And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for the coming
+slaughter; and I lay down and thought, and tried to get a little rest,
+but could not sleep for fear of the morrow--for who could say what the
+morrow would bring forth? Misery and death, this was certain; beyond
+that we knew not, and I confess I was very much afraid. But as I
+realized then, it is useless to question that eternal Sphinx, the
+future. From day to day she reads aloud the riddles of the yesterday, of
+which the puzzled wordlings of all ages have not answered one, nor ever
+will, guess they never so wildly or cry they never so loud.
+
+And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly to leave the
+issue in the balancing hands of Providence and the morrow.
+
+And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke with a clash,
+and a roar, and gathered themselves together for battle. It was a
+beautiful and awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas, leaning on his
+axe, contemplated it with grim delight.
+
+'Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never,' he said. 'The battles
+of my people are as the play of children to what this will be. Thinkest
+thou that they will fight it out?'
+
+'Ay,' I answered sadly, 'to the death. Content thyself, "Woodpecker",
+for once shalt thou peck thy fill.'
+
+Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack. A force of
+cavalry crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along our front,
+evidently taking stock of our position and numbers. With this we did
+not attempt to interfere, as our decision was to stand strictly on the
+defensive, and not to waste a single man. The men breakfasted and stood
+to their arms, and the hours wore on. About midday, when the men were
+eating their dinner, for we thought they would fight better on full
+stomachs, a shout of '_Sorais, Sorais_' arose like thunder from the
+enemy's extreme right, and taking the glass, I was able to clearly
+distinguish the 'Lady of the Night' herself, surrounded by a glittering
+staff, and riding slowly down the lines of her battalions. And as she
+went, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before her like the
+rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the ocean when the
+gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to the listener's ears,
+till the earth shook, and the air was full of the majesty of sound.
+
+Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle, we
+remained still and made ready.
+
+We had not long to wait. Suddenly, like flame from a cannon's mouth, out
+shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, and came charging down the
+slope towards the little stream, slowly at first, but gathering speed
+as they came. Before they got to the stream, orders reached me from Sir
+Henry, who evidently feared that the shock of such a charge, if allowed
+to fall unbroken upon our infantry, would be too much for them, to send
+five thousand sabres to meet the force opposite to me, at the moment
+when it began to mount the stiffest of the rise about four hundred yards
+from our lines. This I did, remaining behind myself with the rest of my
+men.
+
+Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-like form, and
+I must say that the general in command handled them very ably. Starting
+at a hand gallop, for the first three hundred yards he rode straight at
+the tip of the tongue-shaped mass of cavalry which, numbering, so far as
+I could judge, about eight thousand sabres, was advancing to charge us.
+Then he suddenly swerved to the right and put on the pace, and I saw the
+great wedge curl round, and before the foe could check himself and turn
+to meet it, strike him about halfway down his length, with a crashing
+rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vast sheets of ice. In
+sank the great wedge, into his heart, and as it cut its way hundreds
+of horsemen were thrown up on either side of it, just as the earth is
+thrown up by a ploughshare, or more like still, as the foaming water
+curls over beneath the bows of a rushing ship. In, yet in, vainly does
+the tongue twist its ends round in agony, like an injured snake,
+and strive to protect its centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right
+through, and so, amid cheer after cheer from our watching thousands,
+back again upon the severed ends, beating them down, driving them as
+a gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the rushing of hundreds of
+riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the victorious clamour of
+their pursuers, the great force crumples up like an empty glove, then
+turns and gallops pell-mell for safety back to its own lines.
+
+I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strong as it
+went out ten minutes before. The lines which were now advancing to the
+attack, opened and swallowed them up, and my force returned, having
+only suffered a loss of about five hundred men--not much, I thought,
+considering the fierceness of the struggle. I could also see that the
+opposing bodies of cavalry on our left wing were drawing back, but how
+the fight went with them I do not quite know. It is as much as I can do
+to describe what took place immediately around me.
+
+By this time the dense masses of the enemy's left, composed almost
+entirely of Nasta's swordsmen, were across the little stream, and
+with alternate yells of 'Nasta' and 'Sorais', with dancing banners and
+gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us like ants.
+
+Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and also the
+main advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalry charges,
+and this I did to the best of my ability, by continually sending
+squadrons of about a thousand sabres out against them. These squadrons
+did the enemy much damage, and it was a glorious sight to see them flash
+down the hillside, and bury themselves like a living knife in the heart
+of the foe. But, also, we lost many men, for after the experience of a
+couple of these charges, which had drawn a sort of bloody St Andrew's
+cross of dead and dying through the centre of Nasta's host, our foes
+no longer attempted to offer an unyielding front to their irresistible
+weight, but opened out to let the rush go through, throwing themselves
+on the ground and hamstringing hundreds of horses as they passed.
+
+And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drew nearer,
+till at last he hurled himself upon Good's force of seven thousand five
+hundred regulars, who were drawn up to receive them in three strong
+squares. About the same time, too, an awful and heartshaking roar told
+me that the main battle had closed in on the centre and extreme left. I
+raised myself in my stirrups and looked down to my left; so far as the
+eye could see there was a long dazzling shimmer of steel as the sun
+glanced upon falling sword and thrusting spear.
+
+To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle, now giving
+way, now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusion of attack
+and defence. But it was as much as I could do to keep count of what was
+happening to our own wing; and, as for the moment the cavalry had fallen
+back under cover of Good's three squares, I had a fair view of this.
+
+Nasta's wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves against the sullen
+rock-like squares. Time after time did they yell out their war-cries,
+and hurl themselves furiously against the long triple ridges of spear
+points, only to be rolled back as billows are when they meet the cliff.
+
+And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without a pause, and
+at the end of that time, if we had gained nothing we had lost nothing.
+Two attempts to turn our left flank by forcing a way through the wood by
+which it was protected had been defeated; and as yet Nasta's swordsmen
+had, notwithstanding their desperate efforts, entirely failed to break
+Good's three squares, though they had thinned their numbers by quite a
+third.
+
+As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staff and
+Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had held its own with
+honour, and the same may be said of our left battle.
+
+At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais' army drew back, having, I
+began to think, had enough of it. On this point, however, I was soon
+undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparatively small
+squadrons, she charged us furiously with them, all along the line,
+and then once more sullenly rolled her tens of thousands of sword and
+spearmen down upon our weakened squares and squadrons; Sorais herself
+directing the movement, as fearless as a lioness heading the main
+attack. On they came like an avalanche--I saw her golden helm gleaming
+in the van--our counter charges of cavalry entirely failing to check
+their forward sweep. Now they had struck us, and our centre bent in like
+a bow beneath the weight of their rush--it parted, and had not the ten
+thousand men in reserve charged down to its support it must have
+been utterly destroyed. As for Good's three squares, they were swept
+backwards like boats upon an incoming tide, and the foremost one was
+burst into and lost half its remaining men. But the effort was too
+fierce and terrible to last. Suddenly the battle came, as it were, to a
+turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still.
+
+Then it began to move towards Sorais' camp. Just then, too, Nasta's
+fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either because they were
+disheartened by their losses or by way of a ruse, fell back, and the
+remains of Good's gallant squares, leaving the positions they had held
+for so many hours, cheered wildly, and rashly followed them down the
+slope, whereon the swarms of swordsmen turned to envelop them, and once
+more flung themselves upon them with a yell. Taken thus on every side,
+what remained of the first square was quickly destroyed, and I perceived
+that the second, in which I could see Good himself mounted on a large
+horse, was on the point of annihilation. A few more minutes and it was
+broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sight of Good in the
+confused and hideous slaughter that ensued.
+
+Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-white mane
+and tail burst from the ruins of the square and came rushing past me
+riderless and with wide streaming reins, and in it I recognized the
+charger that Good had been riding. Then I hesitated no longer, but
+taking with me half my effective cavalry force, which now amounted to
+between four and five thousand men, I commended myself to God, and,
+without waiting for orders, I charged straight down upon Nasta's
+swordsmen. Seeing me coming, and being warned by the thunder of my
+horses' hoofs, the majority of them faced round, and gave us a right
+warm welcome. Not an inch would they yield; in vain did we hack and
+trample them down as we ploughed a broad red furrow through their
+thousands; they seemed to re-arise by hundreds, driving their terrible
+sharp swords into our horses, or severing their hamstrings, and then
+hacking the troopers who came to the ground with them almost into
+pieces. My horse was speedily killed under me, but luckily I had a fresh
+one, my own favourite, a coal-black mare Nyleptha had given me, being
+held in reserve behind, and on this I afterwards mounted. Meanwhile I
+had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well lost sight of
+by my men in the mad confusion of the moment. My voice, of course, could
+not be heard in the midst of the clanging of steel and the shrieks of
+rage and agony. Presently I found myself mixed up with the remnants of
+the square, which had formed round its leader Good, and was fighting
+desperately for existence. I stumbled against somebody, and glancing
+down, caught sight of Good's eyeglass. He had been beaten to his knee.
+Over him was a great fellow swinging a heavy sword. Somehow I managed to
+run the man through with the sime I had taken from the Masai whose hand
+I had cut off; but as I did so, he dealt me a frightful blow on the left
+side and breast with the sword, and though my chain shirt saved my life,
+I felt that I was badly hurt. For a minute I fell on to my hands and
+knees among the dead and dying, and turned sick and faint. When I
+came to again I saw that Nasta's spearmen, or rather those of them who
+remained, were retreating back across the stream, and that Good was
+there by me smiling sweetly.
+
+'Near go that,' he shouted; 'but all's well that ends well.'
+
+I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not ended well for
+me. I was sorely hurt.
+
+Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on our extreme
+right and left, and which were now reinforced by the three thousand
+sabres which we had held in reserve, flash out like arrows from their
+posts and fall upon the disordered flanks of Sorais' forces, and that
+charge decided the issue of the battle. In another minute or two the
+enemy was in slow and sullen retreat across the little stream, where
+they once more re-formed. Then came another lull, during which I managed
+to get a second horse, and received my orders to advance from Sir Henry,
+and then with one fierce deep-throated roar, with a waving of banners
+and a wide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took the offensive
+and began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly from the
+positions they had so gallantly held all day.
+
+At last it was our turn to attack.
+
+On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and were
+approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary
+sight. Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly clasped around his
+horse's neck, against which his blanched cheek was tightly pressed, was
+a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendi general, but in whom, as
+he came nearer, I recognized none other than our lost Alphonse. It was
+impossible even then to mistake those curling mustachios. In a minute he
+was tearing through our ranks and narrowly escaped being cut down, till
+at last somebody caught his horse's bridle, and he was brought to me
+just as a momentary halt occurred in our advance to allow what remained
+of our shattered squares to form into line.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulate
+with fright, 'grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have endured!
+But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the laches. But listen,
+monsieur--I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered tomorrow
+at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards will leave
+their posts, and the priests are going to kill her. Ah yes! they little
+thought it, but I was ensconced beneath a banner, and I heard it all.'
+
+'What?' I said, horror-struck; 'what do you mean?'
+
+'What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last night to
+settle the affair with the Archbishop [Agon]. The guard will leave open
+the little gate leading from the great stair and go away, and Nasta and
+Agon's priests will come in and kill her. Themselves they would not kill
+her.'
+
+'Come with me,' I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer next to me to
+take over the command, I snatched his bridle and galloped as hard as I
+could for the spot, between a quarter and half a mile off, where I saw
+the royal pennon flying, and where I knew that I should find Curtis if
+he were still alive. On we tore, our horses clearing heaps of dead and
+dying men, and splashing through pools of blood, on past the long broken
+lines of spearmen to where, mounted on the white stallion Nyleptha had
+sent to him as a parting gift, I saw Sir Henry's form towering above the
+generals who surrounded him.
+
+Just as we reached him the advance began again. A bloody cloth was bound
+around his head, but I saw that his eye was as bright and keen as ever.
+Beside him was old Umslopogaas, his axe red with blood, but looking
+quite fresh and uninjured.
+
+'What's wrong, Quatermain?' he shouted.
+
+'Everything. There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow at dawn.
+Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheard it all,'
+and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman had told me.
+
+Curtis' face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped.
+
+'At dawn,' he gasped, 'and it is now sunset; it dawns before four and we
+are nearly a hundred miles off--nine hours at the outside. What is to be
+done?'
+
+An idea entered into my head. 'Is that horse of yours fresh?' I said.
+
+'Yes, I have only just got on to him--when my last was killed, and he
+has been fed.'
+
+'So is mine. Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he can ride well.
+We will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not--well, we cannot
+help it. No, no; it is impossible for you to leave now. You would be
+seen, and it would turn the fate of the battle. It is not half won yet.
+The soldiers would think you were making a bolt of it. Quick now.'
+
+In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang into the
+empty saddle.
+
+'Now farewell,' I said. 'Send a thousand horsemen with remounts after
+us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general to the left wing to
+take over the command and explain my absence.'
+
+'You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?' he said in a broken
+voice.
+
+'Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.'
+
+He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped off to
+join the advance, which by this time was fording the little brook that
+now ran red with the blood of the fallen.
+
+As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as arrows
+leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out of the sight of
+slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoil and shouting, which only
+came to our ears as a faint, far-off roaring like the sound of distant
+breakers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI AWAY! AWAY!
+
+
+
+At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses;
+and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it
+was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red,
+looked from where we were more like some wild titanic picture than an
+actual hand-to-hand combat. The distinguishing scenic effect from that
+distance was the countless distinct flashes of light reflected from the
+swords and spears, otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have
+been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was
+being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and
+the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what was
+tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant when viewed
+from the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings of
+our race about which we blow the loud trumpet and make such a fuss and
+worry? How utterly antlike, and morally and physically insignificant,
+must they seem to the calm eyes that watch them from the arching depths
+above!
+
+'We win the day, Macumazahn,' said old Umslopogaas, taking in the whole
+situation with a glance of his practised eye. 'Look, the Lady of the
+Night's forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in them,
+they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But
+alas! the battle will in a manner be drawn, for the darkness gathers,
+and the regiments will not be able to follow and slay!'--and he shook
+his head sadly. 'But,' he added, 'I do not think that they will fight
+again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have
+lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.'
+
+By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I
+told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the lives
+that had been lost that day would have been lost in vain.
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to
+be there before the dawn! Well--away! away! man can but try, Macumazahn;
+and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old "witch-finder's"
+[Agon's] skull for him. Once he wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker",
+did he? And now he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he?
+Good! So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely, be
+my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay, by T'Chaka's
+head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he galloped. By now the
+darkness was closing in, but fortunately there would be a moon later,
+and the road was good.
+
+On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
+had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide steady
+stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the side
+of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot
+of far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were
+travelling up their steeps, and now we were over and passing towards
+others that sprang up like visions in the far, faint distance beyond.
+
+On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet of the
+night, that was set like a song to the falling music of our horses'
+hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some forgotten starving
+dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, past lonely moated dwellings; on,
+through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom
+of the earth, as though there was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for
+hour after hour!
+
+We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious
+horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they filled
+their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round
+hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside me, mounted
+upon the great white horse, like Death in the Revelation of St John, as
+now and again lifting his fierce set face he gazed out along the road,
+and pointed with his axe towards some distant rise or house.
+
+And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
+
+At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning
+to give out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were
+considerably more than half way. On the top of a rise was a little
+spring, which I remembered because I had slept by it a few nights
+before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaas to pull up, having determined
+to give the horses and ourselves ten minutes to breathe in. He did so,
+and we dismounted--that is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me
+off, for what with fatigue, stiffness, and the pain of my wound, I could
+not do so for myself; and then the gallant horses stood panting there,
+resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat fell drip, drip,
+from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds in the still night
+air.
+
+Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and
+drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful
+of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up,
+though my fatigue was too great to allow me to feel hungry. Then, having
+laved my fevered head and hands, I returned, and the Zulu went and
+drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a couple of mouthfuls each--no
+more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from
+the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling
+up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting the
+condition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though she was, was
+evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her eye looked sick
+and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha's glorious horse--who, if he is served
+aright, should, like the steeds who saved great Rameses in his need,
+feed for the rest of his days out of a golden manger--was still
+comparatively speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had
+by far the heavier weight to carry. He was 'tucked up', indeed, and
+his legs were weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his
+shapely head up and gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that
+seemed to say that whoever failed _he_ was good for those five-and-forty
+miles that yet lay between us and Milosis. Then Umslopogaas helped me
+into the saddle and--vigorous old savage that he was!--vaulted into his
+own without touching a stirrup, and we were off once more, slowly at
+first, till the horses got into their stride, and then more swiftly. So
+we passed over another ten miles, and then came a long, weary rise of
+some six or seven miles, and three times did my poor black mare nearly
+come to the ground with me. But on the top she seemed to gather herself
+together, and rattled down the slope with long, convulsive strides,
+breathing in gasps. We did that three or four miles more swiftly than
+any since we had started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last
+effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between
+her teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for some
+three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or three jerky strides,
+pulled herself up and fell with a crash right on to her head, I rolling
+myself free as she did so. As I struggled to my feet the brave beast
+raised her head and looked at me with piteous bloodshot eyes, and then
+her head dropped with a groan and she was dead. Her heart was broken.
+
+Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him in dismay.
+There were still more than twenty miles to do by dawn, and how were we
+to do it with one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old
+Zulu's extraordinary running powers.
+
+Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to hoist me
+into it.
+
+'What wilt thou do?' I asked.
+
+'Run,' he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
+
+Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief
+it was to me to get that change of horses! Anybody who has ever ridden
+against time will know what it meant.
+
+Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the
+gaunt Zulu a lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thing to see
+old Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightly parted and his
+nostrils agape like the horse's. Every five miles or so we stopped for a
+few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again.
+
+'Canst thou go farther,' I said at the third of these stoppages, 'or
+shall I leave thee to follow me?'
+
+He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of
+the Sun, now not more than five miles away.
+
+'I reach it or I die,' he gasped.
+
+Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my
+legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all.
+I was exhausted with toil, want of food and sleep, and also suffering
+very much from the blow I had received on my left side; it seemed as
+though a piece of bone or something was slowly piercing into my lung.
+Poor Daylight, too, was pretty nearly finished, and no wonder. But there
+was a smell of dawn in the air, and we might not stay; better that all
+three of us should die upon the road than that we should linger while
+there was life in us. The air was thick and heavy, as it sometimes is
+before the dawn breaks, and--another infallible sign in certain parts of
+Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand--hundreds of little spiders pendant on
+the end of long tough webs were floating about in it. These early-rising
+creatures, or rather their webs, caught upon the horse's and our own
+forms by scores, and, as we had neither the time nor the energy to brush
+them off, we rushed along covered with hundreds of long grey threads
+that streamed out a yard or more behind us--and a very strange
+appearance they must have given us.
+
+And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wall of the
+Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me: What if they
+will not let us in?
+
+'_Open! open!_' I shout imperiously, at the same time giving the royal
+password. '_Open! open!_ a messenger, a messenger with tidings of the
+war!'
+
+'What news?' cried the guard. 'And who art thou that ridest so madly,
+and who is that whose tongue lolls out'--and it actually did--'and who
+runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?'
+
+'It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog.
+_Open! open!_ I bring tidings.'
+
+The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge fell with
+a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one and over the other.
+
+'What news, my lord, what news?' cried the guard.
+
+'Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,' I answered, and was
+gone.
+
+One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!
+
+So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen short
+minutes more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both live for ever in the
+annals of the land.
+
+On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passing the Flower
+Temple now--one mile more, only one little mile--hold on, keep your
+life in thee, see the houses run past of themselves. Up, good horse,
+up, there--but fifty yards now. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on
+gallantly.
+
+'Thank God, the palace at last!' and see, the first arrows of the dawn
+are striking on the Temple's golden dome. {Endnote 21} But shall I get
+in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?
+
+Once more I give the password and shout '_Open! open!_'
+
+No answer, and my heart grows very faint.
+
+Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my joy
+I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of Nyleptha's
+guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light--indeed, the same whom
+Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on the day she fled to the temple.
+
+'Is it thou, Kara?' I cry; 'I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard let down the
+bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!'
+
+Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length the
+bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got into the
+courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneath me, as I
+thought, dead. Except Kara, there was nobody to be seen, and his look
+was wild, and his garments were all torn. He had opened the gate and let
+down the bridge alone, and was now getting them up and shut again (as,
+owing to a very ingenious arrangement of cranks and levers, one man
+could easily do, and indeed generally did do).
+
+'Where are the guard?' I gasped, fearing his answer as I never feared
+anything before.
+
+'I know not,' he answered; 'two hours ago, as I slept, was I seized and
+bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very moment, have I freed
+myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly fear, that we are betrayed.'
+
+His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered,
+followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man, through
+the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent as the grave,
+towards the Queen's sleeping-place.
+
+We reached the first ante-room--no guards; the second, still no guards.
+Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after all, too late! The
+silence and solitude of those great chambers was dreadful, and weighed
+me down like an evil dream. On, right into Nyleptha's chamber we rushed
+and staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst; we saw there was
+a light in it, ay, and a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it
+is the White Queen herself, the Queen unharmed! There she stands in
+her night gear, roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the
+heaviness of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame
+mantling her lovely breast and cheek.
+
+'Who is it?' she cries. 'What means this? Oh, Macumazahn, is it thou?
+Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearing evil tidings--and
+my lord--oh, tell me not my lord is dead--not dead!' she wailed,
+wringing her white hands.
+
+'I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais last
+night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten
+back all along her lines, and thy arms prevail.'
+
+'I knew it,' she cried in triumph. 'I knew that he would win; and they
+called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads when I gave him the
+command! Last night at sundown, sayest thou, and it is not yet dawn?
+Surely--'
+
+'Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,' I broke in, 'and give us wine
+to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst save thyself
+alive. Nay, stay not.'
+
+Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towards some room
+beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick cloak, by which
+time a dozen or so of half-dressed women were pouring into the room.
+
+'Follow us and be silent,' I said to them as they gazed with wondering
+eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into the first ante-room.
+
+'Now,' I said, 'give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it, for we
+are near to death.'
+
+The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and
+from a cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold flesh were brought
+forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life flow back into our
+veins as the good red wine went down.
+
+'Hark to me, Nyleptha,' I said, as I put down the empty tankard. 'Hast
+thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of discretion?'
+
+'Ay,' she said, 'surely.'
+
+'Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom thou
+canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them come armed,
+with all honest folk that they can gather, to rescue thee from death.
+Nay, question not; do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the
+maids.'
+
+She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated the
+words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the names of the men
+to whom each should run.
+
+'Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives,' I added.
+
+In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin us at
+the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway as soon as
+he had made fast behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made
+our way, followed by the Queen and her women. As we went we tore off
+mouthfuls of food, and between them I told her what I knew of the danger
+which encompassed her, and how we found Kara, and how all the guards and
+men-servants were gone, and she was alone with her women in that great
+place; and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread through the town
+that our army had been utterly destroyed, and that Sorais was marching
+in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereof all men had fallen
+away from her.
+
+Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been but six or
+seven minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding that the golden roof of
+the temple being very lofty was ablaze with the rays of the rising sun,
+it was not yet dawn, nor would be for another ten minutes. We were in
+the courtyard now, and here my wound pained me so that I had to take
+Nyleptha's arm, while Umslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he
+went.
+
+Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway through the
+palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair.
+
+I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The door was gone,
+and so were the outer gates of bronze--entirely gone. They had been
+taken from their hinges, and as we afterwards found, hurled from the
+stairway to the ground two hundred feet beneath. There in front of us
+was the semicircular standing-space, about twice the size of a large
+oval dining-table, and the ten curved black marble steps leading on to
+the main stair--and that was all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+
+
+
+We looked at one another.
+
+'Thou seest,' I said, 'they have taken away the door. Is there aught
+with which we may fill the place? Speak quickly for they will be on us
+ere the daylight.' I spoke thus, because I knew that we must hold this
+place or none, as there were no inner doors in the palace, the rooms
+being separated one from another by curtains. I also knew that if
+we could by any means defend this doorway the murderers could get in
+nowhere else; for the palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since
+the secret door by which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of
+attempted murder had, by Nyleptha's order, been closed up with masonry.
+
+'I have it,' said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the
+emergency in a wonderful way. 'On the farther side of the courtyard are
+blocks of cut marble--the workmen brought them there for the bed of the
+new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block the door with them.'
+
+I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remaining maidens
+down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance from the
+docks below, where her father, who was a great merchant employing
+many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another to watch through the
+doorway, we made our way back across the courtyard to where the hewn
+marble lay; and here we met Kara returning from despatching the first
+two messengers. There were the marble blocks, sure enough, broad,
+massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing about eighty pounds
+each, and there, too, were a couple of implements like small stretchers,
+that the workmen used to carry them on. Without delay we got some of the
+blocks on to the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to the
+doorway.
+
+'Listen, Macumazahn,' said Umslopogaas, 'if those low fellows come, it
+is I who will hold the stair against them till the door is built up.
+Nay, nay, it will be a man's death: gainsay me not, old friend. It has
+been a good day, let it now be good night. See, I throw myself down to
+rest on the marble there; when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me,
+not before, for I need my strength,' and without a word he went outside
+and flung himself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep.
+
+At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down by the
+doorway, and content myself with directing operations. The girls
+brought the block, while Kara and Nyleptha built them up across the
+six-foot-wide doorway, a triple row of them, for less would be useless.
+But the marble had to be brought forty yards and then there were forty
+yards to run back, and though the girls laboured gloriously, even
+staggering along alone, each with a block in her arms, it was slow work,
+dreadfully slow.
+
+The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we heard a
+commotion at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faint clinking of
+armed men. As yet the wall was only two feet high, and we had been eight
+minutes at the building of it. So they had come. Alphonse had heard
+aright.
+
+The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of the dawning
+we could make out long files of men, some fifty or so in all, slowly
+creeping up the stair. They were now at the half-way standing place that
+rested on the great flying arch; and here, perceiving that something
+was going on above, they, to our great gain, halted for three or four
+minutes and consulted, then slowly and cautiously advanced again.
+
+We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and it was
+almost three feet high.
+
+Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and
+swung Inkosi-kaas round his head.
+
+'It is well,' he said. 'I feel as a young man once more. My strength has
+come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before it dies. Fear not,
+I shall fight a good fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new heart
+into me.
+
+'Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and I stood
+together on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast as a
+spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy flesh, but I could not
+see what was the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us,
+old hunter. So be it: we have had our time, but I would that in it I had
+seen some more such fights as yesterday's.
+
+'Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set
+my eyes towards Zululand;' and he took my hand and shook it, and then
+turned to face the advancing foe.
+
+Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered over
+our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his
+stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did so.
+
+'What, comest thou too?' laughed out the old warrior. 'Welcome--a
+welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can die like a man;
+ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are ready. We
+wet our beaks like eagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our
+assegais, and are hungry to fight. Who comes to give greeting to the
+Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit
+is death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I,
+Umslopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu,
+a captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the son
+of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal
+blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I the Ringed Man, I the Induna,
+I call to them as a buck calls, I challenge them, I await them. Ow! it
+is thou, it is thou!'
+
+As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed men,
+among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta and Agon, came
+streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big fellow, armed with a
+heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircular steps ahead of his comrades
+and struck at the great Zulu with the spear. Umslopogaas moved his
+body but not his legs, so that the blow missed him, and next instant
+Inkosi-kaas crashed through headpiece, hair and skull, and the
+man's corpse was rattling down the steps. As he dropped, his round
+hippopotamus-hide shield fell from his hand on to the marble, and the
+Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so.
+
+In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then began a
+scene the like of which has not been known to me.
+
+Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as they
+came, the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down they rolled again,
+dead or dying. And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu's eye
+seemed to get quicker and his arm stronger. He shouted out his war-cries
+and the names of chiefs whom he had slain, and the blows of his awful
+axe rained straight and true, shearing through everything they fell on.
+There was none of the scientific method he was so fond of about this
+last immortal fight of his; he had no time for it, but struck with his
+full strength, and at every stroke a man sank in his tracks, and went
+rattling down the marble steps.
+
+They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding him in a
+dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the shield protected
+his head and the chain-shirt his vitals, and for minute after minute,
+aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair.
+
+At last Kara's sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled
+down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the brave man that
+he was.
+
+Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned. Shouting
+out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and
+another, till at last they drew back from the slippery blood-stained
+steps, and stared at him with amazement, thinking that he was no mortal
+man.
+
+The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hope rose in my
+teeth as I leaned there against it a miserable helpless log, and ground
+my teeth, and watched that glorious struggle. I could do no more for I
+had lost my revolver in the battle.
+
+And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint as he
+was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them 'women'--the grand old
+warrior, standing there one against so many! And for a breathing space
+none would come against him, notwithstanding Nasta's exhortations, till
+at last old Agon, who, to do him justice, was a brave man, mad with
+baffled rage, and seeing that the wall would soon be built and his plans
+defeated, shook the great spear he held, and rushed up the dripping
+steps.
+
+'Ah, ah!' shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest's flowing white
+beard, 'it is thou, old "witch-finder"! Come on! I await thee, white
+"medicine man"; come on! come on! I have sworn to slay thee, and I ever
+keep my faith.'
+
+On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear with such
+force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough shield and
+pierced him in the neck. The Zulu cast down the transfixed shield, and
+that moment was Agon's last, for before he could free his spear
+and strike again, with a shout of '_There's for thee, Rain-maker!_'
+Umslopogaas gripped Inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled on high and
+drave her right on to his venerable head, so that Agon rolled down dead
+among the corpses of his fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him
+and his plots altogether. And even as he fell, a great cry rose from the
+foot of the stair, and looking out through the portion of the doorway
+that was yet unclosed, we saw armed men rushing up to the rescue, and
+called an answer to their shouts. Then the would-be murderers who yet
+remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw several priests, turned
+to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were butchered as they fled. Only one
+man stayed, and he was the great lord Nasta, Nyleptha's suitor, and
+the father of the plot. For a moment the black-bearded Nasta stood with
+bowed face leaning on his long sword as though in despair, and then,
+with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at the Zulu, and, swinging the
+glittering sword around his head, dealt him such a mighty blow beneath
+his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the
+chain armour and deep into Umslopogaas' side, for a moment paralysing
+him and causing him to drop his axe.
+
+Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an end of him,
+but little he knew his foe. With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu
+gathered himself together and sprang straight at Nasta's throat, as I
+have sometimes seen a wounded lion spring. He struck him full as his
+foot was on the topmost stair, and his long arms closing round him like
+iron bands, down they rolled together struggling furiously. Nasta was a
+strong man and a desperate, but he could not match the strongest man in
+Zululand, sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as the strength
+of a bull. In a minute the end came. I saw old Umslopogaas stagger
+to his feet--ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing up the
+struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight over the
+parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to powder on the rocks two hundred
+feet below.
+
+The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passed down the
+stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, and the loud shouts
+which reached us from the outer gates told us that the town was also
+aroused, and the men awakened by the women were calling to be admitted.
+Some of Nyleptha's brave ladies, who in their night-shifts and with
+their long hair streaming down their backs, just as they had been
+aroused from rest, went off to admit them at the side entrance, whilst
+others, assisted by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down
+the marble blocks they had placed there with so much labour.
+
+Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followed by a
+crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a
+glorious figure. The man was a mass of wounds, and a glance at his wild
+eye told me that he was dying. The 'keshla' gum-ring upon his head was
+severed in two places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in
+his skull, and the blood poured down his face from the gashes. Also on
+the right side of his neck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by
+Agon; there was a deep cut on his left arm just below where the mail
+shirt-sleeve stopped, and on the right side of his body the armour was
+severed by a gash six inches long, where Nasta's mighty sword had bitten
+through it and deep into its wearer's vitals.
+
+On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid savage,
+and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and
+cheered him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With
+outstretched arms and tottering gait he pursued his way, followed by us
+all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ran through the courtyard,
+past the spot where the blocks of marble lay, through the round arched
+doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it, down the
+short passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with
+hastily-armed men, who poured through the side entrance. Straight up
+the hall he went, leaving behind him a track of blood on the marble
+pavement, till at last he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the
+centre of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped
+and leaned upon his axe. Then suddenly he lifted up his voice and cried
+aloud--
+
+'I die, I die--but it was a kingly fray. Where are they who came up the
+great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou
+gone before to wait for me in the dark whither I go? The blood blinds
+me--the place turns round--I hear the voice of waters.'
+
+Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red axe and
+kissed the blade.
+
+'Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,' he cried. 'Nay, nay, we will go together; we
+cannot part, thou and I. We have lived too long one with another, thou
+and I.
+
+'One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke! a
+strong stroke!' and, drawing himself to his full height, with a wild
+heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl the axe round his
+head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly, with
+awful force he brought it down straight on to the crown of the mass
+of sacred stone. A shower of sparks flew up, and such was the almost
+superhuman strength of the blow, that the massive marble split with
+a rending sound into a score of pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there
+remained but some fragments of steel and a fibrous rope of shattered
+horn that had been the handle. Down with a crash on to the pavement fell
+the fragments of the holy stone, and down with a crash on to them, still
+grasping the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old Zulu--_dead_.
+
+And thus the hero died.
+
+A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessed
+the extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, '_The prophecy! the
+prophecy!_ He has shattered the sacred stone!' and at once a murmuring
+arose.
+
+'Ay,' said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishes her.
+'Ay, my people, he has shattered the stone, and behold the prophecy is
+fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis. Incubu, my lord, hath
+beat Sorais back, and I fear her no more, and to him who hath saved the
+Crown it shall surely be. And this man,' she said, turning to me and
+laying her hand upon my shoulder, 'wot ye that, though wounded in the
+fight of yesterday, he rode with that old warrior who lies there, one
+hundred miles 'twixt sun set and rise to save me from the plots of cruel
+men. Ay, and he has saved me, by a very little, and therefore because of
+the deeds that they have done--deeds of glory such as our history cannot
+show the like--therefore I say that the name of Macumazahn and the name
+of dead Umslopogaas, ay, and the name of Kara, my servant, who aided him
+to hold the stair, shall be blazoned in letters of gold above my throne,
+and shall be glorious for ever while the land endures. I, the Queen,
+have said it.'
+
+This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said that after
+all we had only done our duty, as it is the fashion of both Englishmen
+and Zulus to do, and there was nothing to make an outcry about; at
+which they cheered still more, and then I was supported across the outer
+courtyard to my old quarters, in order that I might be put to bed. As
+I went, my eyes lit upon the brave horse Daylight that lay there, his
+white head outstretched on the pavement, exactly as he had fallen on
+entering the yard; and I bade those who supported me take me near him,
+that I might look on the good beast once more before he was dragged
+away. And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyes and,
+lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly. I could have shouted for
+joy to find that he was not dead, only unfortunately I had not a shout
+left in me; but as it was, grooms were sent for and he was lifted up
+and wine poured down his throat, and in a fortnight he was as well and
+strong as ever, and is the pride and joy of all the people of Milosis,
+who, whenever they see him, point him out to the little children as the
+'horse which saved the White Queen's life'.
+
+Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had my mail shirt
+removed. They hurt me a great deal in getting it off, and no wonder, for
+on my left breast and side was a black bruise the size of a saucer.
+
+The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outside the
+palace wall, some ten hours later. I raised myself and asked what was
+the news, and they told me that a large body of cavalry sent by Curtis
+to assist the Queen had arrived from the scene of the battle, which they
+had left two hours after sundown. When they left, the wreck of Sorais'
+army was in full retreat upon M'Arstuna, followed by all our effective
+cavalry. Sir Henry was encamping the remains of his worn-out forces on
+the site (such is the fortune of war) that Sorais had occupied the night
+before, and proposed marching to M'Arstuna on the morrow. Having heard
+this, I felt that I could die with a light heart, and then everything
+became a blank.
+
+
+When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc of a
+sympathetic eyeglass, behind which was Good.
+
+'How are you getting on, old chap?' said a voice from the neighbourhood
+of the eyeglass.
+
+'What are you doing here?' I asked faintly. 'You ought to be at
+M'Arstuna--have you run away, or what?'
+
+'M'Arstuna,' he replied cheerfully. 'Ah, M'Arstuna fell last
+week--you've been unconscious for a fortnight, you see--with all the
+honours of war, you know--trumpets blowing, flags flying, just as though
+they had had the best of it; but for all that, weren't they glad to go.
+Israel made for his tents, I can tell you--never saw such a sight in my
+life.'
+
+'And Sorais?' I asked.
+
+'Sorais--oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the scoundrels,' he
+added, with a change of tone--'sacrificed the Queen to save their skins,
+you see. She is being brought up here, and I don't know what will happen
+to her, poor soul!' and he sighed.
+
+'Where is Curtis?' I asked.
+
+'He is with Nyleptha. She rode out to meet us today, and there was
+a grand to-do, I can tell you. He is coming to see you tomorrow; the
+doctors (for there is a medical "faculty" in Zu-Vendis as elsewhere)
+thought that he had better not come today.'
+
+I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstanding the
+doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when a man is newly
+married and has just gained a great victory, he is apt to listen to the
+advice of doctors, and quite right too.
+
+Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that 'Monsieur must
+now couch himself,' and looking up perceived Alphonse's enormous black
+mustachios curling away in the distance.
+
+'So you are here?' I said.
+
+'Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instincts are
+satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur.'
+
+I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse's
+failings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up to the level
+of his heroic grandfather in this particular, showing thereby how true
+is the saying that it is a bad thing to be overshadowed by some great
+ancestral name), a better or kinder nurse never lived. Poor Alphonse! I
+hope he will always think of me as kindly as I think of him.
+
+On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he told me the
+whole history of what had happened since Umslopogaas and I galloped
+wildly away from the battle to save the life of the Queen. It seemed
+to me that he had managed the thing exceedingly well, and showed great
+ability as a general. Of course, however, our loss had been dreadfully
+heavy--indeed, I am afraid to say how many perished in the desperate
+battle I have described, but I know that the slaughter has appreciably
+affected the male population of the country. He was very pleased to see
+me, dear fellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in his eyes
+for the little that I had been able to do. I saw him, however, start
+violently when his eyes fell upon my face.
+
+As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that 'her dear lord' had
+come back with no other injury than an ugly scar on his forehead. I do
+not believe that she allowed all the fearful slaughter that had taken
+place to weigh ever so little in the balance against this one fact, or
+even to greatly diminish her joy; and I cannot blame her for it, seeing
+that it is the nature of loving woman to look at all things through the
+spectacles of her love, and little does she reck of the misery of the
+many if the happiness of the _one_ be assured. That is human nature,
+which the Positivists tell us is just perfection; so no doubt it is all
+right.
+
+'And what art thou going to do with Sorais?' I asked her.
+
+Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown.
+
+'Sorais,' she said, with a little stamp of the foot; 'ah, but Sorais!'
+
+Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject.
+
+'You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow,' he said.
+
+I shook my head and laughed.
+
+'Don't deceive yourselves,' I said. 'I may be about for a little, but
+I shall never be all right again. I am a dying man, Curtis. I may die
+slow, but die I must. Do you know I have been spitting blood all the
+morning? I tell you there is something working away into my lung; I can
+feel it. There, don't look distressed; I have had my day, and am ready
+to go. Give me the mirror, will you? I want to look at myself.'
+
+He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and at last he
+handed me one of the discs of polished silver set in a wooden frame like
+a hand-screen, which serve as looking-glasses in Zu-Vendis. I looked and
+put it down.
+
+'Ah,' I said quietly, 'I thought so; and you talk of my getting all
+right!' I did not like to let them see how shocked I really was at my
+own appearance. My grizzled stubby hair was turned snow-white, and my
+yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman's and had two deep purple
+rings painted beneath the eyes.
+
+Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject,
+telling me that the artists had taken a cast of the dead body of old
+Umslopogaas, and that a great statue in black marble was to be erected
+of him in the act of splitting the sacred stone, which was to be matched
+by another statue in white marble of myself and the horse Daylight as he
+appeared when, at the termination of that wild ride, he sank beneath me
+in the courtyard of the palace. I have since seen these statues, which
+at the time of writing this, six months after the battle, are nearly
+finished; and very beautiful they are, especially that of Umslopogaas,
+which is exactly like him. As for that of myself, it is good, but they
+have idealized my ugly face a little, which is perhaps as well, seeing
+that thousands of people will probably look at it in the centuries to
+come, and it is not pleasant to look at ugly things.
+
+Then they told me that Umslopogaas' last wish had been carried out, and
+that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, after the usual custom
+here, he had been tied up, Zulu fashion, with his knees beneath his
+chin, and, having been wrapped in a thin sheet of beaten gold, entombed
+in a hole hollowed out of the masonry of the semicircular space at the
+top of the stair he defended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we
+can judge, almost exactly towards Zululand. There he sits, and will sit
+for ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in an air-tight
+stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spot he held alone
+against a multitude; and the people say that at night his ghost rises
+and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas at phantom foes. Certainly
+they fear during the dark hours to pass the place where the hero is
+buried.
+
+Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the land in
+that unaccountable way in which such things to arise among barbarous
+and semi-civilized people, blowing, like the wind, no man knows whence.
+According to this saying, so long as the old Zulu sits there, looking
+down the stairway he defended when alive, so long will the New House of
+the Stairway, springing from the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha,
+endure and flourish; but when he is taken from thence, or when, ages
+after, his bones at last crumble into dust, the House will fall, and the
+Stairway shall fall, and the Nation of the Zu-Vendi shall cease to be a
+Nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+It was a week after Nyleptha's visit, when I had begun to get about
+a little in the middle of the day, that a message came to me from Sir
+Henry to say that Sorais would be brought before them in the Queen's
+first antechamber at midday, and requesting my attendance if possible.
+Accordingly, greatly drawn by curiosity to see this unhappy woman once
+more, I made shift, with the help of that kind little fellow Alphonse,
+who is a perfect treasure to me, and that of another waiting-man, to
+reach the antechamber. I got there, indeed, before anybody else, except
+a few of the great Court officials who had been bidden to be present,
+but I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in by a party
+of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever, but with a worn
+expression on her proud face. She was, as usual, dressed in her royal
+'kaf', emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun, and in her right hand she
+still held the toy spear of silver. A pang of admiration and pity went
+through me as I looked at her, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply,
+at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my
+condition, to remain standing before her.
+
+She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. 'Thou dost forget,
+Macumazahn,' she said, 'I am no more a Queen, save in blood; I am an
+outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should scorn, and none show
+deference to.'
+
+'At least,' I replied, 'thou art still a lady, and therefore one to whom
+deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it is
+doubly due.'
+
+'Ah!' she answered, with a little laugh, 'thou dost forget that I
+would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the angel's
+trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.'
+
+'No,' I answered, 'I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed, I often
+thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass was
+turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and I am still here,
+though perchance not for long, so why talk of it now?'
+
+'Ah!' she went on, 'the battle! the battle! Oh, would that I were once
+more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would take such a
+vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need; that it
+should only be spoken of in whispers; those woman, those pigeon-hearted
+half-breeds who suffered themselves to be overcome!' and she choked in
+her wrath.
+
+'Ay, and that little coward beside thee,' she went on, pointing at
+Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very uncomfortable;
+'he escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried to make a general of him,
+telling the soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him'
+(here Alphonse shivered at some unhappy recollection), 'but it was of no
+avail. He hid beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans. I
+would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
+
+'And thou, Macumazahn, I have heard of what thou didst; thou art brave,
+and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he was a _man_. I
+would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.'
+
+'Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,' I said; 'I pray thee now plead with
+the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy unto thee.'
+
+She laughed out loud. 'I plead for mercy!' she said and at that moment
+the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took her seat
+with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely ill at
+ease.
+
+'Greeting, Sorais!' said Nyleptha, after a short pause. 'Thou hast rent
+the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of my people to the
+sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder, thou
+hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from the
+Stairway. What hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die? Speak, O
+Sorais!'
+
+'Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the
+indictment,' answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. 'It runs thus:
+"Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu." It is for this
+crime that my sister will slay me, not because I levied war. It is
+perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love
+too late.
+
+'Listen,' she went on, raising her voice. 'I have nought to say save
+that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou with me even as
+thou wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there' (pointing to Sir
+Henry)--'for now will he be King--carry out the sentence, as it is meet
+he should, for as he is the beginning of the evil, let him also be the
+end.' And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her
+deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear.
+
+Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could not
+catch, and then the Queen spoke.
+
+'Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our father died,
+and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit
+upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gave my voice for thee and
+said, "Nay, let her sit. She is twin with me; we were born at a birth;
+wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?" And so has it
+ever been 'twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in what
+sort thou hast repaid me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit,
+Sorais. And yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we
+played together when we were little and loved each other much, and at
+night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the other's
+neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out to thee, Sorais.
+
+'But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence has been too
+heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy even to the ground.
+Also, while thou dost live the land will never be at peace.
+
+'Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hath begged
+thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as a marriage gift
+give I it to him, to do with even as he wills, knowing that, though
+thou dost love him, he loves thee not, Sorais, for all thy beauty. Nay,
+though thou art lovely as the night in all her stars, O Lady of the
+Night, yet it is me his wife whom he loves, and not thee, and therefore
+do I give thy life to him.'
+
+Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do not think that
+I ever saw a man look more miserable than did Sir Henry at that moment.
+Somehow, Nyleptha's way of putting the thing, though true and forcible
+enough, was not altogether pleasant.
+
+'I understand,' stammered Curtis, looking at Good, 'I understood that he
+were attached--eh--attached to--to the Queen Sorais. I am--eh--not aware
+what the--in short, the state of your feelings may be just now; but if
+they happened to be that way inclined, it has struck me that--in short,
+it might put a satisfactory end to an unpleasant business. The lady also
+has ample private estates, where I am sure she would be at liberty to
+live unmolested as far as we are concerned, eh, Nyleptha? Of course, I
+only suggest.'
+
+'So far as I am concerned,' said Good, colouring up, 'I am quite willing
+to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinks me worth the
+taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes, and try to make her
+a good husband.'
+
+All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that same slow smile
+upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the first time that I ever
+saw her. She paused a little while, and cleared her throat, and then
+thrice she curtseyed low, once to Nyleptha, once to Curtis, and once to
+Good, and began to speak in measured tones.
+
+'I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for the
+loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especially in
+that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate as a gift
+to the Lord Incubu--the King that is to be. May prosperity, peace and
+plenty deck the life-path of one so merciful and so tender, even as
+flowers do. Long mayst thou reign, O great and glorious Queen, and hold
+thy husband's love in both thy hands, and many be the sons and daughters
+of thy beauty. And I thank thee, my Lord Incubu--the King that is to
+be--I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleased to
+accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on to thy comrade in arms
+and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan. Surely the act is worthy of thy
+greatness, my Lord Incubu. And now, lastly, I thank thee also, my Lord
+Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deigned to accept me and my poor beauty.
+I thank thee a thousand times, and I will add that thou art a good and
+honest man, and I put my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that
+I could say thee "yea". And now that I have rendered thanks to all in
+turn'--and again she smiled--'I will add one short word.
+
+'Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords, if ye
+know not that for me there is no middle path; that I scorn your pity and
+hate you for it; that I cast off your forgiveness as though it were a
+serpent's sting; and that standing here, betrayed, deserted, insulted,
+and alone, I yet triumph over you, mock you, and defy you, one and all,
+and _thus_ I answer you.' And then, of a sudden, before anybody guessed
+what she intended to do, she drove the little silver spear she carried
+in her hand into her side with such a strong and steady aim that the
+keen point projected through her back, and she fell prone upon the
+pavement.
+
+Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight, while the
+rest of us rushed towards her. But Sorais of the Night lifted herself
+upon her hand, and for a moment fixed her glorious eyes intently on
+Curtis' face, as though there were some message in the glance, then
+dropped her head and sighed, and with a sob her dark but splendid spirit
+passed.
+
+Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her.
+
+
+It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that a great
+ceremony was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis was formally declared
+King-Consort of Zu-Vendis. I was too ill to go myself; and indeed, I
+hate all that sort of thing, with the crowds and the trumpet-blowing and
+banner-waving; but Good, who was there (in his full-dress uniform), came
+back much impressed, and told me that Nyleptha had looked lovely, and
+Curtis had borne himself in a right royal fashion, and had been received
+with acclamations that left no doubt as to his popularity. Also he told
+me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the procession, the
+populace had shouted '_Macumazahn, Macumazahn!_' till they were hoarse,
+and would only be appeased when he, Good, rose in his chariot and told
+them that I was too ill to be present.
+
+Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me, looking
+very tired, and vowing that he had never been so bored in his life;
+but I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration. It is not in human
+nature that a man should be altogether bored on such an extraordinary
+occasion; and, indeed, as I pointed out to him, it was a marvellous
+thing that a man, who but little more than one short year before had
+entered a great country as an unknown wanderer, should today be
+married to its beautiful and beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst public
+rejoicings, to its throne. I even went the length to exhort him in the
+future not to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute
+power, but always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian
+gentleman, and next a public servant, called by Providence to a great
+and almost unprecedented trust. These remarks, which he might fairly
+have resented, he was so good as to receive with patience, and even to
+thank me for making them.
+
+It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to be moved
+to the house where I am now writing. It is a very pleasant country seat,
+situated about two miles from the Frowning City, on to which it looks.
+That was five months ago, during the whole of which time I have, being
+confined to a kind of couch, employed my leisure in compiling this
+history of our wanderings from my journal and from our joint memories.
+It is probable that it will never be read, but it does not much matter
+whether it is or not; at any rate, it has served to while away many
+hours of suffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain lately. Thank
+God, however, there will not be much more of it.
+
+
+It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my pen for the
+last time, for I know that the end is at hand. My brain is still clear
+and I can manage to write, though with difficulty. The pain in my lung,
+which has been very bad during the last week, has suddenly quite left
+me, and been succeeded by a feeling of numbness of which I cannot
+mistake the meaning. And just as the pain has gone, so with it all fear
+of that end has departed, and I feel only as though I were going to sink
+into the arms of an unutterable rest. Happily, contentedly, and with the
+same sense of security with which an infant lays itself to sleep in its
+mother's arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of the Angel Death. All
+the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which have haunted me through
+a life that seems long as I looked back upon it, have left me now; the
+storms have passed, and the Star of our Eternal Hope shines clear and
+steady on the horizon that seems so far from man, and yet is so very
+near to me tonight.
+
+And so this is the end of it--a brief space of troubling, a few
+restless, fevered, anguished years, and then the arms of that great
+Angel Death. Many times have I been near to them, and now it is my turn
+at last, and it is well. Twenty-four hours more and the world will be
+gone from me, and with it all its hopes and all its fears. The air will
+close in over the space that my form filled and my place know me no
+more; for the dull breath of the world's forgetfulness will first dim
+the brightness of my memory, and then blot it out for ever, and of a
+truth I shall be dead. So is it with us all. How many millions have lain
+as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!--thousands upon
+thousands of years ago they thought them, those dying men of the dim
+past; and thousands on thousands of years hence will their descendants
+think them and be in their turn forgotten. 'As the breath of the oxen
+in winter, as the quick star that runs along the sky, as a little shadow
+that loses itself at sunset,' as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi put
+it, such is the order of our life, the order that passeth away.
+
+Well, it is not a good world--nobody can say that it is, save those who
+wilfully blind themselves to facts. How can a world be good in which
+Money is the moving power, and Self-interest the guiding star? The
+wonder is not that it is so bad, but that there should be any good left
+in it.
+
+Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, glad to have
+known the dear breath of woman's love, and that true friendship which
+can even surpass the love of woman, glad to have heard the laughter of
+little children, to have seen the sun and the moon and the stars, to
+have felt the kiss of the salt sea on my face, and watched the wild game
+trek down to the water in the moonlight. But I should not wish to live
+again!
+
+Everything is changing to me. The darkness draws near, and the light
+departs. And yet it seems to me that through that darkness I can already
+see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face. Harry is there, and
+others; one above all, to my mind the sweetest and most perfect woman
+that ever gladdened this grey earth. But of her I have already written
+elsewhere, and at length, so why speak of her now? Why speak of her
+after this long silence, now that she is again so near to me, now that I
+go where she has gone?
+
+The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple to a
+fiery flame, and my fingers tire.
+
+So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can think one
+kindly thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand from the far-off
+shore and bid a long farewell.
+
+And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commit my
+spirit.
+
+'_I have spoken,_' as the Zulus say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV  BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+
+A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermain wrote the
+words '_I have spoken_' at the end of his record of our adventures. Nor
+should I have ventured to make any additions to the record had it not
+happened that by a most strange accident a chance has arisen of its
+being conveyed to England. The chance is but a faint one, it is true;
+but, as it is not probable that another will arise in our lifetimes,
+Good and myself think that we may as well avail ourselves of it, such as
+it is. During the last six months several Frontier Commissions have
+been at work on the various boundaries of Zu-Vendis, with a view of
+discovering whether there exists any possible means of ingress or egress
+from the country, with the result that a channel of communication with
+the outer world hitherto overlooked has been discovered. This channel,
+apparently the only one (for I have discovered that it was by it that
+the native who ultimately reached Mr Mackenzie's mission station,
+and whose arrival in the country, together with the fact of his
+expulsion--for he _did_ arrive about three years before ourselves--was
+for reasons of their own kept a dead secret by the priests to whom he
+was brought), is about to be effectually closed. But before this is
+done, a messenger is to be despatched bearing with him this manuscript,
+and also one or two letters from Good to his friends, and from myself to
+my brother George, whom it deeply grieves me to think I shall never see
+again, informing them, as our next heirs, that they are welcome to our
+effects in England, if the Court of Probate will allow them to take them
+{Endnote 22}, inasmuchas we have made up our minds never to return to
+Europe. Indeed, it would be impossible for us to leave Zu-Vendis even if
+we wished to do so.
+
+The messenger who is to go--and I wish him joy of his journey--is
+Alphonse. For a long while he has been wearied to death of Zu-Vendis
+and its inhabitants. 'Oh, oui, c'est beau,' he says, with an expressive
+shrug; 'mais je m'ennuie; ce n'est pas chic.' Again, he complains
+dreadfully of the absence of cafes and theatres, and moans continually
+for his lost Annette, of whom he says he dreams three times a week. But
+I fancy his secret cause of disgust at the country, putting aside the
+homesickness to which every Frenchman is subject, is that the people
+here laugh at him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of the
+great battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hid beneath
+a banner in Sorais's tent in order to avoid being sent forth to fight,
+which he says would have gone against his conscience. Even the little
+boys call out at him in the streets, thereby offending his pride and
+making his life unbearable. At any rate, he has determined to brave the
+horrors of a journey of almost unprecedented difficulty and danger, and
+also to run the risk of falling into the hands of the French police
+to answer for a certain little indiscretion of his own some years old
+(though I do not consider that a very serious matter), rather than
+remain in ce triste pays. Poor Alphonse! we shall be very sorry to part
+with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and also for the sake
+of this history, which is, I think, worth giving to the world, that he
+may arrive in safety. If he does, and can carry the treasure we have
+provided him with in the shape of bars of solid gold, he will be,
+comparatively speaking, a rich man for life, and well able to marry his
+Annette, if she is still in the land of the living and willing to marry
+her Alphonse.
+
+Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two to dear old
+Quatermain's narrative.
+
+He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote the last
+words of the last chapter. Nyleptha, Good and myself were present, and a
+most touching and yet in its way beautiful scene it was. An hour before
+the daybreak it became apparent to us that he was sinking, and our
+distress was very keen. Indeed, Good melted into tears at the idea--a
+fact that called forth a last gentle flicker of humour from our dying
+friend, for even at that hour he could be humorous. Good's emotion had,
+by loosening the muscles, naturally caused his eyeglass to fall from
+its accustomed place, and Quatermain, who always observed everything,
+observed this also.
+
+'At last,' he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, 'I have seen Good
+without his eyeglass.'
+
+After that he said no more till the day broke, when he asked to be
+lifted up to watch the rising of the sun for the last time.
+
+'In a very few minutes,' he said, after gazing earnestly at it, 'I shall
+have passed through those golden gates.'
+
+Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedly in the
+face.
+
+'I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together.
+Think of me sometimes,' he murmured. 'God bless you all. I shall wait
+for you.' And with a sigh he fell back dead.
+
+And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfection
+as any it has ever been my lot to encounter.
+
+Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualities that
+go to make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a man of action and
+a citizen of the world. I never knew any one so competent to form an
+accurate judgment of men and their motives. 'I have studied human nature
+all my life,' he would say, 'and I ought to know something about it,'
+and he certainly did. He had but two faults--one was his excessive
+modesty, and the other a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of
+anybody on whom he concentrated his affections. As regards the first of
+these points, anybody who reads what he has written will be able to form
+his own opinion; but I will add one last instance of it.
+
+As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trick of his to
+talk of himself as a timid man, whereas really, though very cautious,
+he possessed a most intrepid spirit, and, what is more, never lost his
+head. Well, in the great battle of the Pass, where he got the wound that
+finally killed him, one would imagine from the account which he gives
+of the occurrence that it was a chance blow that fell on him in the
+scrimmage. As a matter of fact, however, he was wounded in a most
+gallant and successful attempt to save Good's life, at the risk and, as
+it ultimately turned out, at the cost of his own. Good was down on the
+ground, and one of Nasta's highlanders was about to dispatch him, when
+Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form and received the blow
+on his own body, and then, rising, killed the soldier.
+
+As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justice to
+myself and Nyleptha will suffice. The reader will, perhaps, recollect
+that in one or two places he speaks as though Nyleptha monopolized me,
+and he was left by both of us rather out in the cold. Now Nyleptha is
+not perfect, any more than any other woman is, and she may be a little
+exigeante at times, but as regards Quatermain the whole thing is pure
+imagination. Thus when he complains about my not coming to see him when
+he is ill, the fact was that, in spite of my entreaties, the doctors
+positively forbade it. Those little remarks of his pained me very much
+when I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as though he were
+my own father, and should never have dreamed of allowing my marriage to
+interfere with that affection. But let it pass; it is, after all, but
+one little weakness, which makes no great show among so many and such
+lovable virtues.
+
+Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in the presence
+of Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, in deference to the
+popular clamour, accorded a great public funeral, or rather cremation. I
+could not help thinking, however, as I marched in that long and splendid
+procession up to the Temple, how he would have hated the whole thing
+could he have been there to see it, for he had a horror of ostentation.
+
+And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night after his death,
+they laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar, and waited for
+the last ray of the setting sun to fall upon his face. Presently it
+came, and struck him like a golden arrow, crowning the pale brows with
+glory, and then the trumpets blew, and the flooring revolved, and all
+that remained of our beloved friend fell into the furnace below.
+
+We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years. He was
+the ablest man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend, the finest
+sportsman, and, I believe, the best shot in all Africa.
+
+And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of Hunter
+Quatermain.
+
+
+Since then things have gone very well with us. Good has been, and still
+is, busily employed in the construction of a navy on Lake Milosis and
+another of the large lakes, by means of which we hope to be able to
+increase trade and commerce, and also to overcome some very troublesome
+and warlike sections of the population who live upon their borders. Poor
+fellow! he is beginning to get over the sad death of that misguided but
+most attractive woman, Sorais, but it is a sad blow to him, for he was
+really deeply attached to her. I hope, however, that he will in time
+make a suitable marriage and get that unhappy business out of his head.
+Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view, especially a daughter of
+Nasta's (who was a widower), a very fine imperial-looking girl, but with
+too much of her father's intriguing, and yet haughty, spirit to suit my
+taste.
+
+As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I set to work
+to describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed, and content
+myself with saying that, on the whole, I am getting on very well in my
+curious position of King-Consort--better, indeed, than I had any right
+to expect. But, of course, it is not all plain sailing, and I find the
+responsibilities very heavy. Still, I hope to be able to do some good in
+my time, and I intend to devote myself to two great ends--namely, to the
+consolidation of the various clans which together make up the Zu-Vendi
+people, under one strong central government, and to the sapping of the
+power of the priesthood. The first of these reforms will, if it can
+be carried out, put an end to the disastrous civil wars that have for
+centuries devastated this country; and the second, besides removing a
+source of political danger, will pave the road for the introduction of
+true religion in the place of this senseless Sun worship. I yet hope to
+see the shadow of the Cross of Christ lying on the golden dome of the
+Flower Temple; or, if I do not, that my successors may.
+
+There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, and that is
+the total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis. Not, indeed, that
+any more are ever likely to get here, but if they do, I warn them fairly
+that they will be shown the shortest way out of the country. I do not
+say this from any sense of inhospitality, but because I am convinced of
+the sacred duty that rests upon me of preserving to this, on the
+whole, upright and generous-hearted people the blessings of comparative
+barbarism. Where would all my brave army be if some enterprising rascal
+were to attack us with field-guns and Martini-Henrys? I cannot see that
+gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily newspapers, universal suffrage,
+etc., etc., have made mankind one whit the happier than they used to
+be, and I am certain that they have brought many evils in their train.
+I have no fancy for handing over this beautiful country to be torn and
+fought for by speculators, tourists, politicians and teachers, whose
+voice is as the voice of Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the
+valley of the underground river tore and fought for the body of the wild
+swan; nor will I endow it with the greed, drunkenness, new diseases,
+gunpowder, and general demoralization which chiefly mark the progress
+of civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples. If in due course it
+pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open to the world, that is another
+matter; but of myself I will not take the responsibility, and I may add
+that Good entirely approves of my decision. Farewell.
+
+Henry Curtis
+
+
+December 15, 18--.
+
+PS--I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha (who
+is very well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautiful than ever)
+presented me with a son and heir. He is a regular curly-haired,
+blue-eyed young Englishman in looks, and, though he is destined, if he
+lives, to inherit the throne of Zu-Vendis, I hope I may be able to bring
+him up to become what an English gentleman should be, and generally
+is--which is to my mind even a prouder and a finer thing than being
+born heir apparent to the great House of the Stairway, and, indeed, the
+highest rank that a man can reach upon this earth.
+
+H. C.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.
+
+
+
+The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting of my dear
+brother Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead, and bearing the
+Aden postmark, reached me in safety on December 20, 18--, or a little
+more than two years after it left his hands in the far centre of Africa,
+and I hasten to give the astonishing story it contains to the world.
+Speaking for myself, I have read it with very mixed feelings; for though
+it is a great relief to know that he and Good are alive and strangely
+prosperous, I cannot but feel that for me and for all their friends they
+might as well be dead, since we can never hope to see them more.
+
+They have cut themselves off from old England and from their homes and
+their relations for ever, and perhaps, under the circumstances, they
+were right and wise to do so.
+
+How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover; but
+I presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, that the little
+Frenchman, Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journey in safety. I
+have, however, advertised for him and caused various inquiries to
+be made in Marseilles and elsewhere with a view of discovering his
+whereabouts, but so far without the slightest success. Possibly he is
+dead, and the packet was posted by another hand; or possibly he is now
+happily wedded to his Annette, but still fears the vengeance of the law,
+and prefers to remain incognito. I cannot say, I have not yet abandoned
+my hopes of finding him, but I am bound to say that they grow fainter
+day by day, and one great obstacle to my search is that nowhere in
+the whole history does Mr Quatermain mention his surname. He is always
+spoken of as 'Alphonse', and there are so many Alphonses. The letters
+which my brother Henry says he is sending with the packet of manuscript
+have never arrived, so I presume that they are lost or destroyed.
+
+George Curtis
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his 'Quellen'.
+As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in the past,
+some reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge my
+indebtedness to Mr Thomson's admirable history of travel 'Through Masai
+Land' for much information as to the habits and customs of the tribes
+inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and the country where
+they live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard, RN, HBM's consul at
+Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished by
+him of the mode of life and war of those engaging people the Masai; also
+to my sister-in-law, Mrs John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p.
+183 into rhyme for me; also to an extract in a review from some book of
+travel of which I cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea of
+the great crabs in the valley of the subterranean river. {Endnote 23}
+But if I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritated projected
+their eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that I was not able to
+'plagiarize' this effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and
+doubtless do, behave thus in real life, in romance they 'will not do
+so.'
+
+There is an underground river in 'Peter Wilkins', but at the time of
+writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaint but entertaining
+work.
+
+It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similarity between the
+scene of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with his axe and a scene in
+Far from the Madding Crowd. I regret this coincidence, and believe that
+the talented author of that work will not be inclined to accuse me of
+literary immorality on its account.
+
+Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain's little Frenchman appears to
+belong to the same class of beings as those English ladies whose long
+yellow teeth and feet of enormous size excite our hearty amusement in
+the pages of the illustrated Gallic press.
+
+The Writer of 'Allan Quatermain'
+
+
+Endnote 1
+
+Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a species of
+black gum twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliant black,
+when he has reached a certain dignity and age, or is the husband of a
+sufficient number of wives. Till he is in a position to wear a ring he
+is looked on as a boy, though he may be thirty-five years of age, or
+even more.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 2
+
+One of the fleetest of the African antelopes.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 3
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a dead foe. They
+have a superstition that, if this is not done, as the body of their
+enemy swells up so will the bodies of those who killed him swell up.--A.
+Q.
+
+
+Endnote 4
+
+No doubt this owl was a wingless bird. I afterwards learnt that the
+hooting of an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 5
+
+Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords, but
+have never been able to discover how the gold plates were inlaid in the
+fretwork. The armourers who make them in Zu-vendis bind themselves by
+oath not to reveal the secret.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 6
+
+The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so all the
+booty they may win in battle belongs to their fathers alone.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 7
+
+As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas's Zulu names was the
+'Woodpecker'. I could never make out why he was called so until I
+saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at once recognized the
+resemblance.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 8
+
+By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr Quatermain, the
+Masai have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and his wife--Mr and
+Mrs Houghton--on this very Tana River, and at the spot described. These
+are, I believe, the first white people who are known to have fallen
+victims to this cruel tribe.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 9
+
+Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes--Pleasure sat at the helm.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 10
+
+  Where Alph the sacred river ran
+  Through caverns measureless to man
+  Down to a sunless sea
+
+
+Endnote 11
+
+Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is common for
+animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beasts they adore.
+See Herodotus, ii. 45.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 12
+
+There is another theory which might account for the origin of the
+Zu-Vendi which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr Quatermain
+and his companions, and that is, that they are descendants of the
+Phoenicians. The cradle of the Phoenician race is supposed to have
+been on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Thence, as there is
+good evidence to show, they emigrated in two streams, one of which took
+possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is supposed by
+savants to have immigrated down the coast of Eastern Africa where,
+near Mozambique, signs and remains of their occupation are not wanting.
+Indeed, it would have been very extraordinary if they did not, when
+leaving the Persian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that
+the north-east monsoon blows for six months in the year dead in that
+direction, while for the other six months it blows back again. And, by
+the way of illustrating the probability, I may add that to this day a
+very extensive trade is carried on between the Persian Gulf and Lamu and
+other East African ports as far south as Madagascar, which is of course
+the ancient Ebony Isle of the 'Arabian Nights'.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 13
+
+There are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet (see Appendix,
+Maspero's Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient, p. 746, etc.)
+Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives us no specimen of the Zu-Vendi
+writing, but what he here states seems to go a long way towards
+substantiating the theory advanced in the note on p. 149.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 14
+
+These are internal measurements.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 15
+
+Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of the dome
+and in the roof.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 16
+
+This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions to be found
+in the Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independent of the
+material splendour of the orb they worship. 'Taia', the word used
+here, has a very indeterminate meaning, and signifies essence, vital
+principle, spirit, or even God.
+
+
+Endnote 17
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 18
+
+In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married by the High
+Priest or a formally appointed deputy.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 19
+
+Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers on a framework
+of spears.
+
+
+Endnote 20
+
+The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 21
+
+Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught the light some
+time before the breaking of the dawn.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 22
+
+Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of the sort.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 23
+
+It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the "Falcon", with
+which work I am personally unacquainted.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Allan Quatermain
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2004 [EBook #711]
+Last Updated: November 26, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ng E-Ching, Singapore
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ALLAN QUATERMAIN
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+I inscribe this book of adventure to my son ARTHUR JOHN RIDER HAGGARD in
+the hope that in days to come he, and many other boys whom I shall
+never know, may, in the acts and thoughts of Allan Quatermain and his
+companions, as herein recorded, find something to help him and them
+to reach to what, with Sir Henry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank
+whereto we can attain--the state and dignity of English gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+          INTRODUCTION
+   I      THE CONSUL'S YARN
+   II     THE BLACK HAND
+   III    THE MISSION STATION
+   IV     ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+   V      UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+   VI     THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+   VII    A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+   VIII   ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+   IX     INTO THE UNKNOWN
+   X      THE ROSE OF FIRE
+   XI     THE FROWNING CITY
+   XII    THE SISTER QUEENS
+   XIII   ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+   XIV    THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+   XV     SORAIS' SONG
+   XVI    BEFORE THE STATUE
+   XVII   THE STORM BREAKS
+   XVIII  WAR! RED WAR!
+   XIX    A STRANGE WEDDING
+   XX     THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+   XXI    AWAY! AWAY!
+   XXII   HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+   XXIII  I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+December 23
+
+'I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I was so proud,
+and my heart is broken. It is very hard having only one son to lose him
+thus, but God's will be done. Who am I that I should complain? The great
+wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all in turn,
+some soon, some late--it does not matter when, in the end, it crushes us
+all. We do not prostrate ourselves before it like the poor Indians; we
+fly hither and thither--we cry for mercy; but it is of no use, the black
+Fate thunders on and in its season reduces us to powder.
+
+'Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening to him. He was
+doing so well at the hospital, he had passed his last examination with
+honours, and I was proud of them, much prouder than he was, I think. And
+then he must needs go to that smallpox hospital. He wrote to me that he
+was not afraid of smallpox and wanted to gain the experience; and now
+the disease has killed him, and I, old and grey and withered, am left
+to mourn over him, without a chick or child to comfort me. I might have
+saved him, too--I have money enough for both of us, and much more than
+enough--King Solomon's Mines provided me with that; but I said, "No, let
+the boy earn his living, let him labour that he may enjoy rest." But the
+rest has come to him before the labour. Oh, my boy, my boy!
+
+'I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and builded
+barns--goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in; and now his
+soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate. I would that it
+had been my soul and not my boy's!
+
+'We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey and ancient
+tower of the church of this village where my house is. It was a dreary
+December afternoon, and the sky was heavy with snow, but not much was
+falling. The coffin was put down by the grave, and a few big flakes lit
+upon it. They looked very white upon the black cloth! There was a little
+hitch about getting the coffin down into the grave--the necessary ropes
+had been forgotten: so we drew back from it, and waited in silence
+watching the big flakes fall gently one by one like heavenly
+benedictions, and melt in tears on Harry's pall. But that was not all.
+A robin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon the coffin and
+began to sing. And then I am afraid that I broke down, and so did Sir
+Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as for Captain Good, I saw
+him turn away too; even in my own distress I could not help noticing
+it.'
+
+
+The above, signed 'Allan Quatermain', is an extract from my diary
+written two years and more ago. I copy it down here because it seems to
+me that it is the fittest beginning to the history that I am about to
+write, if it please God to spare me to finish it. If not, well it does
+not matter. That extract was penned seven thousand miles or so from the
+spot where I now lie painfully and slowly writing this, with a pretty
+girl standing by my side fanning the flies from my august countenance.
+Harry is there and I am here, and yet somehow I cannot help feeling that
+I am not far off Harry.
+
+When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house--at least
+I call it a fine house, speaking comparatively, and judging from
+the standard of the houses I have been accustomed to all my life in
+Africa--not five hundred yards from the old church where Harry is
+asleep, and thither I went after the funeral and ate some food; for it
+is no good starving even if one has just buried all one's earthly
+hopes. But I could not eat much, and soon I took to walking, or rather
+limping--being permanently lame from the bite of a lion--up and down,
+up and down the oak-panelled vestibule; for there is a vestibule in my
+house in England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were placed
+pairs of horns--about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which I had
+shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I never keep any horns
+which are not in every way perfect, unless it may be now and again on
+account of the associations connected with them. In the centre of the
+room, however, over the wide fireplace, there was a clear space left on
+which I had fixed up all my rifles. Some of them I have had for forty
+years, old muzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays. One was an
+elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed round the stock
+and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen--a 'roer' they call
+it. That gun, the Boer I bought it from many years ago told me, had been
+used by his father at the battle of the Blood River, just after Dingaan
+swept into Natal and slaughtered six hundred men, women, and children,
+so that the Boers named the place where they died 'Weenen', or the
+'Place of Weeping'; and so it is called to this day, and always will be
+called. And many an elephant have I shot with that old gun. She always
+took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce ball, and kicked like
+the very deuce.
+
+Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the horns which
+the guns had brought low; and as I did so there rose up in me a great
+craving:--I would go away from this place where I lived idly and at
+ease, back again to the wild land where I had spent my life, where I met
+my dear wife and poor Harry was born, and so many things, good, bad, and
+indifferent, had happened to me. The thirst for the wilderness was on
+me; I could tolerate this place no more; I would go and die as I had
+lived, among the wild game and the savages. Yes, as I walked, I began to
+long to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the wide veldt and
+mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of game travelling down the
+ridges to the water. The ruling passion is strong in death, they say,
+and my heart was dead that night. But, independently of my trouble, no
+man who has for forty years lived the life I have, can with impunity go
+coop himself in this prim English country, with its trim hedgerows
+and cultivated fields, its stiff formal manners, and its well-dressed
+crowds. He begins to long--ah, how he longs!--for the keen breath of the
+desert air; he dreams of the sight of Zulu impis breaking on their foes
+like surf upon the rocks, and his heart rises up in rebellion against
+the strict limits of the civilized life.
+
+Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to? For forty years and
+more I lived among savages, and studied them and their ways; and now for
+several years I have lived here in England, and have in my own stupid
+manner done my best to learn the ways of the children of light; and what
+have I found? A great gulf fixed? No, only a very little one, that a
+plain man's thought may spring across. I say that as the savage is, so
+is the white man, only the latter is more inventive, and possesses the
+faculty of combination; save and except also that the savage, as I have
+known him, is to a large extent free from the greed of money, which
+eats like a cancer into the heart of the white man. It is a depressing
+conclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the child of
+civilization are identical. I dare say that the highly civilized lady
+reading this will smile at an old fool of a hunter's simplicity when
+she thinks of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so will the superfine
+cultured idler scientifically eating a dinner at his club, the cost of
+which would keep a starving family for a week. And yet, my dear young
+lady, what are those pretty things round your own neck?--they have a
+strong family resemblance, especially when you wear that _very_ low
+dress, to the savage woman's beads. Your habit of turning round and
+round to the sound of horns and tom-toms, your fondness for pigments
+and powders, the way in which you love to subjugate yourself to the rich
+warrior who has captured you in marriage, and the quickness with which
+your taste in feathered head-dresses varies--all these things suggest
+touches of kinship; and you remember that in the fundamental principles
+of your nature you are quite identical. As for you, sir, who also laugh,
+let some man come and strike you in the face whilst you are enjoying
+that marvellous-looking dish, and we shall soon see how much of the
+savage there is in _you_.
+
+There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good? Civilization is
+only savagery silver-gilt. A vainglory is it, and like a northern
+light, comes but to fade and leave the sky more dark. Out of the soil
+of barbarism it has grown like a tree, and, as I believe, into the
+soil like a tree it will once more, sooner or later, fall again, as the
+Egyptian civilization fell, as the Hellenic civilization fell, and as
+the Roman civilization and many others of which the world has now lost
+count, fell also. Do not let me, however, be understood as decrying our
+modern institutions, representing as they do the gathered experience
+of humanity applied for the good of all. Of course they have great
+advantages--hospitals for instance; but then, remember, we breed
+the sickly people who fill them. In a savage land they do not exist.
+Besides, the question will arise: How many of these blessings are due to
+Christianity as distinct from civilization? And so the balance sways and
+the story runs--here a gain, there a loss, and Nature's great average
+struck across the two, whereof the sum total forms one of the factors in
+that mighty equation in which the result will equal the unknown quantity
+of her purpose.
+
+I make no apology for this digression, especially as this is an
+introduction which all young people and those who never like to think
+(and it is a bad habit) will naturally skip. It seems to me very
+desirable that we should sometimes try to understand the limitations
+of our nature, so that we may not be carried away by the pride of
+knowledge. Man's cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an
+elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round
+and round it, you can polish it highly, you can even flatten it a little
+on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the other, but you will
+_never_, while the world endures and man is man, increase its total
+circumference. It is the one fixed unchangeable thing--fixed as the
+stars, more enduring than the mountains, as unalterable as the way of
+the Eternal. Human nature is God's kaleidoscope, and the little bits
+of coloured glass which represent our passions, hopes, fears, joys,
+aspirations towards good and evil and what not, are turned in His mighty
+hand as surely and as certainly as it turns the stars, and continually
+fall into new patterns and combinations. But the composing elements
+remain the same, nor will there be one more bit of coloured glass nor
+one less for ever and ever.
+
+This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselves
+into twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we must look
+to the nineteen savage portions of our nature, if we would really
+understand ourselves, and not to the twentieth, which, though so
+insignificant in reality, is spread all over the other nineteen, making
+them appear quite different from what they really are, as the blacking
+does a boot, or the veneer a table. It is on the nineteen rough
+serviceable savage portions that we fall back on emergencies, not on the
+polished but unsubstantial twentieth. Civilization should wipe away our
+tears, and yet we weep and cannot be comforted. Warfare is abhorrent
+to her, and yet we strike out for hearth and home, for honour and fair
+fame, and can glory in the blow. And so on, through everything.
+
+So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in the dust,
+civilization fails us utterly. Back, back, we creep, and lay us like
+little children on the great breast of Nature, she that perchance may
+soothe us and make us forget, or at least rid remembrance of its sting.
+Who has not in his great grief felt a longing to look upon the outward
+features of the universal Mother; to lie on the mountains and watch the
+clouds drive across the sky and hear the rollers break in thunder on the
+shore, to let his poor struggling life mingle for a while in her life;
+to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and to forget his woes, and
+let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptibly moving energy of
+her of whom we are, from whom we came, and with whom we shall again be
+mingled, who gave us birth, and will in a day to come give us our burial
+also.
+
+And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelled vestibule
+of my house there in Yorkshire, I longed once more to throw myself into
+the arms of Nature. Not the Nature which you know, the Nature that waves
+in well-kept woods and smiles out in corn-fields, but Nature as she was
+in the age when creation was complete, undefiled as yet by any human
+sinks of sweltering humanity. I would go again where the wild game was,
+back to the land whereof none know the history, back to the savages,
+whom I love, although some of them are almost as merciless as Political
+Economy. There, perhaps, I should be able to learn to think of poor
+Harry lying in the churchyard, without feeling as though my heart would
+break in two.
+
+And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shall be
+no more of it. But if you whose eyes may perchance one day fall upon my
+written thoughts have got so far as this, I ask you to persevere, since
+what I have to tell you is not without its interest, and it has never
+been told before, nor will again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I THE CONSUL'S YARN
+
+
+A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and one
+evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there
+was a ring at the outer door. Going down the steps I opened it myself,
+and in came my old friends Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good,
+RN. They entered the vestibule and sat themselves down before the wide
+hearth, where, I remember, a particularly good fire of logs was burning.
+
+'It is very kind of you to come round,' I said by way of making a
+remark; 'it must have been heavy walking in the snow.'
+
+They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and lit it with
+a burning ember. As he leant forward to do so the fire got hold of a
+gassy bit of pine and flared up brightly, throwing the whole scene into
+strong relief, and I thought, What a splendid-looking man he is! Calm,
+powerful face, clear-cut features, large grey eyes, yellow beard and
+hair--altogether a magnificent specimen of the higher type of humanity.
+Nor did his form belie his face. I have never seen wider shoulders or a
+deeper chest. Indeed, Sir Henry's girth is so great that, though he is
+six feet two high, he does not strike one as a tall man. As I looked at
+him I could not help thinking what a curious contrast my little dried-up
+self presented to his grand face and form. Imagine to yourself a small,
+withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thin hands, large brown
+eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and standing up like a half-worn
+scrubbing-brush--total weight in my clothes, nine stone six--and you
+will get a very fair idea of Allan Quatermain, commonly called Hunter
+Quatermain, or by the natives 'Macumazahn'--Anglice, he who keeps a
+bright look-out at night, or, in vulgar English, a sharp fellow who is
+not to be taken in.
+
+Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short, dark,
+stout--_very_ stout--with twinkling black eyes, in one of which an
+eyeglass is everlastingly fixed. I say stout, but it is a mild term;
+I regret to state that of late years Good has been running to fat in a
+most disgraceful way. Sir Henry tells him that it comes from idleness
+and over-feeding, and Good does not like it at all, though he cannot
+deny it.
+
+We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that stood
+ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary, as it is
+apt to do when one has a short week ago buried the hope of one's life.
+Next, I opened a cupboard in the wainscoting and got a bottle of whisky
+and some tumblers and water. I always like to do these things for
+myself: it is irritating to me to have somebody continually at my elbow,
+as though I were an eighteen-month-old baby. All this while Curtis and
+Good had been silent, feeling, I suppose, that they had nothing to say
+that could do me any good, and content to give me the comfort of their
+presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only their second visit since
+the funeral. And it is, by the way, from the _presence_ of others that
+we really derive support in our dark hours of grief, and not from their
+talk, which often only serves to irritate us. Before a bad storm the
+game always herd together, but they cease their calling.
+
+They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood by the fire
+also smoking and looking at them.
+
+At last I spoke. 'Old friends,' I said, 'how long is it since we got
+back from Kukuanaland?'
+
+'Three years,' said Good. 'Why do you ask?'
+
+'I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell of
+civilization. I am going back to the veldt.'
+
+Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed one of his
+deep laughs. 'How very odd,' he said, 'eh, Good?'
+
+Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured, 'Yes,
+odd--very odd.'
+
+'I don't quite understand,' said I, looking from one to the other, for I
+dislike mysteries.
+
+'Don't you, old fellow?' said Sir Henry; 'then I will explain. As Good
+and I were walking up here we had a talk.'
+
+'If Good was there you probably did,' I put in sarcastically, for Good
+is a great hand at talking. 'And what may it have been about?'
+
+'What do you think?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+I shook my head. It was not likely that I should know what Good might be
+talking about. He talks about so many things.
+
+'Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed--namely, that if
+you were willing we should pack up our traps and go off to Africa on
+another expedition.'
+
+I fairly jumped at his words. 'You don't say so!' I said.
+
+'Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don't you, Good?'
+
+'Rather,' said that gentleman.
+
+'Listen, old fellow,' went on Sir Henry, with considerable animation of
+manner. 'I'm tired of it too, dead-tired of doing nothing more except
+play the squire in a country that is sick of squires. For a year or more
+I have been getting as restless as an old elephant who scents danger. I
+am always dreaming of Kukuanaland and Gagool and King Solomon's Mines.
+I can assure you I have become the victim of an almost unaccountable
+craving. I am sick of shooting pheasants and partridges, and want to
+have a go at some large game again. There, you know the feeling--when
+one has once tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid to the
+palate. That year we spent together up in Kukuanaland seems to me worth
+all the other years of my life put together. I dare say that I am a fool
+for my pains, but I can't help it; I long to go, and, what is more, I
+mean to go.' He paused, and then went on again. 'And, after all, why
+should I not go? I have no wife or parent, no chick or child to keep me.
+If anything happens to me the baronetcy will go to my brother George and
+his boy, as it would ultimately do in any case. I am of no importance to
+any one.'
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'I thought you would come to that sooner or later. And
+now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; have you got one?'
+
+'I have,' said Good, solemnly. 'I never do anything without a reason;
+and it isn't a lady--at least, if it is, it's several.'
+
+I looked at him again. Good is so overpoweringly frivolous. 'What is
+it?' I said.
+
+'Well, if you really want to know, though I'd rather not speak of a
+delicate and strictly personal matter, I'll tell you: I'm getting too
+fat.'
+
+'Shut up, Good!' said Sir Henry. 'And now, Quatermain, tell us, where do
+you propose going to?'
+
+I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering.
+
+'Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?' I asked.
+
+'Don't know the place,' said Good.
+
+'Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?' I asked again.
+
+'No. Stop, though--isn't it a place about 300 miles north of Zanzibar?'
+
+'Yes. Now listen. What I have to propose is this. That we go to Lamu and
+thence make our way about 250 miles inland to Mt Kenia; from Mt Kenia on
+inland to Mt Lekakisera, another 200 miles, or thereabouts, beyond which
+no white man has to the best of my belief ever been; and then, if we get
+so far, right on into the unknown interior. What do you say to that, my
+hearties?'
+
+'It's a big order,' said Sir Henry, reflectively.
+
+'You are right,' I answered, 'it is; but I take it that we are all three
+of us in search of a big order. We want a change of scene, and we are
+likely to get one--a thorough change. All my life I have longed to visit
+those parts, and I mean to do it before I die. My poor boy's death has
+broken the last link between me and civilization, and I'm off to my
+native wilds. And now I'll tell you another thing, and that is, that
+for years and years I have heard rumours of a great white race which is
+supposed to have its home somewhere up in this direction, and I have a
+mind to see if there is any truth in them. If you fellows like to come,
+well and good; if not, I'll go alone.'
+
+'I'm your man, though I don't believe in your white race,' said Sir
+Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my shoulder.
+
+'Ditto,' remarked Good. 'I'll go into training at once. By all means
+let's go to Mt Kenia and the other place with an unpronounceable name,
+and look for a white race that does not exist. It's all one to me.'
+
+'When do you propose to start?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'This day month,' I answered, 'by the British India steamboat; and
+don't you be so certain that things have no existence because you do not
+happen to have heard of them. Remember King Solomon's mines!'
+
+
+Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this
+conversation, and this history goes on its way in very different
+surroundings.
+
+After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion that our
+best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood of the
+mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place over 100 miles
+nearer Zanzibar. This conclusion we arrived at from information given to
+us by a German trader whom we met upon the steamer at Aden. I think that
+he was the dirtiest German I ever knew; but he was a good fellow, and
+gave us a great deal of valuable information. 'Lamu,' said he, 'you
+goes to Lamu--oh ze beautiful place!' and he turned up his fat face and
+beamed with mild rapture. 'One year and a half I live there and never
+change my shirt--never at all.'
+
+And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarked
+with all our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go, marched
+boldly up to the house of Her Majesty's Consul, where we were most
+hospitably received.
+
+Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand out most
+clearly in my memory in connection with it are its exceeding dirtiness
+and its smells. These last are simply awful. Just below the Consulate is
+the beach, or rather a mud bank that is called a beach. It is left quite
+bare at low tide, and serves as a repository for all the filth, offal,
+and refuse of the town. Here it is, too, that the women come to bury
+coconuts in the mud, leaving them there till the outer husk is quite
+rotten, when they dig them up again and use the fibres to make mats
+with, and for various other purposes. As this process has been going on
+for generations, the condition of the shore can be better imagined than
+described. I have smelt many evil odours in the course of my life, but
+the concentrated essence of stench which arose from that beach at Lamu
+as we sat in the moonlit night--not under, but _on_ our friend the
+Consul's hospitable roof--and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them
+very poor and faint. No wonder people get fever at Lamu. And yet the
+place was not without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, though
+possibly--indeed probably--it was one which would quickly pall.
+
+'Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?' asked our friend the
+hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
+
+'We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,' answered
+Sir Henry. 'Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about there being a
+white race up in the unknown territories beyond.'
+
+The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard something
+of that, too.
+
+'What have you heard?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so ago I got
+a letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, "The
+Highlands", is placed at the highest navigable point of the Tana River,
+in which he said something about it.'
+
+'Have you the letter?' I asked.
+
+'No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man had
+arrived at his station who declared that two months' journey beyond Mt
+Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited--at least, so far as
+I know--he found a lake called Laga, and that then he went off to the
+north-east, a month's journey, over desert and thorn veldt and great
+mountains, till he came to a country where the people are white and live
+in stone houses. Here he was hospitably entertained for a while, till
+at last the priests of the country set it about that he was a devil, and
+the people drove him away, and he journeyed for eight months and reached
+Mackenzie's place, as I heard, dying. That's all I know; and if you ask
+me, I believe that it is a lie; but if you want to find out more about
+it, you had better go up the Tana to Mackenzie's place and ask him for
+information.'
+
+Sir Henry and I looked at each other. Here was something tangible.
+
+'I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie's,' I said.
+
+'Well,' answered the Consul, 'that is your best way, but I warn you that
+you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear that the Masai are
+about, and, as you know, they are not pleasant customers. Your best plan
+will be to choose a few picked men for personal servants and hunters,
+and to hire bearers from village to village. It will give you an
+infinity of trouble, but perhaps on the whole it will prove a cheaper
+and more advantageous course than engaging a caravan, and you will be
+less liable to desertion.'
+
+Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a party of Wakwafi Askari
+(soldiers). The Wakwafi, who are a cross between the Masai and the
+Wataveta, are a fine manly race, possessing many of the good qualities
+of the Zulu, and a great capacity for civilization. They are also great
+hunters. As it happened, these particular men had recently been on a
+long trip with an Englishman named Jutson, who had started from
+Mombasa, a port about 150 miles below Lamu, and journeyed right round
+Kilimanjaro, one of the highest known mountains in Africa. Poor fellow,
+he had died of fever when on his return journey, and within a day's
+march of Mombasa. It does seem hard that he should have gone off thus
+when within a few hours of safety, and after having survived so many
+perils, but so it was. His hunters buried him, and then came on to Lamu
+in a dhow. Our friend the Consul suggested to us that we had better try
+and hire these men, and accordingly on the following morning we started
+to interview the party, accompanied by an interpreter.
+
+In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts of the town.
+Three of the men were sitting outside the hut, and fine frank-looking
+fellows they were, having a more or less civilized appearance. To them
+we cautiously opened the object of our visit, at first with very scant
+success. They declared that they could not entertain any such idea, that
+they were worn and weary with long travelling, and that their hearts
+were sore at the loss of their master. They meant to go back to their
+homes and rest awhile. This did not sound very promising, so by way of
+effecting a diversion I asked where the remainder of them were. I was
+told there were six, and I saw but three. One of the men said they slept
+in the hut, and were yet resting after their labours--'sleep weighed
+down their eyelids, and sorrow made their hearts as lead: it was best
+to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness. But the men should be
+awakened.'
+
+Presently they came out of the hut, yawning--the first two men being
+evidently of the same race and style as those already before us; but the
+appearance of the third and last nearly made me jump out of my skin.
+He was a very tall, broad man, quite six foot three, I should say, but
+gaunt, with lean, wiry-looking limbs. My first glance at him told me
+that he was no Wakwafi: he was a pure bred Zulu. He came out with his
+thin aristocratic-looking hand placed before his face to hide a yawn, so
+I could only see that he was a 'Keshla' or ringed man {Endnote 1}, and
+that he had a great three-cornered hole in his forehead. In another
+second he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zulu face, with
+a humorous mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged with grey, and a pair of
+brown eyes keen as a hawk's. I knew my man at once, although I had not
+seen him for twelve years. 'How do you do, Umslopogaas?' I said quietly
+in Zulu.
+
+The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known as the
+'Woodpecker', and also as the 'Slaughterer') started, and almost let
+the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fall in his astonishment.
+Next second he had recognized me, and was saluting me in an outburst of
+sonorous language which made his companions the Wakwafi stare.
+
+'Koos' (chief), he began, 'Koos-y-Pagete! Koos-y-umcool! (Chief from of
+old--mighty chief) Koos! Baba! (father) Macumazahn, old hunter, slayer
+of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one! watchful one! brave one!
+quick one! whose shot never misses, who strikes straight home, who
+grasps a hand and holds it to the death (i.e. is a true friend) Koos!
+Baba! Wise is the voice of our people that says, "Mountain never meets
+with mountain, but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with
+man." Behold! a messenger came up from Natal, "Macumazahn is dead!"
+cried he. "The land knows Macumazahn no more." That is years ago. And
+now, behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn, my
+friend. There is no room for doubt. The brush of the old jackal has
+gone a little grey; but is not his eye as keen, and are not his teeth as
+sharp? Ha! ha! Macumazahn, mindest thou how thou didst plant the ball in
+the eye of the charging buffalo--mindest thou--'
+
+I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm was
+producing a marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi, who
+appeared to understand something of his talk; but now I thought it time
+to put a stop to it, for there is nothing that I hate so much as this
+Zulu system of extravagant praising--'bongering' as they call it.
+'Silence!' I said. 'Has all thy noisy talk been stopped up since last
+I saw thee that it breaks out thus, and sweeps us away? What doest thou
+here with these men--thou whom I left a chief in Zululand? How is it
+that thou art far from thine own place, and gathered together with
+strangers?'
+
+Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe (which
+was nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handle of rhinoceros
+horn), and his grim face grew sad.
+
+'My Father,' he answered, 'I have a word to tell thee, but I cannot
+speak it before these low people (umfagozana),' and he glanced at the
+Wakwafi Askari; 'it is for thine own ear. My Father, this will I say,'
+and here his face grew stern again, 'a woman betrayed me to the death,
+and covered my name with shame--ay, my own wife, a round-faced girl,
+betrayed me; but I escaped from death; ay, I broke from the very hands
+of those who came to slay me. I struck but three blows with this mine
+axe Inkosikaas--surely my Father will remember it--one to the right, one
+to the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead. And then I
+fled, and, as my Father knows, even now that I am old my feet are as the
+feet of the Sassaby {Endnote 2}, and there breathes not the man who, by
+running, can touch me again when once I have bounded from his side. On I
+sped, and after me came the messengers of death, and their voice was as
+the voice of dogs that hunt. From my own kraal I flew, and, as I passed,
+she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring. I fleeted by
+her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smote with mine axe, and
+lo! her head fell: it fell into the water pan. Then I fled north. Day
+after day I journeyed on; for three moons I journeyed, resting not,
+stopping not, but running on towards forgetfulness, till I met the
+party of the white hunter who is now dead, and am come hither with his
+servants. And nought have I brought with me. I who was high-born, ay,
+of the blood of Chaka, the great king--a chief, and a captain of the
+regiment of the Nkomabakosi--am a wanderer in strange places, a man
+without a kraal. Nought have I brought save this mine axe; of all my
+belongings this remains alone. They have divided my cattle; they have
+taken my wives; and my children know my face no more. Yet with this
+axe'--and he swung the formidable weapon round his head, making the
+air hiss as he clove it--'will I cut another path to fortune. I have
+spoken.'
+
+I shook my head at him. 'Umslopogaas,' I said, 'I know thee from of
+old. Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fear me that thou hast
+overreached thyself at last. Years ago, when thou wouldst have plotted
+against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warned thee, and thou didst listen.
+But now, when I was not by thee to stay thy hand, thou hast dug a pit
+for thine own feet to fall in. Is it not so? But what is done is done.
+Who can make the dead tree green, or gaze again upon last year's light?
+Who can recall the spoken word, or bring back the spirit of the fallen?
+That which Time swallows comes not up again. Let it be forgotten!
+
+'And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warrior and a
+brave man, faithful to the death. Even in Zululand, where all the men
+are brave, they called thee the "Slaughterer", and at night told stories
+round the fire of thy strength and deeds. Hear me now. Thou seest this
+great man, my friend'--and I pointed to Sir Henry; 'he also is a warrior
+as great as thou, and, strong as thou art, he could throw thee over his
+shoulder. Incubu is his name. And thou seest this one also; him with the
+round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant face. Bougwan (glass
+eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true, being of a curious
+tribe who pass their life upon the water, and live in floating kraals.
+
+'Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo Egere,
+the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the unknown beyond.
+We know not what we shall find there; we go to hunt and seek adventures,
+and new places, being tired of sitting still, with the same old things
+around us. Wilt thou come with us? To thee shall be given command of all
+our servants; but what shall befall thee, that I know not. Once before
+we three journeyed thus, in search of adventure, and we took with us
+a man such as thou--one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him the king of
+a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), each of 3,000 plumed
+warriors, waiting on his word. How it shall go with thee, I know not;
+mayhap death awaits thee and us. Wilt thou throw thyself to Fortune and
+come, or fearest thou, Umslopogaas?'
+
+The great man smiled. 'Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,' he
+said; 'I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition that led me to
+my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to say it, a fair woman's
+face. Let it pass. So we are going to see something like the old times
+again, Macumazahn, when we fought and hunted in Zululand? Ay, I will
+come. Come life, come death, what care I, so that the blows fall fast
+and the blood runs red? I grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought
+enough! And yet am I a warrior among warriors; see my scars'--and he
+pointed to countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skin of
+his chest and legs and arms. 'See the hole in my head; the brains gushed
+out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, and live. Knowest thou how
+many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-hand combat, Macumazahn? See,
+here is the tale of them'--and he pointed to long rows of notches cut
+in the rhinoceros-horn handle of his axe. 'Number them, Macumazahn--one
+hundred and three--and I have never counted but those whom I have
+ripped open {Endnote 3}, nor have I reckoned those whom another man had
+struck.'
+
+'Be silent,' I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever on
+him; 'be silent; well art thou called the "Slaughterer". We would not
+hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comest with us, we fight
+not save in self-defence. Listen, we need servants. These men,' and I
+pointed to the Wakwafi, who had retired a little way during our 'indaba'
+(talk), 'say they will not come.'
+
+'Will not come!' shouted Umslopogaas; 'where is the dog who says he will
+not come when my Father orders? Here, thou'--and with a single bound he
+sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first spoken, and, seizing him
+by the arm, dragged him towards us. 'Thou dog!' he said, giving the
+terrified man a shake, 'didst thou say that thou wouldst not go with my
+Father? Say it once more and I will choke thee'--and his long fingers
+closed round his throat as he said it--'thee, and those with thee. Hast
+thou forgotten how I served thy brother?'
+
+'Nay, we will come with the white man,' gasped the man.
+
+'White man!' went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a very
+little provocation would have made real enough; 'of whom speakest thou,
+insolent dog?'
+
+'Nay, we will go with the great chief.'
+
+'So!' said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released his
+hold, so that the man fell backward. 'I thought you would.'
+
+'That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency over his
+companions,' Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II THE BLACK HAND
+
+
+
+In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found ourselves
+at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having gone through many
+adventures which need not be recorded here. Amongst other things we
+visited a ruined city, of which there are many on this coast, and
+which must once, to judge from their extent and the numerous remains of
+mosques and stone houses, have been very populous places. These ruined
+cities are immeasurably ancient, having, I believe, been places of
+wealth and importance as far back as the Old Testament times, when they
+were centres of trade with India and elsewhere. But their glory has
+departed now--the slave trade has finished them--and where wealthy
+merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and bargained
+in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court at night, and
+instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager voices of the
+bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined corridors. At this
+particular place we discovered on a mound, covered up with rank growth
+and rubbish, two of the most beautiful stone doorways that it is
+possible to conceive. The carving on them was simply exquisite, and I
+only regret that we had no means of getting them away. No doubt they had
+once been the entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were
+now to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising mound.
+
+Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like the nobles and
+the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities have had their
+day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris
+will one day be. Nothing may endure. That is the inexorable law. Men
+and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers,
+mountains, rivers, and unfathomed seas, worlds, spaces, and universes,
+all have their day, and all must go. In this ruined and forgotten place
+the moralist may behold a symbol of the universal destiny. For this
+system of ours allows no room for standing still--nothing can loiter on
+the road and check the progress of things upwards towards Life, or the
+rush of things downwards towards Death. The stern policeman Fate moves
+us and them on, on, uphill and downhill and across the level; there is
+no resting-place for the weary feet, till at last the abyss swallows us,
+and from the shores of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the
+Eternal.
+
+At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers we
+had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort large extra
+payment from us. In the result he threatened to set the Masai--about
+whom more anon--on to us. That night he, with all our hired bearers,
+ran away, stealing most of the goods which had been entrusted to them
+to carry. Luckily, however, they had not happened to steal our rifles,
+ammunition, and personal effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling
+on their part, but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the
+charge of the five Wakwafis. After that, it was clear to us that we had
+had enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we had not much left for
+a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?
+
+It was Good who solved the question. 'Here is water,' he said, pointing
+to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of natives hunting
+hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie's mission station
+is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoes and paddle up to it?'
+
+This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with
+acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes from
+the surrounding natives. I succeeded after a delay of three days in
+obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single log of some
+light wood, and capable of holding six people and baggage. For these two
+canoes we had to pay nearly all our remaining cloth, and also many other
+articles.
+
+On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected a
+start. In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three of our
+Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas, and the other two
+Wakwafis. As our course lay upstream, we had to keep four paddles at
+work in each canoe, which meant that the whole lot of us, except Good,
+had to row away like galley-slaves; and very exhausting work it was. I
+say, except Good, for, of course, the moment that Good got into a boat
+his foot was on his native heath, and he took command of the party. And
+certainly he worked us. On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered man,
+and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in a boat was
+a perfect demon. To begin with, he knew all about it, and we didn't. On
+all nautical subjects, from the torpedo fittings of a man-of-war down
+to the best way of handling the paddle of an African canoe, he was a
+perfect mine of information, which, to say the least of it, we were not.
+Also his ideas of discipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he
+came the royal naval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid us
+out amply for all the chaff we were wont to treat him to on land;
+but, on the other hand, I am bound to say that he managed the boats
+admirably.
+
+After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some cloth and a
+couple of poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, which lightened our
+labours not a little. But the current ran very strong against us, and at
+the best we were not able to make more than twenty miles a day. Our
+plan was to start at dawn, and paddle along till about half-past ten,
+by which time the sun got too hot to allow of further exertion. Then we
+moored our canoes to the bank, and ate our frugal meal; after which
+we ate or otherwise amused ourselves till about three o'clock, when we
+again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown, when we called
+a halt for the night. On landing in the evening, Good would at once set
+to work, with the help of the Askari, to build a little 'scherm', or
+small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes, and to light a fire. I, with
+Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, would go out to shoot something for the pot.
+Generally this was an easy task, for all sorts of game abounded on the
+banks of the Tana. One night Sir Henry shot a young cow-giraffe, of
+which the marrow-bones were excellent; on another I got a couple of
+waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction,
+Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile shot with a rifle) managed
+to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent him. Sometimes
+we varied our food by shooting some guinea-fowl, or bush-bustard
+(paau)--both of which were numerous--with a shot-gun, or by catching
+a supply of beautiful yellow fish, with which the waters of the Tana
+swarmed, and which form, I believe, one of the chief food-supplies of
+the crocodiles.
+
+Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred. We were just
+drawing in to the bank to make our camp as usual for the night, when
+we caught sight of a figure standing on a little knoll not forty
+yards away, and intensely watching our approach. One glance was
+sufficient--although I was personally unacquainted with the tribe--to
+tell me that he was a Masai Elmoran, or young warrior. Indeed, had I
+had any doubts, they would have quickly been dispelled by the terrified
+ejaculation of '_Masai_!' that burst simultaneously from the lips of our
+Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, themselves bastard
+Masai.
+
+And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savage war-gear!
+Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life, I do not think that I
+have ever before seen anything quite so ferocious or awe-inspiring. To
+begin with, the man was enormously tall, quite as tall as Umslopogaas, I
+should say, and beautifully, though somewhat slightly, shaped; but with
+the face of a devil. In his right hand he held a spear about five and a
+half feet long, the blade being two and a half feet in length, by nearly
+three inches in width, and having an iron spike at the end of the
+handle that measured more than a foot. On his left arm was a large
+and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo hide, on which were painted
+strange heraldic-looking devices. On his shoulders was a huge cape of
+hawk's feathers, and round his neck was a 'naibere', or strip of cotton,
+about seventeen feet long, by one and a half broad, with a stripe of
+colour running down the middle of it. The tanned goatskin robe, which
+formed his ordinary attire in times of peace, was tied lightly round his
+waist, so as to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck,
+on the right and left sides respectively, his short pear-shaped sime, or
+sword, which is made of a single piece of steel, and carried in a wooden
+sheath, and an enormous knobkerrie. But perhaps the most remarkable
+feature of his attire consisted of a headdress of ostrich-feathers,
+which was fixed on the chin, and passed in front of the ears to the
+forehead, and, being shaped like an ellipse, completely framed the face,
+so that the diabolical countenance appeared to project from a sort of
+feather fire-screen. Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair,
+and, projecting from the upper portion of the calves, to which they were
+attached, were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts of
+the beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey. Such was the
+elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watching the approach of
+our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen;
+only those who see it do not often live to describe it. Of course I
+could not make out all these details of his full dress on the occasion
+of this my first introduction, being, indeed, amply taken up with the
+consideration of the general effect, but I had plenty of subsequent
+opportunities of becoming acquainted with the items that went to make it
+up.
+
+Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drew himself
+up in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us, and, turning,
+vanished on the further side of the slope.
+
+'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; 'our friend the
+caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the Masai after us.
+Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'
+
+I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had
+no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we could eat raw,
+so it was difficult to know what to do. At last Umslopogaas simplified
+matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping
+off into the bush like a snake, while we hung off in the stream waiting
+for him. In half an hour he returned, and told us that there was not a
+Masai to be seen anywhere about, but that he had discovered a spot where
+they had recently been encamped, and that from various indications he
+judged that they must have moved on an hour or so before; the man we saw
+having, no doubt, been left to report upon our movements.
+
+Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded to cook and
+eat our evening meal. This done, we took the situation into our serious
+consideration. Of course, it was possible that the apparition of the
+Masai warrior had nothing to do with us, that he was merely one of a
+band bent upon some marauding and murdering expedition against another
+tribe. But when we recalled the threat of the caravan leader, and
+reflected on the ominous way in which the warrior had shaken his spear
+at us, this did not appear very probable. On the contrary, what did
+seem probable was that the party was after us and awaiting a favourable
+opportunity to attack us. This being so, there were two things that
+we could do--one of which was to go on, and the other to go back. The
+latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious that we
+should encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance; and, besides,
+we had made up our minds to journey onwards at any price. Under these
+circumstances, however, we did not consider it safe to sleep ashore, so
+we got into our canoes, and, paddling out into the middle of the stream,
+which was not very wide here, managed to anchor them by means of big
+stones fastened to ropes made of coconut-fibre, of which there were
+several fathoms in each canoe.
+
+Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined with
+anxiety as to our position, effectually prevented me from sleeping as
+the others were doing, notwithstanding the attacks of the aforesaid Tana
+mosquitoes. And so I lay awake, smoking and reflecting on many things,
+but, being of a practical turn of mind, chiefly on how we were to give
+those Masai villains the slip. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and,
+notwithstanding the mosquitoes, and the great risk we were running from
+fever from sleeping in such a spot, and forgetting that I had the cramp
+very badly in my right leg from squatting in a constrained position
+in the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was sleeping beside me smelt
+horribly, I really began to enjoy myself. The moonbeams played upon the
+surface of the running water that speeded unceasingly past us towards
+the sea, like men's lives towards the grave, till it glittered like
+a wide sheet of silver, that is in the open where the trees threw no
+shadows. Near the banks, however, it was very dark, and the night wind
+sighed sadly in the reeds. To our left, on the further side of the
+river, was a little sandy bay which was clear of trees, and here I could
+make out the forms of numerous antelopes advancing to the water,
+till suddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon they all made off
+hurriedly. Then after a pause I caught sight of the massive form of His
+Majesty the Lion, coming down to drink his fill after meat. Presently he
+moved on, then came a crashing of the reeds about fifty yards above us,
+and a few minutes later a huge black mass rose out of the water, about
+twenty yards from me, and snorted. It was the head of a hippopotamus.
+Down it went without a sound, only to rise again within five yards
+of where I sat. This was decidedly too near to be comfortable, more
+especially as the hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense
+curiosity to know what on earth our canoes were. He opened his great
+mouth, to yawn, I suppose, and gave me an excellent view of his ivories;
+and I could not help reflecting how easily he could crunch up our frail
+canoe with a single bite. Indeed, I had half a mind to give him a ball
+from my eight-bore, but on reflection determined to let him alone unless
+he actually charged the boat. Presently he sank again as noiselessly as
+before, and I saw no more of him. Just then, on looking towards the bank
+on our right, I fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting
+between the tree trunks. I have very keen sight, and I was almost sure
+that I saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or man I could not
+say. At the moment, however, a dark cloud passed over the moon, and I
+saw no more of it. Just then, too, although all the other sounds of
+the forest had ceased, a species of horned owl with which I was well
+acquainted began to hoot with great persistency. After that, save for
+the rustling of trees and reeds when the wind caught them, there was
+complete silence.
+
+But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become
+nervous. There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond the
+ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller, and yet I
+undoubtedly was. If there is one thing more than another of which I
+have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief, it is of
+presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filled with and
+possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of approaching evil. I would
+not give way to it, however, although I felt the cold perspiration stand
+out upon my forehead. I would not arouse the others. Worse and worse I
+grew, my pulse fluttered like a dying man's, my nerves thrilled with
+the horrible sense of impotent terror which anybody who is subject to
+nightmare will be familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my
+fears, and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the
+bow of the canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view of
+Umslopogaas and the two Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside of and
+beyond me.
+
+In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then the owl
+hooted again in a kind of unnatural screaming note {Endnote 4}, and
+the wind began to moan plaintively through the trees, making a
+heart-chilling music. Above was the black bosom of the cloud, and
+beneath me swept the black flood of the water, and I felt as though I
+and Death were utterly alone between them. It was very desolate.
+
+Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heart to stand
+still. Was it fancy, or were we moving? I turned my eyes to look for
+the other canoe which should be alongside of us. I could not see it, but
+instead I saw a lean and clutching black hand lifting itself above
+the gunwale of the little boat. Surely it was a nightmare! At the same
+instant a dim but devilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the
+water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife,
+and an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (the
+same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something warm
+spurted into my face. In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that it
+was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by swimming Masai. Snatching
+at the first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be Umslopogaas'
+battleaxe, I struck with all my force in the direction in which I
+had seen the flash of the knife. The blow fell upon a man's arm, and,
+catching it against the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely
+severed it from the body just above the wrist. As for its owner, he
+uttered no sound or cry. Like a ghost he came, and like a ghost he went,
+leaving behind him a bloody hand still gripping a great knife, or rather
+a short sword, that was buried in the heart of our poor servant.
+
+Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied, rightly
+or wrongly, that I made out several dark heads gliding away towards the
+right-hand bank, whither we were rapidly drifting, for the rope by which
+we were moored had been severed with a knife. As soon as I had realized
+this fact, I also realized that the scheme had been to cut the boat
+loose so that it should drift on to the right bank (as it would have
+done with the natural swing of the current), where no doubt a party of
+Masai were waiting to dig their shovel-headed spears into us. Seizing
+one paddle myself, I told Umslopogaas to take another (for the remaining
+Askari was too frightened and bewildered to be of any use), and together
+we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the stream; and not an
+instant too soon, for in another minute we should have been aground, and
+then there would have been an end of us.
+
+As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoe upstream
+again to where the other was moored; and very hard and dangerous work
+it was in the dark, and with nothing but the notes of Good's stentorian
+shouts, which he kept firing off at intervals like a fog-horn, to guide
+us. But at last we fetched up, and were thankful to find that they
+had not been molested at all. No doubt the owner of the same hand that
+severed our rope should have severed theirs also, but was led away from
+his purpose by an irresistible inclination to murder when he got the
+chance, which, while it cost us a man and him his hand, undoubtedly
+saved all the rest of us from massacre. Had it not been for that ghastly
+apparition over the side of the boat--an apparition that I shall never
+forget till my dying hour--the canoe would undoubtedly have drifted
+ashore before I realized what had happened, and this history would never
+have been written by me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III THE MISSION STATION
+
+
+
+We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, and sat waiting
+for the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon our merciful escape,
+which really seemed to result more from the special favour of Providence
+than from our own care or prowess. At last it came, and I have not
+often been more grateful to see the light, though so far as my canoe was
+concerned it revealed a ghastly sight. There in the bottom of the little
+boat lay the unfortunate Askari, the sime, or sword, in his bosom, and
+the severed hand gripping the handle. I could not bear the sight, so
+hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to the other canoe,
+we made it fast to the murdered man and dropped him overboard, and down
+he went to the bottom, leaving nothing but a train of bubbles behind
+him. Alas! when our time comes, most of us like him leave nothing but
+bubbles behind, to show that we have been, and the bubbles soon burst.
+The hand of his murderer we threw into the stream, where it slowly sank.
+The sword, of which the handle was ivory, inlaid with gold (evidently
+Arab work), I kept and used as a hunting-knife, and very useful it
+proved.
+
+Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once more started on
+in very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortable as to the future,
+but fondly hoping to arrive at the 'Highlands' station by night. To make
+matters worse, within an hour of sunrise it came on to rain in torrents,
+wetting us to the skin, and even necessitating the occasional baling
+of the canoes, and as the rain beat down the wind we could not use the
+sails, and had to get along as best as we could with our paddles.
+
+At eleven o'clock we halted on an open piece of ground on the left bank
+of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managed to make a fire and
+catch and broil some fish. We did not dare to wander about to search for
+game. At two o'clock we got off again, taking a supply of broiled fish
+with us, and shortly afterwards the rain came on harder than ever. Also
+the river began to get exceedingly difficult to navigate on account of
+the numerous rocks, reaches of shallow water, and the increased force of
+the current; so that it soon became clear to us that we should not reach
+the Rev. Mackenzie's hospitable roof that night--a prospect that did
+not tend to enliven us. Toil as we would, we could not make more than
+an average of a mile an hour, and at five o'clock in the afternoon (by
+which time we were all utterly worn out) we reckoned that we were still
+quite ten miles below the station. This being so, we set to work to
+make the best arrangements we could for the night. After our recent
+experience, we simply did not dare to land, more especially as the banks
+of the Tana were clothed with dense bush that would have given cover to
+five thousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going to have
+another night of it in the canoes. Fortunately, however, we espied a
+little rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles or so square, situated
+nearly in the middle of the river. For this we paddled, and, making fast
+the canoes, landed and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances
+would permit, which was very uncomfortable indeed. As for the weather,
+it continued to be simply vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we
+were chilled to the marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a
+fire. There was, however, one consoling circumstance about this rain;
+our Askari declared that nothing would induce the Masai to make an
+attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in the wet,
+perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea of washing. We
+ate some insipid and sodden cold fish--that is, with the exception of
+Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannot bear fish--and took a pull of
+brandy, of which we fortunately had a few bottles left, and then began
+what, with one exception--when we same three white men nearly perished
+of cold on the snow of Sheba's Breast in the course of our journey to
+Kukuanaland--was, I think, the most trying night I ever experienced. It
+seemed absolutely endless, and once or twice I feared that two of the
+Askari would have died of the wet, cold, and exposure. Indeed, had it
+not been for timely doses of brandy I am sure that they would have died,
+for no African people can stand much exposure, which first paralyses and
+then kills them. I could see that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas
+felt it keenly; though, in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who
+groaned and bemoaned their fate unceasingly, he never uttered a single
+complaint. To make matters worse, about one in the morning we again
+heard the owl's ominous hooting, and had at once to prepare ourselves
+for another attack; though, if it had been attempted, I do not think
+that we could have offered a very effective resistance. But either the
+owl was a real one this time, or else the Masai were themselves too
+miserable to think of offensive operations, which, indeed, they rarely,
+if ever, undertake in bush veldt. At any rate, we saw nothing of them.
+
+At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreaths of
+ghostly mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; and then, out
+came the glorious sun, sucking up the mists and warming the chill air.
+Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselves to our feet, and
+went and stood in the bright rays, and were thankful for them. I can
+quite understand how it is that primitive people become sun worshippers,
+especially if their conditions of life render them liable to exposure.
+
+In half an hour more we were once again making fair progress with the
+help of a good wind. Our spirits had returned with the sunshine, and
+we were ready to laugh at difficulties and dangers that had been almost
+crushing on the previous day.
+
+And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o'clock. Just as we were
+thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shoot something to eat,
+a sudden bend in the river brought us in sight of a substantial-looking
+European house with a veranda round it, splendidly situated upon a hill,
+and surrounded by a high stone wall with a ditch on the outer side.
+Right against and overshadowing the house was an enormous pine, the
+top of which we had seen through a glass for the last two days, but of
+course without knowing that it marked the site of the mission station.
+I was the first to see the house, and could not restrain myself from
+giving a hearty cheer, in which the others, including the natives,
+joined lustily. There was no thought of halting now. On we laboured,
+for, unfortunately, though the house seemed quite near, it was still a
+long way off by river, until at last, by one o'clock, we found ourselves
+at the bottom of the slope on which the building stood. Running the
+canoes to the bank, we disembarked, and were just hauling them up on
+to the shore, when we perceived three figures, dressed in ordinary
+English-looking clothes, hurrying down through a grove of trees to meet
+us.
+
+'A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl,' ejaculated Good, after
+surveying the trio through his eyeglass, 'walking in a civilized
+fashion, through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place. Hang me,
+if this isn't the most curious thing we have seen yet!'
+
+Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place--more like a
+scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a real tangible fact;
+and the sense of unreality was not lessened when we heard ourselves
+addressed in good broad Scotch, which, however, I cannot reproduce.
+
+'How do you do, sirs,' said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angular man,
+with a kindly face and red cheeks; 'I hope I see you very well. My
+natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes with white men in them
+coming up the river; so we have just come down to meet you.'
+
+'And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let me tell
+you,' put in the lady--a charming and refined-looking person.
+
+We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce
+ourselves.
+
+'And now,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'you must all be hungry and weary; so come
+on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see you. The last white
+who visited us was Alphonse--you will see Alphonse presently--and that
+was a year ago.'
+
+Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower
+portion of which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fences and
+sometimes with rough stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, just now full
+of crops of mealies, pumpkins, potatoes, etc. In the corners of these
+gardens were groups of neat mushroom-shaped huts, occupied by Mr
+Mackenzie's mission natives, whose women and children came pouring
+out to meet us as we walked. Through the centre of the gardens ran the
+roadway up which we were walking. It was bordered on each side by a line
+of orange trees, which, although they had only been planted ten years,
+had in the lovely climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of
+which is about 5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to
+imposing proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. After
+a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so--for the hillside was
+steep--we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered with fruit,
+which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of about four acres
+of ground that contained his private garden, house, church, and
+outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop. And what a garden it was!
+I have always loved a good garden, and I could have thrown up my hands
+for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie's. First there were rows upon rows of
+standard European fruit-trees, all grafted; for on top of this hill the
+climate was so temperate that nearly all the English vegetables, trees,
+and flowers flourished luxuriantly, even including several varieties
+of the apple, which, generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and
+obstinately refuses to fruit. Then there were strawberries and tomatoes
+(such tomatoes!), and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of
+vegetable and fruit.
+
+'Well, you have something like a garden!' I said, overpowered with
+admiration not untouched by envy.
+
+'Yes,' answered the missionary, 'it is a very good garden, and has well
+repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I have to thank. If you
+stick a peach-stone into the ground it will bear fruit the fourth year,
+and a rose-cutting will bloom in a year. It is a lovely clime.'
+
+Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full of water, on
+the other side of which was a loopholed stone wall eight feet high, and
+with sharp flints plentifully set in mortar on the coping.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall, 'this is my
+magnum opus; at least, this and the church, which is the other side of
+the house. It took me and twenty natives two years to dig the ditch and
+build the wall, but I never felt safe till it was done; and now I can
+defy all the savages in Africa, for the spring that fills the ditch
+is inside the wall, and bubbles out at the top of the hill winter and
+summer alike, and I always keep a store of four months' provision in the
+house.'
+
+Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in the wall, we
+entered into what Mrs Mackenzie called _her_ domain--namely, the flower
+garden, the beauty of which is really beyond my power to describe. I
+do not think I ever saw such roses, gardenias, or camellias (all reared
+from seeds or cuttings sent from England); and there was also a patch
+given up to a collection of bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss
+Flossie, Mr Mackenzie's little daughter, from the surrounding country,
+some of which were surpassingly beautiful. In the middle of this garden,
+and exactly opposite the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear water
+bubbled up from the ground, and fell into a stone-work basin which had
+been carefully built to receive it, whence the overflow found its way by
+means of a drain to the moat round the outer wall, this moat in its
+turn serving as a reservoir, whence an unfailing supply of water
+was available to irrigate all the gardens below. The house itself, a
+massively built single-storied building, was roofed with slabs of stone,
+and had a handsome veranda in front. It was built on three sides of
+a square, the fourth side being taken up by the kitchens, which stood
+separate from the house--a very good plan in a hot country. In the
+centre of this square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable
+object that we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a
+single tree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely on the
+highlands of this part of Africa. This splendid tree, which Mr Mackenzie
+informed us was a landmark for fifty miles round, and which we had
+ourselves seen for the last forty miles of our journey, must have been
+nearly three hundred feet in height, the trunk measuring about sixteen
+feet in diameter at a yard from the ground. For some seventy feet it
+rose a beautiful tapering brown pillar without a single branch, but at
+that height splendid dark green boughs, which, looked at from below, had
+the appearance of gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out horizontally from
+the trunk, projecting right over the house and flower-garden, to both of
+which they furnished a grateful proportion of shade, without--being so
+high up--offering any impediment to the passage of light and air.
+
+'What a beautiful tree!' exclaimed Sir Henry.
+
+'Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree. There is not another like
+it in all the country round, that I know of,' answered Mr Mackenzie. 'I
+call it my watch tower. As you see, I have a rope ladder fixed to the
+lowest bough; and if I want to see anything that is going on within
+fifteen miles or so, all I have to do is to run up it with a spyglass.
+But you must be hungry, and I am sure the dinner is cooked. Come in,
+my friends; it is but a rough place, but well enough for these savage
+parts; and I can tell you what, we have got--a French cook.' And he led
+the way on to the veranda.
+
+As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he could mean by
+this, there suddenly appeared, through the door that opened on to the
+veranda from the house, a dapper little man, dressed in a neat blue
+cotton suit, with shoes made of tanned hide, and remarkable for a
+bustling air and most enormous black mustachios, shaped into an
+upward curve, and coming to a point for all the world like a pair of
+buffalo-horns.
+
+'Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved. Messieurs, my
+compliments;' then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who was loitering
+along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw up his hands
+in astonishment. 'Ah, mais quel homme!' he ejaculated in French, 'quel
+sauvage affreux! Take but note of his huge choppare and the great pit in
+his head.'
+
+'Ay,' said Mr Mackenzie; 'what are you talking about, Alphonse?'
+
+'Talking about!' replied the little Frenchman, his eyes still fixed upon
+Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate him; 'why I
+talk of him'--and he rudely pointed--'of ce monsieur noir.'
+
+At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceiving that he
+was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he had a most lordly
+dislike of anything like a personal liberty.
+
+'Parbleu!' said Alphonse, 'he is angered--he makes the grimace. I like
+not his air. I vanish.' And he did with considerable rapidity.
+
+Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which we indulged
+in. 'He is a queer character--Alphonse,' he said. 'By and by I will tell
+you his history; in the meanwhile let us try his cooking.'
+
+'Might I ask,' said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent
+dinner, 'how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?'
+
+'Oh,' answered Mrs Mackenzie, 'he arrived here of his own accord about
+a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service. He had got into some
+trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an application
+had been made by the French Government for his extradition. Whereupon
+he rushed off up-country, and fell in, when nearly starved, with our
+caravan of men, who were bringing us our annual supply of goods, and was
+brought on here. You should get him to tell you the story.'
+
+When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded to give
+our host a description of our journey up here, over which he looked very
+grave.
+
+'It is evident to me,' he said, 'that those rascally Masai are following
+you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this house in
+safety. I do not think that they will dare to attack you here. It is
+unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men have gone down to the coast
+with ivory and goods. There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and
+the consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for
+defensive purposes in case they should attack us. But, still, I will
+just give a few orders;' and, calling a black man who was loitering
+about outside in the garden, he went to the window, and addressed him in
+a Swahili dialect. The man listened, and then saluted and departed.
+
+'I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamity upon
+you,' said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again. 'Rather than
+bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears, we will move on and
+take our chance.'
+
+'You will do nothing of the sort. If the Masai come, they come, and
+there is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty warm
+greeting. I would not show any man the door for all the Masai in the
+world.'
+
+'That reminds me,' I said, 'the Consul at Lamu told me that he had had
+a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrived here who
+reported that he had come across a white people in the interior. Do you
+think that there was any truth in his story? I ask, because I have once
+or twice in my life heard rumours from natives who have come down from
+the far north of the existence of such a race.'
+
+Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned,
+bringing with him a most curious sword. It was long, and all the blade,
+which was very thick and heavy, was to within a quarter of an inch of
+the cutting edge worked into an ornamental pattern exactly as we work
+soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however, being invariably pierced
+in such a way as not to interfere with the strength of the sword. This
+in itself was sufficiently curious, but what was still more so was that
+all the edges of the hollow spaces cut through the substance of the
+blade were most beautifully inlaid with gold, which was in some way that
+I cannot understand welded on to the steel {Endnote 5}.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'did you ever see a sword like that?'
+
+We all examined it and shook our heads.
+
+'Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the man who said
+he had seen the white people brought with him, and because it does more
+or less give an air of truth to what I should otherwise have set down
+as a lie. Look here; I will tell you all that I know about the matter,
+which is not much. One afternoon, just before sunset, I was sitting on
+the veranda, when a poor, miserable, starved-looking man came limping up
+and squatted down before me. I asked him where he came from and what he
+wanted, and thereon he plunged into a long rambling narrative about how
+he belonged to a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was destroyed
+by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven still further
+north past a lake named Laga. Thence, it appears, he made his way to
+another lake that lay up in the mountains, "a lake without a bottom"
+he called it, and here his wife and brother died of an infectious
+sickness--probably smallpox--whereon the people drove him out of their
+villages into the wilderness, where he wandered miserably over mountains
+for ten days, after which he got into dense thorn forest, and was one
+day found there by some _white men_ who were hunting, and who took him
+to a place where all the people were white and lived in stone houses.
+Here he remained a week shut up in a house, till one night a man with
+a white beard, whom he understood to be a "medicine-man", came and
+inspected him, after which he was led off and taken through the thorn
+forest to the confines of the wilderness, and given food and this sword
+(at least so he said), and turned loose.'
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathless interest,
+'and what did he do then?'
+
+'Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone through sufferings
+and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weeks on roots and
+berries, and such things as he could catch and kill. But somehow he did
+live, and at last by slow degrees made his way south and reached this
+place. What the details of his journey were I never learnt, for I told
+him to return on the morrow, bidding one of my headmen look after him
+for the night. The headman took him away, but the poor man had the itch
+so badly that the headman's wife would not have him in the hut for fear
+of catching it, so he was given a blanket and told to sleep outside.
+As it happened, we had a lion hanging about here just then, and most
+unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer, and, springing on him,
+bit his head almost off without the people in the hut knowing anything
+about it, and there was an end of him and his story about the white
+people; and whether or no there is any truth in it is more than I can
+tell you. What do you think, Mr Quatermain?'
+
+I shook my head, and answered, 'I don't know. There are so many queer
+things hidden away in the heart of this great continent that I should
+be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it. Anyhow, we mean to try
+and find out. We intend to journey to Lekakisera, and thence, if we live
+to get so far, to this Lake Laga; and, if there are any white people
+beyond, we will do our best to find them.'
+
+'You are very venturesome people,' said Mr Mackenzie, with a smile, and
+the subject dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+
+
+
+After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and grounds
+of the station, which I consider the most successful as well as the most
+beautiful place of the sort that I have seen in Africa. We then returned
+to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaas taking advantage of this
+favourable opportunity to clean all the rifles thoroughly. This was the
+only _work_ that he ever did or was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it
+was beneath his dignity to work with his hands; but such as it was he
+did it very well. It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu sitting
+there upon the floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall behind
+him, whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily employed,
+delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism of the
+breech-loaders. He had a name for each gun. One--a double four-bore
+belonging to Sir Henry--was the Thunderer; another, my 500 Express,
+which had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'the little one who spoke like
+a whip'; the Winchester repeaters were 'the women, who talked so fast
+that you could not tell one word from another'; the six Martinis were
+'the common people'; and so on with them all. It was very curious to
+hear him addressing each gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an
+individual, and in a vein of the quaintest humour. He did the same with
+his battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend,
+and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over all his old
+adventures with it--and dreadful enough some of them were. By a piece of
+grim humour, he had named this axe 'Inkosi-kaas', which is the Zulu word
+for chieftainess. For a long while I could not make out why he gave it
+such a name, and at last I asked him, when he informed me that the axe
+was very evidently feminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very
+deep into things, and that she was clearly a chieftainess because all
+men fell down before her, struck dumb at the sight of her beauty and
+power. In the same way he would consult 'Inkosi-kaas' if in any dilemma;
+and when I asked him why he did so, he informed me it was because she
+must needs be wise, having 'looked into so many people's brains'.
+
+I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon. It was,
+as I have said, of the nature of a pole-axe. The haft, made out of an
+enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet three inches long, about an
+inch and a quarter thick, and with a knob at the end as large as a
+Maltese orange, left there to prevent the hand from slipping. This
+horn haft, though so massive, was as flexible as cane, and practically
+unbreakable; but, to make assurance doubly sure, it was whipped round
+at intervals of a few inches with copper wire--all the parts where the
+hands grip being thus treated. Just above where the haft entered the
+head were scored a number of little nicks, each nick representing a man
+killed in battle with the weapon. The axe itself was made of the
+most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture, though
+Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken it from the
+hand of a chief he had killed in battle many years before. It was not
+very heavy, the head weighing two and a half pounds, as nearly as I
+could judge. The cutting part was slightly concave in shape--not convex,
+as it generally the case with savage battleaxes--and sharp as a razor,
+measuring five and three-quarter inches across the widest part. From the
+back of the axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last two
+of which it was hollow, and shaped like a leather punch, with an opening
+for anything forced into the hollow at the punch end to be pushed
+out above--in fact, in this respect it exactly resembled a butcher's
+pole-axe. It was with this punch end, as we afterwards discovered, that
+Umslopogaas usually struck when fighting, driving a neat round hole
+in his adversary's skull, and only using the broad cutting edge for a
+circular sweep, or sometimes in a melee. I think he considered the
+punch a neater and more sportsmanlike tool, and it was from his habit
+of pecking at his enemy with it that he got his name of 'Woodpecker'.
+Certainly in his hands it was a terribly efficient one.
+
+Such was Umslopogaas' axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and fatal
+hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished as
+much as his own life. It scarcely ever left his hand except when he was
+eating, and then he always sat with it under his leg.
+
+Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie came up and took
+me off to see her collection of flowers, African liliums, and blooming
+shrubs, some of which are very beautiful, many of the varieties being
+quite unknown to me and also, I believe, to botanical science. I asked
+her if she had ever seen or heard of the 'Goya' lily, which Central
+African explorers have told me they have occasionally met with and whose
+wonderful loveliness has filled them with astonishment. This lily, which
+the natives say blooms only once in ten years, flourishes in the
+most arid soil. Compared to the size of the bloom, the bulb is small,
+generally weighing about four pounds. As for the flower itself (which
+I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to impress its appearance
+fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe its beauty and
+splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its perfume. The
+flower--for it has only one bloom--rises from the crown of the bulb on
+a thick fleshy and flat-sided stem, the specimen that I saw measured
+fourteen inches in diameter, and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the
+bloom of an ordinary 'longiflorum' set vertically. First there is
+the green sheath, which in its early stage is not unlike that of a
+water-lily, but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and
+curls back gracefully towards the stem. Then comes the bloom itself, a
+single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richest velvety
+crimson, from the heart of which rises a golden-coloured pistil. I have
+never seen anything to equal this bloom in beauty or fragrance, and as
+I believe it is but little known, I take the liberty to describe it at
+length. Looking at it for the first time I well remember that I realized
+how even in a flower there dwells something of the majesty of its Maker.
+To my great delight Miss Flossie told me that she knew the flower well
+and had tried to grow it in her garden, but without success, adding,
+however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of the year she
+thought that she could procure me a specimen.
+
+After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here among all
+these savage people and without any companions of her own age.
+
+'Lonely?' she said. 'Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day is long,
+and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried
+in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell
+the difference! Here,' she said, giving her head a little toss, 'I am I;
+and every native for miles around knows the "Water-lily",--for that is
+what they call me--and is ready to do what I want, but in the books that
+I have read about little girls in England it is not like that. Everybody
+thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistress
+likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage like that and not
+to be free--free as the air.'
+
+'Would you not like to learn?' I asked.
+
+'So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.'
+
+'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'
+
+'Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that
+I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair hair.
+And look here,' and diving her little hand into the bodice of her dress
+she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry
+that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once
+I shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. It
+frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead,
+and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!' she went on in an altered
+voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, 'I
+said just now that I had companions; there is one of them.'
+
+I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight the glory of
+Mount Kenia. Hitherto the mountain had always been hidden in mist, but
+now its radiant beauty was unveiled for many thousand feet, although
+the base was still wrapped in vapour so that the lofty peak or pillar,
+towering nearly twenty thousand feet into the sky, appeared to be a
+fairy vision, hanging between earth and heaven, and based upon the
+clouds. The solemn majesty and beauty of this white peak are together
+beyond the power of my poor pen to describe. There it rose straight and
+sheer--a glittering white glory, its crest piercing the very blue of
+heaven. As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my whole heart
+lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a moment great and
+wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, even as the arrows of
+the setting sun were breaking upon Kenia's snows. Mr Mackenzie's natives
+call the mountain the 'Finger of God', and to me it did seem eloquent
+of immortal peace and of the pure high calm that surely lies above this
+fevered world. Somewhere I had heard a line of poetry,
+
+     A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
+
+and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughly
+understood what it meant. Base, indeed, would be the man who could look
+upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile--that white old tombstone of the
+years--and not feel his own utter insignificance, and, by whatever name
+he calls Him, worship God in his heart. Such sights are like visions of
+the spirit; they throw wide the windows of the chamber of our small
+selfishness and let in a breath of that air that rushes round the
+rolling spheres, and for a while illumine our darkness with a far-off
+gleam of the white light which beats upon the Throne.
+
+Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I can well
+understand what little Flossie meant when she talked of Kenia as her
+companion. As Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu that he was, said when I
+pointed out to him the peak hanging in the glittering air: 'A man might
+look thereon for a thousand years and yet be hungry to see.' But he gave
+rather another colour to his poetical idea when he added in a sort of
+chant, and with a touch of that weird imagination for which the man was
+remarkable, that when he was dead he should like his spirit to sit upon
+that snow-clad peak for ever, and to rush down the steep white sides
+in the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash of the lightning, and
+'slay, and slay, and slay'.
+
+'Slay what, you old bloodhound?' I asked.
+
+This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered--
+
+'The other shadows.'
+
+'So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?' I said.
+
+'I murder not,' he answered hotly; 'I kill in fair fight. Man is born to
+kill. He who kills not when his blood is hot is a woman, and no man. The
+people who kill not are slaves. I say I kill in fair fight; and when
+I am "in the shadow", as you white men say, I hope to go on killing in
+fair fight. May my shadow be accursed and chilled to the bone for ever
+if it should fall to murdering like a bushman with his poisoned arrows!'
+And he stalked away with much dignity, and left me laughing.
+
+Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morning to find
+out if there were any traces of our Masai friends about, returned,
+and reported that the country had been scoured for fifteen miles round
+without a single Elmoran being seen, and that they believed that those
+gentry had given up the pursuit and returned whence they came. Mr
+Mackenzie gave a sigh of relief when he heard this, and so indeed did
+we, for we had had quite enough of the Masai to last us for some time.
+Indeed, the general opinion was that, finding we had reached the mission
+station in safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the pursuit
+of us as a bad job. How ill-judged that view was the sequel will show.
+
+After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retired for
+the night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, and Sir Henry, who
+is a very good French scholar, got him to tell us how he came to visit
+Central Africa, which he did in a most extraordinary lingo, that for the
+most part I shall not attempt to reproduce.
+
+'My grandfather,' he began, 'was a soldier of the Guard, and served
+under Napoleon. He was in the retreat from Moscow, and lived for ten
+days on his own leggings and a pair he stole from a comrade. He used to
+get drunk--he died drunk, and I remember playing at drums on his coffin.
+My father--'
+
+Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come to the point.
+
+'Bien, messieurs!' replied this comical little man, with a polite bow.
+'I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principle is not
+hereditary. My grandfather was a splendid man, six feet two high, broad
+in proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters. Also he was remarkable
+for his moustache. To me there remains the moustache and--nothing more.
+
+'I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles. In that dear
+town I spent my happy youth. For years and years I washed the dishes at
+the Hotel Continental. Ah, those were golden days!' and he sighed. 'I am
+a Frenchman. Need I say, messieurs, that I admire beauty? Nay, I adore
+the fair. Messieurs, we admire all the roses in a garden, but we pluck
+one. I plucked one, and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger. She was
+a chambermaid, her name Annette, her figure ravishing, her face
+an angel's, her heart--alas, messieurs, that I should have to
+own it!--black and slippery as a patent leather boot. I loved to
+desperation, I adored her to despair. She transported me--in every
+sense; she inspired me. Never have I cooked as I cooked (for I had been
+promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette, smiled on me.
+Never'--and here his manly voice broke into a sob--'never shall I cook
+so well again.' Here he melted into tears.
+
+'Come, cheer up!' said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartly on the
+back. 'There's no knowing what may happen, you know. To judge from your
+dinner today, I should say you were in a fair way to recovery.'
+
+Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back. 'Monsieur,' he
+said, 'doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy. To continue:
+we loved, and were happy in each other's love. The birds in their little
+nest could not be happier than Alphonse and his Annette. Then came the
+blow--sapristi!--when I think of it. Messieurs will forgive me if I wipe
+away a tear. Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the conscription.
+Fortune would be avenged on me for having won the heart of Annette.
+
+'The evil moment came; I had to go. I tried to run away, but I was
+caught by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with the butt-end
+of muskets till my mustachios curled with pain. I had a cousin a
+linen-draper, well-to-do, but very ugly. He had drawn a good number,
+and sympathized when they thumped me. "To thee, my cousin," I said, "to
+thee, in whose veins flows the blue blood of our heroic grandparent, to
+thee I consign Annette. Watch over her whilst I hunt for glory in the
+bloody field."
+
+'"Make your mind easy," said he; "I will." As the sequel shows, he did!
+
+'I went. I lived in barracks on black soup. I am a refined man and a
+poet by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarse horror of my
+surroundings. There was a drill sergeant, and he had a cane. Ah, that
+cane, how it curled! Alas, never can I forget it!
+
+'One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin.
+The drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced. I--I made
+enquiries about Tonquin. They were not satisfactory. In Tonquin are
+savage Chinese who rip you open. My artistic tastes--for I am also an
+artist--recoiled from the idea of being ripped open. The great man makes
+up his mind quickly. I made up my mind. I determined not to be ripped
+open. I deserted.
+
+'I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man. I went to the house of
+my cousin--he in whom runs my grandfather's heroic blood--and there sat
+Annette. It was the season of cherries. They took a double stalk. At
+each end was a cherry. My cousin put one into his mouth, Annette put
+the other in hers. Then they drew the stalks in till their eyes met--and
+alas, alas that I should have to say it!--they kissed. The game was
+a pretty one, but it filled me with fury. The heroic blood of my
+grandfather boiled up in me. I rushed into the kitchen. I struck my
+cousin with the old man's crutch. He fell--I had slain him. Alas, I
+believe that I did slay him. Annette screamed. The gendarmes came. I
+fled. I reached the harbour. I hid aboard a vessel. The vessel put to
+sea. The captain found me and beat me. He took an opportunity. He posted
+a letter from a foreign port to the police. He did not put me ashore
+because I cooked so well. I cooked for him all the way to Zanzibar. When
+I asked for payment he kicked me. The blood of my heroic grandfather
+boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his face and vowed to have my
+revenge. He kicked me again. At Zanzibar there was a telegram. I cursed
+the man who invented telegraphs. Now I curse him again. I was to be
+arrested for desertion, for murder, and que sais-je? I escaped from
+the prison. I fled, I starved. I met the men of Monsieur le Cure. They
+brought me here. I am full of woe. But I return not to France. Better to
+risk my life in these horrible places than to know the Bagne.'
+
+He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turn our faces
+away.
+
+'Ah! you weep, messieurs,' he said. 'No wonder--it is a sad story.'
+
+'Perhaps,' said Sir Henry, 'the heroic blood of your grandparent will
+triumph after all; perhaps you will still be great. At any rate we shall
+see. And now I vote we go to bed. I am dead tired, and we had not much
+sleep on that confounded rock last night.'
+
+And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white sheets
+seemed to us after our recent experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+
+
+
+Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was.
+
+'Well,' said her mother, 'when I got up this morning I found a note put
+outside my door in which--But here it is, you can read it for yourself,'
+and she gave me the slip of paper on which the following was written:--
+
+'Dearest M--,--It is just dawn, and I am off to the hills to get Mr Q--a
+bloom of the lily he wants, so don't expect me till you see me. I have
+taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple of boys are coming with
+me--also something to eat, as I may be away all day, for I am determined
+to get the lily if I have to go twenty miles for it.--Flossie.'
+
+
+'I hope she will be all right,' I said, a little anxiously; 'I never
+meant her to trouble after the flower.'
+
+'Ah, Flossie can look after herself,' said her mother; 'she often goes
+off in this way like a true child of the wilderness.' But Mr Mackenzie,
+who came in just then and saw the note for the first time, looked rather
+grave, though he said nothing.
+
+After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whether it would
+not be possible to send after the girl and get her back, having in view
+the possibility of there still being some Masai hanging about, at whose
+hands she might come to harm.
+
+'I fear it would be of no use,' he answered. 'She may be fifteen miles
+off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken.
+There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long range of rising ground
+stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana,
+but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five miles
+short of the house.
+
+Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over the house and
+search the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie
+had given some orders to his people to try and follow Flossie's spoor,
+we did.
+
+The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance, even
+with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up, at least to a
+landsman; but Good came up like a lamplighter.
+
+On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs sprang
+from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon a platform made
+of boards, nailed from one bough to another, and large enough to
+accommodate a dozen people. As for the view, it was simply glorious.
+In every direction the bush rolled away in great billows for miles and
+miles, as far as the glass would show, only here and there broken by the
+brighter green of patches of cultivation, or by the glittering surface
+of lakes. To the northwest, Kenia reared his mighty head, and we could
+trace the Tana river curling like a silver snake almost from his feet,
+and far away beyond us towards the ocean. It is a glorious country, and
+only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productive one.
+
+But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and her donkey,
+so at last we had to come down disappointed. On reaching the veranda I
+found Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightly sharpening his axe
+with a small whetstone he always carried with him.
+
+'What doest thou, Umslopogaas?' I asked.
+
+'I smell blood,' was the answer; and I could get no more out of him.
+
+After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surrounding
+country with a spyglass, but without result. When we came down
+Umslopogaas was still sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she already had
+an edge like a razor. Standing in front of him, and regarding him with a
+mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse. And certainly he did seem
+an alarming object--sitting there, Zulu fashion, on his haunches, a wild
+look upon his intensely savage and yet intellectual face, sharpening,
+sharpening, sharpening at the murderous-looking axe.
+
+'Oh, the monster, the horrible man!' said the little French cook,
+lifting his hands in amazement. 'See but the hole in his head; the skin
+beats on it up and down like a baby's! Who would nurse such a baby?' and
+he burst out laughing at the idea.
+
+For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and a sort of
+evil light played in his dark eyes.
+
+'What does the little "buffalo-heifer" [so named by Umslopogaas, on
+account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say? Let him be
+careful, or I will cut his horns. Beware, little man monkey, beware!'
+
+Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him, went on
+laughing at 'ce drole d'un monsieur noir'. I was about to warn him to
+desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded off the veranda on to the
+open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort
+of malicious enthusiasm, and began swinging the axe round and round over
+the Frenchman's head.
+
+'Stand still,' I shouted; 'do not move as you value your life--he will
+not hurt you;' but I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being, fortunately for
+himself, almost petrified with horror.
+
+Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or rather of
+axemanship, that I ever saw. First of all the axe went flying round
+and round over the top of Alphonse's head, with an angry whirl and such
+extraordinary swiftness that it looked like a continuous band of steel,
+ever getting nearer and yet nearer to that unhappy individual's skull,
+till at last it grazed it as it flew. Then suddenly the motion was
+changed, and it seemed to literally flow up and down his body and limbs,
+never more than an eighth of an inch from them, and yet never striking
+them. It was a wonderful sight to see the little man fixed there, having
+apparently realized that to move would be to run the risk of sudden
+death, while his black tormentor towered over him, and wrapped him round
+with the quick flashes of the axe. For a minute or more this went
+on, till suddenly I saw the moving brightness travel down the side of
+Alphonse's face, and then outwards and stop. As it did so a tuft of
+something black fell to the ground; it was the tip of one of the little
+Frenchman's curling mustachios.
+
+Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke into a long,
+low laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank into a sitting posture
+on the ground, while we stood astonished at this exhibition of almost
+superhuman skill and mastery of a weapon. 'Inkosi-kaas is sharp enough,'
+he shouted; 'the blow that clipped the "buffalo-heifer's" horn would
+have split a man from the crown to the chin. Few could have struck it
+but I; none could have struck it and not taken off the shoulder too.
+Look, thou little heifer! Am I a good man to laugh at, thinkest thou?
+For a space hast thou stood within a hair's-breadth of death. Laugh not
+again, lest the hair's-breadth be wanting. I have spoken.'
+
+'What meanest thou by such mad tricks?' I asked of Umslopogaas,
+indignantly. 'Surely thou art mad. Twenty times didst thou go near to
+slaying the man.'
+
+'And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not. Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flew the spirit
+entered into me to end him, and send her crashing through his skull; but
+I did not. Nay, it was but a jest; but tell the "heifer" that it is not
+well to mock at such as I. Now I go to make a shield, for I smell blood,
+Macumazahn--of a truth I smell blood. Before the battle hast thou not
+seen the vulture grow of a sudden in the sky? They smell the blood,
+Macumazahn, and my scent is more keen than theirs. There is a dry
+ox-hide down yonder; I go to make a shield.'
+
+'That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours,' said Mr Mackenzie, who had
+witnessed this extraordinary scene. 'He has frightened Alphonse out of
+his wits; look!' and he pointed to the Frenchman, who, with a scared
+white face and trembling limbs, was making his way into the house. 'I
+don't think that he will ever laugh at "le monsieur noir" again.'
+
+'Yes,' answered I, 'it is ill jesting with such as he. When he is roused
+he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heart in his own fierce way.
+I remember years ago seeing him nurse a sick child for a week. He is a
+strange character, but true as steel, and a strong stick to rest on in
+danger.'
+
+'He says he smells blood,' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I only trust he is not
+right. I am getting very fearful about my little girl. She must have
+gone far, or she would be home by now. It is half-past three o'clock.'
+
+I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likely would
+not in the ordinary course of events return till nightfall; but I myself
+felt very anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayed itself.
+
+Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent out to search
+for Flossie returned, stating that they had followed the spoor of the
+donkey for a couple of miles and had then lost it on some stony ground,
+nor could they discover it again. They had, however, scoured the country
+far and wide, but without success.
+
+After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening, there
+still being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew very keen. As for the
+poor mother, she was quite prostrated by her fears, and no wonder, but
+the father kept his head wonderfully well. Everything that could be done
+was done: people were sent out in all directions, shots were fired, and
+a continuous outlook kept from the great tree, but without avail.
+
+And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired little Flossie.
+
+At eight o'clock we had supper. It was but a sorrowful meal, and Mrs
+Mackenzie did not appear at it. We three also were very silent, for in
+addition to our natural anxiety as to the fate of the child, we were
+weighed down by the sense that we had brought this trouble on the head
+of our kind host. When supper was nearly at an end I made an excuse to
+leave the table. I wanted to get outside and think the situation over. I
+went on to the veranda and, having lit my pipe, sat down on a seat about
+a dozen feet from the right-hand end of the structure, which was, as
+the reader may remember, exactly opposite one of the narrow doors of the
+protecting wall that enclosed the house and flower garden. I had been
+sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thought I heard the
+door move. I looked in that direction and I listened, but, being unable
+to make out anything, concluded that I must have been mistaken. It was a
+darkish night, the moon not having yet risen.
+
+Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell with a soft
+but heavy thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda, and came
+bounding and rolling along past me. For a moment I did not rise, but sat
+wondering what it could be. Finally, I concluded it must have been an
+animal. Just then, however, another idea struck me, and I got up quick
+enough. The thing lay quite still a few feet beyond me. I put down my
+hand towards it and it did not move: clearly it was not an animal. My
+hand touched it. It was soft and warm and heavy. Hurriedly I lifted it
+and held it up against the faint starlight.
+
+_It was a newly severed human head!_
+
+I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastly sight
+made me feel sick. How had the thing come there? Whose was it? I put it
+down and ran to the little doorway. I could see nothing, hear nobody. I
+was about to go out into the darkness beyond, but remembering that to do
+so was to expose myself to the risk of being stabbed, I drew back,
+shut the door, and bolted it. Then I returned to the veranda, and in as
+careless a voice as I could command called Curtis. I fear, however, that
+my tones must have betrayed me, for not only Sir Henry but also Good and
+Mackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out.
+
+'What is it?' said the clergyman, anxiously.
+
+Then I had to tell them.
+
+Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin. We were standing
+opposite the hall door, and there was a light in it so that I could see.
+He snatched the head up by the hair and held it against the light.
+
+'It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie,' he said with
+a gasp. 'Thank God it is not hers!'
+
+We all stood and stared at each other aghast. What was to be done?
+
+Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted, and a
+voice cried, 'Open, my father, open!'
+
+The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man. He was one of the
+spies who had been sent out.
+
+'My father,' he cried, 'the Masai are on us! A great body of them have
+passed round the hill and are moving towards the old stone kraal down
+by the little stream. My father, make strong thy heart! In the midst
+of them I saw the white ass, and on it sat the Water-lily [Flossie]. An
+Elmoran [young warrior] led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse
+weeping. The men who went with her in the morning I saw not.'
+
+'Was the child alive?' asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
+
+'She was white as the snow, but well, my father. They passed quite close
+to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw her face against the
+sky.'
+
+'God help her and us!' groaned the clergyman.
+
+'How many are there of them?' I asked.
+
+'More than two hundred--two hundred and half a hundred.'
+
+Once more we looked one on the other. What was to be done? Just then
+there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
+
+'Open the door, white man; open the door! A herald--a herald to speak
+with thee.' Thus cried the voice.
+
+Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms to the
+coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over.
+
+'I see but one man,' he said. 'He is armed, and carries a basket in his
+hand.'
+
+'Open the door,' I said. 'Umslopogaas, take thine axe and stand thereby.
+Let one man pass. If another follows, slay.'
+
+The door was unbarred. In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas, his
+axe raised above his head to strike. Just then the moon came out. There
+was a moment's pause, and then in stalked a Masai Elmoran, clad in the
+full war panoply that I have already described, but bearing a large
+basket in his hand. The moonlight shone bright upon his great spear
+as he walked. He was physically a splendid man, apparently about
+thirty-five years of age. Indeed, none of the Masai that I saw were
+under six feet high, though mostly quite young. When he got opposite to
+us he halted, put down the basket, and stuck the spike of his spear into
+the ground, so that it stood upright.
+
+'Let us talk,' he said. 'The first messenger we sent to you could not
+talk;' and he pointed to the head which lay upon the paving of the
+stoep--a ghastly sight in the moonlight; 'but I have words to speak
+if ye have ears to hear. Also I bring presents;' and he pointed to the
+basket and laughed with an air of swaggering insolence that is perfectly
+indescribable, and yet which one could not but admire, seeing that he
+was surrounded by enemies.
+
+'Say on,' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'I am the "Lygonani" [war captain] of a party of the Masai of the Guasa
+Amboni. I and my men followed these three white men,' and he pointed
+to Sir Henry, Good, and myself, 'but they were too clever for us, and
+escaped hither. We have a quarrel with them, and are going to kill
+them.'
+
+'Are you, my friend?' said I to myself.
+
+'In following these men we this morning caught two black men, one
+black woman, a white donkey, and a white girl. One of the black men we
+killed--there is his head upon the pavement; the other ran away. The
+black woman, the little white girl, and the white ass we took and
+brought with us. In proof thereof have I brought this basket that she
+carried. Is it not thy daughter's basket?'
+
+Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on.
+
+'Good! With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor do we wish to
+harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have already gathered, two
+hundred and forty head--a beast for every man's father.' {Endnote 6}
+
+Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herd of
+cattle, which he bred with much care and trouble.
+
+'So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially,' he added
+frankly, glancing at the wall, 'as this place would be a difficult one
+to take. But as to these men it is otherwise; we have followed them
+for nights and days, and must kill them. Were we to return to our kraal
+without having done so, all the girls would make a mock of us. So,
+however troublesome it may be, they must die.
+
+'Now I have a proposition for thee. We would not harm the little girl;
+she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit. Give us one of
+these three men--a life for a life--and we will let her go, and throw in
+the black woman with her also. This is a fair offer, white man. We ask
+but for one, not for the three; we must take another opportunity to kill
+the other two. I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer the
+big one,' pointing to Sir Henry; 'he looks strong, and would die more
+slowly.'
+
+'And if I say I will not yield the man?' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'Nay, say not so, white man,' answered the Masai, 'for then thy daughter
+dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hast no other child. Were
+she older I would take her for a servant; but as she is so young I will
+slay her with my own hand--ay, with this very spear. Thou canst come and
+see, an' thou wilt. I give thee a safe conduct;' and the fiend laughed
+aloud as his brutal jest.
+
+Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies, and
+had come to the conclusion that I would exchange myself against
+Flossie. I scarcely like to mention the matter for fear it should be
+misunderstood. Pray do not let any one be misled into thinking that
+there was anything heroic about this, or any such nonsense. It was
+merely a matter of common sense and common justice. My life was an old
+and worthless one, hers was young and valuable. Her death would pretty
+well kill her father and mother also, whilst nobody would be much the
+worse for mine; indeed, several charitable institutions would have cause
+to rejoice thereat. It was indirectly through me that the dear little
+girl was in her present position. Lastly, a man was better fitted to
+meet death in such a peculiarly awful form than a sweet young girl. Not,
+however, that I meant to let these gentry torture me to death--I am far
+too much of a coward to allow that, being naturally a timid man; my plan
+was to see the girl safely exchanged and then to shoot myself, trusting
+that the Almighty would take the peculiar circumstances of the case into
+consideration and pardon the act. All this and more went through my mind
+in very few seconds.
+
+'All right, Mackenzie,' I said, 'you can tell the man that I will
+exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that she shall be
+safely in this house before they kill me.'
+
+'Eh?' said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously. 'That you don't.'
+
+'No, no,' said Mr Mackenzie. 'I will have no man's blood upon my hands.
+If it please God that my daughter should die this awful death, His will
+be done. You are a brave man (which I am not by any means) and a noble
+man, Quatermain, but you shall not go.'
+
+'If nothing else turns up I shall go,' I said decidedly.
+
+'This is an important matter,' said Mackenzie, addressing the Lygonani,
+'and we must think it over. You shall have our answer at dawn.'
+
+'Very well, white man,' answered the savage indifferently; 'only
+remember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will never grow into
+a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this,' and he touched the
+spear. 'I should have thought that thou wouldst play a trick and attack
+us at night, but I know from the woman with the girl that your men are
+down at the coast, and that thou hast but twenty men here. It is not
+wise, white man,' he added with a laugh, 'to keep so small a garrison
+for your "boma" [kraal]. Well, good night, and good night to you also,
+other white men, whose eyelids I shall soon close once and for all. At
+dawn thou wilt bring me word. If not, remember it shall be as I have
+said.' Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the while been standing
+behind him and shepherding him as it were, 'Open the door for me,
+fellow, quick now.'
+
+This was too much for the old chief's patience. For the last ten minutes
+his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positively watering over the
+Masai Lygonani, and this he could not stand. Placing his long hand
+on the Elmoran's shoulder he gripped it and gave him such a twist
+as brought him face to face with himself. Then, thrusting his fierce
+countenance to within a few inches of the Masai's evil feather-framed
+features, he said in a low growling voice:--
+
+'Seest thou me?'
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see thee.'
+
+'And seest thou this?' and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes.
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?'
+
+'Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of little girls,
+with this "toy" will I hew thee limb from limb. Well for thee that thou
+art a herald, or even now would I strew thy members about the grass.'
+
+The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long as he
+answered, 'I would that thou stoodst against me man to man, and we would
+see,' and again he turned to go still laughing.
+
+'Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid,' replied
+Umslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice. 'Thou shalt stand face
+to face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of the people of the
+Amazulu, a captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi, as many have done
+before, and bow thyself to Inkosi-kaas, as many have done before. Ay,
+laugh on, laugh on! tomorrow night shall the jackals laugh as they
+crunch thy ribs.'
+
+When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening the basket
+he had brought as a proof that Flossie was really their prisoner. On
+lifting the lid it was found to contain a most lovely specimen of both
+bulb and flower of the Goya lily, which I have already described, in
+full bloom and quite uninjured, and what was more a note in Flossie's
+childish hand written in pencil upon a greasy piece of paper that had
+been used to wrap up some food in:--
+
+'Dearest Father and Mother,' ran the note, 'The Masai caught us when we
+were coming home with the lily. I tried to escape but could not. They
+killed Tom: the other man ran away. They have not hurt nurse and me, but
+say that they mean to exchange us against one of Mr Quatermain's party.
+_I will have nothing of the sort_. Do not let anybody give his life
+for me. Try and attack them at night; they are going to feast on three
+bullocks they have stolen and killed. I have my pistol, and if no
+help comes by dawn I will shoot myself. They shall not kill me. If so,
+remember me always, dearest father and mother. I am very frightened,
+but I trust in God. I dare not write any more as they are beginning to
+notice. Goodbye.--Flossie.'
+
+
+Scrawled across the outside of this was 'Love to Mr Quatermain. They are
+going to take the basket, so he will get the lily.'
+
+When I read those words, written by that brave little girl in an hour
+of danger sufficiently near and horrible to have turned the brain of
+a strong man, I own I wept, and once more in my heart I vowed that she
+should not die while my life could be given to save her.
+
+Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussing the
+situation. Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzie negatived
+it, and Curtis and Good, like the true men that they are, vowed that, if
+I did, they would go with me, and die back to back with me.
+
+'It is,' I said at last, 'absolutely necessary that an effort of some
+sort should be made before the morning.'
+
+'Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and take our
+chance,' said Sir Henry.
+
+'Ay, ay,' growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; 'spoken like a man, Incubu. What
+is there to be afraid of? Two hundred and fifty Masai, forsooth! How
+many are we? The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] has twenty men, and thou,
+Macumazahn, hast five men, and there are also five white men--that is,
+thirty men in all--enough, enough. Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who art
+very clever and old in war. What says the maid? These men eat and make
+merry; let it be their funeral feast. What said the dog whom I hope to
+hew down at daybreak? That he feared no attack because we were so few.
+Knowest thou the old kraal where the men have camped? I saw it this
+morning; it is thus:' and he drew an oval on the floor; 'here is the big
+entrance, filled up with thorn bushes, and opening on to a steep rise.
+Why, Incubu, thou and I with axes will hold it against an hundred men
+striving to break out! Look, now; thus shall the battle go. Just as the
+light begins to glint upon the oxen's horns--not before, or it will be
+too dark, and not later, or they will be awakening and perceive us--let
+Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top end of the kraal, where the
+narrow entrance is. Let them silently slay the sentry there so that he
+makes no sound, and stand ready. Then, Incubu, let thee and me and one
+of the Askari--the one with the broad chest--he is a brave man--creep to
+the wide entrance that is filled with thorn bushes, and there also slay
+the sentry, and armed with battleaxes take our stand also one on each
+side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond to deal with such as
+pass the twain at the gate. It is there that the rush will come. That
+will leave sixteen men. Let these men be divided into two parties, with
+one of which shalt thou go, Macumazahn, and with one the "praying man"
+[Mr Mackenzie], and, all armed with rifles, let them make their way
+one to the right side of the kraal and one to the left; and when thou,
+Macumazahn, lowest like an ox, all shall open fire with the guns upon
+the sleeping men, being very careful not to hit the little maid. Then
+shall Bougwan at the far end and his ten men raise the war-cry, and,
+springing over the wall, put the Masai there to the sword. And it shall
+happen that, being yet heavy with food and sleep, and bewildered by the
+firing of the guns, the falling of men, and the spears of Bougwan, the
+soldiers shall rise and rush like wild game towards the thorn-stopped
+entrance, and there the bullets from either side shall plough through
+them, and there shall Incubu and the Askari and I wait for those who
+break across. Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if thou hast a better, name
+it.'
+
+When he had done, I explained to the others such portions of his
+scheme as they had failed to understand, and they all joined with me in
+expressing the greatest admiration of the acute and skilful programme
+devised by the old Zulu, who was indeed, in his own savage fashion,
+the finest general I ever knew. After some discussion we determined to
+accept the scheme, as it stood, it being the only one possible under the
+circumstances, and giving the best chance of success that such a forlorn
+hope would admit of--which, however, considering the enormous odds and
+the character of our foe, was not very great.
+
+'Ah, old lion!' I said to Umslopogaas, 'thou knowest how to lie in wait
+as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as where to hang on.'
+
+'Ay, ay, Macumazahn,' he answered. 'For thirty years have I been a
+warrior, and have seen many things. It will be a good fight. I smell
+blood--I tell thee, I smell blood.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+
+
+
+As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire
+population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the
+stout stone wall, and were now to be seen--men, women, and countless
+children--huddled up together in little groups, and all talking at once
+in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners and customs, and of the
+fate that they had to expect if those bloodthirsty savages succeeded in
+getting over the stone wall.
+
+Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of action
+as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four sharp boys of
+from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatched them to various
+points where they could keep an outlook upon the Masai camp, with others
+to report from time to time what was going on. Other lads and even women
+were stationed at intervals along the wall in order to guard against the
+possibility of surprise.
+
+After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting force
+were summoned by our host into the square formed by the house, and
+there, standing by the bole of the great conifer, he earnestly addressed
+them and our four Askari. Indeed, it formed a very impressive scene--one
+not likely to be forgotten by anybody who witnessed it. Immediately by
+the tree stood the angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched
+as he talked, and the other resting against the giant bole, his hat off,
+and his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of his mind.
+Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair, had her face
+hidden in her hand. On the other side of her was Alphonse, looking
+exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood the three of us, with
+Umslopogaas' grim and towering form in the background, resting, as
+usual, on his axe. In front stood and squatted the group of armed
+men--some with rifles in their hands, and others with spears and
+shields--following with eager attention every word that fell from the
+speaker's lips. The white light of the moon peering in beneath the
+lofty boughs threw a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the
+melancholy soughing of the night wind passing through the millions of
+pine needles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already a
+sufficiently tragic occasion.
+
+'Men,' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances of the
+case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them the proposed
+plan of our forlorn hope--'men, for years I have been a good friend to
+you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding you and yours from harm, and
+ye have prospered with me. Ye have seen my child--the Water-lily, as ye
+call her--grow year by year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood,
+and from childhood on towards maidenhood. She has been your children's
+playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved her.'
+
+'We have,' said a deep voice, 'and we will die to save her.'
+
+'I thank you from my heart--I thank you. Sure am I that now, in this
+hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to be cut off
+by cruel and savage men--who of a truth "know not what they do"--ye will
+strive your best to save her, and to save me and her mother from broken
+hearts. Think, too, of your own wives and children. If she dies, her
+death will be followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even
+if we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your
+goods and cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a man of peace.
+Never in all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man's blood; but
+now I say strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect our
+lives and homes. Swear to me,' he went on with added fervour--'swear to
+me that whilst a man of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost
+with me and with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody
+and cruel death.'
+
+'Say no more, my father,' said the same deep voice, that belonged to
+a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'we swear it. May we and ours die the
+death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals and the kites,
+if we break the oath! It is a fearful thing to do, my father, so few to
+strike at so many, yet will we do it or die in the doing. We swear!'
+
+'Ay, thus say we all,' chimed in the others.
+
+'Thus say we all,' said I.
+
+'It is well,' went on Mr Mackenzie. 'Ye are true men and not broken
+reeds to lean on. And now, friends--white and black together--let us
+kneel and offer up our humble supplication to the Throne of Power,
+praying that He in the hollow of Whose hand lie all our lives, Who
+giveth life and giveth death, may be pleased to make strong our arms
+that we may prevail in what awaits us at the morning's light.'
+
+And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas,
+who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas. The
+fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unless it were his
+battleaxe.
+
+'Oh God of gods!' began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous with
+emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof; 'Protector of
+the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian of the helpless, hear
+Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Thee we come in supplication.
+Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one child hast Thou given us--an innocent
+child, nurtured in Thy knowledge--and now she lies beneath the shadow of
+the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men. Be
+with her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly Father! Oh
+God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to fight,
+in Whose strength are hid the destinies of men, be Thou with us in the
+hour of strife. When we go forth into the shadow of death, make Thou
+us strong to conquer. Breathe Thou upon our foes and scatter them;
+turn Thou their strength to water, and bring their high-blown pride to
+nought; compass us about with Thy protection; throw over us the shield
+of Thy power; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; help
+us now that the cruel man would dash our little ones against the stones!
+Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on earth
+in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy Presence on
+the Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away their
+offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits pass, oh
+receive Thou them into the haven of the just. Go forth, oh Father, go
+forth with us into the battle, as with the Israelites of old. Oh God of
+battle, hear Thou our prayer!'
+
+He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and then began our
+preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop
+'talking' and get to business. The men who were to form each little
+party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely
+instructed as to what was to be done. After much consideration it was
+agreed that the ten men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the
+camp, were not to carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good
+himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword--the Masai 'sime'
+which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered
+in the canoe. We feared that if they had firearms the result of three
+cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own people
+would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the work they
+had to do would best be carried out with cold steel--especially to
+Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great advocate of cold steel. We had
+with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis.
+I armed myself with one of the repeaters--my own; an excellent weapon
+for this kind of work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and
+fitted with ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome sliding
+mechanism which they generally have. Mr Mackenzie took another, and the
+two remaining ones were given to two of his men who understood the
+use of them and were noted shots. The Martinis and some rifles of
+Mr Mackenzie's were served out, together with a plentiful supply of
+ammunition, to the other natives who were to form the two parties whose
+duty it was to be to open fire from separate sides of the kraal on the
+sleeping Masai, and who were fortunately all more or less accustomed to
+the use of a gun.
+
+As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed--with an axe. It may be
+remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of the Askari were to
+hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal against the anticipated
+rush of men striving to escape. Of course, for such a purpose as this
+guns were useless. Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm
+themselves in like fashion. It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his
+little store a selection of the very best and English-made hammer-backed
+axe-heads. Sir Henry selected one of these weighing about two and a half
+pounds and very broad in the blade, and the Askari took another a size
+smaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on these two
+axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which Mr Mackenzie
+fortunately had some in stock, made of a light but exceedingly tough
+native wood, something like English ash, only more springy. When two
+suitable helves had been selected with great care and the ends of the
+hafts notched to prevent the hand from slipping, the axe-heads were
+fixed on them as firmly as possible, and the weapons immersed in a
+bucket of water for half an hour. The result of this was to swell the
+wood in the socket in such a fashion that nothing short of burning would
+get it out again. When this important matter had been attended to
+by Umslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a little
+tin-lined deal case, which contained--what do you think?--nothing more
+or less than four mail shirts.
+
+It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had made in
+another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts of native make,
+and remembering this, I had suggested before we started on our present
+hazardous expedition that we should have some made to fit us. There
+was a little difficulty about this, as armour-making is pretty well an
+extinct art, but they can do most things in the way of steel work in
+Birmingham if they are put to it and you will pay the price, and the
+end of it was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts it is
+possible to see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the web being
+composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny rings of the
+best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved and high-necked
+jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but
+browned like the barrel of a gun; and mine weighed exactly seven pounds
+and fitted me so well that I found I could wear it for days next to my
+skin without being chafed. Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary
+make, viz. a jersey with little dependent flaps meant to afford some
+protection to the upper part of the thighs, and another of his
+own design fashioned on the pattern of the garments advertised as
+'combinations' and weighing twelve pounds. This combination shirt, of
+which the seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down
+to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to be
+laced up at the back and, of course, involved some extra weight. With
+these shirts were what looked like four brown cloth travelling caps with
+ear pieces. Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel links so
+as to afford a most valuable protection for the head.
+
+It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days of
+bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but where one
+has to do with savages, armed with cutting weapons such as assegais or
+battleaxes, they afford the most valuable protection, being, if well
+made, quite invulnerable to them. I have often thought that if only the
+English Government had in our savage wars, and more especially in the
+Zulu war, thought fit to serve out light steel shirts, there would be
+many a man alive today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten.
+
+To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in bringing
+these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had not been stolen
+by our rascally bearers when they ran away with our goods. As Curtis had
+two, and after considerable deliberation, had made up his mind to wear
+his combination one himself--the extra three or four pounds' weight
+being a matter of no account to so strong a man, and the protection
+afforded to the thighs being a very important matter to a fighting man
+not armed with a shield of any kind--I suggested that he should lend the
+other to Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory of his
+post. He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who came bearing Sir
+Henry's axe, which he had now fixed up to his satisfaction, with him.
+When we showed him the steel shirt, and explained to him that we wanted
+him to wear it, he at first declined, saying that he had fought in his
+own skin for thirty years, and that he was not going to begin now to
+fight in an iron one. Thereupon I took a heavy spear, and, spreading the
+shirt upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my strength,
+the weapon rebounding without leaving a mark upon the tempered steel.
+This exhibition half converted him; and when I pointed out to him how
+necessary it was that he should not let any old-fashioned prejudices he
+might possess stand in the way of a precaution which might preserve a
+valuable life at a time when men were scarce, and also that if he wore
+this shirt he might dispense with a shield, and so have both hands free,
+he yielded at once, and proceeded to invest his frame with the 'iron
+skin'. And indeed, although made for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu
+like a skin. The two men were almost of a height; and, though Curtis
+looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that the difference was
+more imaginary than real, the fact being that, although he was plumper
+and rounder, he was not really bigger, except in the arm. Umslopogaas
+had, comparatively speaking, thin arms, but they were as strong as wire
+ropes. At any rate, when they both stood, axe in hand, invested in
+the brown mail, which clung to their mighty forms like a web garment,
+showing the swell of every muscle and the curve of every line, they
+formed a pair that any ten men might shrink from meeting.
+
+It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning, and the spies reported
+that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormous
+quantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round their
+watchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each opening of the
+kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting not far from the wall in the
+centre of the western side of the kraal, and by her were the nurse and
+the white donkey, which was tethered to a peg. Her feet were bound with
+a rope, and warriors were lying about all round her.
+
+As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then we all
+took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of hours. I could
+not help admiring the way in which old Umslopogaas flung himself upon
+the floor, and, unmindful of what was hanging over him, instantly sank
+into a deep sleep. I do not know how it was with the others, but I could
+not do as much. Indeed, as is usual with me on these occasions, I am
+sorry to say that I felt rather frightened; and, now that some of the
+enthusiasm had gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate what we
+had undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did not like it.
+We were but thirty men all told, a good many of whom were no doubt quite
+unused to fighting, and we were going to engage two hundred and fifty
+of the fiercest, bravest, and most formidable savages in Africa, who,
+to make matters worse, were protected by a stone wall. It was, indeed,
+a mad undertaking, and what made it even madder was the exceeding
+improbability of our being able to take up our positions without
+attracting the notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did
+that--and any slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun,
+might do it--we were done for, for the whole camp would be up in a
+second, and our only hope lay in surprise.
+
+The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflections was
+near an open window that looked on to the veranda, through which came an
+extraordinary sound of groaning and weeping. For a time I could not make
+out what it was, but at last I got up and, putting my head out of the
+window, stared about. Presently I saw a dim figure kneeling on the end
+of the veranda and beating his breast--in which I recognized Alphonse.
+Not being able to understand his French talk or what on earth he was at,
+I called to him and asked him what he was doing.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he sighed, 'I do make prayer for the souls of those whom
+I shall slay tonight.'
+
+'Indeed,' I said, 'then I wish that you would do it a little more
+quietly.'
+
+Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And so the time
+passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisper through the
+window, for of course everything had now to be done in the most absolute
+silence. 'Three o'clock,' he said: 'we must begin to move at half-past.'
+
+I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound to say
+that if it had not been that just then I had not got a laugh anywhere
+about me, I should have exploded at the sight he presented armed for
+battle. To begin with, he had on a clergyman's black swallow-tail and
+a kind of broad-rimmed black felt hat, both of which he had donned on
+account, he said, of their dark colour. In his hand was the Winchester
+repeating rifle we had lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing
+belt, like those worn by English boys, were, first, a huge
+buckhorn-handled carving knife with a guard to it, and next a
+long-barrelled Colt's revolver.
+
+'Ah, my friend,' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'you are
+looking at my "carver". I thought it might come in handy if we came to
+close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many is the pig I have killed
+with it.'
+
+By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light Norfolk
+jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy to hold my
+cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good did the same, but Sir Henry
+put on nothing except his mail shirt, steel-lined cap, and a pair of
+'veldt-schoons' or soft hide shoes, his legs being bare from the knees
+down. His revolver he strapped on round his middle outside the armoured
+shirt.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under the big
+tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly armed, etc. At
+the last moment we made one change. Finding that two of the men who were
+to have gone with the firing parties knew little or nothing of guns,
+but were good spearsmen, we took away their rifles, supplied them with
+shields and long spears of the Masai pattern, and took them off to join
+Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the Askari in holding the wide opening; it
+having become clear to us that three men, however brave and strong, were
+too few for the work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+
+
+
+Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent darkness
+waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the most trying
+time of all--that slow, slow quarter of an hour. The minutes seemed
+to drag along with leaden feet, and the quiet, the solemn hush,
+that brooded over all--big, as it were, with a coming fate, was most
+oppressive to the spirits. I once remember having to get up before
+dawn to see a man hanged, and I then went through a very similar set of
+sensations, only in the present instance my feelings were animated by
+that more vivid and personal element which naturally appertains rather
+to the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic spectator.
+The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the short passage of
+an hour would mean for some, and perhaps all of them, the last great
+passage to the unknown or oblivion; the bated whispers in which they
+spoke; even Sir Henry's continuous and thoughtful examination of his
+woodcutter's axe and the fidgety way in which Good kept polishing his
+eyeglass, all told the same tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to
+breaking-point. Only Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and
+taking an occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly and
+completely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
+
+The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer and
+nearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the world in
+darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern sky that palely
+heralded the dawn.
+
+Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm and
+striving to stifle her sobs.
+
+'Twenty minutes to four,' he said, 'it ought to be light enough to
+attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better be moving,
+he will want three or four minutes' start.'
+
+Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a jocular
+sort of way--which I could not help feeling it must have cost him
+something to muster up--and, ever polite, took off his steel-lined cap
+to Mrs Mackenzie and started for his position at the head of the kraal,
+to reach which he had to make a detour by some paths known to the
+natives.
+
+Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody in the
+Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who were walking
+up and down in front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fast
+asleep. Then the rest of us took the road. First came the guide, then
+Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi Askari, and Mr Mackenzie's
+two mission natives armed with long spears and shields. I followed
+immediately after with Alphonse and five natives all armed with guns,
+and Mr Mackenzie brought up the rear with the six remaining natives.
+
+The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot of the
+hill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about eight hundred
+yards from the Mission buildings. The first five hundred yards of this
+distance we traversed quietly indeed, but at a good pace; after that we
+crept forward as silently as a leopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts
+from bush to bush and stone to stone. When I had gone a little way I
+chanced to look behind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggering
+along with white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which was at
+full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back. Having halted and
+carefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again, and all went well
+till we were within one hundred yards or so of the kraal, when his teeth
+began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
+
+'If you don't stop that I will kill you,' I whispered savagely; for the
+idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering cook was
+too much for me. I began to fear that he would betray us, and heartily
+wished we had left him behind.
+
+'But, monsieur, I cannot help it,' he answered, 'it is the cold.'
+
+Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the pocket of
+the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that I had used some
+time before to clean a gun with. 'Put this in your mouth,' I whispered
+again, giving him the rag; 'and if I hear another sound you are a dead
+man.' I knew that that would stifle the clatter of his teeth. I must
+have looked as if I meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and
+continued his journey in silence.
+
+Then we crept on again.
+
+At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us and it was
+an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa bush and a couple of
+tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in fairly
+thick bush. It was beginning to grow light. The stars had paled and a
+sickly gleam played about the east and was reflected on the earth. We
+could see the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also make
+out the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires. We
+halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at the opening.
+Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly up and down
+within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to catch
+him napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide awake. If
+we could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. There
+we crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces
+ahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go
+down on his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when
+the sentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grass
+without a sound.
+
+The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas
+crept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived and
+there waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently he turned
+and looked over the wall into the camp. Instantly the human snake who
+was stalking him glided on ten yards and got behind one of the tussocks
+of the thistle-like plant, reaching it as the Elmoran turned again. As
+he did so his eye fell upon this patch of thistles, and it seemed to
+strike him that it did not look quite right. He advanced a pace towards
+it--halted, yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw
+it at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the armour
+shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us. Luckily, too,
+the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which would certainly have
+been detected. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing wrong, he
+then gave over his investigations and contented himself with leaning
+on his spear and standing gazing idly at the tuft. For at least three
+minutes did he stand thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and
+there we lay in the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment
+that we should be discovered or that some untoward accident would
+happen. I could hear Alphonse's teeth going like anything on the oiled
+rag, and turning my head round made an awful face at him. But I am bound
+to state that my own heart was at much the same game as the Frenchman's
+castanets, while the perspiration was pouring from my body, causing the
+wash-leather-lined shirt to stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether I
+was in the pitiable state known by schoolboys as a 'blue fright'.
+
+At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at the east, and
+appeared to note with satisfaction that his period of duty was coming to
+an end--as indeed it was, once and for all--for he rubbed his hands and
+began to walk again briskly to warm himself.
+
+The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again, and
+reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces of
+his return beat.
+
+Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterly
+unconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it. Had he looked
+down he could scarcely have failed to see, but he did not do so.
+
+He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and with
+outstretched hand followed in his tracks.
+
+A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the great
+Zulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could see his long lean
+hands close round the Masai's throat. Then followed a convulsive twining
+of the two dark bodies, and in another second I saw the Masai's head
+bent back, and heard a sharp crack, something like that of a dry
+twig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground, his limbs moving
+spasmodically.
+
+Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the warrior's
+neck.
+
+For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat till he
+was sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he rose
+and beckoned to us to advance, which we did on all fours, like a colony
+of huge apes. On reaching the kraal we saw that the Masai had still
+further choked this entrance, which was about ten feet wide--no doubt in
+order to guard against attack--by dragging four or five tops of mimosa
+trees up to it. So much the better for us, I reflected; the more
+obstruction there was the slower would they be able to come through.
+Here we separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadow
+of the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas took their
+stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmen and the
+Askari lying down in front of it. I and my men crept on up the right
+side of the kraal, which was about fifty paces long.
+
+When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances of
+four paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however. Then
+I peeped for the first time over the wall. It was getting fairly light
+now, and the first thing I saw was the white donkey, exactly opposite
+to me, and close by it I could make out the pale face of little Flossie,
+who was sitting as the lad had described, some ten paces from the wall.
+Round her lay many warriors, sleeping. At distances all over the surface
+of the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which slept some
+five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food. Now and then
+a man would raise himself, yawn, and look at the east, which was turning
+primrose; but none got up. I determined to wait another five minutes,
+both to allow the light to increase, so that we could make better
+shooting, and to give Good and his party--of whom we could see or hear
+nothing--every opportunity to make ready.
+
+The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain and
+forest and river--mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence of eternal snows,
+looked out across the earth--till presently a beam from the unrisen sun
+lit upon his heaven-kissing crest and purpled it with blood; the sky
+above grew blue, and tender as a mother's smile; a bird began to pipe
+his morning song, and a little breeze passing through the bush shook
+down the dewdrops in millions to refresh the waking world. Everywhere
+was peace and the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in the
+heart of cruel man!
+
+Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having already
+selected my man on whom I meant to open fire--a great fellow sprawling
+on the ground within three feet of little Flossie--Alphonse's teeth
+began to chatter again like the hoofs of a galloping giraffe, making a
+great noise in the silence. The rag had dropped out in the agitation of
+his mind. Instantly a Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting
+up, gazed about him, looking for the cause of the sound. Moved beyond
+myself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pit of the
+Frenchman's stomach. This stopped his chattering; but, as he doubled up,
+he managed to let off his gun in such a manner that the bullet passed
+within an inch of my head.
+
+There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraal broke
+out a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing with a
+snap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he was jumping up.
+Then from the top end of the kraal there rang an awful yell, in which
+I rejoiced to recognize Good's piercing notes rising clear and shrill
+above the din, and in another second followed such a scene as I have
+never seen before nor shall again. With an universal howl of terror and
+fury the brawny crowd of savages within the kraal sprang to their feet,
+many of them to fall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead before
+they had moved a yard. For a moment they stood undecided, and then
+hearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the top end
+of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they as by one
+impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they went we
+kept pouring our fire with terrible effect into the thickening mob as
+fast as we could load. I had emptied my repeater of the ten shots it
+contained and was just beginning to slip in some more when I bethought
+me of little Flossie. Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lying
+kicking, having been knocked over either by one of our bullets or a
+Masai spear-thrust. There were no living Masai near, but the black nurse
+was on her feet and with a spear cutting the rope that bound Flossie's
+feet. Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and began to climb
+over it, an example which the little girl followed. But Flossie was
+evidently very stiff and cramped, and could only go slowly, and as she
+went two Masai flying down the kraal caught sight of her and rushed
+towards her to kill her. The first fellow came up just as the poor
+little girl, after a desperate effort to climb the wall, fell back into
+the kraal. Up flashed the great spear, and as it did so a bullet from my
+rifle found its home in the holder's ribs, and over he went like a shot
+rabbit. But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had only that
+one cartridge in the magazine! Flossie had scrambled to her feet and was
+facing the second man, who was advancing with raised spear. I turned my
+head aside and felt sick as death. I could not bear to see him stab her.
+Glancing up again, to my surprise I saw the Masai's spear lying on the
+ground, while the man himself was staggering about with both hands to
+his head. Suddenly I saw a puff of smoke proceeding apparently from
+Flossie, and the man fell down headlong. Then I remembered the Derringer
+pistol she carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it at
+him, thereby saving her life. In another instant she had made an effort,
+and assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top, had scrambled over
+the wall, and I knew that she was, comparatively speaking, safe.
+
+All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took more than
+fifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazine of the repeater filled
+again with cartridges, and once more opened fire, not on the seething
+black mass which was gathering at the end of the kraal, but on fugitives
+who bethought them to climb the wall. I picked off several of these men,
+moving down towards the end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving at
+the corner, or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see, and by means
+of my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took place there.
+
+By this time some two hundred Masai--allowing that we had up to the
+present accounted for fifty--had gathered together in front of the
+thorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spears of Good's men,
+whom they doubtless supposed were a large force instead of being but ten
+strong. For some reason it never occurred to them to try and rush the
+wall, which they could have scrambled over with comparative ease;
+they all made for the fence, which was really a strongly interwoven
+fortification. With a bound the first warrior went at it, and even
+before he touched the ground on the other side I saw Sir Henry's great
+axe swing up and fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, and
+he sank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell and a crash they
+began to break through as they might, and ever as they came the great
+axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead one by one, each
+man thus helping to build up a barrier against his fellows. Those who
+escaped the axes of the pair fell at the hands of the Askari and the two
+Mission Kaffirs, and those who passed scatheless from them were brought
+low by my own and Mackenzie's fire.
+
+Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai would spring
+upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of the
+axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts,
+the result was always the same. Presently there was a great swing of the
+axe, a crashing sound, and another dead Masai. That is, if the man was
+engaged with Sir Henry. If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with the
+result indeed would be the same, but it would be differently attained.
+It was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handed
+stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continually at his
+adversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end of the axe as a
+woodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood. Presently a peck would go
+home, and his enemy would drop down with a neat little circular hole
+in his forehead or skull, exactly similar to that which a cheese-scoop
+makes in a cheese. He never used the broad blade of the axe except when
+hard pressed, or when striking at a shield. He told me afterwards that
+he did not consider it sportsmanlike.
+
+Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had to cease
+firing into the mass for fear of killing some of them (as it was, one of
+them was slain in this way). Mad and desperate with fear, the Masai by
+a frantic effort burst through the thorn fence and piled-up dead, and,
+sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the other three before them, into the
+open. And now it was that we began to lose men fast. Down went our poor
+Askari who was armed with the axe, a great spear standing out a foot
+behind his back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood with
+him went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others of our party
+shared their fate. For a moment I feared the fight was lost--certainly
+it trembled in the balance. I shouted to my men to cast down their
+rifles, and to take spears and throw themselves into the melee. They
+obeyed, their blood being now thoroughly up, and Mr Mackenzie's people
+followed their example.
+
+This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung in the
+balance.
+
+Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the dark mass
+of Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And ever
+above the din rose Good's awful yell of encouragement as he plunged to
+wherever the fight was thickest; and ever, with an almost machine-like
+regularity, the two axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablement
+at every stroke. But I could see that the strain was beginning to tell
+upon Sir Henry, who was bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breath
+was coming in gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blue
+and knotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, was hard
+pressed. I noticed that he had given up 'woodpecking', and was now using
+the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, 'browning' his enemy wherever he could
+hit him, instead of drilling scientific holes in his head. I myself did
+not go into the melee, but hovered outside like the swift 'back' in a
+football scrimmage, putting a bullet through a Masai whenever I got a
+chance. I was more use so. I fired forty-nine cartridges that morning,
+and I did not miss many shots.
+
+Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise against
+us. We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left now, and the
+Masai had at least fifty. Of course if they had kept their heads, and
+shaken themselves together, they could soon have made an end of the
+matter; but that is just what they did not do, not having yet recovered
+from their start, and some of them having actually fled from their
+sleeping-places without their weapons. Still by now many individuals
+were fighting with their normal courage and discretion, and this alone
+was sufficient to defeat us. To make matters worse just then, when
+Mackenzie's rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a 'sime',
+or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his gun, and
+drawing his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had dropped
+out in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle. Presently, locked
+in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on the ground behind the
+wall, and for some time I, being amply occupied with my own affairs, and
+in keeping my skin from being pricked, remained in ignorance of his fate
+or how the duel had ended.
+
+To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex of
+a human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for us. Just
+then, however, a fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either by
+accident or design, broke out of the ring and engaged a warrior at some
+few paces from it. As he did so, another man ran up and struck him with
+all his force between his shoulders with his great spear, which, falling
+on the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it and rebounded. For a
+moment the man stared aghast--protective armour being unknown among
+these tribes--and then he yelled out at the top of his voice--
+
+'_They are devils--bewitched, bewitched!_' And seized by a sudden panic,
+he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cut short his career with
+a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic spread to
+the others.
+
+'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in every
+direction, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most part
+even throwing down their shields and spears.
+
+On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It was a
+slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked or given. One
+incident, however, is worth detailing. Just as I was hoping that it was
+all done with, suddenly from under a heap of slain where he had been
+hiding, an unwounded warrior sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying
+dead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards the
+spot where I was standing at the moment. But he was not alone, for
+Umslopogaas came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like
+motion for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in the
+Masai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, run as he would,
+his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and turned round to give
+battle. Umslopogaas also pulled up.
+
+'Ah, ah,' he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, 'it is thou whom I
+talked with last night--the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer of little
+girls--he who would kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to stand man
+to man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe of
+the Maquilisini, of the people of the Amazulu? Behold, thy prayer is
+granted! And I didst swear to hew thee limb from limb, thou insolent
+dog. Behold, I will do it even now!'
+
+The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu with
+his spear. As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swinging
+Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad blade
+down with such fearful force from behind upon the Masai's shoulder just
+where the neck is set into the frame, that its razor edge shore right
+through bone and flesh and muscle, almost severing the head and one arm
+from the body.
+
+'_Ou!_' ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe; 'I
+have kept my word. It was a good stroke.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII  ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+
+
+And so the fight was ended. On returning from the shocking scene it
+suddenly struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse since the moment,
+some twenty minutes before--for though this fight has taken a long while
+to describe, it did not take long in reality--when I had been forced
+to hit him in the wind with the result of nearly getting myself shot.
+Fearing that the poor little man had perished in the battle, I began to
+hunt among the dead for his body, but, not being able either to see or
+hear anything of it, I concluded that he must have survived, and walked
+down the side of the kraal where we had first taken our stand, calling
+him by name. Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal wall stood a
+very ancient tree of the banyan species. So ancient was it that all the
+inside had in the course of ages decayed away, leaving nothing but a
+shell of bark.
+
+'Alphonse,' I called, as I walked down the wall. 'Alphonse!'
+
+'Oui, monsieur,' answered a voice. 'Here am I.'
+
+I looked round but could see nobody. 'Where?' I cried.
+
+'Here am I, monsieur, in the tree.'
+
+I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of the banyan
+about five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face and a pair of large
+mustachios, one clipped short and the other as lamentably out of curl
+as the tail of a newly whipped pug. Then, for the first time, I realized
+what I had suspected before--namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward.
+I walked up to him. 'Come out of that hole,' I said.
+
+'Is it finished, monsieur?' he asked anxiously; 'quite finished? Ah, the
+horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!'
+
+'Come out, you little wretch,' I said, for I did not feel amiable; 'it
+is all over.'
+
+'So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed? I emerge,' and he did.
+
+As we were walking down together to join the others, who were gathered
+in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which now resembled a
+veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped so far and been hiding
+under a bush, suddenly sprang up and charged furiously at us. Off went
+Alphonse with a howl of terror, and after him flew the Masai, bent upon
+doing some execution before he died. He soon overtook the poor little
+Frenchman, and would have finished him then and there had I not, just
+as Alphonse made a last agonized double in the vain hope of avoiding the
+yard of steel that was flashing in his immediate rear, managed to plant
+a bullet between the Elmoran's broad shoulders, which brought matters
+to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman was concerned. But
+just then he tripped and fell flat, and the body of the Masai fell right
+on the top of him, moving convulsively in the death struggle. Thereupon
+there arose such a series of piercing howls that I concluded that before
+he died the savage must have managed to stab poor Alphonse. I ran up
+in a hurry and pulled the Masai off, and there beneath him lay Alphonse
+covered with blood and jerking himself about like a galvanized frog.
+Poor fellow! thought I, he is done for, and kneeling down by him I began
+to search for his wound as well as his struggles would allow.
+
+'Oh, the hole in my back!' he yelled. 'I am murdered. I am dead. Oh,
+Annette!'
+
+I searched again, but could see no wound. Then the truth dawned on
+me--the man was frightened, not hurt.
+
+'Get up!' I shouted, 'Get up. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You are
+not touched.'
+
+Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse. 'But, monsieur, I thought I
+was,' he said apologetically; 'I did not know that I had conquered.'
+Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick, he ejaculated triumphantly,
+'Ah, dog of a black savage, thou art dead; what victory!'
+
+Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself, which he
+did by following me like a shadow, and proceeded to join the others by
+the large entrance. The first thing that I saw was Mackenzie, seated on
+a stone with a handkerchief twisted round his thigh, from which he was
+bleeding freely, having, indeed, received a spear-thrust that passed
+right through it, and still holding in his hand his favourite carving
+knife now bent nearly double, from which I gathered that he had been
+successful in his rough and tumble with the Elmoran.
+
+'Ah, Quatermain!' he sang out in a trembling, excited voice, 'so we have
+conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;' and then breaking
+into broad Scotch and glancing at the bent knife in his hand, 'It fashes
+me sair to have bent my best carver on the breastbone of a savage,' and
+he laughed hysterically. Poor fellow, what between his wound and the
+killing excitement he had undergone his nerves were much shaken, and
+no wonder! It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart to be called
+upon to join in such a gruesome business. But there, fate puts us
+sometimes into very comical positions!
+
+At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one. The slaughter was
+over by now, and the wounded men had been put out of their pain, for no
+quarter had been given. The bush-closed entrance was trampled flat, and
+in place of bushes it was filled with the bodies of dead men. Dead men,
+everywhere dead men--they lay about in knots, they were flung by ones
+and twos in every position upon the open spaces, for all the world like
+the people on the grass in one of the London parks on a particularly hot
+Sunday in August. In front of this entrance, on a space which had been
+cleared of dead and of the shields and spears which were scattered in
+all directions as they had fallen or been thrown from the hands of their
+owners, stood and lay the survivors of the awful struggle, and at their
+feet were four wounded men. We had gone into the fight thirty strong,
+and of the thirty but fifteen remained alive, and five of them
+(including Mr Mackenzie) were wounded, two mortally. Of those who held
+the entrance, Curtis and the Zulu alone remained. Good had lost five men
+killed, I had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out of
+the six with him. As for the survivors they were, with the exception of
+myself who had never come to close quarters, red from head to foot--Sir
+Henry's armour might have been painted that colour--and utterly
+exhausted, except Umslopogaas, who, as he grimly stood on a little
+mound above a heap of dead, leaning as usual upon his axe, did not seem
+particularly distressed, although the skin over the hole in his head
+palpitated violently.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn!' he said to me as I limped up, feeling very sick, 'I
+told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has. Never have I seen a
+better, or one more bravely fought. As for this iron shirt, surely it is
+"tagati" [bewitched]; nothing could pierce it. Had it not been for the
+garment I should have been _there_,' and he nodded towards the great
+pile of dead men beneath him.
+
+'I give it thee; thou art a brave man,' said Sir Henry, briefly.
+
+'Koos!' answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift and the
+compliment. 'Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as a man, but I must
+give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dost waste thy strength.'
+
+Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatly
+relieved when one of the men said he had seen her flying towards the
+house with the nurse. Then bearing such of the wounded as could be moved
+at the moment with us, we slowly made our way towards the Mission-house,
+spent with toil and bloodshed, but with the glorious sense of victory
+against overwhelming odds glowing in our hearts. We had saved the life
+of the little maid, and taught the Masai of those parts a lesson that
+they will not forget for ten years--but at what a cost!
+
+Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little more than an
+hour before, we had descended under such different circumstances. At the
+gate of the wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us. When her eyes fell
+upon us, however, she shrieked out, and covered her face with her
+hands, crying, 'Horrible, horrible!' Nor were her fears allayed when she
+discovered her worthy husband being borne upon an improvized stretcher;
+but her doubts as to the nature of his injury were soon set at rest.
+Then when in a few brief words I had told her the upshot of the struggle
+(of which Flossie, who had arrived in safety, had been able to explain
+something) she came up to me and solemnly kissed me on the forehead.
+
+'God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child's life,' she
+said simply.
+
+Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds; I am
+glad to say I had none, and Sir Henry's and Good's were, thanks to those
+invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmless nature, and to be
+dealt with by means of a few stitches and sticking-plaster. Mackenzie's,
+however, were serious, though fortunately the spear had not severed any
+large artery. After that we had a bath, and what a luxury it was! And
+having clad ourselves in ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dining-room,
+where breakfast was set as usual. It was curious sitting down there,
+drinking tea and eating toast in an ordinary nineteenth-century sort
+of way just as though we had not employed the early hours in a regular
+primitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind of struggle. As Good said,
+the whole thing seemed more as though one had had a bad nightmare just
+before being called, than as a deed done. When we were finishing our
+breakfast the door opened, and in came little Flossie, very pale
+and tottery, but quite unhurt. She kissed us all and thanked us. I
+congratulated her on the presence of mind she had shown in shooting the
+Masai with her Derringer pistol, and thereby saving her own life.
+
+'Oh, don't talk of it!' she said, beginning to cry hysterically; 'I
+shall never forget his face as he went turning round and round, never--I
+can see it now.'
+
+I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did, and awoke
+in the evening quite recovered, so far as her strength was concerned. It
+struck me as an odd thing that a girl who could find the nerve to shoot
+a huge black ruffian rushing to kill her with a spear should have been
+so affected at the thought of it afterwards; but it is, after all,
+characteristic of the sex. Poor Flossie! I fear that her nerves will not
+get over that night in the Masai camp for many a long year. She told
+me afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful, having to sit
+there hour after hour through the livelong night utterly ignorant as to
+whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescue her. She said that
+on the whole she did not expect it, knowing how few of us, and how many
+of the Masai--who, by the way, came continually to stare at her, most of
+them never having seen a white person before, and handled her arms and
+hair with their filthy paws. She said also that she had made up her mind
+that if she saw no signs of succour by the time the first rays of the
+rising sun reached the kraal she would kill herself with the pistol, for
+the nurse had heard the Lygonani say that they were to be tortured to
+death as soon as the sun was up if one of the white men did not come in
+their place. It was an awful resolution to have to take, but she meant
+to act on it, and I have little doubt but what she would have done so.
+Although she was at an age when in England girls are in the schoolroom
+and come down to dessert, this 'child of the wilderness' had more
+courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a woman of mature
+age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefully drilled and
+educated out of any originality or self-resource that nature may have
+endowed them with.
+
+When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep, only
+getting up in time for dinner; after which meal we once more adjourned,
+together with all the available population--men, women, youths, and
+girls--to the scene of the morning's slaughter, our object being to bury
+our own dead and get rid of the Masai by flinging them into the Tana
+River, which ran within fifty yards of the kraal. On reaching the spot
+we disturbed thousands upon thousands of vultures and a sort of brown
+bush eagle, which had been flocking to the feast from miles and
+miles away. Often have I watched these great and repulsive birds, and
+marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arrive on a scene
+of slaughter. A buck falls to your rifle, and within a minute high in
+the blue ether appears a speck that gradually grows into a vulture, then
+another, and another. I have heard many theories advanced to account for
+the wonderful power of perception nature has given these birds. My own,
+founded on a good deal of observation, is that the vultures, gifted
+as they are with powers of sight greater than those given by the most
+powerful glass, quarter out the heavens among themselves, and hanging
+in mid-air at a vast height--probably from two to three miles above the
+earth--keep watch, each of them, over an enormous stretch of country.
+Presently one of them spies food, and instantly begins to sink towards
+it. Thereon his next neighbour in the airy heights sailing leisurely
+through the blue gulf, at a distance perhaps of some miles, follows his
+example, knowing that food has been sighted. Down he goes, and all the
+vultures within sight of him follow after, and so do all those in sight
+of them. In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be summoned
+to the feast in a few minutes.
+
+We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to read the
+Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie, confined to
+bed), as he was generally allowed to possess the best voice and most
+impressive manner. It was melancholy in the extreme, but, as Good said,
+it might have been worse, for we might have had 'to bury ourselves'. I
+pointed out that this would have been a difficult feat, but I knew what
+he meant.
+
+Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been brought round
+from the Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, having first
+collected the spears, shields, and other arms. We loaded the wagon five
+times, about fifty bodies to the load, and emptied it into the Tana.
+From this it was evident that very few of the Masai could have escaped.
+The crocodiles must have been well fed that night. One of the last
+bodies we picked up was that of the sentry at the upper end. I asked
+Good how he managed to kill him, and he told me that he had crept up
+much as Umslopogaas had done, and stabbed him with his sword. He groaned
+a good deal, but fortunately nobody heard him. As Good said, it was a
+horrible thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly like cold-blooded
+murder.
+
+And so with the last body that floated away down the current of the
+Tana ended the incident of our attack on the Masai camp. The spears and
+shields and other arms we took up to the Mission, where they filled an
+outhouse. One incident, however, I must not forget to mention. As we
+were returning from performing the obsequies of our Masai friends
+we passed the hollow tree where Alphonse had secreted himself in
+the morning. It so happened that the little man himself was with us
+assisting in our unpleasant task with a far better will than he had
+shown where live Masai were concerned. Indeed, for each body that he
+handled he found an appropriate sarcasm. Alphonse throwing Masai into
+the Tana was a very different creature from Alphonse flying for dear
+life from the spear of a live Masai. He was quite merry and gay, he
+clapped his hands and warbled snatches of French songs as the grim dead
+warriors went 'splash' into the running waters to carry a message of
+death and defiance to their kindred a hundred miles below. In short,
+thinking that he wanted taking down a peg, I suggested holding a
+court-martial on him for his conduct in the morning.
+
+Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, and
+proceeded to sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining to him in the
+very best French the unheard-of cowardice and enormity of his conduct,
+more especially in letting the oiled rag out of his mouth, whereby he
+nearly aroused the Masai camp with teeth-chattering and brought about
+the failure of our plans: ending up with a request for an explanation.
+
+But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him to open shame
+we were destined to be disappointed. He bowed and scraped and smiled,
+and acknowledged that his conduct might at first blush appear strange,
+but really it was not, inasmuch as his teeth were not chattering from
+fear--oh, dear no! oh, certainly not! he marvelled how the 'messieurs'
+could think of such a thing--but from the chill air of the morning. As
+for the rag, if monsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being
+compounded indeed of a mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and
+gunpowder, monsieur himself would have spat it out. But he did nothing
+of the sort; he determined to keep it there till, alas! his stomach
+'revolted', and the rag was ejected in an access of involuntary
+sickness.
+
+'And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?' asked Sir
+Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty.
+
+'But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it was thus: I
+stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieur hit me in
+the stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battle began. I watched
+whilst recovering myself from monsieur's cruel blow; then, messieurs, I
+felt the heroic blood of my grandfather boil up in my veins. The sight
+made me mad. I ground my teeth! Fire flashed from my eyes! I shouted
+"En avant!" and longed to slay. Before my eyes there rose a vision of
+my heroic grandfather! In short, I was mad! I was a warrior indeed!
+But then in my heart I heard a small voice: "Alphonse," said the voice,
+"restrain thyself, Alphonse! Give not way to this evil passion! These
+men, though black, are brothers! And thou wouldst slay them? Cruel
+Alphonse!" The voice was right. I knew it; I was about to perpetrate the
+most horrible cruelties: to wound! to massacre! to tear limb from limb!
+And how restrain myself? I looked round; I saw the tree, I perceived the
+hole. "Entomb thyself," said the voice, "and hold on tight! Thou wilt
+thus overcome temptation by main force!" It was bitter, just when the
+blood of my heroic grandfather boiled most fiercely; but I obeyed! I
+dragged my unwilling feet along; I entombed myself! Through the hole I
+watched the battle! I shouted curses and defiance on the foe! I noted
+them fall with satisfaction! Why not? I had not robbed them of their
+lives. Their gore was not upon my head. The blood of my heroic--'
+
+'Oh, get along with you, you little cur!' broke out Sir Henry, with a
+shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick which sent him flying
+off with a rueful face.
+
+In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who was suffering
+a good deal from his wounds, which Good, who was a skilful though
+unqualified doctor, was treating him for. He told me that this
+occurrence had taught him a lesson, and that, if he recovered safely, he
+meant to hand over the Mission to a younger man, who was already on his
+road to join him in his work, and return to England.
+
+'You see, Quatermain,' he said, 'I made up my mind to it, this very
+morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages. "If we live
+through this and rescue Flossie alive," I said to myself, "I will go
+home to England; I have had enough of savages." Well, I did not think
+that we should live through it at the time; but thanks be to God and you
+four, we have lived through it, and I mean to stick to my resolution,
+lest a worse thing befall us. Another such time would kill my poor wife.
+And besides, Quatermain, between you and me, I am well off; it is thirty
+thousand pounds I am worth today, and every farthing of it made by
+honest trade and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for living here costs
+me next to nothing. So though it will be hard to leave this place, which
+I have made to blossom like a rose in the wilderness, and harder still
+to leave the people I have taught, I shall go.'
+
+'I congratulate you on your decision,' answered I, 'for two reasons.
+The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter, and more
+especially to the latter, who should receive some education and mix with
+girls of her own race, otherwise she will grow up wild, shunning her
+kind. The other is, that as sure as I am standing here, sooner or later
+the Masai will try to avenge the slaughter inflicted on them today. Two
+or three men are sure to have escaped the confusion who will carry
+the story back to their people, and the result will be that a great
+expedition will one day be sent against you. It might be delayed for
+a year, but sooner or later it will come. Therefore, if only for that
+reason, I should go. When once they have learnt that you are no longer
+here they may perhaps leave the place alone.' {Endnote 8}
+
+'You are quite right,' answered the clergyman. 'I will turn my back upon
+this place in a month. But it will be a wrench, it will be a wrench.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX INTO THE UNKNOWN
+
+
+
+A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in the Mission
+dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits, for the reason that
+we were going to say goodbye to our kind friends, the Mackenzies, and
+depart upon our way at dawn on the morrow. Nothing more had been seen
+or heard of the Masai, and save for a spear or two which had been
+overlooked and was rusting in the grass, and a few empty cartridges
+where we had stood outside the wall, it would have been difficult to
+tell that the old cattle kraal at the foot of the slope had been the
+scene of so desperate a struggle. Mackenzie was, thanks chiefly to his
+being so temperate a man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and could
+get about on a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, one
+had died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery. Mr
+Mackenzie's caravan of men had also returned from the coast, so that the
+station was now amply garrisoned.
+
+Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing as were the
+invitations for us to stay, that it was time to move on, first to Mount
+Kenia, and thence into the unknown in search of the mysterious white
+race which we had set our hearts on discovering. This time we were going
+to progress by means of the humble but useful donkey, of which we had
+collected no less than a dozen, to carry our goods and chattels, and, if
+necessary, ourselves. We had now but two Wakwafis left for servants, and
+found it quite impossible to get other natives to venture with us into
+the unknown parts we proposed to explore--and small blame to them.
+After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was odd that three men, each of
+whom possessed many of those things that are supposed to make life worth
+living--health, sufficient means, and position, etc.--should from their
+own pleasure start out upon a wild-goose chase, from which the chances
+were they never would return. But then that is what Englishmen are,
+adventurers to the backbone; and all our magnificent muster-roll of
+colonies, each of which will in time become a great nation, testify to
+the extraordinary value of the spirit of adventure which at first sight
+looks like a mild form of lunacy. 'Adventurer'--he that goes out to meet
+whatever may come. Well, that is what we all do in the world one way or
+another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud of the title, because it
+implies a brave heart and a trust in Providence. Besides, when many and
+many a noted Croesus, at whose feet the people worship, and many and
+many a time-serving and word-coining politician are forgotten, the names
+of those grand-hearted old adventurers who have made England what she
+is, will be remembered and taught with love and pride to little children
+whose unshaped spirits yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be. Not
+that we three can expect to be numbered with such as these, yet have we
+done something--enough, perhaps, to throw a garment over the nakedness
+of our folly.
+
+That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smoking a pipe
+before turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse, and, with a
+magnificent bow, announce his wish for an interview. Being requested to
+'fire away', he explained at some length that he was anxious to attach
+himself to our party--a statement that astonished me not a little,
+knowing what a coward the little man was. The reason, however, soon
+appeared. Mr Mackenzie was going down to the coast, and thence on to
+England. Now, if he went down country, Alphonse was persuaded that he
+would be seized, extradited, sent to France, and to penal servitude.
+This was the idea that haunted him, as King Charles's head haunted Mr
+Dick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggerated the danger
+ten times. As a matter of fact, the probability is that his offence
+against the laws of his country had long ago been forgotten, and that
+he would have been allowed to pass unmolested anywhere except in France;
+but he could not be got to see this. Constitutional coward as the little
+man was, he infinitely preferred to face the certain hardships and great
+risks and dangers of such an expedition as ours, than to expose himself,
+notwithstanding his intense longing for his native land, to the
+possible scrutiny of a police officer--which is after all only another
+exemplification of the truth that, to the majority of men, a far-off
+foreseen danger, however shadowy, is much more terrible than the most
+serious present emergency. After listening to what he had to say, we
+consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with Mr Mackenzie's
+knowledge and consent, to accept his offer. To begin with, we were very
+short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, active fellow, who could turn
+his hand to anything, and cook--ah, he _could_ cook! I believe that
+he would have made a palatable dish of those gaiters of his heroic
+grandfather which he was so fond of talking about. Then he was a
+good-tempered little man, and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous,
+vainglorious talk was a source of infinite amusement to us; and what is
+more, he never bore malice. Of course, his being so pronounced a coward
+was a great drawback to him, but now that we knew his weakness we could
+more or less guard against it. So, after warning him of the undoubted
+risks he was exposing himself to, we told him that we would accept
+his offer on condition that he would promise implicit obedience to our
+orders. We also promised to give him wages at the rate of ten pounds a
+month should he ever return to a civilized country to receive them. To
+all of this he agreed with alacrity, and retired to write a letter
+to his Annette, which Mr Mackenzie promised to post when he got down
+country. He read it to us afterwards, Sir Henry translating, and a
+wonderful composition it was. I am sure the depth of his devotion and
+the narration of his sufferings in a barbarous country, 'far, far from
+thee, Annette, for whose adored sake I endure such sorrow,' ought to
+have touched the feelings of the stoniest-hearted chambermaid.
+
+Well, the morrow came, and by seven o'clock the donkeys were all loaded,
+and the time of parting was at hand. It was a melancholy business,
+especially saying goodbye to dear little Flossie. She and I were great
+friends, and often used to have talks together--but her nerves had never
+got over the shock of that awful night when she lay in the power of
+those bloodthirsty Masai. 'Oh, Mr Quatermain,' she cried, throwing her
+arms round my neck and bursting into tears, 'I can't bear to say goodbye
+to you. I wonder when we shall meet again?'
+
+'I don't know, my dear little girl,' I said, 'I am at one end of life
+and you are at the other. I have but a short time before me at best, and
+most things lie in the past, but I hope that for you there are many long
+and happy years, and everything lies in the future. By-and-by you will
+grow into a beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild life will be
+like a far-off dream to you; but I hope, even if we never do meet again,
+that you will think of your old friend and remember what I say to you
+now. Always try to be good, my dear, and to do what is right, rather
+than what happens to be pleasant, for in the end, whatever sneering
+people may say, what is good and what is happy are the same. Be
+unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping hand to others--for the
+world is full of suffering, my dear, and to alleviate it is the noblest
+end that we can set before us. If you do that you will become a sweet
+and God-fearing woman, and make many people's lives a little brighter,
+and then you will not have lived, as so many of your sex do, in vain.
+And now I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so I am
+going to give you something to sweeten it with. You see this little
+piece of paper. It is what is called a cheque. When we are gone give it
+to your father with this note--not before, mind. You will marry one day,
+my dear little Flossie, and it is to buy you a wedding present which
+you are to wear, and your daughter after you, if you have one, in
+remembrance of Hunter Quatermain.'
+
+Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of her bright
+hair in return, which I still have. The cheque I gave her was for a
+thousand pounds (which being now well off, and having no calls upon
+me except those of charity, I could well afford), and in the note I
+directed her father to invest it for her in Government security, and
+when she married or came of age to buy her the best diamond necklace
+he could get for the money and accumulated interest. I chose diamonds
+because I think that now that King Solomon's Mines are lost to the
+world, their price will never be much lower than it is at present, so
+that if in after-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, she
+will be able to turn them into money.
+
+Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving, and also
+farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weeping copiously (for he
+has a warm heart) at parting with his master and mistress; and I was
+not sorry for it at all, for I hate those goodbyes. Perhaps the most
+affecting thing of all was to witness Umslopogaas' distress at parting
+with Flossie, for whom the grim old warrior had conceived a strong
+affection. He used to say that she was as sweet to see as the only star
+on a dark night, and was never tired of loudly congratulating himself
+on having killed the Lygonani who had threatened to murder her. And that
+was the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house--a true oasis in
+the desert--and of European civilization. But I often think of the
+Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, and if they are now
+safe and well in England, and will ever see these words. Dear little
+Flossie! I wonder how she fares there where there are no black folk to
+do her imperious bidding, and no sky-piercing snow-clad Kenia for her to
+look at when she gets up in the morning. And so goodbye to Flossie.
+
+After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparatively
+unmolested, past the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call 'Donyo
+Egere', or the 'speckled mountain', on account of the black patches
+of rock that appear upon its mighty spire, where the sides are too
+precipitous to allow of the snow lying on them; then on past the
+lonely lake Baringo, where one of our two remaining Askari, having
+unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died of snake-bite, in spite of
+all our efforts to save him. Thence we proceeded a distance of about a
+hundred and fifty miles to another magnificent snow-clad mountain called
+Lekakisera, which has never, to the best of my belief, been visited
+before by a European, but which I cannot now stop to describe. There
+we rested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless and
+uninhabited forest of a vast district called Elgumi. In this forest
+alone there are more elephants than I ever met with or heard of before.
+The mighty mammals literally swarm there entirely unmolested by man, and
+only kept down by the natural law that prevents any animals increasing
+beyond the capacity of the country they inhabit to support them.
+Needless to say, however, we did not shoot many of them, first because
+we could not afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock was getting
+perilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept away in
+fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could not carry away
+the ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sake of slaughter. So
+we let the great beasts be, only shooting one or two in self-protection.
+In this district, the elephants, being unacquainted with the hunter and
+his tender mercies, would allow one to walk up to within twenty yards of
+them in the open, while they stood, with their great ears cocked for all
+the world like puzzled and gigantic puppy-dogs, and stared at that new
+and extraordinary phenomenon--man. Occasionally, when the inspection did
+not prove satisfactory, the staring ended in a trumpet and a charge,
+but this did not often happen. When it did we had to use our rifles.
+Nor were elephants the only wild beasts in the great Elgumi forest. All
+sorts of large game abounded, including lions--confound them! I have
+always hated the sight of a lion since one bit my leg and lamed me for
+life. As a consequence, another thing that abounded was the dreadful
+tsetse fly, whose bite is death to domestic animals. Donkeys have,
+together with men, hitherto been supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity
+from its attacks; but all I have to say, whether it was on account
+of their poor condition, or because the tsetse in those parts is
+more poisonous than usual, I do not know, but ours succumbed to its
+onslaught. Fortunately, however, that was not till two months or so
+after the bites had been inflicted, when suddenly, after a two days'
+cold rain, they all died, and on removing the skins of several of them I
+found the long yellow streaks upon the flesh which are characteristic of
+death from bites from the tsetse, marking the spot where the insect had
+inserted his proboscis. On emerging from the great Elgumi forest,
+we, still steering northwards, in accordance with the information Mr
+Mackenzie had collected from the unfortunate wanderer who reached him
+only to die so tragically, struck the base in due course of the large
+lake, called Laga by the natives, which is about fifty miles long by
+twenty broad, and of which, it may be remembered, he made mention.
+Thence we pushed on nearly a month's journey over great rolling uplands,
+something like those in the Transvaal, but diversified by patches of
+bush country.
+
+All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of about one
+hundred feet every ten miles. Indeed the country was on a slope which
+appeared to terminate at a mass of snow-tipped mountains, for which we
+were steering, and where we learnt the second lake of which the wanderer
+had spoken as the lake without a bottom was situated. At length we
+arrived there, and, having ascertained that there _was_ a large lake on
+top of the mountains, ascended three thousand feet more till we came to
+a precipitous cliff or edge, to find a great sheet of water some
+twenty miles square lying fifteen hundred feet below us, and evidently
+occupying an extinct volcanic crater or craters of vast extent.
+Perceiving villages on the border of this lake, we descended with
+great difficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed the
+precipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by the people, a
+simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or even heard of a white man
+before, and treated us with great reverence and kindness, supplying us
+with as much food and milk as we could eat and drink. This wonderful
+and beautiful lake lay, according to our aneroid, at a height of no less
+than 11,450 feet above sea-level, and its climate was quite cold, and
+not at all unlike that of England. Indeed, for the first three days of
+our stay there we saw little or nothing of the scenery on account of an
+unmistakable Scotch mist which prevailed. It was this rain that set the
+tsetse poison working in our remaining donkeys, so that they all died.
+
+This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had now no
+means of transport whatever, though on the other hand we had not much to
+carry. Ammunition, too, was very short, amounting to but one hundred and
+fifty rounds of rifle cartridges and some fifty shot-gun cartridges.
+How to get on we did not know; indeed it seemed to us that we had about
+reached the end of our tether. Even if we had been inclined to abandon
+the object of our search, which, shadow as it was, was by no means the
+case, it was ridiculous to think of forcing our way back some seven
+hundred miles to the coast in our present plight; so we came to the
+conclusion that the only thing to be done was to stop where we were--the
+natives being so well disposed and food plentiful--for the present, and
+abide events, and try to collect information as to the countries beyond.
+
+Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enough to hold
+us all and our baggage, from the headman of the village we were staying
+in, presenting him with three empty cold-drawn brass cartridges by way
+of payment, with which he was perfectly delighted, we set out to make
+a tour of the lake in order to find the most favourable place to make a
+camp. As we did not know if we should return to this village, we put all
+our gear into the canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water-buck, which
+when young is delicious eating, and off we set, natives having already
+gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitants of the other
+villages of our approach.
+
+As we were puddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the extraordinary
+deep blue colour of the water, and said that he understood from the
+natives, who were great fishermen--fish, indeed, being their principal
+food--that the lake was supposed to be wonderfully deep, and to have
+a hole at the bottom through which the water escaped and put out some
+great fire that was raging below.
+
+I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legend
+arising from a tradition among the people which dated back to the time
+when one of the extinct parasitic volcanic cones was in activity. We saw
+several round the borders of the lake which had no doubt been working
+at a period long subsequent to the volcanic death of the central crater
+which now formed the bed of the lake itself. When it finally became
+extinct the people would imagine that the water from the lake had run
+down and put out the big fire below, more especially as, though it was
+constantly fed by streams running from the snow-tipped peaks about,
+there was no visible exit to it.
+
+The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, to consist
+of a vast perpendicular wall of rock, which held the water without any
+intermediate sloping bank, as elsewhere. Accordingly we paddled parallel
+with this precipice, at a distance of about a hundred paces from it,
+shaping our course for the end of the lake, where we knew that there was
+a large village.
+
+As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floating
+rushes, weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Good
+supposed, to this spot by some current, which he was much puzzled to
+account for. Whilst we were speculating about this, Sir Henry pointed
+out a flock of large white swans, which were feeding on the drift some
+little way ahead of us. Now I had already noticed swans flying about
+this lake, and, having never come across them before in Africa, was
+exceedingly anxious to obtain a specimen. I had questioned the natives
+about them, and learnt that they came from over the mountain, always
+arriving at certain periods of the year in the early morning, when it
+was very easy to catch them, on account of their exhausted condition.
+I also asked them what country they came from, when they shrugged their
+shoulders, and said that on the top of the great black precipice was
+stony inhospitable land, and beyond that were mountains with snow, and
+full of wild beasts, where no people lived, and beyond the mountains
+were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, so thick that even the
+elephants could not get through it, much less men. Next I asked them if
+they had ever heard of white people like ourselves living on the farther
+side of the mountains and the thorn forest, whereat they laughed. But
+afterwards a very old woman came and told me that when she was a little
+girl her grandfather had told her that in his youth _his_ grandfather
+had crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the thorn forest,
+and seen a white people who lived in stone kraals beyond. Of course,
+as this took the tale back some two hundred and fifty years, the
+information was very indefinite; but still there it was again, and on
+thinking it over I grew firmly convinced that there was some truth in
+all these rumours, and equally firmly determined to solve the mystery.
+Little did I guess in what an almost miraculous way my desire was to be
+gratified.
+
+Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing, as they
+fed, nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at last we pushed the canoe
+under shelter of a patch of drift within forty yards of them. Sir Henry
+had the shot-gun, loaded with No. 1, and, waiting for a chance, got two
+in a line, and, firing at their necks, killed them both. Up rose the
+rest, thirty or more of them, with a mighty splashing; and, as they did
+so, he gave them the other barrel. Down came one fellow with a broken
+wing, and I saw the leg of another drop and a few feathers start out of
+his back; but he went on quite strong. Up went the swans, circling ever
+higher till at last they were mere specks level with the top of the
+frowning precipice, when I saw them form into a triangle and head off
+for the unknown north-east. Meanwhile we had picked up our two dead
+ones, and beautiful birds they were, weighing not less than about thirty
+pounds each, and were chasing the winged one, which had scrambled over
+a mass of driftweed into a pool of clear water beyond. Finding a
+difficulty in forcing the canoe through the rubbish, I told our only
+remaining Wakwafi servant, whom I knew to be an excellent swimmer, to
+jump over, dive under the drift, and catch him, knowing that as there
+were no crocodiles in this lake he could come to no harm. Entering into
+the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was dodging about after
+the winged swan in fine style, getting gradually nearer to the rock
+wall, against which the water washed as he did so.
+
+Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cry out
+that he was being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that, though he was
+swimming with all his strength towards us, he was being drawn slowly to
+the precipice. With a few desperate strokes of our paddles we pushed the
+canoe through the crust of drift and rowed towards the man as hard as we
+could, but, fast as we went, he was drawn faster to the rock. Suddenly I
+saw that before us, just rising eighteen inches or so above the surface
+of the lake, was what looked like the top of the arch of a submerged
+cave or railway tunnel. Evidently, from the watermark on the rock
+several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged; but there
+had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented the snow from melting
+as freely as usual; so the lake was low and the arch showed. Towards
+this arch our poor servant was being sucked with frightful rapidity. He
+was not more than ten fathoms from it, and we were about twenty when I
+saw it, and with little help from us the canoe flew along after him.
+He struggled bravely, and I thought that we should have saved him, when
+suddenly I perceived an expression of despair come upon his face, and
+there before our eyes he was sucked down into the cruel swirling blue
+depths, and vanished. At the same moment I felt our canoe seized as with
+a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force towards the rock.
+
+We realized our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiously in
+our attempt to get out of the vortex. In vain; in another second we were
+flying straight for the arch like an arrow, and I thought that we were
+lost. Luckily I retained sufficient presence of mind to shout out,
+instantly setting the example by throwing myself into the bottom of the
+canoe, 'Down on your faces--down!' and the others had the sense to take
+the hint. In another instant there was a grinding noise, and the boat
+was pushed down till the water began to trickle over the sides, and I
+thought that we were gone. But no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we
+could again feel the canoe flying along. I turned my head a little--I
+dared not lift it--and looked up. By the feeble light that yet reached
+the canoe, I could make out that a dense arch of rock hung just over our
+heads, and that was all. In another minute I could not even see as much
+as that, for the faint light had merged into shadow, and the shadows had
+been swallowed up in darkness, utter and complete.
+
+For an hour or so we lay there, not daring to lift our heads for fear
+lest the brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcely able to speak
+even, on account of the noise of the rushing water which drowned our
+voices. Not, indeed, that we had much inclination to speak, seeing that
+we were overwhelmed by the awfulness of our position and the imminent
+fear of instant death, either by being dashed against the sides of the
+cavern, or on a rock, or being sucked down in the raging waters, or
+perhaps asphyxiated by want of air. All of these and many other modes of
+death presented themselves to my imagination as I lay at the bottom
+of the canoe, listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters which ran
+whither we knew not. One only other sound could I hear, and that was
+Alphonse's intermittent howl of terror coming from the centre of the
+canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural. Indeed, the whole thing
+overpowered my brain, and I began to believe that I was the victim of
+some ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X THE ROSE OF FIRE
+
+
+
+On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticed that
+the sound of the water was not half so deafening as it had been, and
+concluded that this must be because there was more room for the echoes
+to disperse in. I could now hear Alphonse's howls much more distinctly;
+they were made up of the oddest mixture of invocations to the Supreme
+Power and the name of his beloved Annette that it is possible to
+conceive; and, in short, though their evident earnestness saved them
+from profanity, were, to say the least, very remarkable. Taking up a
+paddle I managed to drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking that
+the end had come, howled louder than ever. Then I slowly and cautiously
+raised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, but could touch
+no roof. Next I took the paddle and lifted it above my head as high as
+I could, but with the same result. I also thrust it out laterally to the
+right and left, but could touch nothing except water. Then I bethought
+me that there was in the boat, amongst our other remaining possessions,
+a bull's-eye lantern and a tin of oil. I groped about and found it, and
+having a match on me carefully lit it, and as soon as the flame had got
+a hold of the wick I turned it on down the boat. As it happened, the
+first thing the light lit on was the white and scared face of Alphonse,
+who, thinking that it was all over at last, and that he was witnessing
+a preliminary celestial phenomenon, gave a terrific yell and was with
+difficulty reassured with the paddle. As for the other three, Good was
+lying on the flat of his back, his eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and
+gazing blankly into the upper darkness. Sir Henry had his head resting
+on the thwarts of the canoe, and with his hand was trying to test the
+speed of the water. But when the beam of light fell upon old Umslopogaas
+I could really have laughed. I think I have said that we had put a roast
+quarter of water-buck into the canoe. Well, it so happened that when we
+all prostrated ourselves to avoid being swept out of the boat and into
+the water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas's head had come down uncommonly
+near this roast buck, and so soon as he had recovered a little from
+the first shock of our position it occurred to him that he was hungry.
+Thereupon he coolly cut off a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now
+employed in eating it with every appearance of satisfaction. As he
+afterwards explained, he thought that he was going 'on a long journey',
+and preferred to start on a full stomach. It reminded me of the people
+who are going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in the
+English daily papers to have made 'an excellent breakfast'.
+
+As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp, we
+bundled Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with a threat which
+calmed him down wonderfully, that if he would insist upon making the
+darkness hideous with his cries we would put him out of suspense by
+sending him to join the Wakwafi and wait for Annette in another sphere,
+and began to discuss the situation as well as we could. First, however,
+at Good's suggestion, we bound two paddles mast-fashion in the bows so
+that they might give us warning against any sudden lowering of the
+roof of the cave or waterway. It was clear to us that we were in an
+underground river or, as Alphonse defined it, 'main drain', which
+carried off the superfluous waters of the lake. Such rivers are well
+known to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not often been the
+evil fortune of explorers to travel by them. That the river was wide we
+could clearly see, for the light from the bull's-eye lantern failed to
+reach from shore to shore, although occasionally, when the current swept
+us either to one side or the other, we could distinguish the rock wall
+of the tunnel, which, as far as we could make out, appeared to arch
+about twenty-five feet above our heads. As for the current itself, it
+ran, Good estimated, at least eight knots, and, fortunately for us, was,
+as is usual, fiercest in the middle of the stream. Still, our first act
+was to arrange that one of us, with the lantern and a pole there was in
+the canoe, should always be in the bows ready, if possible, to prevent
+us from being stove in against the side of the cave or any projecting
+rock. Umslopogaas, having already dined, took the first turn. This was
+absolutely, with one exception, all that we could do towards preserving
+our safety. The exception was that another of us took up a position in
+the stern with a paddle by means of which it was possible to steer the
+canoe more or less and to keep her from the sides of the cave. These
+matters attended to, we made a somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck's
+meat (for we did not know how long it might have to last us), and then
+feeling in rather better spirits I gave my opinion that, serious as
+it undoubtedly was, I did not consider our position altogether without
+hope, unless, indeed, the natives were right, and the river plunged
+straight down into the bowels of the earth. If not, it was clear that it
+must emerge somewhere, probably on the other side of the mountains, and
+in that case all we had to think of was to keep ourselves alive till
+we got there, wherever 'there' might be. But, of course, as Good
+lugubriously pointed out, on the other hand we might fall victims to
+a hundred unsuspected horrors--or the river might go on winding away
+inside the earth till it dried up, in which case our fate would indeed
+be an awful one.
+
+'Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for the worst,'
+said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited--a very tower
+of strength in the time of trouble. 'We have come out of so many queer
+scrapes together, that somehow I almost fancy we shall come out of
+this,' he added.
+
+This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each in our
+separate way--that is, except Alphonse, who had by now sunk into a sort
+of terrified stupor. Good was at the helm and Umslopogaas in the bows,
+so there was nothing left for Sir Henry and myself to do except to lie
+down in the canoe and think. It certainly was a curious, and indeed
+almost a weird, position to be placed in--rushing along, as we were,
+through the bowels of the earth, borne on the bosom of a Stygian river,
+something after the fashion of souls being ferried by Charon, as Curtis
+said. And how dark it was! The feeble ray from our little lamp did but
+serve to show the darkness. There in the bows sat old Umslopogaas, like
+Pleasure in the poem, {Endnote 9} watchful and untiring, the pole ready
+to his hand, and behind in the shadow I could just make out the form
+of Good peering forward at the ray of light in order to make out how
+to steer with the paddle that he held and now and again dipped into the
+water.
+
+'Well, well,' thought I, 'you have come in search of adventures, Allan
+my boy, and you have certainly got them. At your time of life, too! You
+ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehow you are not, and, awful as
+it all is, perhaps you will pull through after all; and if you don't,
+why, you cannot help it, you see! And when all's said and done an
+underground river will make a very appropriate burying-place.'
+
+At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon the nerves was
+very great. It is trying to the coolest and most experienced person not
+to know from one hour to another if he has five minutes more to live,
+but there is nothing in this world that one cannot get accustomed to,
+and in time we began to get accustomed even to that. And, after all,
+our anxiety, though no doubt natural, was, strictly speaking, illogical,
+seeing that we never know what is going to happen to us the next minute,
+even when we sit in a well-drained house with two policemen patrolling
+under the window--nor how long we have to live. It is all arranged for
+us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?
+
+It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, and we had set
+our watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreed that it should
+be of a duration of five hours. At seven o'clock, accordingly, Sir Henry
+and I went on, Sir Henry at the bow and I at the stern, and the other
+two lay down and went to sleep. For three hours all went well, Sir Henry
+only finding it necessary once to push us off from the side; and I that
+but little steering was required to keep us straight, as the violent
+current did all that was needed, though occasionally the canoe showed
+a tendency which had to be guarded against to veer and travel broadside
+on. What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful river
+was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt,
+but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably
+unpleasant. The only explanation that I can suggest is that the water of
+the lake had sufficient air in it to keep the atmosphere of the tunnel
+from absolute stagnation, this air being given out as it proceeded on
+its headlong way. Of course I only give the solution of the mystery for
+what it is worth, which perhaps is not much.
+
+When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began to notice a
+decided change in the temperature, which was getting warmer. At first I
+took no notice of it, but when, at the expiration of another half-hour,
+I found that it was getting hotter and hotter, I called to Sir Henry and
+asked him if he noticed it, or if it was only my imagination. 'Noticed
+it!' he answered; 'I should think so. I am in a sort of Turkish bath.'
+Just about then the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin
+to discard their clothes. Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, for he did
+not wear any to speak of, except a moocha.
+
+Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely breathe,
+and the perspiration poured out of us. Half an hour more, and though we
+were all now stark naked, we could hardly bear it. The place was like
+an antechamber of the infernal regions proper. I dipped my hand into
+the water and drew it out almost with a cry; it was nearly boiling. We
+consulted a little thermometer we had--the mercury stood at 123 degrees.
+From the surface of the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse
+groaned out that we were already in purgatory, which indeed we were,
+though not in the sense that he meant it. Sir Henry suggested that we
+must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanic fire, and
+I am inclined to think, especially in the light of what subsequently
+occurred, that he was right. Our sufferings for some time after this
+really pass my powers of description. We no longer perspired, for all
+the perspiration had been sweated out of us. We simply lay in the
+bottom of the boat, which we were now physically incapable of directing,
+feeling like hot embers, and I fancy undergoing very much the same
+sensations that the poor fish do when they are dying on land--namely,
+that of slow suffocation. Our skins began to crack, and the blood to
+throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine.
+
+This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the river turned
+a little, and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bows in a hoarse,
+startled voice, and, looking up, saw a most wonderful and awful thing.
+About half a mile ahead of us, and a little to the left of the centre of
+the stream--which we could now see was about ninety feet broad--a huge
+pillar-like jet of almost white flame rose from the surface of the water
+and sprang fifty feet into the air, when it struck the roof and spread
+out some forty feet in diameter, falling back in curved sheets of fire
+shaped like the petals of a full-blown rose. Indeed this awful gas jet
+resembled nothing so much as a great flaming flower rising out of the
+black water. Below was the straight stalk, a foot or more thick, and
+above the dreadful bloom. And as for the fearfulness of it and its
+fierce and awesome beauty, who can describe it? Certainly I cannot.
+Although we were now some five hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding
+the steam, lit up the whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see
+that the roof was here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly
+smooth with water. The rock was black, and here and there I could make
+out long shining lines of ore running through it like great veins, but
+of what metal they were I know not.
+
+On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercer than any
+furnace ever lit by man.
+
+'Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain--to the right,' shouted Sir
+Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless.
+Alphonse had already gone. Good was the next to go. There they lay as
+though dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses. We were within
+fifty yards of it now, and I saw the Zulu's head fall forward on his
+hands. He had gone too, and I was alone. I could not breathe; the fierce
+heat dried me up. For yards and yards round the great rose of fire the
+rock-roof was red-hot. The wood of the boat was almost burning. I saw
+the feathers on one of the dead swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but
+I would not give in. I knew that if I did we should pass within three or
+four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably. I set the paddle so as
+to turn the canoe as far from it as possible, and held on grimly.
+
+My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed lids I
+could see the fierce light. We were nearly opposite now; it roared like
+all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiously around it. Five
+seconds more. We were past; I heard the roar behind me.
+
+Then I too fell senseless. The next thing that I recollect is feeling
+a breath of air upon my face. My eyes opened with great difficulty. I
+looked up. Far, far above me there was light, though around me was great
+gloom. Then I remembered and looked. The canoe still floated down the
+river, and in the bottom of it lay the naked forms of my companions.
+'Were they dead?' I wondered. 'Was I left alone in this awful place?'
+I knew not. Next I became conscious of a burning thirst. I put my hand
+over the edge of the boat into the water and drew it up again with a
+cry. No wonder: nearly all the skin was burnt off the back of it. The
+water, however, was cold, or nearly so, and I drank pints and splashed
+myself all over. My body seemed to suck up the fluid as one may see a
+brick wall suck up rain after a drought; but where I was burnt the touch
+of it caused intense pain. Then I bethought myself of the others, and,
+dragging myself towards them with difficulty, I sprinkled them with
+water, and to my joy they began to recover--Umslopogaas first, then the
+others. Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges. Then,
+feeling chilly--a queer contrast to our recent sensations--we began as
+best we could to get into our clothes. As we did so Good pointed to the
+port side of the canoe: it was all blistered with heat, and in places
+actually charred. Had it been built like our civilized boats, Good said
+that the planks would certainly have warped and let in enough water to
+sink us; but fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a
+single great tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottom four
+inches thick. What that awful flame was we never discovered, but I
+suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole in the bed of
+the river through which a vast volume of gas forced its way from its
+volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towards the upper air. How
+it first became ignited is, of course, impossible to say--probably, I
+should think, from some spontaneous explosion of mephitic gases.
+
+As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselves together
+a little, we set to work to make out where we were now. I have said that
+there was light above, and on examination we found that it came from the
+sky. Our river that was, Sir Henry said, a literal realization of the
+wild vision of the poet {Endnote 10}, was no longer underground, but
+was running on its darksome way, not now through 'caverns measureless to
+man', but between two frightful cliffs which cannot have been less than
+two thousand feet high. So high were they, indeed, that though the sky
+was above us, where we were was dense gloom--not darkness indeed, but
+the gloom of a room closely shuttered in the daytime. Up on either side
+rose the great straight cliffs, grim and forbidding, till the eye grew
+dizzy with trying to measure their sheer height. The little space of
+sky that marked where they ended lay like a thread of blue upon their
+soaring blackness, which was unrelieved by any tree or creeper. Here
+and there, however, grew ghostly patches of a long grey lichen, hanging
+motionless to the rock as the white beard to the chin of a dead man. It
+seemed as though only the dregs or heavier part of the light had sunk to
+the bottom of this awful place. No bright-winged sunbeam could fall so
+low: they died far, far above our heads.
+
+By the river's edge was a little shore formed of round fragments of rock
+washed into this shape by the constant action of water, and giving the
+place the appearance of being strewn with thousands of fossil cannon
+balls. Evidently when the water of the underground river is high there
+is no beach at all, or very little, between the border of the stream
+and the precipitous cliffs; but now there was a space of seven or eight
+yards. And here, on this beach, we determined to land, in order to rest
+ourselves a little after all that we had gone through and to stretch our
+limbs. It was a dreadful place, but it would give an hour's respite from
+the terrors of the river, and also allow of our repacking and arranging
+the canoe. Accordingly we selected what looked like a favourable spot,
+and with some little difficulty managed to beach the canoe and scramble
+out on to the round, inhospitable pebbles.
+
+'My word,' called out Good, who was on shore the first, 'what an awful
+place! It's enough to give one a fit.' And he laughed.
+
+Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying them a
+hundred times. '_Give one a fit--Ho! ho! ho!'--'A fit, Ho! ho! ho!_'
+answered another voice in wild accents from far up the cliff--_a fit! a
+fit! a fit!_ chimed in voice after voice--each flinging the words to
+and fro with shouts of awful laughter to the invisible lips of the other
+till the whole place echoed with the words and with shrieks of fiendish
+merriment, which at last ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
+
+'Oh, mon Dieu!' yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of such self-command
+as he possessed.
+
+'_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_' the Titanic echoes thundered,
+shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone.
+
+'Ah,' said Umslopogaas calmly, 'I clearly perceive that devils live
+here. Well, the place looks like it.'
+
+I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub was a very
+remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
+
+'Ah,' he said, 'I know an echo when I hear one. There was one lived
+opposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] used to talk
+with it. But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mine at home can only
+have been a baby. No, no--they are devils up there. But I don't think
+much of them, though,' he added, taking a pinch of snuff. 'They can
+copy what one says, but they don't seem to be able to talk on their
+own account, and they dare not show their faces,' and he relapsed into
+silence, and apparently paid no further attention to such contemptible
+fiends.
+
+After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation down to a
+whisper--for it was really unbearable to have every word one uttered
+tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipice called to precipice.
+
+But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurs till at
+last they died away in long-drawn sighs of sound. Echoes are delightful
+and romantic things, but we had more than enough of them in that
+dreadful gulf.
+
+As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones, we
+went on to wash and dress our burns as well as we could. As we had but a
+little oil for the lantern, we could not spare any for this purpose,
+so we skinned one of the swans, and used the fat off its breast, which
+proved an excellent substitute. Then we repacked the canoe, and finally
+began to take some food, of which I need scarcely say we were in need,
+for our insensibility had endured for many hours, and it was, as our
+watches showed, midday. Accordingly we seated ourselves in a circle, and
+were soon engaged in discussing our cold meat with such appetite as we
+could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much, as I felt
+sick and faint after my sufferings of the previous night, and had
+besides a racking headache. It was a curious meal. The gloom was so
+intense that we could scarcely see the way to cut our food and convey
+it to our mouths. Still we got on pretty well, till I happened to look
+behind me--my attention being attracted by a noise of something crawling
+over the stones, and perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear
+a huge species of black freshwater crab, only it was five times the size
+of any crab I ever saw. This hideous and loathsome-looking animal had
+projecting eyes that seemed to glare at one, very long and flexible
+antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws. Nor was I especially favoured
+with its company. From every quarter dozens of these horrid brutes were
+creeping up, drawn, I suppose, by the smell of the food, from between
+the round stones and out of holes in the precipice. Some were already
+quite close to us. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and
+as I did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and give
+the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up with a howl,
+and set the 'wild echoes flying' in sober earnest. Just then, too,
+another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse's leg, and declined
+to part with it, and, as may be imagined, a considerable scene ensued.
+Umslopogaas took his axe and cracked the shell of one with the flat of
+it, whereon it set up a horrid screaming which the echoes multiplied
+a thousandfold, and began to foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew
+hundreds more of its friends out of unsuspected holes and corners.
+Those on the spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like
+creditors on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with their
+huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the fragments
+to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy, such as stones
+or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters--whose numbers were
+increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose stench was overpowering.
+So fast as we cracked their armour others seized the injured ones and
+devoured them, foaming at the mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor
+did the brutes stop at that. When they could they nipped hold of us--and
+awful nips they were--or tried to steal the meat. One enormous fellow
+got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to drag it off. Instantly
+a score of others flung themselves upon the prey, and then began a
+ghastly and disgusting scene. How the monsters foamed and screamed, and
+rent the flesh, and each other! It was a sickening and unnatural sight,
+and one that will haunt all who saw it till their dying day--enacted as
+it was in the deep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of
+the many-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it may seem to say
+so, there was something so shockingly human about these fiendish
+creatures--it was as though all the most evil passions and desires of
+man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and gone mad. They were
+so dreadfully courageous and intelligent, and they looked as if they
+_understood_. The whole scene might have furnished material for another
+canto of Dante's 'Inferno', as Curtis said.
+
+
+'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all go off our
+heads,' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the hint. Pushing
+the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling by hundreds and
+making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks, we bundled into it and got
+out into mid-stream, leaving behind us the fragments of our meal and the
+screaming, foaming, stinking mass of monsters in full possession of the
+ground.
+
+'Those are the devils of the place,' said Umslopogaas with the air of
+one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt almost inclined to
+agree with him.
+
+Umslopogaas' remarks were like his axe--very much to the point.
+
+'What's to be done next?' said Sir Henry blankly.
+
+'Drift, I suppose,' I answered, and we drifted accordingly. All the
+afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in the gloom beneath
+the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing when day ended and night
+began, for down in that vast gulf the difference was not marked, till
+at length Good pointed out a star hanging right above us, which, having
+nothing better to do, we observed with great interest. Suddenly it
+vanished, the darkness became intense, and a familiar murmuring sound
+filled the air. 'Underground again,' I said with a groan, holding up the
+lamp. Yes, there was no doubt about it. I could just make out the roof.
+The chasm had come to an end and the tunnel had recommenced. And then
+there began another long, long night of danger and horror. To describe
+all its incidents would be too wearisome, so I will simply say that
+about midnight we struck on a flat projecting rock in mid-stream and
+were as nearly as possible overturned and drowned. However, at last we
+got off, and went upon the uneven tenor of our way. And so the hours
+passed till it was nearly three o'clock. Sir Henry, Good, and Alphonse
+were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at the bow with the pole,
+and I was steering, when I perceived that the rate at which we
+were travelling had perceptibly increased. Then, suddenly, I heard
+Umslopogaas make an exclamation, and next second came a sound as of
+parting branches, and I became aware that the canoe was being forced
+through hanging bushes or creepers. Another minute, and the breath of
+sweet open air fanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged from the
+tunnel and were floating upon clear water. I say felt, for I could
+see nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it often is just
+before the dawn. But even this could scarcely damp my joy. We were out
+of that dreadful river, and wherever we might have got to this at least
+was something to be thankful for. And so I sat down and inhaled the
+sweet night air and waited for the dawn with such patience as I could
+command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI THE FROWNING CITY
+
+
+
+For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile gone to
+sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge misty shapes
+moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten dawns.
+They were the vapours rising from their watery bed to greet the sun.
+Then the grey turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next,
+glorious bars of light sprang up across the eastern sky, and through
+them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy
+way, scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with
+a kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to longitude.
+Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself
+came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and a
+flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and covered
+her with brightness, and it was day.
+
+But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for
+over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole
+surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees,
+however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we were afloat
+upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make out the
+shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there stretched as
+far as the eye could reach a range of precipitous hills that formed a
+retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through
+some entrance in these hills that the subterranean river found its way
+into the open water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be the
+fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary strength and
+directness of the current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even
+at this distance, was still answering to it. Presently, too, I,
+or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just then, discovered another
+indication, and a very unpleasant one it was. Perceiving some whitish
+object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my attention to it, and with
+a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to the spot, whereupon
+we discovered that the object was the body of a man floating face
+downwards. This was bad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas
+having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the
+sunken features the lineaments of--whom do you suppose? None other than
+our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the waters
+of the subterranean river. It quite frightened me. I thought that we had
+left him behind for ever, and behold! borne by the current, he had
+made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His
+appearance also was dreadful, for he bore traces of having touched the
+pillar of fire--one arm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair
+being burnt off. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they
+preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon
+his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight
+unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone
+through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly and without any warning
+the body began to sink just as though it had had a mission, which having
+been accomplished, it retired; the real reason no doubt being that
+turning it on its back allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went
+to the transparent depths--fathom after fathom we could trace its course
+till at last a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each
+other to the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At length
+these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant.
+Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
+
+'What did he follow us for?' he asked. ''Tis an ill omen for thee and
+me, Macumazahn.' And he laughed.
+
+I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions.
+If people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keep them
+to themselves. I detest individuals who make on the subject of their
+disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream that they saw one
+hanged as a common felon, or some such horror, will insist upon telling
+one all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do
+it.
+
+Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly
+at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more beneath
+the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions as to what
+we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was that, as we were
+excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoever left to eat except a few
+scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained
+of our provisions to those horrible freshwater crabs, we determined to
+make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not know where
+the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs through which the
+subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wide expanse
+of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that the long flights of
+aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that they were
+advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the
+lake, and accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they
+came, and began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze
+sprang up, blowing directly in the direction we wanted, so we improvized
+a sail with a blanket and the pole, which took us along merrily. This
+done, we devoured the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the
+sweet lake water, and then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn
+up.
+
+When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the
+horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he saw
+land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour of the water,
+he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a river. In another
+minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul's,
+piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the
+world it could be, Good reported another and still more important
+discovery, namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing towards us.
+This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our
+own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this
+unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that
+they possessed some degree of civilization. In a few more minutes it
+became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancing boat
+had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the wind as though in
+doubt, and then came tacking towards us with great swiftness. In ten
+more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we saw that she was a
+neat little boat--not a canoe 'dug out', but built more or less in the
+European fashion with planks, and carrying a singularly large sail for
+her size. But our attention was soon diverted from the boat to her crew,
+which consisted of a man and a woman, _nearly as white as ourselves_.
+
+We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be mistaken;
+but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but the two
+people in the boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished from a
+black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It was a
+patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power
+beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I could have
+shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing;
+and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on the
+unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I heard rumours
+of a white race that existed in the highlands of this vast continent,
+and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own
+eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was
+right when he wrote 'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', which he tells me
+means that out of Africa there always comes some new thing.
+
+The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique,
+and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an
+intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something
+like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of
+the same material. The legs and feet were bare. Round the right arm and
+left leg he wore thick rings of yellow metal that I judged to be gold.
+The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling
+brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the man's, and
+consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen under-garment
+that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip of cloth,
+about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the body in
+graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder so that the end,
+which was dyed blue or purple or some other colour, according to the
+social standing of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm
+and breast being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress,
+especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was young and
+pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. Good (who has an eye for
+such things) was greatly struck with it, and so indeed was I. It was so
+simple and yet so effective.
+
+Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and
+woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for the
+man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for a while
+hovered round our canoe, but would not approach. At last, however,
+he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language that
+sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we could not understand
+one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German,
+Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I
+am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these
+tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she
+was busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the
+compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding
+that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man,
+being unable to make anything of us, suddenly turned his boat round and
+began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming away before
+the wind like a swallow. As she passed across our bows the man turned to
+attend to the large sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss
+his hand to the young lady. I was horrified at this proceeding, both on
+general grounds and because I feared that she might take offence, but
+to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and seeing that her
+husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged, she promptly kissed
+hers back.
+
+'Ah!' said I. 'It seems that we have at last found a language that the
+people of this country understand.'
+
+'In which case,' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an invaluable
+interpreter.'
+
+I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities, and he knows
+it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. 'It is very
+clear to me,' I said, 'that the man will be back before long with a host
+of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we are going
+to receive them.'
+
+'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir Henry.
+
+As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin
+case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under a pile of
+baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with Good about this tin case,
+inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never
+given any very explicit account as to its contents; but he had insisted
+on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very useful one
+day.
+
+'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'Do--why dress, of course! You don't expect me to appear in a new
+country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to his soiled and worn
+garments, which were however, like all Good's things, very tidy, and
+with every tear neatly mended.
+
+We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless interest.
+His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly competent in
+such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the most approved fashion.
+I think that if he had had some hot water and a cake of soap at hand
+he would have shaved off the latter; but he had not. This done, he
+suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all take a
+bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and astonishment of Alphonse,
+who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were indeed a
+wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred
+Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of
+swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild
+amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water,
+and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced
+first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had left a London steam
+laundry, and then some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white,
+and finally in silver paper. We watched this undoing with the tenderest
+interest and much speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks
+that hid their splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece
+of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its
+golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's
+full-dress uniform--dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots
+and all. We literally gasped.
+
+'_What!_' we said, '_what!_ Are you going to put those things on?'
+
+'Certainly,' he answered composedly; 'you see so much depends upon a
+first impression, especially,' he added, 'as I observe that there are
+ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.'
+
+We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we
+considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the contents of
+that box for all these months. Only one suggestion did we make--namely,
+that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he
+feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the
+sun to take the creases out, but finally consented to this precautionary
+measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see
+old Umslopogaas's astonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's
+transformation. When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to
+the medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still waters
+of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient
+history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love with his own
+shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings.
+
+'Oh, Bougwan!' he said. 'Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee an ugly
+little man, and fat--fat as the cows at calving time; and now thou art
+like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts
+my eyes to look at thee.'
+
+Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell the
+truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had brought him
+down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased at Umslopogaas's
+admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted.
+
+'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air--the air of the warrior. It
+is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is
+complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand--'
+
+Here we stopped Alphonse.
+
+As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of
+emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves up
+as well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to do was to
+array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes, of which we
+each had several, all the fine clothes in the world could never make it
+otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but Sir Henry looked what he
+is, a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit, gaiters, and boots.
+Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn to his
+enormous moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way
+given to the vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern
+and a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone
+like Good's patent leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir
+Henry had given him and his 'moocha', and, having cleaned up Inkosi-kaas
+a little, stood forth complete.
+
+All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had finished
+bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or, rather, for
+the mouth of a great river. Presently--in all about an hour and a half
+after the little boat had left us--we saw emerging from the river
+or harbour a large number of boats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons
+burden. One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of
+the rest sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the
+row-boat was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of
+uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of venerable
+appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword strapped to his
+side, who was evidently the commander of the craft. The other boats were
+apparently occupied by people brought out by curiosity, and were rowing
+or sailing towards us as quickly as they could.
+
+'Now for it,' said I. 'What is the betting? Are they going to be
+friendly or to put an end to us?'
+
+Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike
+appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little anxious.
+
+Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about two
+hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to
+impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them
+if possible. This, unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and
+accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore rifles, for which we still
+had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action. There were four
+of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three
+parts grown. We got up to them without difficulty, the great animals
+contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again
+a few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as
+being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards
+away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown young
+one. The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing
+through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leaving a long train of blood
+behind it. At the same moment I fired at the cow, and Good at the
+old bull. My shot took effect, but not fatally, and down went the
+hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only to rise again presently
+blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round her crimson,
+when I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who is an execrable shot,
+missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting the
+side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I had fired my
+second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen among were
+evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternation
+caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious.
+Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear; others turned
+and made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentleman with the
+sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted his big row-boat.
+We had, however, but little time for observation, for just then the old
+bull, rendered furious by the wound he had received, rose fair within
+forty yards of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and hit him in
+various places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now began to
+overcome the fear of the onlookers, and some of them sailed on up close
+to us, amongst these being the man and woman whom we had first seen a
+couple of hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside. Just then
+the great brute rose again within ten yards of their base, and instantly
+with a roar of fury made at it open-mouthed. The woman shrieked, and the
+man tried to give the boat way, but without success. In another second
+I saw the huge red jaws and gleaming ivories close with a crunch on the
+frail craft, taking an enormous mouthful out of its side and capsizing
+it. Down went the boat, leaving its occupants struggling in the water.
+Next moment, before we could do anything towards saving them, the huge
+and furious creature was up again and making open-mouthed at the poor
+girl, who was struggling in the water. Lifting my rifle just as the
+grinding jaws were about to close on her, I fired over her head right
+down the hippopotamus's throat. Over he went, and commenced turning
+round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of blood through his
+nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however, I let him have the
+other barrel in the side of the throat, and that finished him. He
+never moved or struggled again, but instantly sank. Our next effort
+was directed towards saving the girl, the man having swum off towards
+another boat; and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling
+her into the canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably
+exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and we could
+see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened,
+were consulting what to do. Without giving them time for further
+consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to ourselves,
+we instantly took our paddles and advanced towards them, Good standing
+in the bow and taking off his cocked hat politely in every direction,
+his amiable features suffused by a bland but intelligent smile. Most of
+the craft retreated as we advanced, but a few held their ground, while
+the big row-boat came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and
+I could see that our appearance--and especially Good's and
+Umslopogaas's--filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment,
+not unmixed with awe. He was dressed after the same fashion as the man
+we first met, except that his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of
+pure white linen hemmed with purple. The kilt, however, was identical,
+and so were the thick rings of gold around the arm and beneath the
+left knee. The rowers wore only a kilt, their bodies being naked to
+the waist. Good took off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra
+flourish, and inquired after his health in the purest English, to
+which he replied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand
+horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a moment, which
+we took as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed some
+remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished our first
+interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did not understand by
+shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse,
+being to the manner born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way that
+nobody could take any offence. Then we came a standstill, till I, being
+exceedingly hungry, thought I might as well call attention to the fact,
+and did so first by opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then
+rubbing my stomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly understood,
+for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed towards the harbour; and
+at the same time one of the men on his boat threw us a line and motioned
+to us to make it fast, which we did. The row-boat then took us in tow,
+and went with great rapidity towards the mouth of the river, accompanied
+by all the other boats. In about twenty minutes more we reached the
+entrance to the harbour, which was crowded with boats full of people who
+had come out to see us. We observed that all the occupants were more or
+less of the same type, though some were fairer than others. Indeed, we
+noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness;
+and the darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that of a rather
+swarthy Spaniard. Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did
+so an exclamation of astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we
+caught our first view of the place that we afterwards knew as Milosis,
+or the Frowning City (from mi, which means city, and losis, a frown).
+
+At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bank rose a
+sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in height, which had
+no doubt once formed the bank itself--the intermediate space of land
+now utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by draining, and
+deepening and embanking the stream.
+
+On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same granite
+that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square, the fourth
+side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its base by a
+little door. This imposing place we afterwards discovered was the palace
+of the queen, or rather of the queens. At the back of the palace the
+town sloped gently upwards to a flashing building of white marble,
+crowned by the golden dome which we had already observed. The city was,
+with the exception of this one building, entirely built of red granite,
+and laid out in regular blocks with splendid roadways between. So far
+as we could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached, with
+gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye wearied with the
+vista of red granite. At the back of the palace a road of extraordinary
+width stretched away up the hill for a distance of a mile and a half or
+so, and appeared to terminate at an open space surrounding the gleaming
+building that crowned the hill. But right in front of us was the
+wonder and glory of Milosis--the great staircase of the palace, the
+magnificence of which took our breath away. Let the reader imagine,
+if he can, a splendid stairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to
+balustrade, consisting of two vast flights, each of one hundred and
+twenty-five steps of eight inches in height by three feet broad,
+connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and running from
+the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet a waterway
+or canal cut to its foot from the river. This marvellous staircase
+was supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which the
+resting-place between the two flights formed the crown; that is, the
+connecting open space lay upon it. From this archway sprang a subsidiary
+flying arch, or rather something that resembled a flying arch in shape,
+such as none of us had seen in any other country, and of which the
+beauty and wonder surpassed all that we had ever imagined. Three hundred
+feet from point to point, and no less than five hundred and fifty round
+the curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for a
+space of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the parent
+archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of the side of the
+precipice.
+
+This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which any living
+man might have been proud, both on account of its magnitude and its
+surpassing beauty. Four times, as we afterwards learnt, did the work,
+which was commenced in remote antiquity, fail, and was then abandoned
+for three centuries when half-finished, till at last there rose a
+youthful engineer named Rademas, who said that he would complete it
+successfully, and staked his life upon it. If he failed he was to be
+hurled from the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded,
+he was to be rewarded by the hand of the king's daughter. Five years was
+given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour and
+material. Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeing failure
+to be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on the morrow of the
+third collapse. That night, however, a beautiful woman came to him in a
+dream and touched his forehead, and of a sudden he saw a vision of the
+completed work, and saw too through the masonry and how the difficulties
+connected with the flying arch that had hitherto baffled his genius were
+to be overcome. Then he awoke and once more commenced the work, but on
+a different plan, and behold! he achieved it, and on the last day of
+the five years he led the princess his bride up the stair and into
+the palace. And in due course he became king by right of his wife, and
+founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this day called the
+'House of the Stairway', thus proving once more how energy and talent
+are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur. And to commemorate his
+triumph he fashioned a statue of himself dreaming, and of the fair woman
+who touched him on the forehead, and placed it in the great hall of the
+palace, and there it stands to this day.
+
+Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond. No wonder
+they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly those mighty works in
+solid granite did seem to frown down upon our littleness in their sombre
+splendour. This was so even in the sunshine, but when the storm-clouds
+gathered on her imperial brow Milosis looked more like a supernatural
+dwelling-place, or some imagining of a poet's brain, than what she is--a
+mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations out of the red
+silence of the mountain side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII THE SISTER QUEENS
+
+
+
+The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almost to the foot
+of the vast stairway, and then halted at a flight of steps leading to
+the landing-place. Here the old gentleman disembarked, and invited us to
+do so likewise, which, having no alternative, and being nearly starved,
+we did without hesitation--taking our rifles with us, however. As each
+of us landed, our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and bowed
+deeply, at the same time ordering back the crowds which had assembled to
+gaze on us. The last to leave the canoe was the girl we had picked out
+of the water, for whom her companion was waiting. Before she went away
+she kissed my hand, I suppose as a token of gratitude for having saved
+her from the fury of the hippopotamus; and it seemed to me that she had
+by this time quite got over any fear she might have had of us, and was
+by no means anxious to return in such a hurry to her lawful owners. At
+any rate, she was going to kiss Good's hand as well as mine, when the
+young man interfered and led her off. As soon as we were on shore, a
+number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possession of our few
+goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendid staircase,
+our guide indicating to us by means of motions that the things were
+perfectly safe. This done, he turned to the right and led the way to
+a small house, which was, as I afterwards discovered, an inn. Entering
+into a good-sized room, we saw that a wooden table was already furnished
+with food, presumably in preparation for us. Here our guide motioned
+us to be seated on a bench that ran the length of the table. We did
+not require a second invitation, but at once fell to ravenously on the
+viands before us, which were served on wooden platters, and consisted
+of cold goat's-flesh, wrapped up in some kind of leaf that gave it a
+delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling lettuces, brown bread,
+and red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs. This wine was peculiarly
+soft and good, having something of the flavour of Burgundy. Twenty
+minutes after we sat down at that hospitable board we rose from it,
+feeling like new men. After all that we had gone through we needed two
+things, food and rest, and the food of itself was a great blessing to
+us. Two girls of the same charming cast of face as the first whom we had
+seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely they did it. They were
+also dressed in the same fashion namely, in a white linen petticoat
+coming to the knee, and with the toga-like garment of brown cloth,
+leaving bare the right arm and breast. I afterwards found out that
+this was the national dress, and regulated by an iron custom, though of
+course subject to variations. Thus, if the petticoat was pure white,
+it signified that the wearer was unmarried; if white, with a straight
+purple stripe round the edge, that she was married and a first or legal
+wife; if with a black stripe, that she was a widow. In the same way the
+toga, or 'kaf', as they call it, was of different shades of colour, from
+pure white to the deepest brown, according to the rank of the wearer,
+and embroidered at the end in various ways. This also applies to the
+'shirts' or tunics worn by the men, which varied in material and colour;
+but the kilts were always the same except as regards quality. One
+thing, however, every man and woman in the country wore as the national
+insignia, and that was the thick band of gold round the right arm above
+the elbow, and the left leg beneath the knee. People of high rank also
+wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observed that our guide had
+one on.
+
+So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor, who had
+been standing all the while, regarding us with inquiring eyes, and our
+guns with something as like fear as his pride would allow him to show,
+bowed towards Good, whom he evidently took for the leader of the party
+on account of the splendour of his apparel, and once more led the way
+through the door and to the foot of the great staircase. Here we paused
+for a moment to admire two colossal lions, each hewn from a single block
+of pure black marble, and standing rampant on the terminations of
+the wide balustrades of the staircase. These lions are magnificently
+executed, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the great prince
+who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt, to judge from the
+many beautiful examples of his art that we saw afterwards, one of the
+finest sculptors who ever lived, either in this or any other country.
+Then we climbed almost with a feeling of awe up that splendid stair,
+a work executed for all time and that will, I do not doubt, be admired
+thousands of years hence by generations unborn unless an earthquake
+should throw it down. Even Umslopogaas, who as a general rule made it
+a point of honour not to show astonishment, which he considered
+undignified, was fairly startled out of himself, and asked if the
+'bridge had been built by men or devils', which was his vague way of
+alluding to any supernatural power. But Alphonse did not care about it.
+Its solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous little Frenchman, who said
+that it was all 'tres magnifique, mais triste--ah, triste!' and went on
+to suggest that it would be improved if the balustrades were _gilt_.
+
+On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps, across
+the broad platform joining it to the second flight, where we paused
+to admire the glorious view of one of the most beautiful stretches of
+country that the world can show, edged by the blue waters of the lake.
+Then we passed on up the stair till at last we reached the top, where we
+found a large standing space to which there were three entrances, all
+of small size. Two of these opened on to rather narrow galleries or
+roadways cut in the face of the precipice that ran round the palace
+walls and led to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were
+used by the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks. These were
+defended by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwards learnt, it was
+possible to let down a portion of the roadways themselves by withdrawing
+certain bolts, and thus render it quite impracticable for an enemy
+to pass. The third entrance consisted of a flight of ten curved black
+marble steps leading to a doorway cut in the palace wall. This wall was
+in itself a work of art, being built of huge blocks of granite to
+the height of forty feet, and so fashioned that its face was concave,
+whereby it was rendered practically impossible for it to be scaled. To
+this doorway our guide led us. The door, which was massive, and made
+of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed; but on our
+approach it was thrown wide, and we were met by the challenge of a
+sentry, who was armed with a heavy triangular-bladed spear, not unlike a
+bayonet in shape, and a cutting sword, and protected by breast and back
+plates of skilfully prepared hippopotamus hide, and a small round shield
+fashioned of the same tough material. The sword instantly attracted our
+attention; it was practically identical with the one in the possession
+of Mr Mackenzie which he had obtained from the ill-starred wanderer.
+There was no mistaking the gold-lined fretwork cut in the thickness of
+the blade. So the man had told the truth after all. Our guide instantly
+gave a password, which the soldier acknowledged by letting the iron
+shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement, and we
+passed on through the massive wall into the courtyard of the palace.
+This was about forty yards square, and laid out in flower-beds full of
+lovely shrubs and plants, many of which were quite new to me. Through
+the centre of this garden ran a broad walk formed of powdered shells
+brought from the lake in the place of gravel. Following this we came
+to another doorway with a round heavy arch, which is hung with thick
+curtains, for there are no doors in the palace itself. Then came another
+short passage, and we were in the great hall of the palace, and once
+more stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeur of the
+place.
+
+The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet long by
+eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved wood. Down
+the entire length of the building there are on either side, and at a
+distance of twenty feet from the wall, slender shafts of black marble
+springing sheer to the roof, beautifully fluted, and with carved
+capitals. At one end of this great place which these pillars support is
+the group of which I have already spoken as executed by the King Rademas
+to commemorate his building of the staircase; and really, when we had
+time to admire it, its loveliness almost struck us dumb. The group, of
+which the figures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is
+about half as large again as life, and represents a young man of
+noble countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One arm is
+carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his head reposes upon
+the other, its curling locks partially hiding it. Bending over him,
+her hand resting on his forehead, is a draped female form of such white
+loveliness as to make the beholder's breath stand still. And as for the
+calm glory that shines upon her perfect face--well, I can never hope to
+describe it. But there it rests like the shadow of an angel's smile; and
+power, love, and divinity all have their part in it. Her eyes are fixed
+upon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most extraordinary thing about
+this beautiful work is the success with which the artist has succeeded
+in depicting on the sleeper's worn and weary face the sudden rising of
+a new and spiritual thought as the spell begins to work within his mind.
+You can see that an inspiration is breaking in upon the darkness of the
+man's soul as the dawn breaks in upon the darkness of night. It is a
+glorious piece of statuary, and none but a genius could have conceived
+it. Between each of the black marble columns is some such group of
+figures, some allegorical, and some representing the persons and wives
+of deceased monarchs or great men; but none of them, in our opinion,
+comes up to the one I have described, although several are from the hand of
+the sculptor and engineer, King Rademas.
+
+In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marble about
+the size of a baby's arm-chair, which it rather resembled in appearance.
+This, as we afterwards learnt, was the sacred stone of this remarkable
+people, and on it their monarchs laid their hand after the ceremony
+of coronation, and swore by the sun to safeguard the interests of the
+empire, and to maintain its customs, traditions, and laws. This stone
+was evidently exceedingly ancient (as indeed all stones are), and was
+scored down its sides with long marks or lines, which Sir Henry said
+proved it to have been a fragment that at some remote period in its
+history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers. There was a
+curious prophecy about this block of marble, which was reported among
+the people to have fallen from the sun, to the effect that when it was
+shattered into fragments a king of alien race should rule over the
+land. As the stone, however, looked remarkably solid, the native princes
+seemed to have a fair chance of keeping their own for many a long year.
+
+At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, on which
+two thrones are set side by side. These thrones are shaped like great
+chairs, and made of solid gold. The seats are richly cushioned, but
+the backs are left bare, and on each is carved the emblem of the sun,
+shooting out his fiery rays in all directions. The footstools are golden
+lions couchant, with yellow topazes set in them for eyes. There are no
+other gems about them.
+
+The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed high up,
+cut on the principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancient castles, but
+innocent of glass, which was evidently unknown here.
+
+Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which we now found
+ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledge of it.
+On this occasion we had but little time for observation, for when we
+entered we perceived that a large number of men were gathered together
+in front of the two thrones, which were unoccupied. The principal among
+them were seated on carved wooden chairs ranged to the right and the
+left of the thrones, but not in front of them, and were dressed in white
+tunics, with various embroideries and different coloured edgings, and
+armed with the usual pierced and gold-inlaid swords. To judge from the
+dignity of their appearance, they seemed one and all to be individuals
+of very great importance. Behind each of these great men stood a small
+knot of followers and attendants.
+
+Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne, were
+six men of a different stamp. Instead of wearing the ordinary kilt, they
+were clothed in long robes of pure white linen, with the same symbol of
+the sun that is to be seen on the back of the chairs, emblazoned in gold
+thread upon the breast. This garment was girt up at the waist with a
+simple golden curb-like chain, from which hung long elliptic plates of
+the same metal, fashioned in shiny scales like those of a fish, that, as
+their wearers moved, jingled and reflected the light. They were all men
+of mature age and of a severe and impressive cast of features, which was
+rendered still more imposing by the long beards they wore.
+
+The personality of one individual among them, however, impressed us
+at once. He seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuse to be
+overlooked. He was very old--eighty at least--and extremely tall, with
+a long snow-white beard that hung nearly to his waist. His features were
+aquiline and deeply cut, and his eyes were grey and cold-looking. The
+heads of the others were bare, but this man wore a round cap entirely
+covered with gold embroidery, from which we judged that he was a person
+of great importance; and indeed we afterwards discovered that he was
+Agon, the High Priest of the country. As we approached, all these men,
+including the priests, rose and bowed to us with the greatest courtesy,
+at the same time placing the two fingers across the lips in salutation.
+Then soft-footed attendants advanced from between the pillars, bearing
+seats, which were placed in a line in front of the thrones. We three sat
+down, Alphonse and Umslopogaas standing behind us. Scarcely had we done
+so when there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to the right,
+and a similar blare from the left. Next a man with a long white wand
+of ivory appeared just in front of the right-hand throne, and cried out
+something in a loud voice, ending with the word _Nyleptha_, repeated
+three times; and another man, similarly attired, called out a similar
+sentence before the other throne, but ending with the word _Sorais_,
+also repeated thrice. Then came the tramp of armed men from each
+side entrance, and in filed about a score of picked and magnificently
+accoutred guards, who formed up on each side of the thrones, and let
+their heavy iron-handled spears fall simultaneously with a clash upon
+the black marble flooring. Another double blare of trumpets, and in
+from either side, each attended by six maidens, swept the two Queens of
+Zu-Vendis, everybody in the hall rising to greet them as they came.
+
+I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer thrown into
+transports at the sight of a pretty face; but language fails me when I
+try to give some idea of the blaze of loveliness that then broke upon
+us in the persons of these sister Queens. Both were young--perhaps
+five-and-twenty years of age--both were tall and exquisitely formed;
+but there the likeness stopped. One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling
+fairness; her right arm and breast bare, after the custom of her people,
+showed like snow even against her white and gold-embroidered 'kaf', or
+toga. And as for her sweet face, all I can say is, that it was one that
+few men could look on and forget. Her hair, a veritable crown of gold,
+clustered in short ringlets over her shapely head, half hiding the ivory
+brow, beneath which eyes of deep and glorious grey flashed out in tender
+majesty. I cannot attempt to describe her other features, only the
+mouth was most sweet, and curved like Cupid's bow, and over the whole
+countenance there shone an indescribable look of loving-kindness, lit
+up by a shadow of delicate humour that lay upon her face like a touch of
+silver on a rosy cloud.
+
+She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usual
+torques of gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; and her dress
+was of pure white linen of excessive fineness, plentifully embroidered
+with gold and with the familiar symbols of the sun.
+
+Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type of beauty.
+Her hair was wavy like Nyleptha's but coal-black, and fell in masses
+on her shoulders; her complexion was olive, her eyes large, dark, and
+lustrous; the lips were full, and I thought rather cruel. Somehow her
+face, quiet and even cold as it is, gave an idea of passion in repose,
+and caused one to wonder involuntarily what its aspect would be if
+anything occurred to break the calm. It reminded me of the deep sea,
+that even on the bluest days never loses its visible stamp of power, and
+in its murmuring sleep is yet instinct with the spirit of the storm.
+Her figure, like her sister's, was almost perfect in its curves and
+outlines, but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was absolutely the
+same.
+
+As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones, amid the
+deep attentive silence of the Court, I was bound to confess to myself
+that they did indeed fulfil my idea of royalty. Royal they were in
+every way--in form, in grace, and queenly dignity, and in the barbaric
+splendour of their attendant pomp. But methought that they needed no
+guards or gold to proclaim their power and bind the loyalty of wayward
+men. A glance from those bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips,
+and while the red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as these
+will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
+
+But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and therefore
+not devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seats I saw both of
+them glance swiftly in our direction. I saw, too, that their eyes passed
+by me, seeing nothing to charm them in the person of an insignificant
+and grizzled old man. Then they looked with evident astonishment on
+the grim form of old Umslopogaas, who raised his axe in salutation.
+Attracted next by the splendour of Good's apparel, for a second their
+glance rested on him like a humming moth upon a flower, then off it
+darted to where Sir Henry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a window
+playing upon his yellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the outlines
+of his massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat gloomy hall.
+He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha's full, and thus for
+the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has ever been my lot
+to see looked one upon another. And why it was I know not, but I saw the
+swift blood run up Nyleptha's skin as the pink lights run up the morning
+sky. Red grew her fair bosom and shapely arm, red the swanlike neck; the
+rounded cheeks blushed red as the petals of a rose, and then the crimson
+flood sank back to whence it came and left her pale and trembling.
+
+I glanced at Sir Henry. He, too, had coloured up to the eyes.
+
+'Oh, my word!' thought I to myself, 'the ladies have come on the stage,
+and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.' And I sighed and
+shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a woman is like the beauty
+of the lightning--a destructive thing and a cause of desolation. By
+the time that I had finished my reflections both the Queens were on the
+thrones, for all this had happened in about six seconds. Once more the
+unseen trumpets blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen
+Sorais motioned to us to do likewise.
+
+Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward our
+guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding by the
+hand the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescued from the
+hippopotamus. Having made obeisance he proceeded to address the Queens,
+evidently describing to them the way and place where we had been found.
+It was most amusing to watch the astonishment, not unmixed with fear,
+reflected upon their faces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they
+could not understand how we had reached the lake and been found floating
+on it, and were inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural
+causes. Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequent
+appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we had shot
+the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there was something
+very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history was frequently
+interrupted by indignant exclamations from the little group of
+white-robed priests and even from the courtiers, while the two Queens
+listened with an amazed expression, especially when our guide pointed to
+the rifles in our hands as being the means of destruction. And here, to
+make matters clear, I may as well explain at once that the inhabitants
+of Zu-Vendis are sun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another
+the hippopotamus is sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it,
+because at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands--which
+are specially preserved in large lakes up the country--and use their
+hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent them from
+considering these animals as sacred to the sun. {Endnote 11} Now, as ill
+luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we had shot were a family
+of tame animals that were kept in the mouth of the port and daily fed by
+priests whose special duty it was to attend to them. When we shot them
+I thought that the brutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we
+afterwards ascertained, the cause of it. Thus it came about that in
+attempting to show off we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated
+nature.
+
+When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long beard
+and round cap, whose appearance I have already described, and who was,
+as I have said, the High Priest of the country, and known by the name
+of Agon, rose and commenced an impassioned harangue. I did not like the
+look of his cold grey eye as he fixed it on us. I should have liked it
+still less had I known that in the name of the outraged majesty of his
+god he was demanding that the whole lot of us should be offered up as a
+sacrifice by means of being burnt alive.
+
+After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him in a soft
+and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his gestures of dissent,
+to be putting the other side of the question before him. Then Nyleptha
+spoke in liquid accents. Little did we know that she was pleading for
+our lives. Finally, she turned and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of
+middle age with a black beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as
+we afterwards learnt, was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the
+country; apparently appealing to him for support. Now when Sir Henry
+had caught her eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that the
+incident had not escaped this man's notice, and, what is more, that
+it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lip and his
+hand tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learnt that he was an
+aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage, which accounted for it.
+This being so, Nyleptha could not have appealed to a worse person, for,
+speaking in slow, heavy tones, he appeared to confirm all that the High
+Priest Agon had said. As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee,
+and, resting her chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile
+upon her lips, as though she saw through the man, and was determined to
+be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed, her eyes
+flashed, and she did indeed look lovely. Finally she turned to Agon and
+seemed to give some sort of qualified assent, for he bowed at her words;
+and as she spoke she moved her hands as though to emphasize what she
+said; while all the time Sorais kept her chin on her hand and smiled.
+Then suddenly Nyleptha made a sign, the trumpets blew again, and
+everybody rose to leave the hall save ourselves and the guards, whom she
+motioned to stay.
+
+When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly, partially
+by signs and partially by exclamations made it clear to us that she
+was very anxious to know where we came from. The difficulty was how to
+explain, but at last an idea struck me. I had my large pocket-book in
+my pocket and a pencil. Taking it out, I made a little sketch of a lake,
+and then as best I could I drew the underground river and the lake
+at the other end. When I had done this I advanced to the steps of the
+throne and gave it to her. She understood it at once and clapped her
+hands with delight, and then descending from the throne took it to her
+sister Sorais, who also evidently understood. Next she took the pencil
+from me, and after examining it with curiosity proceeded to make a
+series of delightful little sketches, the first representing herself
+holding out both hands in welcome, and a man uncommonly like Sir Henry
+taking them. Next she drew a lovely little picture of a hippopotamus
+rolling about dying in the water, and of an individual, in whom we had
+no difficulty in recognizing Agon the High Priest, holding up his
+hands in horror on the bank. Then followed a most alarming picture of a
+dreadful fiery furnace and of the same figure, Agon, poking us into it
+with a forked stick. This picture perfectly horrified me, but I was a
+little reassured when she nodded sweetly and proceeded to make a fourth
+drawing--a man again uncommonly like Sir Henry, and of two women, in
+whom I recognized Sorais and herself, each with one arm around him, and
+holding a sword in protection over him. To all of these Sorais, who
+I saw was employed in carefully taking us all in--especially
+Curtis--signified her approval by nodding.
+
+At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicating that
+she must go, and that we should meet on the following morning; whereat
+Sir Henry looked so disappointed that she saw it, and, I suppose by
+way of consolation, extended her hand to him to kiss, which he did with
+pious fervour. At the same time Sorais, off whom Good had never taken
+his eyeglass during the whole indaba [interview], rewarded him by giving
+him her hand to kiss, though, while she did so, her eyes were fixed
+upon Sir Henry. I am glad to say that I was not implicated in these
+proceedings; neither of them gave _me_ her hand to kiss.
+
+Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to be in
+command of the bodyguard, apparently from her manner and his frequent
+obeisances, giving him very stringent and careful orders; after which,
+with a somewhat coquettish nod and smile, she left the hall, followed by
+Sorais and most of the guards.
+
+When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressed
+came forward and with many tokens of deep respect led us from the hall
+through various passages to a sumptuous set of apartments opening out of
+a large central room lighted with brazen swinging lamps (for it was now
+dusk) and richly carpeted and strewn with couches. On a table in the
+centre of the room was set a profusion of food and fruit, and, what is
+more, flowers. There was a delicious wine also in ancient-looking sealed
+earthenware flagons, and beautifully chased golden and ivory cups to
+drink it from. Servants, male and female, also were there to minister to
+us, and whilst we ate, from some recess outside the apartment
+
+
+   'The silver lute did speak between
+    The trumpet's lordly blowing;'
+
+
+and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradise which
+was only disturbed by the vision of that disgusting High Priest who
+intended to commit us to the flames. But so very weary were we with
+our labours that we could scarcely keep ourselves awake through the
+sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was over we indicated that we desired
+to sleep. As a further precaution against surprise we left Umslopogaas
+with his axe to sleep in the main chamber near the curtained doorways
+leading to the apartments which we occupied respectively, Good and I in
+the one, and Sir Henry and Alphonse in the other. Then throwing off our
+clothes, with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered it
+safer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxurious
+couches, and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us.
+
+In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused by Good's
+voice.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he said, 'did you ever see such eyes?'
+
+'Eyes!' I said, crossly; 'what eyes?'
+
+'Why, the Queen's, of course! Sorais, I mean--at least I think that is
+her name.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' I yawned; 'I didn't notice them much: I suppose they
+are good eyes,' and again I dropped off.
+
+Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' said the voice.
+
+'Well,' I answered testily, 'what is it now?'
+
+'Did you notice her ankle? The shape--'
+
+This was more than I could stand. By my bed stood the veldtschoons I had
+been wearing. Moved quite beyond myself, I took them up and threw them
+straight at Good's head--and hit it.
+
+Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleep it must
+be. As for Good, I don't know if he went to sleep or if he continued to
+pass Sorais' beauties in mental review, and, what is more, I don't care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+
+
+
+And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in this
+novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should except
+Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in
+her bed of state encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, and
+all the other people and appurtenances that surround a throne, and yet
+not able to slumber for thinking of the strangers who had visited a
+country where no such strangers had ever come before, and wondering, as
+she lay awake, who they were and what their past has been, and if she
+was ugly compared to the women of their native place. I, however, not
+being poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some
+account of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needless
+to state, from information which we subsequently collected.
+
+The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis,
+from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendis, 'place or country'. Why it is called the
+Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor do
+the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given, each
+of which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the name
+owes its origin to the great quantity of gold that is found in the land.
+Indeed, in this respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the precious
+metal being extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collected from
+purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and which
+are situated within a day's journey from Milosis, being mostly found in
+pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce up to six or seven pounds
+in weight. But other diggings of a similar nature are known to exist,
+and I have besides seen great veins of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendis
+gold is a much commoner metal than silver, and thus it has curiously
+enough come to pass that silver is the legal tender of the country.
+
+The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year the native
+grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow
+as ripe corn; and the third arises from a tradition that the people
+were originally yellow skinned, but grew white after living for many
+generations upon these high lands. Zu-Vendis is a country about the size
+of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape; and on every side
+cut off from the surrounding territory by illimitable forests of
+impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of miles of
+morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, high
+tableland rising up in the centre of the dark continent, much as
+in southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the
+surrounding veldt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a
+level of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the land
+is even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, I
+believe, about eleven thousand feet. As a consequence the climate
+is, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar to that of
+southern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however,
+exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits and
+timber to perfection; and in the lower-lying parts even produces a hardy
+variety of sugar-cane. Coal is found in great abundance, and in many
+places crops out from the surface; and so is pure marble, both black and
+white. The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, which
+is scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of mountains in the
+north.
+
+Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery,
+including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundary
+beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing the
+country from north to south, and passing at a distance of about eighty
+miles from Milosis, from which town its higher peaks are distinctly
+visible. This range forms the chief watershed of the land. There are
+also three large lakes--the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and
+which is named Milosis after the city, covering some two hundred square
+miles of country--and numerous small ones, some of them salt.
+
+The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking, dense,
+numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions. It is almost
+purely agricultural in its habits, and divided into great classes as
+in civilized countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerable
+middle class, formed principally of merchants, officers of the army,
+etc.; but the great bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who live
+upon the lands of the lords, from whom they hold under a species of
+feudal tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think I
+have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; but
+the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any negro or
+other African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no certain
+information. Their written records, which extend back for about a
+thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does
+indeed, in alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talk
+of it as having probably originally 'come down with the people from the
+coast', but that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of the
+Zu-Vendi is lost in the mists of time. Whence they came or of what race
+they are no man knows. Their architecture and some of their sculptures
+suggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin; but it is well
+known that their present remarkable style of building has only sprung up
+within the last eight hundred years, and they certainly retain no traces
+of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their appearance and some
+of their habits are rather Jewish; but here again it seems hardly
+conceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewish
+religion. Still, for aught I know, they may be one of the lost ten
+tribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over the world, or
+they may not. I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find
+them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of it,
+if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which is exceedingly
+doubtful.
+
+And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard a
+theory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young lady
+said in mitigation of her baby. This theory is founded on a legend which
+I have heard among the Arabs on the east coast, which is to the effect
+that 'more than two thousand years ago' there were troubles in the
+country which was known as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of
+Persians came down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by
+the north-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, according to
+the legend, 'the sun and fire worshippers' fell into conflict with the
+belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on the east coast, and
+finally broke their way through them, and, vanishing into the interior,
+were no more seen. Now, I ask, is it not at least possible that the
+Zu-Vendi people are the descendants of these 'sun and fire worshippers'
+who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a matter of fact, there
+is a good deal in their characters and customs that tallies with the
+somewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we have no books
+of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not fail
+him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about 500 BC, whereon
+a vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow, it is a
+well-established fact that there have been many separate emigrations
+of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the east coast of Africa up to as
+lately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on
+the east coast, still in good repair, which bear dates showing them to
+be just seven hundred years old. {Endnote 12}
+
+In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are, oddly
+enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the exigencies of
+their position make war upon other nations, they fight among each other
+like the famed Kilkenny cats, with the happy result that the population
+never outgrows the power of the country to support it. This habit of
+theirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country.
+The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save in so far as it is
+tempered by the power of the priests and the informal council of the
+great lords; but, as in many other institutions, the king's writ does
+not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land. In
+short, the whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdom
+or slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally from the
+throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the
+power of life and death, waging war against and making peace with
+their neighbours as the whim or their interests lead them, and even
+on occasion rising in open rebellion against their royal master or
+mistress, and, safely shut up in their castles and fenced cities, as far
+from the seat of government, successfully defying them for years.
+
+Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that will
+be well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have sat
+upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took
+its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple
+after a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the country
+things were a little better than they had been for some centuries,
+the last king, the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an
+exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he kept
+down the power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two years before
+we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children, were, following
+an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since an attempt to exclude
+either would instantly have provoked a sanguinary civil war; but it
+was generally felt in the country that this measure was a most
+unsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be permanent.
+Indeed, as it was, the various intrigues that were set on foot by
+ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or other of the queens in
+marriage had disquieted the country, and the general opinion was that
+there would be bloodshed before long.
+
+I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion, which
+is nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced and highly
+developed character. Around this sun-worship is grouped the entire
+social system of the Zu-Vendi. It sends its roots through every
+institution and custom of the land. From the cradle to the grave the
+Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying. As an infant he
+is solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to 'the symbol of
+good, the expression of power, and the hope of Eternity', the ceremony
+answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point
+out the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god,
+and he worships it at its up-rising and down-setting. Then when still
+quite small, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother's
+'kaf' (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city, and
+there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the golden
+central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the
+white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees the
+people fall down to adore, and then, amidst the blowing of the golden
+trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneath
+the altar. Here he comes again to be declared 'a man' by the priests,
+and consecrated to war and to good works; here before the solemn altar
+he leads his bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise,
+he divorces her.
+
+And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is travelled, and
+he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man. Here
+they bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling brazen doors before
+the eastern altar, and when the last ray from the setting sun falls
+upon his white face the bolts are drawn and he vanishes into the raging
+furnace beneath and is ended.
+
+The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited as young men
+specially devoted to the work by their parents and supported by the
+State. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood lies with
+the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed, and
+it is scarcely too much to say that they really rule the land. To begin
+with, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so that
+an order issued by the High Priest at Milosis will be instantly and
+unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little country
+town three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the land,
+criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of
+the district, and from him to the king; and they have, of course,
+practically unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offences,
+together with a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of
+more highly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, their
+rights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here
+that the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and do not
+push things too far. It is but very seldom that they go to extremes
+against anybody, being more inclined to exercise the prerogative of
+mercy than run the risk of exasperating the powerful and vigorous-minded
+people on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise and
+break it off altogether.
+
+Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopoly
+of learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, which
+enables them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipses
+and even comets. In Zu-Vendis only a few of the upper classes can read
+and write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and are
+therefore looked upon as learned men.
+
+The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs
+in several respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law of
+England is much more severe upon offences against property than against
+the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. A man
+may half kick his wife to death or inflict horrible sufferings upon his
+children at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound for
+the theft of a pair of old boots. In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there
+they rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of more consequence
+than goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort of necessary
+appendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is death, for treason
+death, for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, and
+for attempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a sacrilege)
+death. In each case the method of execution is the same, and a rather
+awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneath
+one of the altars to the Sun. For all other offences, including the
+offence of idleness, the punishment is forced labour upon the vast
+national buildings which are always going on in some part of the
+country, with or without periodical floggings, according to the crime.
+
+The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty to the
+individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customs
+of the country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of them
+have only one wife on account of the expense. By law a man is bound to
+provide a separate establishment for each wife. The first wife also is
+the legal wife, and her children are said to be 'of the house of the
+Father'. The children of the other wives are of the houses of their
+respective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon either
+mother or children. Again, a first wife can, on entering into the
+married state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other
+wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the great
+upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus numbers
+but gives greater importance to the first wife, who is thus practically
+the head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as primarily
+a civil contract, and, subject to certain conditions and to a proper
+provision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both contracting
+parties, the divorce, or 'unloosing', being formally and ceremoniously
+accomplished by going through certain portions of the marriage ceremony
+backwards.
+
+The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-hearted
+people. They are not great traders and care little about money, only
+working to earn enough to support themselves in that class of life in
+which they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look with
+disfavour upon changes. Their legal tender is silver, cut into little
+squares of different weights; gold is the baser coin, and is about
+of the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized for its
+beauty, and largely used for ornaments and decorative purposes. Most of
+the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter, payment
+being made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of the country,
+and is really well understood and carried out, most of the available
+acreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also given to the
+breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any I
+have ever seen either in Europe or Africa.
+
+The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown to the
+great lords, who again divide it among smaller lords, and so on down
+to the little peasant farmer who works his forty 'reestu' (acres) on a
+system of half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact the whole system
+is, as I have said, distinctly feudal, and it interested us much to meet
+with such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa.
+
+The taxes are very heavy. The State takes a third of a man's total
+earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on the remainder.
+But on the other hand, if a man through any cause falls into bona fide
+misfortune the State supports him in the position of life to which he
+belongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the Government
+undertakings, and the State looks after his wives and children. The
+State also makes all the roads and builds all town houses, about which
+great care is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. It
+also keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provides
+watchmen, etc. In return for their five per cent the priests attend to
+the service of the temples, carry out all religious ceremonies, and keep
+schools, where they teach whatever they think desirable, which is
+not very much. Some of the temples also possess private property, but
+priests as individuals cannot hold property.
+
+And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are
+the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one,
+sometimes the other. In some branches of art they have attained the
+very highest proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and their
+statuary. I do not think that the latter can be equalled either in
+beauty or imaginative power anywhere in the world, and as for the former
+it may have been rivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has
+never been since. But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant of
+many other arts. Till Sir Henry, who happened to know something about
+it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime, they could
+not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather primitive. A
+water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch; indeed, ours delighted
+them exceedingly. They know nothing about steam, electricity, or
+gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about printing or the
+penny post. Thus they are spared many evils, for of a truth our age has
+learnt the wisdom of the old-world saying, 'He who increaseth knowledge,
+increaseth sorrow.'
+
+As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative people
+who know no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to the
+sun and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannot justly be called
+elevating or spiritual. It is true that they do sometimes speak of the
+sun as the 'garment of the Spirit', but it is a vague term, and what
+they really adore is the fiery orb himself. They also call him the 'hope
+of eternity', but here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the
+phrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds. Some of them
+do indeed believe in a future life for the good--I know Nyleptha does
+firmly--but it is a private faith arising from the promptings of the
+spirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the whole I cannot say
+that I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicative of a civilized
+people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or however moral
+and high-sounding the maxims of its priests, many of whom, I am sure,
+have their own opinions on the whole subject; though of course they have
+nothing but praise for a system which provides them with so many of the
+good things of this world.
+
+There are now only two more matters to which I need allude--namely,
+the language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it is
+soft-sounding, and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it sounds
+something like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it.
+It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiar
+quality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the sound of
+the words adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long before we
+mastered the language, we could frequently make out what was meant by
+the ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the language lends
+itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkable
+people are very fond. The Zu-Vendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says, to
+be derived, like every other known system of letters, from a Phoenician
+source, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian
+hieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned
+in such matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists of
+twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not
+very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsy and puzzling.
+{Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi are not given to the writing
+of novels, or of anything except business documents and records of the
+briefest character, it answers their purpose well enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+
+
+
+It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning following
+our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly twelve hours, and
+I must say that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is
+sleep! and what a difference twelve hours of it or so makes to us after
+days and nights of toil and danger. It is like going to bed one man and
+getting up another.
+
+I sat up upon my silken couch--never had I slept upon such a bed
+before--and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass fixed on me
+from the recesses of his silken couch. There was nothing else of him to
+be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew from the look of it that he was
+awake, and waiting till I woke up to begin.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observe her
+skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.'
+
+'Now look here, Good,' I remonstrated, when there came a sound at the
+curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary, who signified by
+signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented, and
+were conducted to a delightful marble chamber, with a pool of running
+crystal water in the centre of it, into which we gaily plunged. When we
+had bathed, we returned to our apartment and dressed, and then went into
+the central room where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a
+morning meal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, though
+I should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfast we lounged
+round and admired the tapestries and carpets and some pieces of statuary
+that were placed about, wondering the while what was going to happen
+next. Indeed, by this time our minds were in such a state of complete
+bewilderment that we were, as a matter of fact, ready for anything
+that might arrive. As for our sense of astonishment, it was pretty well
+obliterated. Whilst we were still thus engaged, our friend the captain
+of the guard presented himself, and with many obeisances signified
+that we were to follow him, which we did, not without doubts and
+heart-searchings--for we guessed that the time had come when we should
+have to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with our
+cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However, there was no help for
+it, and personally I took great comfort in the promise of the protection
+of the sister Queens, knowing that if ladies have a will they can
+generally find a way; so off we started as though we liked it. A
+minute's walk through a passage and an outer court brought us to the
+great double gates of the palace that open on to the wide highway which
+runs uphill through the heart of Milosis to the Temple of the Sun a mile
+away, and thence down the slope on the farther side of the temple to the
+outer wall of the city.
+
+These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily beautiful
+work in metal. Between them--for one set is placed at the entrance to an
+interior, and one at that of the exterior wall--is a fosse, forty-five
+feet in width. This fosse is filled with water and spanned by a
+drawbridge, which when lifted makes the palace nearly impregnable to
+anything except siege guns. As we came, one half of the wide gates were
+flung open, and we passed over the drawbridge and presently stood gazing
+up one of the most imposing, if not the most imposing, roadways in the
+world. It is a hundred feet from curb to curb, and on either side,
+not cramped and crowded together, as is our European fashion, but each
+standing in its own grounds, and built equidistant from and in similar
+style to the rest, are a series of splendid, single-storied mansions,
+all of red granite. These are the town houses of the nobles of the
+Court, and stretch away in unbroken lines for a mile or more till the
+eye is arrested by the glorious vision of the Temple of the Sun that
+crowns the hill and heads the roadway.
+
+As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there
+suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn by two
+white horses. These chariots are two-wheeled, and made of wood. They are
+fitted with a stout pole, the weight of which is supported by leathern
+girths that form a portion of the harness. The wheels are made with four
+spokes only, are tired with iron, and quite innocent of springs. In the
+front of the chariot, and immediately over the pole, is a small seat for
+the driver, railed round to prevent him from being jolted off. Inside
+the machine itself are three low seats, one at each side, and one with
+the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door. The whole vehicle
+is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owing to the grace of the curves,
+though primitive, not half so ugly as might be expected.
+
+But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses did not.
+They were simply splendid, not very large but strongly built, and well
+ribbed up, with small heads, remarkably large and round hoofs, and a
+great look of speed and blood. I have often wondered whence this breed,
+which presents many distinct characteristics, came, but like that of its
+owners, it history is obscure. Like the people the horses have always
+been there. The first and last of these chariots were occupied by
+guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the driver, and to
+these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into the first, and Sir
+Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind, and then suddenly
+off we went. And we did go! Among the Zu-Vendi it is not usual to trot
+horses either riding or driving, especially when the journey to be made
+is a short one--they go at full gallop. As soon as we were seated the
+driver called out, the horses sprang forward, and we were whirled
+away at a speed sufficient to take one's breath, and which, till I got
+accustomed to it, kept me in momentary fear of an upset. As for the
+wretched Alphonse, he clung with a despairing face to the side of what
+he called this 'devil of a fiacre', thinking that every moment was his
+last. Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going, and
+I told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were going to be
+sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his face as he grasped the
+side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror.
+
+But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flying
+steeds and shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, bore away the
+sound of Alphonse's lamentations.
+
+And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling
+loveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun--the peculiar pride of the
+Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's, Temple was
+to the Jews. The wealth, and skill, and labour of generations had been
+given to the building of this wonderful place, which had been only
+finally completed within the last fifty years. Nothing was spared that
+the country could produce, and the result was indeed worthy of the
+effort, not so much on account of its size--for there are larger fanes
+in the world--as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and
+beauty of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building
+(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden ground
+on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places of the priests)
+is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-covered central hall,
+from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts, each dedicated to one of
+the twelve months, and serving as the repositories of statues reared in
+memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle beneath the dome
+is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and
+the length of the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of
+their roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome
+exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised heart.
+Thus the exact measurement from the centre of the central altar to the
+extreme point of any one of the rounded rays would be three hundred feet
+(the width of the circle itself), or a total of six hundred feet from
+the rounded extremity of one ray or petal to the extremity of the
+opposite one. {Endnote 14}
+
+The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, which shows
+out in marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowning city, on
+whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diadem upon the forehead
+of a dusky queen. The outer surface of the dome and of the twelve petal
+courts is covered entirely with thin sheets of beaten gold; and from the
+extreme point of the roof of each of these petals a glorious golden form
+with a trumpet in its hand and widespread wings is figured in the very
+act of soaring into space. I really must leave whoever reads this to
+imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashing when the
+sun strikes--flashing like a thousand fires aflame on a mountain of
+polished marble--so fiercely that the reflection can be clearly seen
+from the great peaks of the range a hundred miles away.
+
+It is a marvellous sight--this golden flower upborne upon the cool white
+marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such another. What makes
+the whole effect even more gorgeous is that a belt of a hundred and
+fifty feet around the marble wall of the temple is planted with an
+indigenous species of sunflower, which were at the time when we first
+saw them a sheet of golden bloom.
+
+The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two
+northernmost of the rays or petal courts, and is protected first by the
+usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully
+carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid with gold. When these
+are passed there is only the thickness of the wall, which is, however,
+twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi build for all time), and another
+slight wall also of white marble, introduced in order to avoid causing a
+visible gap in the inner skin of the wall, and you stand in the circular
+hall under the great dome. Advancing to the central altar you look upon
+as beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive. You are in
+the middle of the holy place, and above you the great white marble dome
+(for the inner skin, like the outer, is of polished marble throughout)
+arches away in graceful curves something like that of St Paul's in
+London, only at a slighter angle, and from the funnel-like opening at
+the exact apex a bright beam of light pours down upon the golden altar.
+At the east and the west are other altars, and other beams of light stab
+the sacred twilight to the heart. In every direction, 'white, mystic,
+wonderful', open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a
+single arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and
+dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. {Endnote 15}
+
+Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which
+thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you turn to the
+central golden altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it
+now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned with curls of faint
+blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with pure gold, in shape round
+like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference.
+Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar, are twelve petals
+of beaten gold. All night and, except at one hour, all day also, these
+petals are closed over the altar itself exactly as the petals of a
+water-lily close over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the
+sun at midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon the
+golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only to
+close again when the ray has passed.
+
+Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distances from each
+other on the north and south of the sacred place are ten golden angels,
+or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped and draped. These figures,
+which are slightly larger than life-size, stand with bent heads in an
+attitude of adoration, their faces shadowed by their wings, and are most
+imposing and of exceeding beauty.
+
+There is but one thing further which calls for description in this
+altar, which is, that to the east the flooring in front of it is not of
+pure white marble, as elsewhere throughout the building, but of solid
+brass, and this is also the case in front of the other two altars.
+
+The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape, and
+placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and
+are not enfolded in golden petals. They are, however, also of gold, the
+sacred fire burns on each, and a golden-winged figure stands on either
+side of them. Two great golden rays run up the wall behind them, but
+where the third or middle one should be is an opening in the wall,
+wide on the outside, but narrow within, like a loophole turned inwards.
+Through the eastern loophole stream the first beams of the rising sun,
+and strike right across the circle, touching the folded petals of the
+great gold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the western altar.
+In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest for a
+while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It is the
+promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening to the dawn.
+
+With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures about
+them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly empty and
+devoid of ornamentation--a circumstance that to my fancy adds greatly to
+its splendour.
+
+Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to
+the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their complete
+simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so
+it is useless talking more about it. But when I compare this great
+work of genius to some of the tawdry buildings and tinsel ornamentation
+produced in these latter days by European ecclesiastical architects,
+I feel that even highly civilized art might learn something from the
+Zu-Vendi masterpieces. I can only say that the exclamation which sprang
+to my lips as soon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light
+of that glorious building, and its white and curving beauties, perfect
+and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by one, was,
+'Well! a dog would feel religious here.' It is vulgarly put, but perhaps
+it conveys my meaning more clearly than any polished utterance.
+
+At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers,
+who appeared to be under the orders of a priest; and by them we were
+conducted into one of the ray or 'petal' courts, as the priests call
+them, and there left for at least half-an-hour. Here we conferred
+together, and realizing that we stood in great danger of our lives,
+determined, if any attempt should be made upon us, to sell them as
+dearly as we could--Umslopogaas announcing his fixed intention of
+committing sacrilege on the person of Agon, the High Priest, by
+splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas. From where we stood we could
+perceive that an immense multitude were pouring into the temple,
+evidently in expectation of some unusual event, and I could not help
+fearing that we had to do with it. And here I may explain that every
+day, when the sunlight falls upon the central altar, and the trumpets
+sound, a burnt sacrifice is offered to the Sun, consisting generally of
+the carcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn. This event
+comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly at that hour, but
+as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line, although--being so
+high above the sea it is very temperate--midday and the falling of the
+sunlight on the altar were generally simultaneous. Today the sacrifice
+was to take place at about eight minutes past twelve.
+
+Just at twelve o'clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, and the
+officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected to advance,
+which we did with the best grace that we could muster, all except
+Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly began to chatter. In a
+few seconds we were out of the court and looking at a vast sea of human
+faces stretching away to the farthest limits of the great circle,
+all straining to catch a glimpse of the mysterious strangers who
+had committed sacrilege; the first strangers, mind you, who, to the
+knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis since such
+time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
+
+As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd that went
+echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush of excitement
+grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink light on a stretch of pale
+cloud, and a very curious effect it was. On we passed down a lane cut
+through the heart of the human mass, till presently we stood upon
+the brazen patch of flooring to the east of the central altar, and
+immediately facing it. For some thirty feet around the golden-winged
+figures the space was roped off, and the multitudes stood outside
+the ropes. Within were a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured priests
+holding long golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front of
+us was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap upon his
+head. His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage. We took
+our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing what was prepared for
+us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissing sound proceeding apparently
+from the floor for which I could not account. Then came a pause, and I
+looked around to see if there was any sign of the two Queens, Nyleptha
+and Sorais, but they were not there. To the right of us, however, was a
+bare space that I guessed was reserved for them.
+
+We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high up in
+the dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long
+lane, leading to the open space to our right, we saw the two Queens
+walking side by side. Behind them were some nobles of the Court, among
+whom I recognized the great lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of
+about fifty guards. These last I was very glad to see. Presently they
+had all arrived and taken their stand, the two Queens in the front,
+the nobles to the right and left, and the guards in a double semicircle
+behind them.
+
+Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caught my eye;
+it seemed to me that there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it
+narrowly. From my eye it travelled down to the brazen flooring, on
+the outer edge of which we stood. Then followed a slight and almost
+imperceptible sidelong movement of the head. I did not understand it,
+and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off
+the brazen floor. One more glance and I was sure of it--there was
+danger in standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one side of me,
+Umslopogaas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straight before me, I
+whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English, to draw slowly
+back inch by inch till half their feet were resting on the marble
+flooring where the brass ceased. Sir Henry whispered on to Good and
+Alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shifted backwards; so slowly
+that nobody, except Nyleptha and Sorais, who saw everything seemed to
+notice the movement. Then I glanced again at Nyleptha, and saw that,
+by an almost imperceptible nod, she indicated approval. All the while
+Agon's eyes were fixed upon the altar before him apparently in an
+ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small of his back
+in another sort of ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and in a
+solemn and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for convenience'
+sake I append a rough, a _very_ rough, translation here, though, of
+course, I did not then comprehend its meaning. It was an invocation to
+the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows:--
+
+  There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof!
+  Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird;
+  The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness,
+  Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star,
+  The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire;
+  The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted.
+  She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes,
+  And stretches her pale hands to the East.
+
+  Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light;
+  The Earth seeth and lifts herself.  She looks out from beneath
+  the hollow of her hand.
+  Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun,
+  They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up.
+  They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones;
+  Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night;
+  They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man,
+  And behold!  Thy glory comes, oh Sun!
+
+  Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire.
+  The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o'er them as a chariot.
+  The Earth is thy bride.  Thou dost embrace her and
+  she brings forth children;
+  Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase.
+  Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun.
+  The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness;
+  The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength.
+  Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!
+
+  When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face;
+  Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows.
+  Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed;
+  They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder:
+  They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain;
+  They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing.
+  The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale;
+  The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place
+  When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!
+
+  Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour--
+  Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror?
+  When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending?
+  Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit. {Endnote 16}
+  None did place Thee on high, for Thou was the Beginning.
+  Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten;
+  Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal.
+  Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and
+  measurest out the centuries.
+  Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!
+
+
+He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough thing
+after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive in the
+original; and then, after a moment's pause, he glanced up towards the
+funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added--
+
+Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!
+
+
+As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened. Down from on
+high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving the twilight like
+a sword of fire. Full upon the closed petals it fell and ran shimmering
+down their golden sides, and then the glorious flower opened as though
+beneath the bright influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals
+fell wide and revealed the golden altar on which the fire ever burns,
+the priests blew a blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people
+there rose a shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came
+echoing down the marble walls. And now the flower altar was open, and
+the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beat it down,
+so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow recesses whence
+it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes of the trumpets rolled out
+once more. Again the old priest flung up his hands and called aloud--
+
+We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!
+
+
+Once more I caught Nyleptha's eye; it was fixed upon the brazen
+flooring.
+
+'Look out,' I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bend forward and
+touch something on the altar. As he did so, the great white sea of faces
+around us turned red and then white again, and a deep breath went up
+like a universal sigh. Nyleptha leant forward, and with an involuntary
+movement covered her eyes with her hand. Sorais turned and whispered to
+the officer of the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the
+whole of the brazen flooring slid from before our feet, and there in its
+place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft terminating in a most
+awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big enough and hot enough to
+heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war.
+
+With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched
+Alphonse, who was paralysed with fear, and would have fallen into the
+fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had not Sir Henry caught
+him in his strong hand as he was vanishing and dragged him back.
+
+Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got back
+to back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle in his
+attempts to take shelter under our legs. We all had our revolvers
+on--for though we had been politely disarmed of our guns on leaving
+the palace, of course these people did not know what a revolver was.
+Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of which no effort had been made to
+deprive him, and now he whirled it round his head and sent his piercing
+Zulu war-shout echoing up the marble walls in fine defiant fashion.
+Next second, the priests, baffled of their prey, had drawn swords from
+beneath their white robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a
+stag at bay. I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or be
+lost, so as the first man came bounding along--and a great tall fellow
+he was--I sent a heavy revolver ball through him, and down he fell at
+the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking frantically, into the fiery
+gulf that had been prepared for us.
+
+Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect of
+the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests halted,
+paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come on again Sorais had
+called out something, and we, together with the two Queens and most
+of the courtiers, were being surrounded with a wall of armed men. In a
+moment it was done, and still the priests hesitated, and the people hung
+in the balance like a herd of startled buck as it were, making no sign
+one way or the other.
+
+The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had finished
+him, and a great silence fell upon the place.
+
+Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face of a
+devil. 'Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,' he cried to the Queens. 'Has
+not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers, and would ye, as
+Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over evildoers? Are not the
+creatures sacred to the Sun dead? And is not a priest of the Sun also
+dead, but now slain by the magic of these strangers, who come as the
+winds out of heaven, whence we know not, and who are what we know not?
+Beware, oh Queens, how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God, even
+before His high altar! There is a Power that is more than your power;
+there is a Justice that is higher than your justice. Beware how ye lift
+an impious hand against it! Let the sacrifice be sacrificed, oh Queens.'
+
+Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that always seemed to
+me to have a suspicion of mockery about them, however serious the theme:
+'Oh, Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy desire, and thou hast
+spoken truth. But it is thou who wouldst lift an impious hand
+against the justice of thy God. Bethink thee the midday sacrifice is
+accomplished; the Sun hath claimed his priest as a sacrifice.'
+
+This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it.
+
+'Bethink thee what are these men? They are strangers found floating on
+the bosom of a lake. Who brought them here? How came they here? How know
+you that they also are not servants of the Sun? Is this the hospitality
+that ye would have our nation show to those whom chance brings to
+them, to throw them to the flames? Shame on you! Shame on you! What is
+hospitality? To receive the stranger and show him favour. To bind up his
+wounds, and find a pillow for his head, and food for him to eat. But thy
+pillow is the fiery furnace, and thy food the hot savour of the flame.
+Shame on thee, I say!'
+
+She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the
+multitude, and seeing that it was favourable, changed her tone from one
+of remonstrance to one of command.
+
+'Ho! place there,' she cried; 'place, I say; make way for the Queens,
+and those whom the Queens cover with their "kaf" (mantle).'
+
+'And if I refuse, oh Queen?' said Agon between his teeth.
+
+'Then will I cut a path with my guards,' was the proud answer; 'ay,
+even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodies of thy
+priests.'
+
+Agon turned livid with baffled fury. He glanced at the people as though
+meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly that their sympathies were
+all the other way. The Zu-Vendi are a very curious and sociable people,
+and great as was their sense of the enormity that we had committed in
+shooting the sacred hippopotami, they did not like the idea of the only
+real live strangers they had seen or heard of being consigned to a fiery
+furnace, thereby putting an end for ever to their chance of extracting
+knowledge and information from, and gossiping about us. Agon saw this
+and hesitated, and then for the first time Nyleptha spoke in her soft
+sweet voice.
+
+'Bethink thee, Agon,' she said, 'as my sister Queen has said, these men
+may also be servants of the Sun. For themselves they cannot speak, for
+their tongues are tied. Let the matter be adjourned till such time as
+they have learnt our language. Who can be condemned without a hearing?
+When these men can plead for themselves, then it will be time to put
+them to the proof.'
+
+Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive old priest took
+it, little as he liked it.
+
+'So be it, oh Queens,' he said. 'Let the men go in peace, and when they
+have learnt our tongue then let them speak. And I, even I, will make
+humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence fall on the land by
+cause of the sacrilege.'
+
+These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in another
+minute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal
+guards.
+
+But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact substance
+of what had passed, and how hardly our lives had been wrung out of the
+cruel grip of the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in the face of which even the
+Queens were practically powerless. Had it not been for their strenuous
+efforts to protect us we should have been slain even before we set foot
+in the Temple of the Sun. The attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery
+pit as an offering was a last artifice to attain this end when several
+others quite unsuspected by us had already failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV SORAIS' SONG
+
+
+
+After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to our
+quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two Queens, the
+nobles and the people vied with each other in doing us honour and
+showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little incident of the
+hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were quite content to leave
+it. Every day deputations and individuals waited on us to examine our
+guns and clothing, our chain shirts, and our instruments, especially our
+watches, with which they were much delighted. In short, we became quite
+the rage, so much so that some of the fashionable young swells among
+the Zu-Vendi began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir
+Henry's shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
+and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion. This
+deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those who generally
+came to visit us. They were little insignificant men of an excessively
+polite, not to say servile, demeanour; and their attention appeared
+to be chiefly taken up with observing the details of Good's full-dress
+uniform, of which they took copious notes and measurements. Good was
+much flattered at the time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the
+six leading tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when
+on attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
+or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very fair
+imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind. I shall never
+forget his face of astonishment and disgust. It was after this, chiefly
+to avoid remark, and also because our clothes were wearing out and had
+to be saved up, that we resolved to adopt the native dress; and a very
+comfortable one we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked
+sufficiently ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas
+would have none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce
+old Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim and
+naked as his own battleaxe.
+
+Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made very
+good progress. On the morning following our adventure in the temple,
+three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves armed with
+manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and indicated that they
+had been sent to teach us. So, with the exception of Umslopogaas, we all
+buckled to with a will, doing four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he
+would have none of that either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's
+talk', not he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
+and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive way, much
+as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag under the nose of
+a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang up with a fierce oath and
+flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes of our learned friend, and there was
+an end of the attempt to teach _him_ Zu-Vendi.
+
+Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more and
+more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were given up to
+recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one to the gold mines and
+another to the marble quarries both of which I wish I had space and time
+to describe; and sometimes we went out hunting buck with dogs trained
+for that purpose, and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is
+full of agricultural enclosures and our horses were magnificent. This
+is not to be wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our
+command, in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given
+to us by Nyleptha.
+
+Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great favour
+among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a species of
+partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and strength of its
+flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird appears to lose its head,
+and, instead of seeking cover, flies high into the sky, thus offering
+wonderful sport. I have seen one of these partridges soar up almost out
+of sight when followed by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a
+variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful
+in this country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and
+highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging of the great
+snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and movements of the
+red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful one. Another variety of
+the same amusement is the hunting of a very small species of antelope
+with trained eagles; and it certainly is a marvellous sight to see the
+great bird soar and soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the
+sunlight, and then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon
+some cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
+but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the eagle takes
+the buck running.
+
+On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of the
+great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages clustering
+beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields and well-kept
+park-like grounds, with such timber in them as filled me with delight,
+for I do love a good tree. There it stands so strong and sturdy, and yet
+so beautiful, a very type of the best sort of man. How proudly it
+lifts its bare head to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it
+rejoices when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too,
+when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot equal the
+beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day it points to the
+sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus passionless, and yet
+full of life, it endures through the centuries, come storm, come shine,
+drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as
+the slow years roll by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of
+decay. And so on and on through generations, outliving individuals,
+customs, dynasties--all save the landscape it adorns and human
+nature--till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle and
+rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke to his
+fungus-fingered work.
+
+Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
+
+In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself to
+dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties--not every night, indeed, but
+about three or four times a week, whenever they had not much company, or
+the affairs of state would allow of it. And I am bound to say that those
+little suppers were quite the most charming things of their sort that
+I ever had to do with. How true is the saying that the very highest
+in rank are always the most simple and kindly. It is from your
+half-and-half sort of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the
+difference between the two being very much what one sees every day in
+England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family, and
+the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take the place'. I
+really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her sweet simplicity, and
+her kindly genuine interest even in little things. She is the simplest
+woman I ever knew, and where her passions are not involved, one of the
+sweetest; but she can look queenly enough when she likes, and be as
+fierce as any savage too.
+
+For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the first time
+was sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It came about in this
+way--all through Good's weakness for ladies' society. When we had been
+employed for some three months in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master
+Good that he was getting rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us
+the honour to lead us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded,
+without saying a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a
+peculiar fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the
+deeper intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by
+ladies--young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country, he
+pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking and most
+charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers who happened
+to come that way, etc.
+
+All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There was,
+they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation of the
+beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain porosity of
+mind similar to that produced upon the physical body by the healthful
+influences of sun and air. Consequently it was probable that we might
+absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little faster if suitable teachers could
+be found. Another thing was that, as the female sex was naturally
+loquacious, good practice would be gained in the viva voce department of
+our studies.
+
+To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
+departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our wishes
+in every way, and that, if possible, our views should be met.
+
+Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I trust and
+believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where we were accustomed
+to carry on our studies the following morning, we found, instead of
+our usual venerable tutors, three of the best-looking young women whom
+Milosis could produce--and that is saying a good deal--who blushed and
+smiled and curtseyed, and gave us to understand that they were there
+to carry on our instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in
+bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his
+memory before--but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous
+evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
+should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and appealed
+to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? If we sent
+them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings, eh? One doesn't
+like to be rough, you see; and they look regular _blues_, don't they,
+eh?'
+
+By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest of
+the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything went very
+well: the young ladies were certainly very clever, and they only smiled
+when we blundered. I never saw Good so attentive to his books before,
+and even Sir Henry appeared to tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest.
+'Ah,' thought I, 'will it always be thus?'
+
+Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed
+with questions about our native country, what the ladies were like
+there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could in Zu-Vendi,
+and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness was to the
+beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which she replied with a
+little toss of the head, that she was a plain teaching woman and nothing
+else, and that it was not kind 'to deceive a poor girl so'. Then we had
+a little singing that was really charming, so natural and unaffected.
+The Zu-Vendi love-songs are most touching. On the third day we were all
+quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his
+fair teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his own.
+I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian art, and
+never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to drop a specimen of
+the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst in the corner Sir Henry and
+his governess appeared, so far as I could judge, to be going through a
+lesson framed on the great educational principles laid down by Wackford
+Squeers Esq., though in a very modified or rather spiritualized form.
+The lady softly repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers;
+'eyes', and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and--but just at
+that moment _my_ young lady dropped the cockroach down my back and ran
+away laughing. Now if there is one thing I loathe more than another it
+is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself, and yet laughing at her
+impudence, I took up the cushion she had been sitting on and threw it
+after her. Imagine then my shame--my horror, and my distress--when the
+door opened, and, attended by two guards only, in walked _Nyleptha_.
+The cushion could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the
+guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried to look as
+though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing, and began to murder
+Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir Henry whistled and looked
+silly. As for the poor girls, they were utterly dumbfounded.
+
+And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower even
+above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red, and then
+pale as death.
+
+'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair but
+unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman.'
+
+The men hesitated, as well they might.
+
+'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice, 'or will ye
+not?'
+
+Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this time Sir
+Henry had recovered himself, and saw that the comedy was likely to turn
+into a tragedy.
+
+'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time getting in
+front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee, Nyleptha--shame! Thou shalt
+not kill her.'
+
+'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou couldst
+hardly do less in honour,' answered the infuriated Queen; 'but she shall
+die--she shall die,' and she stamped her little foot.
+
+'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thy servant,
+oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.' And he bowed towards her, and
+fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
+
+'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost make a
+mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and I suppose not
+knowing what else to do, she burst into such a storm of tears and looked
+so royally lovely in her passionate distress, that, old as I am, I must
+say I envied Curtis his task of supporting her. It was rather odd to see
+him holding her in his arms considering what had just passed--a thought
+that seemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself free
+and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
+
+Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message to the
+girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city and return to
+their homes in the country, and that no further harm would come to them;
+and accordingly they went, one of them remarking philosophically that
+it could not be helped, and that it was a satisfaction to know that they
+had taught us a little serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly
+nice girl, and, overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my
+favourite lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After
+that our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless to
+say to my great relief.
+
+That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal supper
+table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache. That
+headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth she was present
+at supper as usual, and with the most gracious and sweet smile gave Sir
+Henry her hand to lead her to the table. No allusion was made to the
+little affair described above beyond her saying, with a charming air of
+innocence, that when she came to see us at our studies the other day she
+had been seized with a giddiness from which she had only now recovered.
+She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was common to
+her, that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected
+her.
+
+In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not look
+quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those quick
+glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of a man must have
+gone through him like a knife, and the subject dropped entirely.
+Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended to put us through
+an examination to see what we had learnt, and to express herself well
+satisfied with the results. Indeed, she proceeded to give us, especially
+Sir Henry, a lesson on her own account, and very interesting we found
+it.
+
+And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and laughed,
+Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and look at us and
+read us all like a book, only from time to time saying a few words, and
+smiling that quick ominous smile of hers which was more like a flash of
+summer lightning on a dark cloud than anything else. And as near to her
+as he dared would sit Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he
+really was getting seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom,
+speaking personally, I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and
+soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at
+heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, and
+the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she _also_ was
+growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not be sure; it
+is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman; but I noticed one or
+two little things, and, as elephant hunters know, dried grass shows
+which way the wind has set.
+
+And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had all
+attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi language,
+which is an easy one to learn. And as the time went on we became great
+favourites with the people, and even with the courtiers, gaining an
+enormous reputation for cleverness, because, as I think I have said,
+Sir Henry was able to show them how to make glass, which was a national
+want, and also, by the help of a twenty-year almanac that we had
+with us, to predict various heavenly combinations which were
+quite unsuspected by the native astronomers. We even succeeded in
+demonstrating the principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the
+learned men, who were filled with amazement; and several other things of
+the same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made up their
+minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out of the country
+(which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if we had wished it),
+and we were advanced to great honour and made officers to the bodyguards
+of the sister Queens while permanent quarters were assigned to us in the
+palace, and our opinion was asked upon questions of national policy.
+
+But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on the
+horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotami,
+but it is not on that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was
+forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful priesthood headed by
+Agon appeased. On the contrary, it was burning the more fiercely because
+it was necessarily suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in bigotry
+was ending in downright direct hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the
+priests had been the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as
+well as from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration.
+But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange inventions
+and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow to this state of
+affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went far towards destroying
+the priestly prestige. A still worse affront to them, however, was the
+favour with which we were regarded, and the trust that was reposed in
+us. All these things tended to make us excessively obnoxious to the
+great sacerdotal clan, the most powerful because the most united faction
+in the kingdom.
+
+Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of
+the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to us had at best
+been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to break out into open
+flame. Nasta had for some years been a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in
+marriage, and when we appeared on the scene I fancy, from all I could
+gather, that though there were still many obstacles in his path, success
+was by no means out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy
+Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess
+the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to Sorais,
+only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain side. With a
+bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on him for
+ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the thirty thousand wild swordsmen
+who would pour down at his bidding through the northern mountain passes,
+and no doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with our heads.
+
+But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt and to
+demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the formal annual
+ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the
+Queens during the year.
+
+Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and
+with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us of it as we sat
+at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony of the law-giving.
+
+Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed
+his agitation.
+
+'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the great Lord?'
+asked I, in a jesting manner.
+
+'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names in
+Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder. 'Nay, I
+know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the wooer has thirty thousand
+swords wherewith to urge his love?' And from under her long lashes she
+glanced at Curtis.
+
+Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
+'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me. 'Listen. I have never
+spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love Nyleptha. What am I
+to do?'
+
+Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
+consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the
+wisest to me.
+
+'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,' I said. 'Now is your time, now or
+never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her, and whisper to
+her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue at the end of the
+great hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis.'
+
+We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her hands before
+her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way off was
+Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured tones.
+
+The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according
+to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir Henry had had no
+chance of saying a word in private: indeed, though we saw much of the
+royal sisters, it was by no means easy to see them alone. I racked my
+brains, and at last an idea came to me.
+
+'Will the Queen be pleased,' I said, bowing low before Sorais, 'to sing
+to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh Lady of
+the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among the people).
+
+'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart, yet
+will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she rose and went a
+few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither, and
+struck a few wandering chords.
+
+Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her rounded
+voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so eerie and sad
+a refrain, that it made the very blood stand still. Up, up soared the
+golden notes, that seemed to melt far away, and then to grow again and
+travel on, laden with all the sorrow of the world and all the despair of
+the lost. It was a marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to
+it properly. However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a
+translation of its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at
+all.
+
+
+  SORAIS' SONG
+
+  As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,
+  As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging,
+  So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.
+
+  As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,
+  As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
+  So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.
+
+  As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,
+  As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending,
+  So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.
+
+  So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,
+  A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
+  Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us.
+
+
+Refrain
+
+Oh, the world is fair at the dawning--dawning--dawning,
+But the red sun sinks in blood--the red sun sinks in blood.
+
+
+I only wish that I could write down the music too.
+
+'Now, Curtis, now,' I whispered, when she began the second verse, and
+turned my back.
+
+'Nyleptha,' he said--for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I
+could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais' divine
+notes--'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this night, upon my life I
+must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'
+
+'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before her;
+'Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched.'
+
+'Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas in
+the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can pass in.
+Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him the Zulu. Oh come,
+my Queen, deny me not.'
+
+'It is not seemly,' she murmured, 'and tomorrow--'
+
+Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and
+Sorais slowly turned her round.
+
+'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see that thou
+fail me not.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI BEFORE THE STATUE
+
+
+
+It was night--dead night--and the silence lay on the Frowning City like
+a cloud.
+
+Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself
+threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the great
+Throne Chamber. Once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge of the
+sentry. I gave the countersign, and the man grounded his spear and let
+us pass. Also we were officers of the Queens' bodyguard, and in that
+capacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
+
+We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even
+when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty
+walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof,
+like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that once
+they trod.
+
+It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw
+great pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings
+in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the
+marble floor, like white flowers on a coffin. One of these silver arrows
+fell upon the statue of the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bent
+over him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear
+light, reminding me of that with which Catholics illumine the altars of
+their cathedrals.
+
+Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I close
+together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could
+only just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an
+axe.
+
+So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the cold
+marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick catching
+breath. Then from far away there came a little sound as though the
+statues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some message
+of the ages.
+
+It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress. Nearer it grew, and nearer
+yet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and
+even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw
+the black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and
+Nyleptha was before us.
+
+Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the
+circle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her
+white bosom heaved beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf was
+loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering
+it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extent
+upon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid.
+There she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet so sweet. It
+was but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with her myself,
+and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like
+an angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman. Low we
+bowed before her, and then she spoke.
+
+'I have come,' she whispered, 'but it was at great risk. Ye know not how
+I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those great
+eyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me too.
+Oh, let him be careful!' and she stamped her foot. 'Let him be careful;
+I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too,
+and can still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving
+him my hand I take his head,' and she ended the outburst with a little
+sob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
+
+'Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu' (Curtis had taught her
+to call him so). 'Doubtless it is about business of the State, for I
+know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare
+and my people's. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I greatly
+fear the dark alone,' and again she laughed and gave him a glance from
+her grey eyes.
+
+At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets 'of the
+State' should not be made public property; but she would not let me go
+far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she
+feared surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard
+all that passed.
+
+'Thou knowest, Nyleptha,' said Sir Henry, 'that it was for none of these
+things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. Nyleptha,
+waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for--I love thee.'
+
+As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change.
+The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light
+of love which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marble
+angel overhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a touch
+of prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas limn, in the
+features of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of
+his own descendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struck
+by the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha's face, he glanced
+quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back again at his
+beloved.
+
+'Thou sayest thou dost love me,' she said in a low voice, 'and thy voice
+rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the truth?'
+
+'Though,' she went on with proud humility, and in the stately third
+person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, 'I be as nothing in the
+eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him, 'who comes from among
+a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am I
+a queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred
+thousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down the
+path of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in
+the eyes of my lord,' and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed
+again, 'yet here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever
+since I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel
+concerning me, as though forsooth,' she added with a flash of passion,
+'I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to
+be sold to the highest bidder. Let my lord pardon me if I weary my lord,
+but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen
+of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say that though my love and my
+hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.'
+
+'Oh!' she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and
+modifying her dignified mode of address. 'Oh, how can I know that thou
+lovest but me? How can I know that thou wilt not weary of me and seek
+thine own place again, leaving me desolate? Who is there to tell me but
+that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but
+who yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight?
+Tell me _how_ am I to know?' And she clasped her hands and stretched
+them out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
+
+'Nyleptha,' answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of speech; 'I
+have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how much I love
+thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that I
+have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say that
+I love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love thee
+now and shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe
+beyond my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music
+to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art
+there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as though
+the light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and now
+for thy dear sake I will forget my people and my father's house, yea,
+I renounce them all. By thy side will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side
+will I die.'
+
+He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily,
+and said never a word.
+
+'Look!' he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight played
+so brightly. 'Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon the
+forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soul
+flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch
+of the fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast awakened my
+soul and called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine,
+but _thine_ and thine only. There is no more for me to say; in thy hands
+is my life.' And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue,
+looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a
+god.
+
+Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all
+alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though
+to read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly
+as a silver bell.
+
+'Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be the
+day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I have
+believed a lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here
+from far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand upon
+thy hand thus, and thus I, whose lips have never kissed before, do kiss
+thee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss,
+ay, by my people's weal and by my throne that like enough I shall lose
+for thee--by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by the
+eternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live and die.
+And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till death, ay, and
+beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will shall be
+my will, and thy ways my ways.
+
+'Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; I,
+who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;'
+and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on
+the cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know, for
+I could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a
+little of old Umslopogaas' society, leaving them to settle it their own
+way, and a very long time they were about it.
+
+I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveying
+the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I suppose it is because I am getting old,
+but I don't think that I shall ever learn to understand the ways of you
+white people. Look there now, I pray thee, they are a pretty pair of
+doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn? He wants a wife, and
+she wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down {Endnote 17}
+like a man and have done with it? It would save a deal of trouble, and
+we should have had our night's sleep. But there they go, talk, talk,
+talk, and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!'
+
+Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 'pair of doves' came
+strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and Nyleptha
+remarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on the
+marble. Then, for she was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand and
+said that I was 'her Lord's' dear friend, and therefore most dear to
+her--not a word for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas'
+axe, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that
+he might soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
+
+After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance at
+her lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
+
+When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtis
+asked me jocularly what I was thinking about.
+
+'I am wondering,' I answered, 'on what principle it is arranged that
+some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with them,
+while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and I am also
+wondering how many brave men's lives this night's work will cost.' It
+was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings do not
+evaporate with age, and I could not help being a little jealous of my
+old friend's luck. Vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
+
+On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence,
+and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about the
+mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond, till
+they flowed over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet smiles
+go. The fact of the matter, however, was that not only was Good rejoiced
+about the thing on its own merits but also for personal reasons. He
+adored Sorais quite as earnestly as Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and his
+adoration had not altogether prospered. Indeed, it had seemed to him and
+to me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen favoured Curtis in her own
+curious inscrutable way much more than Good. Therefore it was a
+relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was permanently and
+satisfactorily attached in another direction. His face fell a little,
+however, when he was told that the whole thing was to be kept as secret
+as the dead, above all from Sorais for the present, inasmuch as the
+political convulsion which would follow such an announcement at the
+moment would be altogether too great to face and would very possibly, if
+prematurely made, shake Nyleptha from her throne.
+
+That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could not help
+smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting
+that, if walls could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
+
+What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in
+her blazoned 'kaf' or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when Sir
+Henry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an officer
+of her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely acknowledged
+his salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly aside. It was
+a very large Court, for not only did the signing of the laws attract
+many outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour
+that Nasta was going to publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriage
+had gone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowded to its
+utmost capacity. There were our friends the priests in force, headed by
+Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye; and a most imposing band
+they were, with their long white embroidered robes girt with a golden
+chain from which hung the fish-like scales. There, too, were a number
+of the lords, each with a band of brilliantly attired attendants, and
+prominent among them was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively
+and looking unusually pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight,
+especially when the officer after having read out each law handed them
+to the Queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the Queens'
+guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. This reading and
+signing of the laws took a long time, but at length it came to an end,
+the last one reciting that 'whereas distinguished strangers, etc.', and
+proceeding to confer on the three of us the rank of 'lords', together
+with certain military commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen.
+When it was read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as
+usual, but I saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, while
+Nasta ground his teeth. They did not like the favour that was shown to
+us, which under all the circumstances was not perhaps unnatural.
+
+Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly,
+though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of the
+Queen Nyleptha.
+
+Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the
+'well-beloved lord' to speak on, whereon in a few straightforward
+soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
+
+Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest Agon took
+up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out the
+many advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate the
+kingdom, for Nasta's dominions, of which he was virtually king, were to
+Zu-Vendis much what Scotland used to be to England; how it would gratify
+the wild mountaineers and be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta was
+a famous general; how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and
+would gain the blessing and approval of the 'Sun', i.e. of the office
+of the High Priest, and so on. Many of his arguments were undoubtedly
+valid, and there was, looking at it from a political point of view,
+everything to be said for the marriage. But unfortunately it is
+difficult to play the game of politics with the persons of young and
+lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies of themselves on a
+chessboard. Nyleptha's face, while Agon spouted away, was a perfect
+study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it set like a stone, and
+her eyes began to flash ominously.
+
+At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Before she did
+so, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficiently
+loud for me to catch what she said, 'Bethink thee well, my sister, ere
+thou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy words.'
+
+Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais leant back
+again and listened.
+
+'Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,' she said, 'that my poor
+hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that Agon here
+should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the Sun upon my union.
+Methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere the bride
+had said her say. Nasta, I thank thee, and I will bethink me of thy
+words, but now as yet I have no mind for marriage, that is a cup of
+which none know the taste until they begin to drink it. Again I thank
+thee, Nasta,' and she made as though she would rise.
+
+The great lord's face turned almost as black as his beard with fury, for
+he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
+
+'Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,' he said, restraining
+himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, 'my heart
+shall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon, namely, the
+royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north till
+such time as the Queen shall say my suit nay or yea. Mayhap,' he added,
+with a sneer, 'the Queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to bring
+with her these stranger lords,' and he scowled darkly towards us. 'It is
+but a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers,
+and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout a welcome
+to her.'
+
+This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was received
+in complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered it with
+spirit.
+
+'Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my train, and
+for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bring
+two from the lowlands who call me Queen, and we will see which is the
+staunchest breed. Till then farewell.'
+
+The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly broke
+up in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with a heavy heart
+foreseeing civil war.
+
+After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queen did
+not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the true
+relation in which they stood to each other to leak out; but do what they
+would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room, and yet
+quite as audible, began to hum round and round, and at last to settle on
+her throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII THE STORM BREAKS
+
+
+
+And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but a cloud as
+large as a man's hand began to loom very black and big upon our horizon,
+namely, Sorais' preference for Sir Henry. I saw the storm drawing nearer
+and nearer; and so, poor fellow, did he. The affection of so lovely and
+highly-placed a woman was not a thing that could in a general way be
+considered a calamity by any man, but, situated as Curtis was, it was a
+grievous burden to bear.
+
+To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it must be
+admitted, of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimes apt to
+visit on her lover's head her indignation at the marks of what Alphonse
+would have called the 'distinguished consideration' with which her
+royal sister favoured him. Then the enforced secrecy of his relation
+to Nyleptha prevented Curtis from taking some opportunity of putting a
+stop, or trying to put a stop, to this false condition of affairs, by
+telling Sorais, in a casual but confidential way, that he was going to
+marry her sister. A third sting in Sir Henry's honey was that he knew
+that Good was honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking
+but most attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed, poor Bougwan was wasting
+himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her, his face
+getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick in it; while she,
+with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave him encouragement enough
+to keep him going, thinking, no doubt, that he might be useful as a
+stalking-horse. I tried to give him a hint, in as delicate a way as
+I could, but he flew into a huff and would not listen to me, so I was
+determined to let ill along, for fear of making it worse. Poor Good, he
+really was very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all sorts
+of absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit. One
+of them was the writing--with the assistance of one of the grave and
+revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatever may have been the
+measure of his erudition, did not understand how to scan a line--of a
+most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song, of which the continually recurring
+refrain was something about 'I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will kiss
+thee!' Now among the Zu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless thing
+for young men to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do in the
+southern countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songs to
+them. The young men may or may not be serious; but no offence is meant
+and none is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank, who accept the
+whole thing as an English girl would a gracefully-turned compliment.
+
+Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that would serenade
+Sorais, whose private apartments, together with those of her maidens,
+were exactly opposite our own, on the further side of a narrow courtyard
+which divided one section of the great palace from another. Accordingly,
+having armed himself with a native zither, on which, being an adept
+with the light guitar, he had easily learned to strum, he proceeded at
+midnight--the fashionable hour for this sort of caterwauling--to make
+night hideous with his amorous yells. I was fast asleep when they began,
+but they soon woke me up--for Good possesses a tremendous voice and
+has no notion of time--and I ran to my window-place to see what was the
+matter. And there, standing in the full moonlight in the courtyard, I
+perceived Good, adorned with an enormous ostrich feather head-dress and
+a flowing silken cloak, which it is the right thing to wear upon these
+occasions, and shouting out the abominable song which he and the old
+gentleman had evolved, to a jerky, jingling accompaniment. From the
+direction of the quarters of the maids of honour came a succession of
+faint sniggerings; but the apartments of Sorais herself--whom I devoutly
+pitied if she happened to be there--were silent as the grave. There
+was absolutely no end to that awful song, with its eternal 'I will kiss
+thee!' and at last neither I nor Sir Henry, whom I had summoned to
+enjoy the sight, could stand it any longer; so, remembering the dear old
+story, I put my head to the window opening, and shouted, 'For Heaven's
+sake, Good, don't go on talking about it, but _kiss_ her and let's all
+go to sleep!' That choked him off, and we had no more serenading.
+
+The whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business. How
+deeply thankful we ought to be that even the most serious matters have
+generally a silver lining about them in the shape of a joke, if only
+people could see it. The sense of humour is a very valuable possession
+in life, and ought to be cultivated in the Board schools--especially in
+Scotland.
+
+Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, as is not
+uncommon in such cases, till at last things got very queer indeed.
+Evidently she was, by some strange perversity of mind, quite blinded to
+the true state of the case; and I, for one, greatly dreaded the moment
+of her awakening. Sorais was a dangerous woman to be mixed up with,
+either with or without one's consent. At last the evil moment came, as I
+saw it must come. One fine day, Good having gone out hawking, Sir Henry
+and I were sitting quietly talking over the situation, especially with
+reference to Sorais, when a Court messenger arrived with a written note,
+which we with some difficulty deciphered, and which was to the effect
+that 'the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance of the Lord Incubu in
+her private apartments, whither he would be conducted by the bearer'.
+
+'Oh my word!' groaned Sir Henry. 'Can't you go instead, old fellow?'
+
+'Not if I know it,' I said with vigour. 'I had rather face a wounded
+elephant with a shot-gun. Take care of your own business, my boy. If you
+will be so fascinating you must take the consequences. I would not be in
+your place for an empire.'
+
+'You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school and the other
+boys came to console me,' he said gloomily. 'What right has this Queen
+to command my attendance, I should like to know? I won't go.'
+
+'But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obey her, and
+she knows it. And after all it will soon be over.'
+
+'That's just what they used to say,' he said again. 'I only hope she
+won't put a knife into me. I believe that she is quite capable of it.'
+And off he started very faintheartedly, and no wonder.
+
+I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minutes he
+returned, looking a good deal worse than when he went.
+
+'Give me something to drink,' he said hoarsely.
+
+I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter.
+
+'What is the matter? Why if ever there was trouble there's trouble
+now. You know when I left you? Well, I was shown straight into Sorais'
+private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and there she sat, quite
+alone, upon a silken couch at the end of the room, playing gently upon
+that zither of hers. I stood before her, and for a while she took no
+notice of me, but kept on playing and singing a little, and very sweet
+music it was. At last she looked up and smiled.
+
+'"So thou art come," she said. "I thought perchance thou hadst gone
+about the Queen Nyleptha's business. Thou art ever on her business, and
+I doubt not a good servant and a true."
+
+'To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive the Queen's
+word.
+
+'"Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated. It wearies me to
+look so high," and she made room for me beside her on the couch, placing
+herself with her back against the end, so as to have a view of my face.
+
+'"It is not meet," I said, "that I should make myself equal with the
+Queen."
+
+'"I said be seated," was her answer, so I sat down, and she began to
+look at me with those dark eyes of hers. There she sat like an incarnate
+spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and when she did, very low, but
+all the while looking at me. There was a white flower in her black hair,
+and I tried to keep my eyes on it and count the petals, but it was of
+no use. At last, whether it was her gaze, or the perfume in her hair, or
+what I do not know, but I almost felt as though I was being mesmerized.
+At last she roused herself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said, "lovest thou power?"
+
+'I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said. "Lovest thou wealth?"
+
+'I said I liked wealth for what it brought.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said. "And lovest thou beauty?"
+
+'To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture,
+or something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and there was a
+pause. By this time my nerves were on such a stretch that I was shaking
+like a leaf. I knew that something awful was going to happen, but she
+held me under a kind of spell, and I could not help myself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said at length, "wouldst thou be a king? Listen, wouldst
+thou be a king? Behold, stranger, I am minded to make thee king of all
+Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night. Nay, peace and hear
+me. To no man among my people had I thus opened out my secret heart, but
+thou art an outlander and therefore I speak without shame, knowing all I
+have to offer and how hard it had been thee to ask. See, a crown lies at
+thy feet, my lord Incubu, and with that fortune a woman whom some have
+wished to woo. Now mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft shall thy
+words fall upon mine ears."
+
+'"Oh Sorais," I said, "I pray thee speak not thus"--you see I had
+not time to pick and choose my words--"for this thing cannot be. I am
+betrothed to thy sister Nyleptha, oh Sorais, and I love her and her
+alone."
+
+'Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, and I looked
+up to see the results. When I spoke, Sorais' face was hidden in her
+hands, and as my words reached her she slowly raised it, and I shrank
+back dismayed. It was ashy white, and her eyes were flaming. She rose to
+her feet and seemed to be choking, but the awful thing was that she was
+so quiet about it all. Once she looked at a side table, on which lay a
+dagger, and from it to me, as though she thought of killing me; but she
+did not take it up. At last she spoke one word, and one only--
+
+'"_Go!_"
+
+'And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and here I am. Give
+me another cup of wine, there's a good fellow, and tell me, what is to
+be done?'
+
+I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious. As one of the poets
+says,
+
+
+'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned',
+
+
+more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeed I
+feared the very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves.
+
+'Nyleptha had better be told of this at once,' I said, 'and perhaps I
+had better tell her; she might receive your account with suspicion.'
+
+'Who is captain of her guard tonight?' I went on.
+
+'Good.'
+
+'Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at. Don't look
+surprised. I don't think that her sister would stick at that. I suppose
+one must tell Good of what has happened.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' said Sir Henry. 'It would hurt his feelings, poor
+fellow! You see, he takes a lively personal interest in Sorais.'
+
+'That's true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him. He
+will find out the truth soon enough. Now, you mark my words, Sorais will
+throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in the North there,
+and there will be such a war as has not been known in Zu-Vendis for
+centuries. Look there!' and I pointed to two Court messengers, who were
+speeding away from the door of Sorais' private apartments. 'Now follow
+me,' and I ran up a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the
+roof of our quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out
+over the palace wall. The first thing we saw was one of the messengers
+speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the Queen's
+word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched in vain.
+Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously through the
+northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized the other messenger.
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting at once, and
+will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her, my boy, and the blood
+will flow in rivers before the stain is washed away, and yours with it,
+if she can get hold of you. Well, I'm off to Nyleptha. Just you stop
+where you are, old fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again.
+You'll need them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human
+nature in the rough for fifty years for nothing.' And off I went
+accordingly.
+
+I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expecting
+Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured face
+instead.
+
+'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits not upon
+me? Say, is he sick?'
+
+I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I plunged
+into my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh, what a rage she
+flew into! It was a sight to see her, she looked so lovely.
+
+'How darest thou come to me with such a tale?' she cried. 'It is a lie
+to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.'
+
+'Pardon me, oh Queen,' I answered, 'I said that Sorais was making love
+to thy lord.'
+
+'Spin me no spiders' webs of words. Is not the thing the same thing? The
+one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes, and what matters it
+which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, I hate her--Sorais is a queen
+and my sister. She had not stooped so low had he not shown the way.
+Oh, truly hath the poet said that man is like a snake, whom to touch is
+poison, and whom none can hold.'
+
+'The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread the
+poet. Nyleptha,' I went on, 'thou knowest well that thy words are empty
+foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.'
+
+'How darest thou?' she broke in, stamping her foot. 'Hast my false lord
+sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou, stranger, that thou
+shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after this sort? How darest thou?'
+
+'Yea, I dare. Listen. The moments which thou dost waste in idle anger
+may well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives. Already Sorais'
+horsemen go forth and call to arms. In three days' time Nasta will rouse
+himself in his fastnesses like a lion in the evening, and his growling
+will be heard throughout the North. The "Lady of the Night" (Sorais)
+hath a sweet voice, and she will not sing in vain. Her banner will be
+borne from range to range and valley to valley, and warriors will spring
+up in its track like dust beneath a whirlwind; half the army will echo
+her war-cry; and in every town and hamlet of this wide land the priests
+will call out against the foreigner and will preach her cause as holy. I
+have spoken, oh Queen!'
+
+Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; and putting
+off the character of a lovely headstrong lady, with a rapidity and
+completeness that distinguished her, she put on that of a queen and a
+woman of business. The transformation was sudden but entire.
+
+'Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn. Forgive me my folly. Ah, what a
+Queen I should be if only I had no heart! To be heartless--that is to
+conquer all. Passion is like the lightning, it is beautiful, and it
+links the earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!
+
+'And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war upon me. So be
+it. She shall not prevail against me. I, too, have my friends and my
+retainers. There are many, I say, who will shout "Nyleptha!" when my
+pennon runs up on peak and pinnacle, and the light of my beacon fires
+leaps tonight from crag to crag, bearing the message of my war. I will
+break her strength and scatter her armies. Eternal night shall be the
+portion of Sorais of the Night. Give me that parchment and the ink. So.
+Now summon the officer in the ante-room. He is a trusty man.'
+
+I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-looking gentleman
+of the guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low.
+
+'Take this parchment,' said Nyleptha; 'it is thy warrant; and guard
+every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of my sister Sorais,
+the "Lady of the Night", and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi. Let none come in
+and none go out, or thy life shall pay the cost.'
+
+The man looked startled, but he merely said, 'The Queen's word be done,'
+and departed. Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to Sir Henry, and presently
+he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable. I thought that another
+outburst was about to follow, but wonderful are the ways of woman; she
+said not a word about Sorais and his supposed inconstancy, greeting him
+with a friendly nod, and stating simply that she required his advice
+upon high matters. All the same there was a look in her eye, and a sort
+of suppressed energy in her manner towards him, that makes me think
+that she had not forgotten the affair, but was keeping it for a private
+occasion.
+
+Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reported that Sorais
+was _gone_. The bird had flown to the Temple, stating that she was
+going, as was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendi ladies of rank, to
+spend the night in meditation before the altar. We looked at each other
+significantly. The blow had fallen very soon.
+
+Then we set to work.
+
+Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters, and
+as much of the State affairs as was thought desirable was told to each,
+strict injunctions being given to them to get all their available force
+together. The same was done with such of the more powerful lords as
+Nyleptha knew she could rely on, several of whom left that very day for
+distant parts of the country to gather up their tribesmen and retainers.
+Sealed orders were dispatched to the rulers of far-off cities, and some
+twenty messengers were sent off before nightfall with instructions to
+ride early and late till they reached the distant chiefs to whom their
+letters were addressed: also many spies were set to work. All the
+afternoon and evening we laboured, assisted by some confidential
+scribes, Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind that astonished
+me, and it was eight o'clock before we got back to our quarters. Here we
+heard from Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved because our non-return had
+spoilt his dinner (for he had turned cook again now), that Good had come
+back from his hawking and gone on duty. As instructions had already been
+given to the officer of the outer guard to double the sentries at the
+gate, and as we had no reason to fear any immediate danger, we did not
+think it worth while to hunt him up and tell him anything of what had
+passed, which at best was, under the peculiar circumstances of the case,
+one of those tasks that one prefers to postpone, so after swallowing
+our food we turned in to get some much-needed rest. Before we did
+so, however, it occurred to Curtis to tell old Umslopogaas to keep
+a look-out in the neighbourhood of Nyleptha's private apartments.
+Umslopogaas was now well known about the place, and by the Queen's order
+allowed to pass whither he would by the guards, a permission of which he
+often availed himself by roaming about the palace during the still
+hours in a nocturnal fashion that he favoured, and which is by no means
+uncommon amongst black men generally. His presence in the corridors
+would not, therefore, be likely to excite remark. Without any comment
+the Zulu took up his axe and departed, and we also departed to bed.
+
+I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakened by a
+peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I felt that somebody was in the room
+and looking at me, and instantly sat up, to see to my surprise that it
+was already dawn, and that there, standing at the foot of my couch and
+looking peculiarly grim and gaunt in the grey light, was Umslopogaas
+himself.
+
+'How long hast thou been there?' I asked testily, for it is not pleasant
+to be aroused in such a fashion.
+
+'Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn. I have a word for thee.'
+
+'Speak on,' I said, now wide enough awake.
+
+'As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queen and
+hid myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyond which is the
+sleeping-place of the Queen. Bougwan (Good) was in the first anteroom
+alone, and outside the curtain of that room was a sentry, but I had a
+mind to see if I could pass in unseen, and I did, gliding behind them
+both. There I waited for many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark
+figure coming secretly towards me. It was the figure of a woman, and in
+her hand she held a dagger. Behind that figure crept another unseen by
+the woman. It was Bougwan following in her tracks. His shoes were off,
+and for so fat a man he followed very well. The woman passed me, and the
+starlight shone upon her face.'
+
+'Who was it?' I asked impatiently.
+
+'The face was the face of the "Lady of the Night", and of a truth she is
+well named.
+
+'I waited, and Bougwan passed me also. Then I followed. So we went
+slowly and without a sound up the long chamber. First the woman, then
+Bougwan, and then I; and the woman saw not Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not
+me. At last the "Lady of the Night" came to the curtains that shut off
+the sleeping place of the White Queen, and put out her left hand to part
+them. She passed through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I. At the far
+end of the room is the bed of the Queen, and on it she lay very fast
+asleep. I could hear her breathe, and see one white arm lying on the
+coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry grass. The "Lady of the Night"
+doubled herself thus, and with the long knife lifted crept towards the
+bed. So straight did she gaze thereat that she never thought to look
+behind her. When she was quite close Bougwan touched her on the arm, and
+she caught her breath and turned, and I saw the knife flash, and heard
+it strike. Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of iron on him,
+or he had been pierced. Then for the first time he saw who the woman
+was, and without a word he fell back astonished, and unable to speak.
+She, too, was astonished, and spoke not, but suddenly she laid her
+finger on her lip, thus, and walked towards and through the curtain,
+and with her went Bougwan. So close did she pass to me that her dress
+touched me, and I was nigh to slaying her as she went. In the first
+outer room she spoke to Bougwan in a whisper and, clasping her hands
+thus, she pleaded with him, but what she said I know not. And so they
+passed on to the second outer room, she pleading and he shaking his
+head, and saying, "Nay, nay, nay". And it seemed to me that he was about
+to call the guard, when she stopped talking and looked at him with great
+eyes, and I saw that he was bewitched by her beauty. Then she stretched
+out her hand and he kissed it, whereon I gathered myself together to
+advance and take her, seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no
+longer knew the good from the evil, when behold! she was gone.'
+
+'Gone!' I ejaculated.
+
+'Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one asleep,
+and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came away also.'
+
+'Art thou sure, Umslopogaas,' said I, 'that thou hast not been a dreamer
+this night?'
+
+In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inches of a
+blade of a dagger of the finest steel. 'If I be, Macumazahn, behold what
+the dream left with me. The knife broke upon Bougwan's bosom and as I
+passed I picked this up in the sleeping-place of the White Queen.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII WAR! RED WAR!
+
+
+
+Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went off
+with him to Sir Henry's room, where the Zulu repeated his story word for
+word. It was a sight to watch Curtis' face as he heard it.
+
+'Great Heavens!' he said: 'here have I been sleeping away while Nyleptha
+was nearly murdered--and all through me, too. What a fiend that Sorais
+must be! It would have served her well if Umslopogaas had cut her down
+in the act.'
+
+'Ay,' said the Zulu. 'Fear not; I should have slain her ere she struck.
+I was but waiting the moment.'
+
+I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand
+doomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais the
+fate she meant for her sister. And, as the issue proved, I was right.
+
+After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedly to get his
+morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking.
+
+At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was no longer
+to be trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escape by some secret
+stair when it was his duty to have handed her over to justice. Indeed,
+he spoke in the most unmeasured terms on the matter. I let him run
+on awhile, reflecting to myself how easy we find it to be hard on the
+weaknesses of others, and how tender we are to our own.
+
+'Really, my dear fellow,' I said at length, 'one would never think, to
+hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interview with this
+same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficult to resist her
+fascinations, notwithstanding your ties to one of the loveliest and most
+loving women in the world. Now suppose it was Nyleptha who had tried to
+murder Sorais, and _you_ had caught her, and she had pleaded with you,
+would you have been so very eager to hand her over to an open shame, and
+to death by fire? Just look at the matter through Good's eyeglass for a
+minute before you denounce an old friend as a scoundrel.'
+
+He listened to this jobation submissively, and then frankly acknowledged
+that he had spoken hardly. It is one of the best points in Sir Henry's
+character that he is always ready to admit it when he is in the wrong.
+
+But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to the fact that,
+however natural his behaviour might be, it was obvious that he was being
+involved in a very awkward and disgraceful complication. A foul and
+wicked murder had been attempted, and he had let the murderess escape,
+and thereby, among other things, allowed her to gain a complete
+ascendency over himself. In fact, he was in a fair way to become her
+tool--and no more dreadful fate can befall a man than to become the tool
+of an unscrupulous woman, or indeed of any woman. There is but one
+end to it: when he is broken, or has served her purpose, he is thrown
+away--turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect. Whilst
+I was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done--for the whole
+subject was a thorny one--I suddenly heard a great clamour in the
+courtyard outside, and distinguished the voice of Umslopogaas and
+Alphonse, the former cursing furiously, and the latter yelling in
+terror.
+
+Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicrous sight.
+The little Frenchman was running up the courtyard at an extraordinary
+speed, and after him sped Umslopogaas like a great greyhound. Just as I
+came out he caught him, and, lifting him right off his legs, carried him
+some paces to a beautiful but very dense flowering shrub which bore a
+flower not unlike the gardenia, but was covered with short thorns. Next,
+despite his howls and struggles, he with one mighty thrust plunged poor
+Alphonse head first into the bush, so that nothing but the calves of his
+legs and heels remained in evidence. Then, satisfied with what he
+had done, the Zulu folded his arms and stood grimly contemplating the
+Frenchman's kicks, and listening to his yells, which were awful.
+
+'What art thou doing?' I said, running up. 'Wouldst thou kill the man?
+Pull him out of the bush!'
+
+With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonse by the
+ankle, and with a jerk that must have nearly dislocated it, tearing
+him out of the heart of the shrub. Never did I see such a sight as he
+presented, his clothes half torn off his back, and bleeding as he was
+in every direction from the sharp thorns. There he lay and yelled and
+rolled, and there was no getting anything out of him.
+
+At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me, cursed
+old Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowing by the blood of
+his heroic grandfather that he would poison him, and 'have his revenge'.
+
+At last I got to the truth of the matter. It appeared that Alphonse
+habitually cooked Umslopogaas's porridge, which the latter ate for
+breakfast in the corner of the courtyard, just as he would have done at
+home in Zululand, from a gourd, and with a wooden spoon. Now Umslopogaas
+had, like many Zulus, a great horror of fish, which he considered a
+species of water-snake; so Alphonse, who was as fond of playing tricks
+as a monkey, and who was also a consummate cook, determined to make him
+eat some. Accordingly he grated up a quantity of white fish very finely,
+and mixed it with the Zulu's porridge, who swallowed it nearly all down
+in ignorance of what he was eating. But, unfortunately for Alphonse, he
+could not restrain his joy at this sight, and came capering and peering
+round, till at last Umslopogaas, who was very clever in his way,
+suspected something, and, after a careful examination of the remains of
+his porridge, discovered 'the buffalo heifer's trick', and, in revenge,
+served him as I have said. Indeed, the little man was fortunate not
+to get a broken neck for his pains; for, as one would have thought, he
+might have learnt from the episode of his display of axemanship that 'le
+Monsieur noir' was an ill person to play practical jokes upon.
+
+This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrate it because
+it led to serious consequences. As soon as he had stanched the bleeding
+from his scratches and washed himself, Alphonse went off still cursing,
+to recover his temper, a process which I knew from experience would take
+a very long time. When he had gone I gave Umslopogaas a jobation and
+told him that I was ashamed of his behaviour.
+
+'Ah, well, Macumazahn,' he said, 'you must be gentle with me, for
+here is not my place. I am weary of it, weary to death of eating and
+drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage. I love not this soft
+life in stone houses that takes the heart out of a man, and turns his
+strength to water and his flesh to fat. I love not the white robes and
+the delicate women, the blowing of trumpets and the flying of hawks.
+When we fought the Masai at the kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth
+the living, but here is never a blow struck in anger, and I begin to
+think I shall go the way of my fathers and lift Inkosi-kaas no more,'
+and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow.
+
+'Ah,' I said, 'that is thy complaint, is it? Thou hast the
+blood-sickness, hast thou? And the Woodpecker wants a tree. And at thy
+age, too. Shame on thee! Umslopogaas.'
+
+'Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and more honest
+than some. Better is it to slay a man in fair fight than to suck out his
+heart's blood in buying and selling and usury after your white fashion.
+Many a man have I slain, yet is there never a one that I should fear to
+look in the face again, ay, many are there who once were friends, and
+whom I should be right glad to snuff with. But there! there! thou hast
+thy ways, and I mine: each to his own people and his own place. The
+high-veldt ox will die in the fat bush country, and so is it with me,
+Macumazahn. I am rough, I know it, and when my blood is warm I know not
+what to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the night swallows me and
+I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thou lovest me, my
+father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be nought but a broken-down Zulu
+war-dog--a chief for whom there is no room in his own kraal, an outcast
+and a wanderer in strange places: ay, I love thee, Macumazahn, for we
+have grown grey together, and there is that between us that cannot be
+seen, and yet is too strong for breaking;' and he took his snuff-box,
+which was made of an old brass cartridge, from the slit in his ear where
+he always carried it, and handed it to me for me to help myself.
+
+I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion. It was quite true, I was
+much attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian. I do not know what was
+the charm of his character, but it had a charm; perhaps it was its
+fierce honesty and directness; perhaps one admired his almost superhuman
+skill and strength, or it may have been simply that he was so absolutely
+unique. Frankly, with all my experience of savages, I never knew a man
+quite like him, he was so wise and yet such a child with it all; and
+though it seems laughable to say so, like the hero of the Yankee parody,
+he 'had a tender heart'. Anyway, I was very fond of him, though I should
+never have thought of telling him so.
+
+'Ay, old wolf,' I said, 'thine is a strange love. Thou wouldst split me
+to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow.'
+
+'Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came in the way of
+duty, but I should love thee all the same when the blow had gone fairly
+home. Is there any chance of some fighting here, Macumazahn?' he went on
+in an insinuating voice. 'Methought that what I saw last night did show
+that the two great Queens were vexed one with another. Else had the
+"Lady of the Night" not brought that dagger with her.'
+
+I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique and irritation
+existed between the ladies, and told him how things stood, and that they
+were quarrelling over Incubu.
+
+'Ah, is it so?' he exclaimed, springing up in delight; 'then will there
+be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains--war to the end. Women
+love the last blow as well as the last word, and when they fight for
+love they are pitiless as a wounded buffalo. See thou, Macumazahn, a
+woman will swim through blood to her desire, and think nought of it.
+With these eyes have I seen it once, and twice also. Ah, Macumazahn,
+we shall see this fine place of houses burning yet, and hear the battle
+cries come ringing up the street. After all, I have not wandered for
+nothing. Can this folk fight, think ye?'
+
+Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from another
+direction, looking very pale and hollow-eyed. The moment Umslopogaas saw
+the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him.
+
+'Ah, Bougwan,' he cried, 'greeting to thee, Inkoos! Thou art surely
+weary. Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?' Then, without waiting for an
+answer, he went on--
+
+'Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a woman,
+therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
+
+'There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a woman who loved
+the man's brother and was beloved of the man. But the man's brother had
+a favourite wife and loved not the woman, and he made a mock of her.
+Then the woman, being very cunning and fierce-hearted for revenge, took
+counsel with herself and said to the man, "I love thee, and if thou wilt
+make war upon thy brother I will marry thee." And he knew it was a lie,
+yet because of his great love of the woman, who was very fair, did he
+listen to her words and made war. And when many people had been killed
+his brother sent to him, saying, "Why slayest thou me? What hurt have I
+done unto thee? From my youth up have I not loved thee? When thou wast
+little did I not nurture thee, and have we not gone down to war together
+and divided the cattle, girl by girl, ox by ox, and cow by cow? Why
+slayest thou me, my brother, son of my own mother?"
+
+'Then the man's heart was heavy, and he knew that his path was evil,
+and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased to make war on his
+brother, and lived at peace in the same kraal with him. And after a time
+the woman came to him and said, "I have lost the past, I will be thy
+wife." And in his heart he knew that it was a lie and that she thought
+the evil thing, yet because of his love did he take her to wife.
+
+'And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plunged into a
+deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe from his hand and creep
+into the hut of his brother and slay him in his rest. Then did she slink
+back like a gorged lioness and place the thong of the red axe back upon
+his wrist and go her ways.
+
+'And at the dawning the people came shouting, "Lousta is slain in the
+night," and they came unto the hut of the man, and there he lay asleep
+and by him was the red axe. Then did they remember the war and say, "Lo!
+he hath of a surety slain his brother," and they would have taken and
+killed him, but he rose and fled swiftly, and as he fleeted by he slew
+the woman.
+
+'But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on him rested
+the weight of all her sin. Therefore is he an outcast and his name a
+scorn among his own people; for on him, and him only, resteth the burden
+of her who betrayed. And, therefore, does he wander afar, without a
+kraal and without an ox or a wife, and therefore will he die afar like a
+stricken buck and his name be accursed from generation to generation,
+in that the people say that he slew his brother, Lousta, by treachery in
+the night-time.'
+
+The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by his own
+story. Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed to his breast,
+and went on:
+
+'I was the man, Bougwan. Ou! I was that man, and now hark thou! Even as
+I am so wilt thou be--a tool, a plaything, an ox of burden to carry the
+evil deeds of another. Listen! When thou didst creep after the "Lady
+of the Night" I was hard upon thy track. When she struck thee with the
+knife in the sleeping place of the White Queen I was there also; when
+thou didst let her slip away like a snake in the stones I saw thee, and
+I knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man had abandoned the
+truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had taken a crooked
+way. Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp, but out of a full
+heart are they spoken. See her no more, so shalt thou go down with
+honour to the grave. Else because of the beauty of a woman that weareth
+as a garment of fur shalt thou be even as I am, and perchance with more
+cause. I have said.'
+
+Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly
+silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his own
+case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passed between
+him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently much distressed. And
+now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone of humility quite foreign
+to him.
+
+'I must say,' he said, with a bitter little laugh, 'that I scarcely
+thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but it just
+shows what we can come to. I wonder if you fellows can understand how
+humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it is that I deserve it
+all. Of course I should have handed Sorais over to the guard, but
+I could not, and that is a fact. I let her go and I promised to say
+nothing, more is the shame to me. She told me that if I would side
+with her she would marry me and make me king of this country, but thank
+goodness I did find the heart to say that even to marry her I could not
+desert my friends. And now you can do what you like, I deserve it all.
+All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a woman with
+all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her,' and he turned to
+go.
+
+'Look here, old fellow,' said Sir Henry, 'just stop a minute. I have a
+little tale to tell you too.' And he went on to narrate what had taken
+place on the previous day between Sorais and himself.
+
+This was a finishing stroke to poor Good. It is not pleasant to any man
+to learn that he has been made a tool of, but when the circumstances are
+as peculiarly atrocious as in the present case, it is about as bitter a
+pill as anybody can be called on to swallow.
+
+'Do you know,' he said, 'I think that between you, you fellows have
+about worked a cure,' and he turned and walked away, and I for one felt
+very sorry for him. Ah, if the moths would always carefully avoid the
+candle, how few burnt wings there would be!
+
+That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great hall and
+received petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and so forth, and
+thither we adjourned shortly afterwards. On our way we were joined by
+Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed.
+
+When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne and
+proceeding with business as usual, surrounded by councillors, courtiers,
+lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard. It was, however,
+easy to see from the air of excitement and expectation on the faces
+of everybody present that nobody was paying much attention to ordinary
+affairs, the fact being that the knowledge that civil war was imminent
+had now got abroad. We saluted Nyleptha and took our accustomed places,
+and for a little while things went on as usual, when suddenly the
+trumpets began to call outside the palace, and from the great crowd that
+was gathered there in anticipation of some unusual event there rose a
+roar of '_Sorais! Sorais!_'
+
+Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the great
+curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide and through them entered
+the 'Lady of the Night' herself. Nor did she come alone. Preceding her
+was Agon, the High Priest, arrayed in his most gorgeous vestments, and
+on either side were other priests. The reason for their presence was
+obvious--coming with them it would have been sacrilege to attempt to
+detain her. Behind her were a number of the great lords, and behind them
+a small body of picked guards. A glance at Sorais herself was enough to
+show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in place of her gold
+embroidered 'kaf' she wore a shining tunic formed of golden scales, and
+on her head a little golden helmet. In her hand, too, she bore a toy
+spear, beautifully made and fashioned of solid silver. Up the hall she
+came, looking like a lioness in her conscious pride and beauty, and as
+she came the spectators fell back bowing and made a path for her. By the
+sacred stone she halted, and laying her hand on it, she cried out with a
+loud voice to Nyleptha on the throne, 'Hail, oh Queen!'
+
+'All hail, my royal sister!' answered Nyleptha. 'Draw thou near. Fear
+not, I give thee safe conduct.'
+
+Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the hall till she
+stood right before the thrones.
+
+'A boon, oh Queen!' she cried again.
+
+'Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee who hath half
+our kingdom?'
+
+'Thou canst tell me a true word--me and the people of Zu-Vendis. Art
+thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,' and she pointed
+to Sir Henry with her toy spear, 'to be a husband to thee, and share thy
+bed and throne?'
+
+Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to her in a low
+voice, 'Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names than wolf to call
+me by, oh Queen!' and I saw her bite her lips as, like a danger flag,
+the blood flamed red upon her face. As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if
+not original, she, seeing that the thing was out, and that there was
+nothing further to be gained by concealment, answered the question in
+a novel and effectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly believe, by
+coquetry and a desire to triumph over her rival.
+
+Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all the glory
+of her royal grace on to where her lover stood. There she stopped and
+untwined the golden snake that was wound around her arm. Then she bade
+him kneel, and he dropped on one knee on the marble before her, and
+next, taking the golden snake with both her hands, she bent the pure
+soft metal round his neck, and when it was fast, deliberately kissed him
+on the brow and called him her 'dear lord'.
+
+'Thou seest,' she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators had
+died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, 'I
+have put my collar round the "wolf's" neck, and behold! he shall be my
+watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen Sorais, my sister, and to
+those with thee. Fear not,' she went on, smiling sweetly on her lover,
+and pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his massive
+throat, 'if my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not
+gall thee.'
+
+Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud tone, 'Ay,
+Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here gathered together, by
+this sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of
+you all. What, am I a Queen, and yet not free to choose the man whom
+I will love? Then should I be lower than the meanest girl in all my
+provinces. Nay, he hath won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and
+throne, and all I have--ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord
+fairer and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge
+of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so being what he
+is!' And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and holding it,
+stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her sweetness and the
+power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful she looked standing
+hand in hand there at her lover's side, so sure of him and of herself,
+and so ready to risk all things and endure all things for him, that most
+of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever
+forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her
+blushing face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke
+for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human nature
+in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and not afraid to
+break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible to appeals to its
+poetical side.
+
+And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the Night
+stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her
+sister's triumph, which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to win,
+and in the awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned white
+like an aspen in the wind. I think I have said somewhere of her that she
+reminded me of the sea on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping
+power about her. Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the
+furious ocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really handsome woman
+in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such beauty and such
+a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only say that the effect
+produced was well worthy of the two.
+
+She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple rings
+beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak and thrice she
+failed, but at last her voice came. Raising her silver spear, she shook
+it, and the light gleamed from it and from the golden scales of her
+cuirass.
+
+'And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,' she said in notes which pealed through
+the great hall like a clarion, 'thinkest thou that I, Sorais, a Queen
+of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander shall sit upon my
+father's throne and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great
+House of the Stairway? Never! never! while there is life in my bosom and
+a man to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my side? Who?
+
+'Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither to prey
+with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly sin
+against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War--red War! Ay, I say to
+thee that the path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing of
+thy towns and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On thy
+head rest the burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the
+dying and the cries of the widows and those who are left fatherless for
+ever and for ever.
+
+'I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from thy
+throne, and that thou shalt be hurled--ay, hurled even from the topmost
+stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered
+the name of the House of him who built it with black shame. And I tell
+ye strangers--all save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service
+I will save alive if thou wilt leave these men and follow me' (here
+poor Good shook his head vigorously and ejaculated 'Can't be done' in
+English)--'that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alive
+in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly east
+and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the Temple,
+so that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for thee,
+Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not tell thee
+now.'
+
+She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm,
+and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through the
+hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:
+
+'Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak as
+thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou
+wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against thee, for if my
+hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron when it grips thine
+armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee not. I weep for that which
+thou wilt bring upon our people and on thyself, but for myself I say--I
+fear thee not. Yet thou, who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover
+and my lord from me, whom today thou dost call a "foreign wolf", to be
+_thy_ lover and _thy_ lord' (here there was an immense sensation in the
+hall), 'thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst
+enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place--ay, even by
+a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay
+asleep--'
+
+'It is false, it is false!' rang out Agon's and a score of other voices.
+
+'It is _not_ false,' said I, producing the broken point of the dagger
+and holding it up. 'Where is the haft from which this flew, oh Sorais?'
+
+'It is not false,' cried Good, determined at last to act like a loyal
+man. 'I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen's bed, and on my
+breast the dagger broke.'
+
+'Who is on my side?' cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she
+saw that public sympathy was turning against her. 'What, Bougwan, thou
+comest not?' she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her,
+in a low, concentrated voice. 'Thou pale-souled fool, for a reward thou
+shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou
+mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold _thee_ in
+chains that cannot be broken.
+
+'_War! War! War!_' she cried. 'Here, with my hand upon the sacred stone
+that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the Zu-Vendi set their
+necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows
+Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?'
+
+Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable
+confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the 'Lady of
+the Night', but some came from her following to us. Amongst the former
+was an under officer of Nyleptha's own guard, who suddenly turned and
+made a run for the doorway through which Sorais' people were already
+passing. Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole scene in,
+seeing with admirable presence of mind that if this soldier got away
+others would follow his example, seized the man, who drew his sword
+and struck at him. Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and,
+avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe,
+till in a few seconds the man's fate overtook him and he fell with a
+clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
+
+This was the first blood spilt in the war.
+
+'Shut the gates,' I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch Sorais
+so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing sacrilege. But
+the order came too late, her guards were already passing through them,
+and in another minute the streets echoed with the furious galloping of
+horses and the rolling of her chariots.
+
+So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing like a
+whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her headquarters at
+M'Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north
+of Milosis.
+
+And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments
+and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once
+more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening
+Inkosi-kaas's razor edge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX A STRANGE WEDDING
+
+
+
+One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before the
+gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had every
+reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, and the heart and soul of her
+party. This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us for those
+hippopotami, or rather that was what he said. What he meant was that
+he would never brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and
+foreign learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping
+us out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system of religion,
+and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting to introduce it into
+Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had any religion in our country,
+and I told him that so far as I could remember we had ninety-five
+different ones. You might have knocked him down with a feather, and
+really it is difficult not to pity a high priest of a well-established
+cult who is haunted by the possible approach of one or all of
+ninety-five new religions.
+
+When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I discussed
+what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating him,
+but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous
+effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added, with a stamp of her
+foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen, I will break the power of
+those priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.' I only
+wished that old Agon could have heard her, it would have frightened him.
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I suppose that
+we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.'
+
+Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry
+little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'
+
+'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.'
+
+She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy
+as it was sweet.
+
+Then at last he understood.
+
+'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously. 'Dost thou mean
+that thou wilt marry me, even now?'
+
+'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid answer; 'but if my
+lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'--pointing to the
+entrance to a private chapel--'and am I not ready to do the will of my
+lord? Listen, oh my lord! In eight days or less thou must leave me and
+go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in war--men sometimes
+fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if
+only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and
+rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of a
+rose.
+
+'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and with my crown my
+life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very bitter, and if she
+prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future? Happiness is the
+world's White Bird, that alights seldom, and flies fast and far till one
+day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by
+any chance he rests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to
+neglect the present for the future, for who knows what the future will
+be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them, for when
+the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others bloom that we
+shall never see.' And she lifted her sweet face to him and smiled into
+his eyes, and once more I felt a curious pang of jealousy and turned and
+went away. They never took much notice of whether I was there or not,
+thinking, I suppose, that I was an old fool, and that it did not matter
+one way or the other, and really I believe that they were right.
+
+So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general, and
+watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window as a vulture
+whets his beak beside a dying ox.
+
+And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking
+very radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and even
+Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at a real wedding.
+Of course we said yes, and off we went to the chapel, where we found
+Agon looking as sulky as any High Priest possibly could, and no wonder.
+It appeared that he and Nyleptha had a slight difference of opinion
+about the coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to
+allow any of his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry
+and told him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to
+be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the Eighth to
+perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be married, she would be
+married, and that he should marry her. {Endnote 18}
+
+He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched her
+argument thus--
+
+'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
+prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his
+subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars down on
+Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I _can_ leave him to contemplate the
+altar of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is his natural
+vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon! thou shalt be placed
+before the altar yonder with nought but a little water till such time as
+thou hast reconsidered the matter.'
+
+Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning without his
+breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so he presently modified
+his views and consented to marry them, saying at the same time that he
+washed his hands of all responsibility in the matter.
+
+So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite
+maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and downcast
+eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any sort, as seems
+to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries of the world. She
+did not wear a single ornament, even her gold circlets were removed,
+and I thought that if possible she looked more lovely than ever without
+them, as really superbly beautiful women do.
+
+She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand and led him
+up before the altar, and after a little pause, in a slow, clear voice
+uttered the following words, which are customary in Zu-Vendis if the
+bride desires and the man consents:--
+
+'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman to wife
+unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?'
+
+'I swear it,' answered Sir Henry; adding in English, 'One is quite
+enough for me.'
+
+Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, came forward
+and gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate that I could not
+follow it, but it appeared to be an invocation to the Sun to bless
+the union and make it fruitful. I observed that Nyleptha listened very
+closely to every word, and afterwards discovered that she was afraid
+lest Agon should play her a trick, and by going through the invocations
+backwards divorce them instead of marry them. At the end of the
+invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they took each other
+for husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each other
+before the altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites were
+concerned. But it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, and
+so I produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together with the 'Ingoldsby
+Legends', that I often read when I lie awake at night, accompanied me in
+all my later wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy Harry years ago, and
+after his death I found it among his things and took it back again.
+
+'Curtis,' I said, 'I am not a clergyman, and I do not know if what I am
+going to propose is allowable--I know it is not legal--but if you and
+the Queen have no objection I should like to read the English marriage
+service over you. It is a solemn step which you are taking, and I think
+that you ought, so far as circumstances will allow, to give it the
+sanction of your own religion.'
+
+'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I wish you would. I do not feel
+half married yet.'
+
+Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husband
+wished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailing in
+his own country, and so I set to work and read the service, from 'Dearly
+beloved' to 'amazement', as well as I could; and when I came to 'I,
+Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,' I translated, and also 'I, Nyleptha, take
+thee, Henry,' which she repeated after me very well. Then Sir Henry took
+a plain gold ring from his little finger and placed it on hers, and so
+on to the end. The ring had been Curtis' mother's wedding-ring, and I
+could not help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire lady would
+have been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ring was to serve
+a similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
+
+As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this second ceremony
+was going on, for he at once understood that it was religious in its
+nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five new faiths which
+loomed so ominously in his eyes. Indeed, he at once set me down as a
+rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly. However, in the end off he
+went, positively bristling with indignation, and I knew that we might
+look out for danger from his direction.
+
+And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving the happy
+pair to themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriages are supposed
+to be cheerful things, but my experience is that they are very much the
+reverse to everybody, except perhaps the two people chiefly interested.
+They mean the breaking-up of so many old ties as well as the undertaking
+of so many new ones, and there is always something sad about the passing
+away of the old order. Now to take this case for instance: Sir Henry
+Curtis is the best and kindest fellow and friend in the world, but he
+has never been quite the same since that little scene in the chapel.
+It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that--Nyleptha, in short,
+from morning till night in one way or another, either expressed or
+understood. And as for the old friends--well, of course they have taken
+the place that old friends ought to take, and which ladies are as a rule
+very careful to see they do take when a man marries, and that is, the
+second place. Yes, he would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a
+fact for all that. He is not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet
+and very charming, but I think that she likes him to understand that she
+has married _him_, and not Quatermain, Good, and Co. But there! what is
+the use of grumbling? It is all very right and proper, as any married
+lady would have no difficulty in explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous
+old man, though I hope I never show it.
+
+So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in an extra fine
+flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and presently one of
+our attendants came and told a story that gave us something to think
+about.
+
+It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel with Umslopogaas,
+Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper to sulk over his
+scratches. Well, it appears that he walked right past the Temple to the
+Sun, down the wide road on the further side of the slope it crowns, and
+thence on into the beautiful park, or pleasure gardens, which are laid
+out just beyond the outer wall. After wandering about there for a little
+he started to return, but was met near the outer gate by Sorais' train
+of chariots, which were galloping furiously along the great northern
+road. When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais halted her train and
+called to him. On approaching he was instantly seized and dragged
+into one of the chariots and carried off, 'crying out loudly', as our
+informant said, and as from my general knowledge of him I can well
+believe.
+
+At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais could have had in
+carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She could hardly stoop so low
+as to try to wreak her fury on one whom she knew was only a servant. At
+last, however, an idea occurred to me. We three were, as I think I have
+said, much revered by the people of Zu-Vendis at large, both because
+we were the first strangers they had ever seen, and because we were
+supposed to be the possessors of almost supernatural wisdom. Indeed,
+though Sorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves'--or, to translate it
+more accurately, 'foreign hyenas'--was sure to go down very well with
+the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely to be
+particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The Zu-Vendi
+people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seeking for some new thing,
+and just because we were so new our presence was on the whole acceptable
+to them. Again, Sir Henry's magnificent personal appearance made a deep
+impression upon a race who possess a greater love of beauty than any
+other I have ever been acquainted with. Beauty may be prized in other
+countries, but in Zu-Vendis it is almost worshipped, as indeed
+the national love of statuary shows. The people said openly in the
+market-places that there was not a man in the country to touch Curtis in
+personal appearance, as with the exception of Sorais there was no woman
+who could compete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that
+they should marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husband for
+their Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen that the outcry against
+us was to a considerable extent fictitious, and nobody knew it better
+than Sorais herself. Consequently it struck me that it might have
+occurred to her that down in the country and among the country people,
+it would be better to place the reason of her conflict with her sister
+upon other and more general grounds than Nyleptha's marriage with the
+stranger. It would be easy in a land where there had been so many civil
+wars to rake out some old cry that would stir up the recollection of
+buried feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one. This being
+so, it was of great importance to her to have one of the strangers with
+her whom she could show to the common people as a great Outlander, who
+had been so struck by the justice of her cause that he had elected to
+leave his companions and follow her standard.
+
+This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold of Good, whom
+she would have used till he ceased to be of service and then cast off.
+But Good having drawn back she grasped at the opportunity of securing
+Alphonse, who was not unlike him in personal appearance though smaller,
+no doubt with the object of showing him off in the cities and country as
+the great Bougwan himself. I told Good that I thought that that was her
+plan, and his face was a sight to see--he was so horrified at the idea.
+
+'What,' he said, 'dress up that little wretch to represent me? Why, I
+shall have to get out of the country! My reputation will be ruined for
+ever.'
+
+I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant to be
+personated all over a strange country by an arrant little coward, and I
+can quite sympathize with his vexation.
+
+Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitary grandeur,
+feeling very much as though we had just returned from burying a friend
+instead of marrying one, and next morning the work began in good
+earnest. The messages and orders which had been despatched by Nyleptha
+two days before now began to take effect, and multitudes of armed men
+came pouring into the city. We saw, as may be imagined, but very little
+of Nyleptha and not too much of Curtis during those next few days,
+but Good and I sat daily with the council of generals and loyal
+lords, drawing up plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the
+distribution of commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came
+in freely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosis were
+spotted with the banners of lords arriving from their distant places to
+rally round Nyleptha.
+
+After the first few days it became clear that we should be able to
+take the field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty thousand
+cavalry, a very respectable force considering how short was the time we
+had to collect it, and that about half the regular army had elected to
+follow Sorais.
+
+But if our force was large, Sorais' was, according to the reports
+brought in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had taken up her
+headquarters at a very strong town called M'Arstuna, situated, as I have
+said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countryside was flocking to
+her standard. Nasta had poured down from his highlands and was on
+his way to join her with no less than twenty-five thousand of his
+mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to face in all Zu-Vendis.
+Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who lived in the great
+horse-breeding district, had come in with twelve thousand cavalry, and
+so on. Indeed, what between one thing and another, it seemed certain
+that she would gather a fully armed host of nearly one hundred thousand
+men.
+
+And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up her camp and
+march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the country as she came.
+Thereon arose the question whether it would be best to meet her at
+Milosis or to go out and give her battle. When our opinion was asked
+upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatingly gave it in favour of an
+advance. If we were to shut ourselves up in the city and wait to be
+attacked, it seemed to us that our inaction would be set down to fear.
+It is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very
+little will suffice to turn men's opinions one way or the other, to be
+up and doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate if the
+cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore we cast our vote
+for moving out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting till we
+were drawn from our walls like a badger from a hole.
+
+Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to say, did
+that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready to flash out fire.
+A great map of the country was brought and spread out before her. About
+thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna, where Sorais lay, and ninety odd
+miles from Milosis, the road ran over a neck of land some two and a half
+miles in width, and flanked on either side by forest-clad hills
+which, without being lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite
+impracticable for a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked
+earnestly at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in
+some women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger upon this
+neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband, said, with a proud
+air of confidence and a toss of the golden head--
+
+'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies. I know the spot, here shalt thou
+meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before the storm.'
+
+But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+
+
+
+It was on the third morning after this incident of the map that Sir
+Henry and I started. With the exception of a small guard, all the great
+host had moved on the night before, leaving the Frowning City very
+silent and empty. Indeed, it was found impossible to leave any garrison
+with the exception of a personal guard for Nyleptha, and about a
+thousand men who from sickness or one cause or another were unable to
+proceed with the army; but as Milosis was practically impregnable, and
+as our enemy was in front of and not behind us, this did not so much
+matter.
+
+Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nyleptha accompanied
+Sir Henry and myself to the city gates, riding a magnificent white horse
+called Daylight, which was supposed to be the fleetest and most enduring
+animal in Zu-Vendis. Her face bore traces of recent weeping, but there
+were no tears in her eyes now, indeed she was bearing up bravely against
+what must have been a bitter trial to her. At the gate she reined in
+her horse and bade us farewell. On the previous day she had reviewed and
+addressed the officers of the great army, speaking to them such high,
+eloquent words, and expressing so complete a confidence in their valour
+and in their ultimate victory, that she quite carried their hearts
+away, and as she rode from rank to rank they cheered her till the ground
+shook. And now today the same mood seemed to be on her.
+
+'Fare thee well, Macumazahn!' she said. 'Remember, I trust to thy wits,
+which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared to those of my people,
+to save us from Sorais. I know that thou wilt do thy duty.'
+
+I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fear lest I
+should lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turned to Curtis.
+
+'Fare thee well, my lord!' she said. 'Come back with victory, and as a
+king, or on thy soldiers' spears.' {Endnote 19}
+
+Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps he had a bit
+of a lump in his throat. One gets over it afterwards, but these sort of
+partings are trying when one has only been married a week.
+
+'Here,' added Nyleptha, 'will I greet thee when ye return in triumph.
+And now, my lords, once more, farewell!'
+
+Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yards or so,
+we turned and perceived her still sitting on her horse at the same spot,
+and looking out after us beneath her hand, and that was the last we saw
+of her. About a mile farther on, however, we heard galloping behind
+us, and looking round, saw a mounted soldier coming towards us, leading
+Nyleptha's matchless steed--Daylight.
+
+'The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to her Lord
+Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetest and most
+enduring horse in all the land,' said the soldier, bending to his
+saddle-bow before us.
+
+At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying that he was
+too good for such rough work, but I persuaded him to do so, thinking
+that Nyleptha would be hurt if he did not. Little did I guess at the
+time what service that noble horse would render in our sorest need. It
+is curious to look back and realize upon what trivial and apparently
+coincidental circumstances great events frequently turn as easily and
+naturally as a door on its hinges.
+
+Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfect pleasure
+to see him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetings and thanks,
+we proceeded on our journey.
+
+By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of which
+Sir Henry then formally took over the command. It was a heavy
+responsibility, and it oppressed him very much, but the Queen's
+injunctions on the point were such as did not admit of being
+trifled with. He was beginning to find out that greatness has its
+responsibilities as well as its glories.
+
+Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almost indeed
+without seeing anybody, for the populations of the towns and villages
+along our route had for the most part fled, fearing lest they should
+be caught between the two rival armies and ground to powder like grain
+between the upper and the nether stones.
+
+On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so great a
+multitude was necessarily slow, we camped two miles this side of the
+neck or ridge I have spoken of, and our outposts brought us word that
+Sorais with all her power was rolling down upon us, and had pitched her
+camp that night ten miles the farther side of the neck.
+
+Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalry to seize
+the position. Scarcely had they occupied it, however, before they were
+attacked by about as many of Sorais' horsemen, and a very smart little
+cavalry fight ensued, with a loss to us of about thirty men killed. On
+the advance of our supports, however, Sorais' force drew off, carrying
+their dead and wounded with them.
+
+The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time, and I must
+say that Nyleptha's judgment had not failed her, it was an admirable
+place to give battle in, especially to a superior force.
+
+The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken to admit of
+the handling of any considerable force, till it reached the crest of a
+great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentle slope to the banks
+of a little stream, and then rolled away again up a still gentler slope
+to the plain beyond, the distance from the crest of the land-wave down
+to the stream being a little over half a mile, and from the stream up to
+the plain beyond a trifle less. The length of this wave of land at its
+highest point, which corresponded exactly with the width of the neck of
+the land between the wooded hills, was about two miles and a quarter,
+and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky, bush-clad ground,
+that afforded a most valuable cover to the flanks of the army and
+rendered it almost impossible for them to be turned.
+
+It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encamped
+his army in the same formation that he had, after consultation with the
+various generals, Good, and myself, determined that they should occupy
+in the great pitched battle which now appeared to be imminent.
+
+Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, divided
+as follows. In the centre was a dense body of twenty thousand
+foot-soldiers, armed with spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hide shields,
+breast and back plates. {Endnote 20} These formed the chest of the army,
+and were supported by five thousand foot, and three thousand horse in
+reserve. On either side of this chest were stationed seven thousand
+horse arranged in deep, majestic squadrons; and beyond and on either
+side but slightly in front of them again were two bodies, each numbering
+about seven thousand five hundred spearmen, forming the right and left
+wings of the army, and each supported by a contingent of some fifteen
+hundred cavalry. This makes in all sixty thousand men.
+
+Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousand horse
+between the chest and right wing, which was commanded by Good, and the
+other battalions and squadrons were entrusted to Zu-Vendis generals.
+
+Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais' vast army began to
+swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front of us, till the whole
+place seemed alive with the multitude of her spearpoints, and the ground
+shook with the tramp of her battalions. It was evident that the spies
+had not exaggerated; we were outnumbered by at least a third. At first
+we expected that Sorais was going to attack us at once, as the clouds
+of cavalry which hung upon her flanks executed some threatening
+demonstrations, but she thought better of it, and there was no fight
+that day. As for the formation of her great forces I cannot now describe
+it with accuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I did, but I
+may say, generally, that in its leading features it resembled our own,
+only her reserve was much greater.
+
+Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais' left wing, was a great army
+of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shield only, which,
+I was informed, was composed of Nasta's twenty-five thousand savage
+hillsmen.
+
+'My word, Good,' said I, when I saw them, 'you will catch it tomorrow
+when those gentlemen charge!' whereat Good not unnaturally looked rather
+anxious.
+
+All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at last night
+fell, and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on the slopes, to
+wane and die one by one like the stars they resembled. As the hours wore
+on, the silence gradually gathered more deeply over the opposing hosts.
+
+It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endless things that
+had to be attended to, there was our gnawing suspense to reckon
+with. The fray which tomorrow would witness would be so vast, and the
+slaughter so awful, that stout indeed must the heart have been that was
+not overwhelmed at the prospect. And when I thought of all that hung
+upon it, I own I felt ill, and it made me very sad to reflect that
+these mighty forces were gathered for destruction, simply to gratify the
+jealous anger of a woman. This was the hidden power which was to send
+those dense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts across
+the plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as clouds when
+hurricane meets hurricane. It was a dreadful thought, and set one
+wondering about the responsibilities of the great ones of the earth.
+Deep into the night we sat, with pale faces and heavy hearts, and took
+counsel, whilst the sentries tramped up and down, down and up, and the
+armed and plumed generals came and went, grim and shadow-like.
+
+And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for the coming
+slaughter; and I lay down and thought, and tried to get a little rest,
+but could not sleep for fear of the morrow--for who could say what the
+morrow would bring forth? Misery and death, this was certain; beyond
+that we knew not, and I confess I was very much afraid. But as I
+realized then, it is useless to question that eternal Sphinx, the
+future. From day to day she reads aloud the riddles of the yesterday, of
+which the puzzled wordlings of all ages have not answered one, nor ever
+will, guess they never so wildly or cry they never so loud.
+
+And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly to leave the
+issue in the balancing hands of Providence and the morrow.
+
+And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke with a clash,
+and a roar, and gathered themselves together for battle. It was a
+beautiful and awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas, leaning on his
+axe, contemplated it with grim delight.
+
+'Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never,' he said. 'The battles
+of my people are as the play of children to what this will be. Thinkest
+thou that they will fight it out?'
+
+'Ay,' I answered sadly, 'to the death. Content thyself, "Woodpecker",
+for once shalt thou peck thy fill.'
+
+Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack. A force of
+cavalry crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along our front,
+evidently taking stock of our position and numbers. With this we did
+not attempt to interfere, as our decision was to stand strictly on the
+defensive, and not to waste a single man. The men breakfasted and stood
+to their arms, and the hours wore on. About midday, when the men were
+eating their dinner, for we thought they would fight better on full
+stomachs, a shout of '_Sorais, Sorais_' arose like thunder from the
+enemy's extreme right, and taking the glass, I was able to clearly
+distinguish the 'Lady of the Night' herself, surrounded by a glittering
+staff, and riding slowly down the lines of her battalions. And as she
+went, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before her like the
+rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the ocean when the
+gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to the listener's ears,
+till the earth shook, and the air was full of the majesty of sound.
+
+Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle, we
+remained still and made ready.
+
+We had not long to wait. Suddenly, like flame from a cannon's mouth, out
+shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, and came charging down the
+slope towards the little stream, slowly at first, but gathering speed
+as they came. Before they got to the stream, orders reached me from Sir
+Henry, who evidently feared that the shock of such a charge, if allowed
+to fall unbroken upon our infantry, would be too much for them, to send
+five thousand sabres to meet the force opposite to me, at the moment
+when it began to mount the stiffest of the rise about four hundred yards
+from our lines. This I did, remaining behind myself with the rest of my
+men.
+
+Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-like form, and
+I must say that the general in command handled them very ably. Starting
+at a hand gallop, for the first three hundred yards he rode straight at
+the tip of the tongue-shaped mass of cavalry which, numbering, so far as
+I could judge, about eight thousand sabres, was advancing to charge us.
+Then he suddenly swerved to the right and put on the pace, and I saw the
+great wedge curl round, and before the foe could check himself and turn
+to meet it, strike him about halfway down his length, with a crashing
+rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vast sheets of ice. In
+sank the great wedge, into his heart, and as it cut its way hundreds
+of horsemen were thrown up on either side of it, just as the earth is
+thrown up by a ploughshare, or more like still, as the foaming water
+curls over beneath the bows of a rushing ship. In, yet in, vainly does
+the tongue twist its ends round in agony, like an injured snake,
+and strive to protect its centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right
+through, and so, amid cheer after cheer from our watching thousands,
+back again upon the severed ends, beating them down, driving them as
+a gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the rushing of hundreds of
+riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the victorious clamour of
+their pursuers, the great force crumples up like an empty glove, then
+turns and gallops pell-mell for safety back to its own lines.
+
+I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strong as it
+went out ten minutes before. The lines which were now advancing to the
+attack, opened and swallowed them up, and my force returned, having
+only suffered a loss of about five hundred men--not much, I thought,
+considering the fierceness of the struggle. I could also see that the
+opposing bodies of cavalry on our left wing were drawing back, but how
+the fight went with them I do not quite know. It is as much as I can do
+to describe what took place immediately around me.
+
+By this time the dense masses of the enemy's left, composed almost
+entirely of Nasta's swordsmen, were across the little stream, and
+with alternate yells of 'Nasta' and 'Sorais', with dancing banners and
+gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us like ants.
+
+Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and also the
+main advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalry charges,
+and this I did to the best of my ability, by continually sending
+squadrons of about a thousand sabres out against them. These squadrons
+did the enemy much damage, and it was a glorious sight to see them flash
+down the hillside, and bury themselves like a living knife in the heart
+of the foe. But, also, we lost many men, for after the experience of a
+couple of these charges, which had drawn a sort of bloody St Andrew's
+cross of dead and dying through the centre of Nasta's host, our foes
+no longer attempted to offer an unyielding front to their irresistible
+weight, but opened out to let the rush go through, throwing themselves
+on the ground and hamstringing hundreds of horses as they passed.
+
+And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drew nearer,
+till at last he hurled himself upon Good's force of seven thousand five
+hundred regulars, who were drawn up to receive them in three strong
+squares. About the same time, too, an awful and heartshaking roar told
+me that the main battle had closed in on the centre and extreme left. I
+raised myself in my stirrups and looked down to my left; so far as the
+eye could see there was a long dazzling shimmer of steel as the sun
+glanced upon falling sword and thrusting spear.
+
+To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle, now giving
+way, now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusion of attack
+and defence. But it was as much as I could do to keep count of what was
+happening to our own wing; and, as for the moment the cavalry had fallen
+back under cover of Good's three squares, I had a fair view of this.
+
+Nasta's wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves against the sullen
+rock-like squares. Time after time did they yell out their war-cries,
+and hurl themselves furiously against the long triple ridges of spear
+points, only to be rolled back as billows are when they meet the cliff.
+
+And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without a pause, and
+at the end of that time, if we had gained nothing we had lost nothing.
+Two attempts to turn our left flank by forcing a way through the wood by
+which it was protected had been defeated; and as yet Nasta's swordsmen
+had, notwithstanding their desperate efforts, entirely failed to break
+Good's three squares, though they had thinned their numbers by quite a
+third.
+
+As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staff and
+Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had held its own with
+honour, and the same may be said of our left battle.
+
+At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais' army drew back, having, I
+began to think, had enough of it. On this point, however, I was soon
+undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparatively small
+squadrons, she charged us furiously with them, all along the line,
+and then once more sullenly rolled her tens of thousands of sword and
+spearmen down upon our weakened squares and squadrons; Sorais herself
+directing the movement, as fearless as a lioness heading the main
+attack. On they came like an avalanche--I saw her golden helm gleaming
+in the van--our counter charges of cavalry entirely failing to check
+their forward sweep. Now they had struck us, and our centre bent in like
+a bow beneath the weight of their rush--it parted, and had not the ten
+thousand men in reserve charged down to its support it must have
+been utterly destroyed. As for Good's three squares, they were swept
+backwards like boats upon an incoming tide, and the foremost one was
+burst into and lost half its remaining men. But the effort was too
+fierce and terrible to last. Suddenly the battle came, as it were, to a
+turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still.
+
+Then it began to move towards Sorais' camp. Just then, too, Nasta's
+fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either because they were
+disheartened by their losses or by way of a ruse, fell back, and the
+remains of Good's gallant squares, leaving the positions they had held
+for so many hours, cheered wildly, and rashly followed them down the
+slope, whereon the swarms of swordsmen turned to envelop them, and once
+more flung themselves upon them with a yell. Taken thus on every side,
+what remained of the first square was quickly destroyed, and I perceived
+that the second, in which I could see Good himself mounted on a large
+horse, was on the point of annihilation. A few more minutes and it was
+broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sight of Good in the
+confused and hideous slaughter that ensued.
+
+Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-white mane
+and tail burst from the ruins of the square and came rushing past me
+riderless and with wide streaming reins, and in it I recognized the
+charger that Good had been riding. Then I hesitated no longer, but
+taking with me half my effective cavalry force, which now amounted to
+between four and five thousand men, I commended myself to God, and,
+without waiting for orders, I charged straight down upon Nasta's
+swordsmen. Seeing me coming, and being warned by the thunder of my
+horses' hoofs, the majority of them faced round, and gave us a right
+warm welcome. Not an inch would they yield; in vain did we hack and
+trample them down as we ploughed a broad red furrow through their
+thousands; they seemed to re-arise by hundreds, driving their terrible
+sharp swords into our horses, or severing their hamstrings, and then
+hacking the troopers who came to the ground with them almost into
+pieces. My horse was speedily killed under me, but luckily I had a fresh
+one, my own favourite, a coal-black mare Nyleptha had given me, being
+held in reserve behind, and on this I afterwards mounted. Meanwhile I
+had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well lost sight of
+by my men in the mad confusion of the moment. My voice, of course, could
+not be heard in the midst of the clanging of steel and the shrieks of
+rage and agony. Presently I found myself mixed up with the remnants of
+the square, which had formed round its leader Good, and was fighting
+desperately for existence. I stumbled against somebody, and glancing
+down, caught sight of Good's eyeglass. He had been beaten to his knee.
+Over him was a great fellow swinging a heavy sword. Somehow I managed to
+run the man through with the sime I had taken from the Masai whose hand
+I had cut off; but as I did so, he dealt me a frightful blow on the left
+side and breast with the sword, and though my chain shirt saved my life,
+I felt that I was badly hurt. For a minute I fell on to my hands and
+knees among the dead and dying, and turned sick and faint. When I
+came to again I saw that Nasta's spearmen, or rather those of them who
+remained, were retreating back across the stream, and that Good was
+there by me smiling sweetly.
+
+'Near go that,' he shouted; 'but all's well that ends well.'
+
+I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not ended well for
+me. I was sorely hurt.
+
+Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on our extreme
+right and left, and which were now reinforced by the three thousand
+sabres which we had held in reserve, flash out like arrows from their
+posts and fall upon the disordered flanks of Sorais' forces, and that
+charge decided the issue of the battle. In another minute or two the
+enemy was in slow and sullen retreat across the little stream, where
+they once more re-formed. Then came another lull, during which I managed
+to get a second horse, and received my orders to advance from Sir Henry,
+and then with one fierce deep-throated roar, with a waving of banners
+and a wide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took the offensive
+and began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly from the
+positions they had so gallantly held all day.
+
+At last it was our turn to attack.
+
+On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and were
+approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary
+sight. Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly clasped around his
+horse's neck, against which his blanched cheek was tightly pressed, was
+a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendi general, but in whom, as
+he came nearer, I recognized none other than our lost Alphonse. It was
+impossible even then to mistake those curling mustachios. In a minute he
+was tearing through our ranks and narrowly escaped being cut down, till
+at last somebody caught his horse's bridle, and he was brought to me
+just as a momentary halt occurred in our advance to allow what remained
+of our shattered squares to form into line.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulate
+with fright, 'grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have endured!
+But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the laches. But listen,
+monsieur--I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered tomorrow
+at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards will leave
+their posts, and the priests are going to kill her. Ah yes! they little
+thought it, but I was ensconced beneath a banner, and I heard it all.'
+
+'What?' I said, horror-struck; 'what do you mean?'
+
+'What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last night to
+settle the affair with the Archbishop [Agon]. The guard will leave open
+the little gate leading from the great stair and go away, and Nasta and
+Agon's priests will come in and kill her. Themselves they would not kill
+her.'
+
+'Come with me,' I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer next to me to
+take over the command, I snatched his bridle and galloped as hard as I
+could for the spot, between a quarter and half a mile off, where I saw
+the royal pennon flying, and where I knew that I should find Curtis if
+he were still alive. On we tore, our horses clearing heaps of dead and
+dying men, and splashing through pools of blood, on past the long broken
+lines of spearmen to where, mounted on the white stallion Nyleptha had
+sent to him as a parting gift, I saw Sir Henry's form towering above the
+generals who surrounded him.
+
+Just as we reached him the advance began again. A bloody cloth was bound
+around his head, but I saw that his eye was as bright and keen as ever.
+Beside him was old Umslopogaas, his axe red with blood, but looking
+quite fresh and uninjured.
+
+'What's wrong, Quatermain?' he shouted.
+
+'Everything. There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow at dawn.
+Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheard it all,'
+and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman had told me.
+
+Curtis' face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped.
+
+'At dawn,' he gasped, 'and it is now sunset; it dawns before four and we
+are nearly a hundred miles off--nine hours at the outside. What is to be
+done?'
+
+An idea entered into my head. 'Is that horse of yours fresh?' I said.
+
+'Yes, I have only just got on to him--when my last was killed, and he
+has been fed.'
+
+'So is mine. Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he can ride well.
+We will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not--well, we cannot
+help it. No, no; it is impossible for you to leave now. You would be
+seen, and it would turn the fate of the battle. It is not half won yet.
+The soldiers would think you were making a bolt of it. Quick now.'
+
+In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang into the
+empty saddle.
+
+'Now farewell,' I said. 'Send a thousand horsemen with remounts after
+us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general to the left wing to
+take over the command and explain my absence.'
+
+'You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?' he said in a broken
+voice.
+
+'Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.'
+
+He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped off to
+join the advance, which by this time was fording the little brook that
+now ran red with the blood of the fallen.
+
+As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as arrows
+leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out of the sight of
+slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoil and shouting, which only
+came to our ears as a faint, far-off roaring like the sound of distant
+breakers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI AWAY! AWAY!
+
+
+
+At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses;
+and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it
+was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red,
+looked from where we were more like some wild titanic picture than an
+actual hand-to-hand combat. The distinguishing scenic effect from that
+distance was the countless distinct flashes of light reflected from the
+swords and spears, otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have
+been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was
+being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and
+the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what was
+tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant when viewed
+from the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings of
+our race about which we blow the loud trumpet and make such a fuss and
+worry? How utterly antlike, and morally and physically insignificant,
+must they seem to the calm eyes that watch them from the arching depths
+above!
+
+'We win the day, Macumazahn,' said old Umslopogaas, taking in the whole
+situation with a glance of his practised eye. 'Look, the Lady of the
+Night's forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in them,
+they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But
+alas! the battle will in a manner be drawn, for the darkness gathers,
+and the regiments will not be able to follow and slay!'--and he shook
+his head sadly. 'But,' he added, 'I do not think that they will fight
+again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have
+lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.'
+
+By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I
+told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the lives
+that had been lost that day would have been lost in vain.
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to
+be there before the dawn! Well--away! away! man can but try, Macumazahn;
+and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old "witch-finder's"
+[Agon's] skull for him. Once he wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker",
+did he? And now he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he?
+Good! So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely, be
+my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay, by T'Chaka's
+head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he galloped. By now the
+darkness was closing in, but fortunately there would be a moon later,
+and the road was good.
+
+On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
+had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide steady
+stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the side
+of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot
+of far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were
+travelling up their steeps, and now we were over and passing towards
+others that sprang up like visions in the far, faint distance beyond.
+
+On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet of the
+night, that was set like a song to the falling music of our horses'
+hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some forgotten starving
+dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, past lonely moated dwellings; on,
+through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom
+of the earth, as though there was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for
+hour after hour!
+
+We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious
+horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they filled
+their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round
+hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside me, mounted
+upon the great white horse, like Death in the Revelation of St John, as
+now and again lifting his fierce set face he gazed out along the road,
+and pointed with his axe towards some distant rise or house.
+
+And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
+
+At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning
+to give out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were
+considerably more than half way. On the top of a rise was a little
+spring, which I remembered because I had slept by it a few nights
+before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaas to pull up, having determined
+to give the horses and ourselves ten minutes to breathe in. He did so,
+and we dismounted--that is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me
+off, for what with fatigue, stiffness, and the pain of my wound, I could
+not do so for myself; and then the gallant horses stood panting there,
+resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat fell drip, drip,
+from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds in the still night
+air.
+
+Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and
+drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful
+of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up,
+though my fatigue was too great to allow me to feel hungry. Then, having
+laved my fevered head and hands, I returned, and the Zulu went and
+drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a couple of mouthfuls each--no
+more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from
+the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling
+up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting the
+condition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though she was, was
+evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her eye looked sick
+and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha's glorious horse--who, if he is served
+aright, should, like the steeds who saved great Rameses in his need,
+feed for the rest of his days out of a golden manger--was still
+comparatively speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had
+by far the heavier weight to carry. He was 'tucked up', indeed, and
+his legs were weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his
+shapely head up and gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that
+seemed to say that whoever failed _he_ was good for those five-and-forty
+miles that yet lay between us and Milosis. Then Umslopogaas helped me
+into the saddle and--vigorous old savage that he was!--vaulted into his
+own without touching a stirrup, and we were off once more, slowly at
+first, till the horses got into their stride, and then more swiftly. So
+we passed over another ten miles, and then came a long, weary rise of
+some six or seven miles, and three times did my poor black mare nearly
+come to the ground with me. But on the top she seemed to gather herself
+together, and rattled down the slope with long, convulsive strides,
+breathing in gasps. We did that three or four miles more swiftly than
+any since we had started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last
+effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between
+her teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for some
+three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or three jerky strides,
+pulled herself up and fell with a crash right on to her head, I rolling
+myself free as she did so. As I struggled to my feet the brave beast
+raised her head and looked at me with piteous bloodshot eyes, and then
+her head dropped with a groan and she was dead. Her heart was broken.
+
+Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him in dismay.
+There were still more than twenty miles to do by dawn, and how were we
+to do it with one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old
+Zulu's extraordinary running powers.
+
+Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to hoist me
+into it.
+
+'What wilt thou do?' I asked.
+
+'Run,' he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
+
+Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief
+it was to me to get that change of horses! Anybody who has ever ridden
+against time will know what it meant.
+
+Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the
+gaunt Zulu a lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thing to see
+old Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightly parted and his
+nostrils agape like the horse's. Every five miles or so we stopped for a
+few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again.
+
+'Canst thou go farther,' I said at the third of these stoppages, 'or
+shall I leave thee to follow me?'
+
+He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of
+the Sun, now not more than five miles away.
+
+'I reach it or I die,' he gasped.
+
+Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my
+legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all.
+I was exhausted with toil, want of food and sleep, and also suffering
+very much from the blow I had received on my left side; it seemed as
+though a piece of bone or something was slowly piercing into my lung.
+Poor Daylight, too, was pretty nearly finished, and no wonder. But there
+was a smell of dawn in the air, and we might not stay; better that all
+three of us should die upon the road than that we should linger while
+there was life in us. The air was thick and heavy, as it sometimes is
+before the dawn breaks, and--another infallible sign in certain parts of
+Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand--hundreds of little spiders pendant on
+the end of long tough webs were floating about in it. These early-rising
+creatures, or rather their webs, caught upon the horse's and our own
+forms by scores, and, as we had neither the time nor the energy to brush
+them off, we rushed along covered with hundreds of long grey threads
+that streamed out a yard or more behind us--and a very strange
+appearance they must have given us.
+
+And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wall of the
+Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me: What if they
+will not let us in?
+
+'_Open! open!_' I shout imperiously, at the same time giving the royal
+password. '_Open! open!_ a messenger, a messenger with tidings of the
+war!'
+
+'What news?' cried the guard. 'And who art thou that ridest so madly,
+and who is that whose tongue lolls out'--and it actually did--'and who
+runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?'
+
+'It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog.
+_Open! open!_ I bring tidings.'
+
+The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge fell with
+a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one and over the other.
+
+'What news, my lord, what news?' cried the guard.
+
+'Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,' I answered, and was
+gone.
+
+One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!
+
+So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen short
+minutes more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both live for ever in the
+annals of the land.
+
+On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passing the Flower
+Temple now--one mile more, only one little mile--hold on, keep your
+life in thee, see the houses run past of themselves. Up, good horse,
+up, there--but fifty yards now. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on
+gallantly.
+
+'Thank God, the palace at last!' and see, the first arrows of the dawn
+are striking on the Temple's golden dome. {Endnote 21} But shall I get
+in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?
+
+Once more I give the password and shout '_Open! open!_'
+
+No answer, and my heart grows very faint.
+
+Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my joy
+I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of Nyleptha's
+guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light--indeed, the same whom
+Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on the day she fled to the temple.
+
+'Is it thou, Kara?' I cry; 'I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard let down the
+bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!'
+
+Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length the
+bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got into the
+courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneath me, as I
+thought, dead. Except Kara, there was nobody to be seen, and his look
+was wild, and his garments were all torn. He had opened the gate and let
+down the bridge alone, and was now getting them up and shut again (as,
+owing to a very ingenious arrangement of cranks and levers, one man
+could easily do, and indeed generally did do).
+
+'Where are the guard?' I gasped, fearing his answer as I never feared
+anything before.
+
+'I know not,' he answered; 'two hours ago, as I slept, was I seized and
+bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very moment, have I freed
+myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly fear, that we are betrayed.'
+
+His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered,
+followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man, through
+the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent as the grave,
+towards the Queen's sleeping-place.
+
+We reached the first ante-room--no guards; the second, still no guards.
+Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after all, too late! The
+silence and solitude of those great chambers was dreadful, and weighed
+me down like an evil dream. On, right into Nyleptha's chamber we rushed
+and staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst; we saw there was
+a light in it, ay, and a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it
+is the White Queen herself, the Queen unharmed! There she stands in
+her night gear, roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the
+heaviness of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame
+mantling her lovely breast and cheek.
+
+'Who is it?' she cries. 'What means this? Oh, Macumazahn, is it thou?
+Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearing evil tidings--and
+my lord--oh, tell me not my lord is dead--not dead!' she wailed,
+wringing her white hands.
+
+'I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais last
+night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten
+back all along her lines, and thy arms prevail.'
+
+'I knew it,' she cried in triumph. 'I knew that he would win; and they
+called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads when I gave him the
+command! Last night at sundown, sayest thou, and it is not yet dawn?
+Surely--'
+
+'Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,' I broke in, 'and give us wine
+to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst save thyself
+alive. Nay, stay not.'
+
+Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towards some room
+beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick cloak, by which
+time a dozen or so of half-dressed women were pouring into the room.
+
+'Follow us and be silent,' I said to them as they gazed with wondering
+eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into the first ante-room.
+
+'Now,' I said, 'give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it, for we
+are near to death.'
+
+The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and
+from a cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold flesh were brought
+forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life flow back into our
+veins as the good red wine went down.
+
+'Hark to me, Nyleptha,' I said, as I put down the empty tankard. 'Hast
+thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of discretion?'
+
+'Ay,' she said, 'surely.'
+
+'Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom thou
+canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them come armed,
+with all honest folk that they can gather, to rescue thee from death.
+Nay, question not; do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the
+maids.'
+
+She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated the
+words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the names of the men
+to whom each should run.
+
+'Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives,' I added.
+
+In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin us at
+the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway as soon as
+he had made fast behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made
+our way, followed by the Queen and her women. As we went we tore off
+mouthfuls of food, and between them I told her what I knew of the danger
+which encompassed her, and how we found Kara, and how all the guards and
+men-servants were gone, and she was alone with her women in that great
+place; and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread through the town
+that our army had been utterly destroyed, and that Sorais was marching
+in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereof all men had fallen
+away from her.
+
+Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been but six or
+seven minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding that the golden roof of
+the temple being very lofty was ablaze with the rays of the rising sun,
+it was not yet dawn, nor would be for another ten minutes. We were in
+the courtyard now, and here my wound pained me so that I had to take
+Nyleptha's arm, while Umslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he
+went.
+
+Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway through the
+palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair.
+
+I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The door was gone,
+and so were the outer gates of bronze--entirely gone. They had been
+taken from their hinges, and as we afterwards found, hurled from the
+stairway to the ground two hundred feet beneath. There in front of us
+was the semicircular standing-space, about twice the size of a large
+oval dining-table, and the ten curved black marble steps leading on to
+the main stair--and that was all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+
+
+
+We looked at one another.
+
+'Thou seest,' I said, 'they have taken away the door. Is there aught
+with which we may fill the place? Speak quickly for they will be on us
+ere the daylight.' I spoke thus, because I knew that we must hold this
+place or none, as there were no inner doors in the palace, the rooms
+being separated one from another by curtains. I also knew that if
+we could by any means defend this doorway the murderers could get in
+nowhere else; for the palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since
+the secret door by which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of
+attempted murder had, by Nyleptha's order, been closed up with masonry.
+
+'I have it,' said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the
+emergency in a wonderful way. 'On the farther side of the courtyard are
+blocks of cut marble--the workmen brought them there for the bed of the
+new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block the door with them.'
+
+I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remaining maidens
+down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance from the
+docks below, where her father, who was a great merchant employing
+many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another to watch through the
+doorway, we made our way back across the courtyard to where the hewn
+marble lay; and here we met Kara returning from despatching the first
+two messengers. There were the marble blocks, sure enough, broad,
+massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing about eighty pounds
+each, and there, too, were a couple of implements like small stretchers,
+that the workmen used to carry them on. Without delay we got some of the
+blocks on to the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to the
+doorway.
+
+'Listen, Macumazahn,' said Umslopogaas, 'if those low fellows come, it
+is I who will hold the stair against them till the door is built up.
+Nay, nay, it will be a man's death: gainsay me not, old friend. It has
+been a good day, let it now be good night. See, I throw myself down to
+rest on the marble there; when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me,
+not before, for I need my strength,' and without a word he went outside
+and flung himself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep.
+
+At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down by the
+doorway, and content myself with directing operations. The girls
+brought the block, while Kara and Nyleptha built them up across the
+six-foot-wide doorway, a triple row of them, for less would be useless.
+But the marble had to be brought forty yards and then there were forty
+yards to run back, and though the girls laboured gloriously, even
+staggering along alone, each with a block in her arms, it was slow work,
+dreadfully slow.
+
+The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we heard a
+commotion at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faint clinking of
+armed men. As yet the wall was only two feet high, and we had been eight
+minutes at the building of it. So they had come. Alphonse had heard
+aright.
+
+The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of the dawning
+we could make out long files of men, some fifty or so in all, slowly
+creeping up the stair. They were now at the half-way standing place that
+rested on the great flying arch; and here, perceiving that something
+was going on above, they, to our great gain, halted for three or four
+minutes and consulted, then slowly and cautiously advanced again.
+
+We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and it was
+almost three feet high.
+
+Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and
+swung Inkosi-kaas round his head.
+
+'It is well,' he said. 'I feel as a young man once more. My strength has
+come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before it dies. Fear not,
+I shall fight a good fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new heart
+into me.
+
+'Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and I stood
+together on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast as a
+spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy flesh, but I could not
+see what was the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us,
+old hunter. So be it: we have had our time, but I would that in it I had
+seen some more such fights as yesterday's.
+
+'Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set
+my eyes towards Zululand;' and he took my hand and shook it, and then
+turned to face the advancing foe.
+
+Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered over
+our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his
+stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did so.
+
+'What, comest thou too?' laughed out the old warrior. 'Welcome--a
+welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can die like a man;
+ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are ready. We
+wet our beaks like eagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our
+assegais, and are hungry to fight. Who comes to give greeting to the
+Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit
+is death? I, the Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I,
+Umslopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu,
+a captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the son
+of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze, I of the royal
+blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I the Ringed Man, I the Induna,
+I call to them as a buck calls, I challenge them, I await them. Ow! it
+is thou, it is thou!'
+
+As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed men,
+among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta and Agon, came
+streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big fellow, armed with a
+heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircular steps ahead of his comrades
+and struck at the great Zulu with the spear. Umslopogaas moved his
+body but not his legs, so that the blow missed him, and next instant
+Inkosi-kaas crashed through headpiece, hair and skull, and the
+man's corpse was rattling down the steps. As he dropped, his round
+hippopotamus-hide shield fell from his hand on to the marble, and the
+Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so.
+
+In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then began a
+scene the like of which has not been known to me.
+
+Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as they
+came, the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down they rolled again,
+dead or dying. And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu's eye
+seemed to get quicker and his arm stronger. He shouted out his war-cries
+and the names of chiefs whom he had slain, and the blows of his awful
+axe rained straight and true, shearing through everything they fell on.
+There was none of the scientific method he was so fond of about this
+last immortal fight of his; he had no time for it, but struck with his
+full strength, and at every stroke a man sank in his tracks, and went
+rattling down the marble steps.
+
+They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding him in a
+dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the shield protected
+his head and the chain-shirt his vitals, and for minute after minute,
+aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair.
+
+At last Kara's sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled
+down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the brave man that
+he was.
+
+Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned. Shouting
+out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay, and another, and
+another, till at last they drew back from the slippery blood-stained
+steps, and stared at him with amazement, thinking that he was no mortal
+man.
+
+The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hope rose in my
+teeth as I leaned there against it a miserable helpless log, and ground
+my teeth, and watched that glorious struggle. I could do no more for I
+had lost my revolver in the battle.
+
+And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint as he
+was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them 'women'--the grand old
+warrior, standing there one against so many! And for a breathing space
+none would come against him, notwithstanding Nasta's exhortations, till
+at last old Agon, who, to do him justice, was a brave man, mad with
+baffled rage, and seeing that the wall would soon be built and his plans
+defeated, shook the great spear he held, and rushed up the dripping
+steps.
+
+'Ah, ah!' shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest's flowing white
+beard, 'it is thou, old "witch-finder"! Come on! I await thee, white
+"medicine man"; come on! come on! I have sworn to slay thee, and I ever
+keep my faith.'
+
+On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear with such
+force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough shield and
+pierced him in the neck. The Zulu cast down the transfixed shield, and
+that moment was Agon's last, for before he could free his spear
+and strike again, with a shout of '_There's for thee, Rain-maker!_'
+Umslopogaas gripped Inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled on high and
+drave her right on to his venerable head, so that Agon rolled down dead
+among the corpses of his fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him
+and his plots altogether. And even as he fell, a great cry rose from the
+foot of the stair, and looking out through the portion of the doorway
+that was yet unclosed, we saw armed men rushing up to the rescue, and
+called an answer to their shouts. Then the would-be murderers who yet
+remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw several priests, turned
+to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were butchered as they fled. Only one
+man stayed, and he was the great lord Nasta, Nyleptha's suitor, and
+the father of the plot. For a moment the black-bearded Nasta stood with
+bowed face leaning on his long sword as though in despair, and then,
+with a dreadful shout, he too rushed up at the Zulu, and, swinging the
+glittering sword around his head, dealt him such a mighty blow beneath
+his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the
+chain armour and deep into Umslopogaas' side, for a moment paralysing
+him and causing him to drop his axe.
+
+Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an end of him,
+but little he knew his foe. With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu
+gathered himself together and sprang straight at Nasta's throat, as I
+have sometimes seen a wounded lion spring. He struck him full as his
+foot was on the topmost stair, and his long arms closing round him like
+iron bands, down they rolled together struggling furiously. Nasta was a
+strong man and a desperate, but he could not match the strongest man in
+Zululand, sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as the strength
+of a bull. In a minute the end came. I saw old Umslopogaas stagger
+to his feet--ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing up the
+struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight over the
+parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to powder on the rocks two hundred
+feet below.
+
+The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passed down the
+stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, and the loud shouts
+which reached us from the outer gates told us that the town was also
+aroused, and the men awakened by the women were calling to be admitted.
+Some of Nyleptha's brave ladies, who in their night-shifts and with
+their long hair streaming down their backs, just as they had been
+aroused from rest, went off to admit them at the side entrance, whilst
+others, assisted by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down
+the marble blocks they had placed there with so much labour.
+
+Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followed by a
+crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a
+glorious figure. The man was a mass of wounds, and a glance at his wild
+eye told me that he was dying. The 'keshla' gum-ring upon his head was
+severed in two places by sword-cuts, one just over the curious hole in
+his skull, and the blood poured down his face from the gashes. Also on
+the right side of his neck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by
+Agon; there was a deep cut on his left arm just below where the mail
+shirt-sleeve stopped, and on the right side of his body the armour was
+severed by a gash six inches long, where Nasta's mighty sword had bitten
+through it and deep into its wearer's vitals.
+
+On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid savage,
+and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and
+cheered him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With
+outstretched arms and tottering gait he pursued his way, followed by us
+all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ran through the courtyard,
+past the spot where the blocks of marble lay, through the round arched
+doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it, down the
+short passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with
+hastily-armed men, who poured through the side entrance. Straight up
+the hall he went, leaving behind him a track of blood on the marble
+pavement, till at last he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the
+centre of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped
+and leaned upon his axe. Then suddenly he lifted up his voice and cried
+aloud--
+
+'I die, I die--but it was a kingly fray. Where are they who came up the
+great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou
+gone before to wait for me in the dark whither I go? The blood blinds
+me--the place turns round--I hear the voice of waters.'
+
+Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red axe and
+kissed the blade.
+
+'Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,' he cried. 'Nay, nay, we will go together; we
+cannot part, thou and I. We have lived too long one with another, thou
+and I.
+
+'One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke! a
+strong stroke!' and, drawing himself to his full height, with a wild
+heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl the axe round his
+head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly, with
+awful force he brought it down straight on to the crown of the mass
+of sacred stone. A shower of sparks flew up, and such was the almost
+superhuman strength of the blow, that the massive marble split with
+a rending sound into a score of pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there
+remained but some fragments of steel and a fibrous rope of shattered
+horn that had been the handle. Down with a crash on to the pavement fell
+the fragments of the holy stone, and down with a crash on to them, still
+grasping the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old Zulu--_dead_.
+
+And thus the hero died.
+
+A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessed
+the extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, '_The prophecy! the
+prophecy!_ He has shattered the sacred stone!' and at once a murmuring
+arose.
+
+'Ay,' said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishes her.
+'Ay, my people, he has shattered the stone, and behold the prophecy is
+fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis. Incubu, my lord, hath
+beat Sorais back, and I fear her no more, and to him who hath saved the
+Crown it shall surely be. And this man,' she said, turning to me and
+laying her hand upon my shoulder, 'wot ye that, though wounded in the
+fight of yesterday, he rode with that old warrior who lies there, one
+hundred miles 'twixt sun set and rise to save me from the plots of cruel
+men. Ay, and he has saved me, by a very little, and therefore because of
+the deeds that they have done--deeds of glory such as our history cannot
+show the like--therefore I say that the name of Macumazahn and the name
+of dead Umslopogaas, ay, and the name of Kara, my servant, who aided him
+to hold the stair, shall be blazoned in letters of gold above my throne,
+and shall be glorious for ever while the land endures. I, the Queen,
+have said it.'
+
+This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said that after
+all we had only done our duty, as it is the fashion of both Englishmen
+and Zulus to do, and there was nothing to make an outcry about; at
+which they cheered still more, and then I was supported across the outer
+courtyard to my old quarters, in order that I might be put to bed. As
+I went, my eyes lit upon the brave horse Daylight that lay there, his
+white head outstretched on the pavement, exactly as he had fallen on
+entering the yard; and I bade those who supported me take me near him,
+that I might look on the good beast once more before he was dragged
+away. And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyes and,
+lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly. I could have shouted for
+joy to find that he was not dead, only unfortunately I had not a shout
+left in me; but as it was, grooms were sent for and he was lifted up
+and wine poured down his throat, and in a fortnight he was as well and
+strong as ever, and is the pride and joy of all the people of Milosis,
+who, whenever they see him, point him out to the little children as the
+'horse which saved the White Queen's life'.
+
+Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had my mail shirt
+removed. They hurt me a great deal in getting it off, and no wonder, for
+on my left breast and side was a black bruise the size of a saucer.
+
+The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outside the
+palace wall, some ten hours later. I raised myself and asked what was
+the news, and they told me that a large body of cavalry sent by Curtis
+to assist the Queen had arrived from the scene of the battle, which they
+had left two hours after sundown. When they left, the wreck of Sorais'
+army was in full retreat upon M'Arstuna, followed by all our effective
+cavalry. Sir Henry was encamping the remains of his worn-out forces on
+the site (such is the fortune of war) that Sorais had occupied the night
+before, and proposed marching to M'Arstuna on the morrow. Having heard
+this, I felt that I could die with a light heart, and then everything
+became a blank.
+
+
+When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc of a
+sympathetic eyeglass, behind which was Good.
+
+'How are you getting on, old chap?' said a voice from the neighbourhood
+of the eyeglass.
+
+'What are you doing here?' I asked faintly. 'You ought to be at
+M'Arstuna--have you run away, or what?'
+
+'M'Arstuna,' he replied cheerfully. 'Ah, M'Arstuna fell last
+week--you've been unconscious for a fortnight, you see--with all the
+honours of war, you know--trumpets blowing, flags flying, just as though
+they had had the best of it; but for all that, weren't they glad to go.
+Israel made for his tents, I can tell you--never saw such a sight in my
+life.'
+
+'And Sorais?' I asked.
+
+'Sorais--oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the scoundrels,' he
+added, with a change of tone--'sacrificed the Queen to save their skins,
+you see. She is being brought up here, and I don't know what will happen
+to her, poor soul!' and he sighed.
+
+'Where is Curtis?' I asked.
+
+'He is with Nyleptha. She rode out to meet us today, and there was
+a grand to-do, I can tell you. He is coming to see you tomorrow; the
+doctors (for there is a medical "faculty" in Zu-Vendis as elsewhere)
+thought that he had better not come today.'
+
+I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstanding the
+doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when a man is newly
+married and has just gained a great victory, he is apt to listen to the
+advice of doctors, and quite right too.
+
+Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that 'Monsieur must
+now couch himself,' and looking up perceived Alphonse's enormous black
+mustachios curling away in the distance.
+
+'So you are here?' I said.
+
+'Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instincts are
+satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur.'
+
+I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse's
+failings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up to the level
+of his heroic grandfather in this particular, showing thereby how true
+is the saying that it is a bad thing to be overshadowed by some great
+ancestral name), a better or kinder nurse never lived. Poor Alphonse! I
+hope he will always think of me as kindly as I think of him.
+
+On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he told me the
+whole history of what had happened since Umslopogaas and I galloped
+wildly away from the battle to save the life of the Queen. It seemed
+to me that he had managed the thing exceedingly well, and showed great
+ability as a general. Of course, however, our loss had been dreadfully
+heavy--indeed, I am afraid to say how many perished in the desperate
+battle I have described, but I know that the slaughter has appreciably
+affected the male population of the country. He was very pleased to see
+me, dear fellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in his eyes
+for the little that I had been able to do. I saw him, however, start
+violently when his eyes fell upon my face.
+
+As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that 'her dear lord' had
+come back with no other injury than an ugly scar on his forehead. I do
+not believe that she allowed all the fearful slaughter that had taken
+place to weigh ever so little in the balance against this one fact, or
+even to greatly diminish her joy; and I cannot blame her for it, seeing
+that it is the nature of loving woman to look at all things through the
+spectacles of her love, and little does she reck of the misery of the
+many if the happiness of the _one_ be assured. That is human nature,
+which the Positivists tell us is just perfection; so no doubt it is all
+right.
+
+'And what art thou going to do with Sorais?' I asked her.
+
+Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown.
+
+'Sorais,' she said, with a little stamp of the foot; 'ah, but Sorais!'
+
+Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject.
+
+'You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow,' he said.
+
+I shook my head and laughed.
+
+'Don't deceive yourselves,' I said. 'I may be about for a little, but
+I shall never be all right again. I am a dying man, Curtis. I may die
+slow, but die I must. Do you know I have been spitting blood all the
+morning? I tell you there is something working away into my lung; I can
+feel it. There, don't look distressed; I have had my day, and am ready
+to go. Give me the mirror, will you? I want to look at myself.'
+
+He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and at last he
+handed me one of the discs of polished silver set in a wooden frame like
+a hand-screen, which serve as looking-glasses in Zu-Vendis. I looked and
+put it down.
+
+'Ah,' I said quietly, 'I thought so; and you talk of my getting all
+right!' I did not like to let them see how shocked I really was at my
+own appearance. My grizzled stubby hair was turned snow-white, and my
+yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman's and had two deep purple
+rings painted beneath the eyes.
+
+Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject,
+telling me that the artists had taken a cast of the dead body of old
+Umslopogaas, and that a great statue in black marble was to be erected
+of him in the act of splitting the sacred stone, which was to be matched
+by another statue in white marble of myself and the horse Daylight as he
+appeared when, at the termination of that wild ride, he sank beneath me
+in the courtyard of the palace. I have since seen these statues, which
+at the time of writing this, six months after the battle, are nearly
+finished; and very beautiful they are, especially that of Umslopogaas,
+which is exactly like him. As for that of myself, it is good, but they
+have idealized my ugly face a little, which is perhaps as well, seeing
+that thousands of people will probably look at it in the centuries to
+come, and it is not pleasant to look at ugly things.
+
+Then they told me that Umslopogaas' last wish had been carried out, and
+that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, after the usual custom
+here, he had been tied up, Zulu fashion, with his knees beneath his
+chin, and, having been wrapped in a thin sheet of beaten gold, entombed
+in a hole hollowed out of the masonry of the semicircular space at the
+top of the stair he defended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we
+can judge, almost exactly towards Zululand. There he sits, and will sit
+for ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in an air-tight
+stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spot he held alone
+against a multitude; and the people say that at night his ghost rises
+and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas at phantom foes. Certainly
+they fear during the dark hours to pass the place where the hero is
+buried.
+
+Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the land in
+that unaccountable way in which such things to arise among barbarous
+and semi-civilized people, blowing, like the wind, no man knows whence.
+According to this saying, so long as the old Zulu sits there, looking
+down the stairway he defended when alive, so long will the New House of
+the Stairway, springing from the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha,
+endure and flourish; but when he is taken from thence, or when, ages
+after, his bones at last crumble into dust, the House will fall, and the
+Stairway shall fall, and the Nation of the Zu-Vendi shall cease to be a
+Nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+It was a week after Nyleptha's visit, when I had begun to get about
+a little in the middle of the day, that a message came to me from Sir
+Henry to say that Sorais would be brought before them in the Queen's
+first antechamber at midday, and requesting my attendance if possible.
+Accordingly, greatly drawn by curiosity to see this unhappy woman once
+more, I made shift, with the help of that kind little fellow Alphonse,
+who is a perfect treasure to me, and that of another waiting-man, to
+reach the antechamber. I got there, indeed, before anybody else, except
+a few of the great Court officials who had been bidden to be present,
+but I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in by a party
+of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever, but with a worn
+expression on her proud face. She was, as usual, dressed in her royal
+'kaf', emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun, and in her right hand she
+still held the toy spear of silver. A pang of admiration and pity went
+through me as I looked at her, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply,
+at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my
+condition, to remain standing before her.
+
+She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. 'Thou dost forget,
+Macumazahn,' she said, 'I am no more a Queen, save in blood; I am an
+outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should scorn, and none show
+deference to.'
+
+'At least,' I replied, 'thou art still a lady, and therefore one to whom
+deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it is
+doubly due.'
+
+'Ah!' she answered, with a little laugh, 'thou dost forget that I
+would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the angel's
+trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.'
+
+'No,' I answered, 'I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed, I often
+thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass was
+turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and I am still here,
+though perchance not for long, so why talk of it now?'
+
+'Ah!' she went on, 'the battle! the battle! Oh, would that I were once
+more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would take such a
+vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need; that it
+should only be spoken of in whispers; those woman, those pigeon-hearted
+half-breeds who suffered themselves to be overcome!' and she choked in
+her wrath.
+
+'Ay, and that little coward beside thee,' she went on, pointing at
+Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very uncomfortable;
+'he escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried to make a general of him,
+telling the soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him'
+(here Alphonse shivered at some unhappy recollection), 'but it was of no
+avail. He hid beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans. I
+would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
+
+'And thou, Macumazahn, I have heard of what thou didst; thou art brave,
+and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he was a _man_. I
+would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.'
+
+'Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,' I said; 'I pray thee now plead with
+the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy unto thee.'
+
+She laughed out loud. 'I plead for mercy!' she said and at that moment
+the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took her seat
+with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely ill at
+ease.
+
+'Greeting, Sorais!' said Nyleptha, after a short pause. 'Thou hast rent
+the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of my people to the
+sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder, thou
+hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from the
+Stairway. What hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die? Speak, O
+Sorais!'
+
+'Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the
+indictment,' answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. 'It runs thus:
+"Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu." It is for this
+crime that my sister will slay me, not because I levied war. It is
+perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love
+too late.
+
+'Listen,' she went on, raising her voice. 'I have nought to say save
+that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou with me even as
+thou wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there' (pointing to Sir
+Henry)--'for now will he be King--carry out the sentence, as it is meet
+he should, for as he is the beginning of the evil, let him also be the
+end.' And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her
+deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear.
+
+Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could not
+catch, and then the Queen spoke.
+
+'Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our father died,
+and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit
+upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gave my voice for thee and
+said, "Nay, let her sit. She is twin with me; we were born at a birth;
+wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?" And so has it
+ever been 'twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in what
+sort thou hast repaid me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit,
+Sorais. And yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we
+played together when we were little and loved each other much, and at
+night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the other's
+neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out to thee, Sorais.
+
+'But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence has been too
+heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy even to the ground.
+Also, while thou dost live the land will never be at peace.
+
+'Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hath begged
+thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as a marriage gift
+give I it to him, to do with even as he wills, knowing that, though
+thou dost love him, he loves thee not, Sorais, for all thy beauty. Nay,
+though thou art lovely as the night in all her stars, O Lady of the
+Night, yet it is me his wife whom he loves, and not thee, and therefore
+do I give thy life to him.'
+
+Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do not think that
+I ever saw a man look more miserable than did Sir Henry at that moment.
+Somehow, Nyleptha's way of putting the thing, though true and forcible
+enough, was not altogether pleasant.
+
+'I understand,' stammered Curtis, looking at Good, 'I understood that he
+were attached--eh--attached to--to the Queen Sorais. I am--eh--not aware
+what the--in short, the state of your feelings may be just now; but if
+they happened to be that way inclined, it has struck me that--in short,
+it might put a satisfactory end to an unpleasant business. The lady also
+has ample private estates, where I am sure she would be at liberty to
+live unmolested as far as we are concerned, eh, Nyleptha? Of course, I
+only suggest.'
+
+'So far as I am concerned,' said Good, colouring up, 'I am quite willing
+to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinks me worth the
+taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes, and try to make her
+a good husband.'
+
+All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that same slow smile
+upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the first time that I ever
+saw her. She paused a little while, and cleared her throat, and then
+thrice she curtseyed low, once to Nyleptha, once to Curtis, and once to
+Good, and began to speak in measured tones.
+
+'I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for the
+loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especially in
+that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate as a gift
+to the Lord Incubu--the King that is to be. May prosperity, peace and
+plenty deck the life-path of one so merciful and so tender, even as
+flowers do. Long mayst thou reign, O great and glorious Queen, and hold
+thy husband's love in both thy hands, and many be the sons and daughters
+of thy beauty. And I thank thee, my Lord Incubu--the King that is to
+be--I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleased to
+accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on to thy comrade in arms
+and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan. Surely the act is worthy of thy
+greatness, my Lord Incubu. And now, lastly, I thank thee also, my Lord
+Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deigned to accept me and my poor beauty.
+I thank thee a thousand times, and I will add that thou art a good and
+honest man, and I put my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that
+I could say thee "yea". And now that I have rendered thanks to all in
+turn'--and again she smiled--'I will add one short word.
+
+'Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords, if ye
+know not that for me there is no middle path; that I scorn your pity and
+hate you for it; that I cast off your forgiveness as though it were a
+serpent's sting; and that standing here, betrayed, deserted, insulted,
+and alone, I yet triumph over you, mock you, and defy you, one and all,
+and _thus_ I answer you.' And then, of a sudden, before anybody guessed
+what she intended to do, she drove the little silver spear she carried
+in her hand into her side with such a strong and steady aim that the
+keen point projected through her back, and she fell prone upon the
+pavement.
+
+Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight, while the
+rest of us rushed towards her. But Sorais of the Night lifted herself
+upon her hand, and for a moment fixed her glorious eyes intently on
+Curtis' face, as though there were some message in the glance, then
+dropped her head and sighed, and with a sob her dark but splendid spirit
+passed.
+
+Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her.
+
+
+It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that a great
+ceremony was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis was formally declared
+King-Consort of Zu-Vendis. I was too ill to go myself; and indeed, I
+hate all that sort of thing, with the crowds and the trumpet-blowing and
+banner-waving; but Good, who was there (in his full-dress uniform), came
+back much impressed, and told me that Nyleptha had looked lovely, and
+Curtis had borne himself in a right royal fashion, and had been received
+with acclamations that left no doubt as to his popularity. Also he told
+me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the procession, the
+populace had shouted '_Macumazahn, Macumazahn!_' till they were hoarse,
+and would only be appeased when he, Good, rose in his chariot and told
+them that I was too ill to be present.
+
+Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me, looking
+very tired, and vowing that he had never been so bored in his life;
+but I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration. It is not in human
+nature that a man should be altogether bored on such an extraordinary
+occasion; and, indeed, as I pointed out to him, it was a marvellous
+thing that a man, who but little more than one short year before had
+entered a great country as an unknown wanderer, should today be
+married to its beautiful and beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst public
+rejoicings, to its throne. I even went the length to exhort him in the
+future not to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute
+power, but always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian
+gentleman, and next a public servant, called by Providence to a great
+and almost unprecedented trust. These remarks, which he might fairly
+have resented, he was so good as to receive with patience, and even to
+thank me for making them.
+
+It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to be moved
+to the house where I am now writing. It is a very pleasant country seat,
+situated about two miles from the Frowning City, on to which it looks.
+That was five months ago, during the whole of which time I have, being
+confined to a kind of couch, employed my leisure in compiling this
+history of our wanderings from my journal and from our joint memories.
+It is probable that it will never be read, but it does not much matter
+whether it is or not; at any rate, it has served to while away many
+hours of suffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain lately. Thank
+God, however, there will not be much more of it.
+
+
+It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my pen for the
+last time, for I know that the end is at hand. My brain is still clear
+and I can manage to write, though with difficulty. The pain in my lung,
+which has been very bad during the last week, has suddenly quite left
+me, and been succeeded by a feeling of numbness of which I cannot
+mistake the meaning. And just as the pain has gone, so with it all fear
+of that end has departed, and I feel only as though I were going to sink
+into the arms of an unutterable rest. Happily, contentedly, and with the
+same sense of security with which an infant lays itself to sleep in its
+mother's arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of the Angel Death. All
+the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which have haunted me through
+a life that seems long as I looked back upon it, have left me now; the
+storms have passed, and the Star of our Eternal Hope shines clear and
+steady on the horizon that seems so far from man, and yet is so very
+near to me tonight.
+
+And so this is the end of it--a brief space of troubling, a few
+restless, fevered, anguished years, and then the arms of that great
+Angel Death. Many times have I been near to them, and now it is my turn
+at last, and it is well. Twenty-four hours more and the world will be
+gone from me, and with it all its hopes and all its fears. The air will
+close in over the space that my form filled and my place know me no
+more; for the dull breath of the world's forgetfulness will first dim
+the brightness of my memory, and then blot it out for ever, and of a
+truth I shall be dead. So is it with us all. How many millions have lain
+as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!--thousands upon
+thousands of years ago they thought them, those dying men of the dim
+past; and thousands on thousands of years hence will their descendants
+think them and be in their turn forgotten. 'As the breath of the oxen
+in winter, as the quick star that runs along the sky, as a little shadow
+that loses itself at sunset,' as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi put
+it, such is the order of our life, the order that passeth away.
+
+Well, it is not a good world--nobody can say that it is, save those who
+wilfully blind themselves to facts. How can a world be good in which
+Money is the moving power, and Self-interest the guiding star? The
+wonder is not that it is so bad, but that there should be any good left
+in it.
+
+Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, glad to have
+known the dear breath of woman's love, and that true friendship which
+can even surpass the love of woman, glad to have heard the laughter of
+little children, to have seen the sun and the moon and the stars, to
+have felt the kiss of the salt sea on my face, and watched the wild game
+trek down to the water in the moonlight. But I should not wish to live
+again!
+
+Everything is changing to me. The darkness draws near, and the light
+departs. And yet it seems to me that through that darkness I can already
+see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face. Harry is there, and
+others; one above all, to my mind the sweetest and most perfect woman
+that ever gladdened this grey earth. But of her I have already written
+elsewhere, and at length, so why speak of her now? Why speak of her
+after this long silence, now that she is again so near to me, now that I
+go where she has gone?
+
+The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple to a
+fiery flame, and my fingers tire.
+
+So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can think one
+kindly thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand from the far-off
+shore and bid a long farewell.
+
+And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commit my
+spirit.
+
+'_I have spoken,_' as the Zulus say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV  BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+
+A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermain wrote the
+words '_I have spoken_' at the end of his record of our adventures. Nor
+should I have ventured to make any additions to the record had it not
+happened that by a most strange accident a chance has arisen of its
+being conveyed to England. The chance is but a faint one, it is true;
+but, as it is not probable that another will arise in our lifetimes,
+Good and myself think that we may as well avail ourselves of it, such as
+it is. During the last six months several Frontier Commissions have
+been at work on the various boundaries of Zu-Vendis, with a view of
+discovering whether there exists any possible means of ingress or egress
+from the country, with the result that a channel of communication with
+the outer world hitherto overlooked has been discovered. This channel,
+apparently the only one (for I have discovered that it was by it that
+the native who ultimately reached Mr Mackenzie's mission station,
+and whose arrival in the country, together with the fact of his
+expulsion--for he _did_ arrive about three years before ourselves--was
+for reasons of their own kept a dead secret by the priests to whom he
+was brought), is about to be effectually closed. But before this is
+done, a messenger is to be despatched bearing with him this manuscript,
+and also one or two letters from Good to his friends, and from myself to
+my brother George, whom it deeply grieves me to think I shall never see
+again, informing them, as our next heirs, that they are welcome to our
+effects in England, if the Court of Probate will allow them to take them
+{Endnote 22}, inasmuchas we have made up our minds never to return to
+Europe. Indeed, it would be impossible for us to leave Zu-Vendis even if
+we wished to do so.
+
+The messenger who is to go--and I wish him joy of his journey--is
+Alphonse. For a long while he has been wearied to death of Zu-Vendis
+and its inhabitants. 'Oh, oui, c'est beau,' he says, with an expressive
+shrug; 'mais je m'ennuie; ce n'est pas chic.' Again, he complains
+dreadfully of the absence of cafes and theatres, and moans continually
+for his lost Annette, of whom he says he dreams three times a week. But
+I fancy his secret cause of disgust at the country, putting aside the
+homesickness to which every Frenchman is subject, is that the people
+here laugh at him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of the
+great battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hid beneath
+a banner in Sorais's tent in order to avoid being sent forth to fight,
+which he says would have gone against his conscience. Even the little
+boys call out at him in the streets, thereby offending his pride and
+making his life unbearable. At any rate, he has determined to brave the
+horrors of a journey of almost unprecedented difficulty and danger, and
+also to run the risk of falling into the hands of the French police
+to answer for a certain little indiscretion of his own some years old
+(though I do not consider that a very serious matter), rather than
+remain in ce triste pays. Poor Alphonse! we shall be very sorry to part
+with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and also for the sake
+of this history, which is, I think, worth giving to the world, that he
+may arrive in safety. If he does, and can carry the treasure we have
+provided him with in the shape of bars of solid gold, he will be,
+comparatively speaking, a rich man for life, and well able to marry his
+Annette, if she is still in the land of the living and willing to marry
+her Alphonse.
+
+Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two to dear old
+Quatermain's narrative.
+
+He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote the last
+words of the last chapter. Nyleptha, Good and myself were present, and a
+most touching and yet in its way beautiful scene it was. An hour before
+the daybreak it became apparent to us that he was sinking, and our
+distress was very keen. Indeed, Good melted into tears at the idea--a
+fact that called forth a last gentle flicker of humour from our dying
+friend, for even at that hour he could be humorous. Good's emotion had,
+by loosening the muscles, naturally caused his eyeglass to fall from
+its accustomed place, and Quatermain, who always observed everything,
+observed this also.
+
+'At last,' he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, 'I have seen Good
+without his eyeglass.'
+
+After that he said no more till the day broke, when he asked to be
+lifted up to watch the rising of the sun for the last time.
+
+'In a very few minutes,' he said, after gazing earnestly at it, 'I shall
+have passed through those golden gates.'
+
+Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedly in the
+face.
+
+'I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together.
+Think of me sometimes,' he murmured. 'God bless you all. I shall wait
+for you.' And with a sigh he fell back dead.
+
+And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfection
+as any it has ever been my lot to encounter.
+
+Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualities that
+go to make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a man of action and
+a citizen of the world. I never knew any one so competent to form an
+accurate judgment of men and their motives. 'I have studied human nature
+all my life,' he would say, 'and I ought to know something about it,'
+and he certainly did. He had but two faults--one was his excessive
+modesty, and the other a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of
+anybody on whom he concentrated his affections. As regards the first of
+these points, anybody who reads what he has written will be able to form
+his own opinion; but I will add one last instance of it.
+
+As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trick of his to
+talk of himself as a timid man, whereas really, though very cautious,
+he possessed a most intrepid spirit, and, what is more, never lost his
+head. Well, in the great battle of the Pass, where he got the wound that
+finally killed him, one would imagine from the account which he gives
+of the occurrence that it was a chance blow that fell on him in the
+scrimmage. As a matter of fact, however, he was wounded in a most
+gallant and successful attempt to save Good's life, at the risk and, as
+it ultimately turned out, at the cost of his own. Good was down on the
+ground, and one of Nasta's highlanders was about to dispatch him, when
+Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form and received the blow
+on his own body, and then, rising, killed the soldier.
+
+As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justice to
+myself and Nyleptha will suffice. The reader will, perhaps, recollect
+that in one or two places he speaks as though Nyleptha monopolized me,
+and he was left by both of us rather out in the cold. Now Nyleptha is
+not perfect, any more than any other woman is, and she may be a little
+exigeante at times, but as regards Quatermain the whole thing is pure
+imagination. Thus when he complains about my not coming to see him when
+he is ill, the fact was that, in spite of my entreaties, the doctors
+positively forbade it. Those little remarks of his pained me very much
+when I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as though he were
+my own father, and should never have dreamed of allowing my marriage to
+interfere with that affection. But let it pass; it is, after all, but
+one little weakness, which makes no great show among so many and such
+lovable virtues.
+
+Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in the presence
+of Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, in deference to the
+popular clamour, accorded a great public funeral, or rather cremation. I
+could not help thinking, however, as I marched in that long and splendid
+procession up to the Temple, how he would have hated the whole thing
+could he have been there to see it, for he had a horror of ostentation.
+
+And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night after his death,
+they laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar, and waited for
+the last ray of the setting sun to fall upon his face. Presently it
+came, and struck him like a golden arrow, crowning the pale brows with
+glory, and then the trumpets blew, and the flooring revolved, and all
+that remained of our beloved friend fell into the furnace below.
+
+We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years. He was
+the ablest man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend, the finest
+sportsman, and, I believe, the best shot in all Africa.
+
+And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of Hunter
+Quatermain.
+
+
+Since then things have gone very well with us. Good has been, and still
+is, busily employed in the construction of a navy on Lake Milosis and
+another of the large lakes, by means of which we hope to be able to
+increase trade and commerce, and also to overcome some very troublesome
+and warlike sections of the population who live upon their borders. Poor
+fellow! he is beginning to get over the sad death of that misguided but
+most attractive woman, Sorais, but it is a sad blow to him, for he was
+really deeply attached to her. I hope, however, that he will in time
+make a suitable marriage and get that unhappy business out of his head.
+Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view, especially a daughter of
+Nasta's (who was a widower), a very fine imperial-looking girl, but with
+too much of her father's intriguing, and yet haughty, spirit to suit my
+taste.
+
+As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I set to work
+to describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed, and content
+myself with saying that, on the whole, I am getting on very well in my
+curious position of King-Consort--better, indeed, than I had any right
+to expect. But, of course, it is not all plain sailing, and I find the
+responsibilities very heavy. Still, I hope to be able to do some good in
+my time, and I intend to devote myself to two great ends--namely, to the
+consolidation of the various clans which together make up the Zu-Vendi
+people, under one strong central government, and to the sapping of the
+power of the priesthood. The first of these reforms will, if it can
+be carried out, put an end to the disastrous civil wars that have for
+centuries devastated this country; and the second, besides removing a
+source of political danger, will pave the road for the introduction of
+true religion in the place of this senseless Sun worship. I yet hope to
+see the shadow of the Cross of Christ lying on the golden dome of the
+Flower Temple; or, if I do not, that my successors may.
+
+There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, and that is
+the total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis. Not, indeed, that
+any more are ever likely to get here, but if they do, I warn them fairly
+that they will be shown the shortest way out of the country. I do not
+say this from any sense of inhospitality, but because I am convinced of
+the sacred duty that rests upon me of preserving to this, on the
+whole, upright and generous-hearted people the blessings of comparative
+barbarism. Where would all my brave army be if some enterprising rascal
+were to attack us with field-guns and Martini-Henrys? I cannot see that
+gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily newspapers, universal suffrage,
+etc., etc., have made mankind one whit the happier than they used to
+be, and I am certain that they have brought many evils in their train.
+I have no fancy for handing over this beautiful country to be torn and
+fought for by speculators, tourists, politicians and teachers, whose
+voice is as the voice of Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the
+valley of the underground river tore and fought for the body of the wild
+swan; nor will I endow it with the greed, drunkenness, new diseases,
+gunpowder, and general demoralization which chiefly mark the progress
+of civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples. If in due course it
+pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open to the world, that is another
+matter; but of myself I will not take the responsibility, and I may add
+that Good entirely approves of my decision. Farewell.
+
+Henry Curtis
+
+
+December 15, 18--.
+
+PS--I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha (who
+is very well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautiful than ever)
+presented me with a son and heir. He is a regular curly-haired,
+blue-eyed young Englishman in looks, and, though he is destined, if he
+lives, to inherit the throne of Zu-Vendis, I hope I may be able to bring
+him up to become what an English gentleman should be, and generally
+is--which is to my mind even a prouder and a finer thing than being
+born heir apparent to the great House of the Stairway, and, indeed, the
+highest rank that a man can reach upon this earth.
+
+H. C.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.
+
+
+
+The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting of my dear
+brother Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead, and bearing the
+Aden postmark, reached me in safety on December 20, 18--, or a little
+more than two years after it left his hands in the far centre of Africa,
+and I hasten to give the astonishing story it contains to the world.
+Speaking for myself, I have read it with very mixed feelings; for though
+it is a great relief to know that he and Good are alive and strangely
+prosperous, I cannot but feel that for me and for all their friends they
+might as well be dead, since we can never hope to see them more.
+
+They have cut themselves off from old England and from their homes and
+their relations for ever, and perhaps, under the circumstances, they
+were right and wise to do so.
+
+How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover; but
+I presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, that the little
+Frenchman, Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journey in safety. I
+have, however, advertised for him and caused various inquiries to
+be made in Marseilles and elsewhere with a view of discovering his
+whereabouts, but so far without the slightest success. Possibly he is
+dead, and the packet was posted by another hand; or possibly he is now
+happily wedded to his Annette, but still fears the vengeance of the law,
+and prefers to remain incognito. I cannot say, I have not yet abandoned
+my hopes of finding him, but I am bound to say that they grow fainter
+day by day, and one great obstacle to my search is that nowhere in
+the whole history does Mr Quatermain mention his surname. He is always
+spoken of as 'Alphonse', and there are so many Alphonses. The letters
+which my brother Henry says he is sending with the packet of manuscript
+have never arrived, so I presume that they are lost or destroyed.
+
+George Curtis
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his 'Quellen'.
+As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in the past,
+some reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge my
+indebtedness to Mr Thomson's admirable history of travel 'Through Masai
+Land' for much information as to the habits and customs of the tribes
+inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and the country where
+they live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard, RN, HBM's consul at
+Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu, for many details furnished by
+him of the mode of life and war of those engaging people the Masai; also
+to my sister-in-law, Mrs John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p.
+183 into rhyme for me; also to an extract in a review from some book of
+travel of which I cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea of
+the great crabs in the valley of the subterranean river. {Endnote 23}
+But if I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritated projected
+their eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that I was not able to
+'plagiarize' this effect, but I felt that, although crabs may, and
+doubtless do, behave thus in real life, in romance they 'will not do
+so.'
+
+There is an underground river in 'Peter Wilkins', but at the time of
+writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaint but entertaining
+work.
+
+It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similarity between the
+scene of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with his axe and a scene in
+Far from the Madding Crowd. I regret this coincidence, and believe that
+the talented author of that work will not be inclined to accuse me of
+literary immorality on its account.
+
+Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain's little Frenchman appears to
+belong to the same class of beings as those English ladies whose long
+yellow teeth and feet of enormous size excite our hearty amusement in
+the pages of the illustrated Gallic press.
+
+The Writer of 'Allan Quatermain'
+
+
+Endnote 1
+
+Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a species of
+black gum twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliant black,
+when he has reached a certain dignity and age, or is the husband of a
+sufficient number of wives. Till he is in a position to wear a ring he
+is looked on as a boy, though he may be thirty-five years of age, or
+even more.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 2
+
+One of the fleetest of the African antelopes.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 3
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a dead foe. They
+have a superstition that, if this is not done, as the body of their
+enemy swells up so will the bodies of those who killed him swell up.--A.
+Q.
+
+
+Endnote 4
+
+No doubt this owl was a wingless bird. I afterwards learnt that the
+hooting of an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 5
+
+Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords, but
+have never been able to discover how the gold plates were inlaid in the
+fretwork. The armourers who make them in Zu-vendis bind themselves by
+oath not to reveal the secret.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 6
+
+The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so all the
+booty they may win in battle belongs to their fathers alone.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 7
+
+As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas's Zulu names was the
+'Woodpecker'. I could never make out why he was called so until I
+saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at once recognized the
+resemblance.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 8
+
+By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr Quatermain, the
+Masai have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and his wife--Mr and
+Mrs Houghton--on this very Tana River, and at the spot described. These
+are, I believe, the first white people who are known to have fallen
+victims to this cruel tribe.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 9
+
+Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes--Pleasure sat at the helm.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 10
+
+Where Alph the sacred river ran
+Through caverns measureless to man
+Down to a sunless sea
+
+
+Endnote 11
+
+Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is common for
+animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beasts they adore.
+See Herodotus, ii. 45.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 12
+
+There is another theory which might account for the origin of the
+Zu-Vendi which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr Quatermain
+and his companions, and that is, that they are descendants of the
+Phoenicians. The cradle of the Phoenician race is supposed to have
+been on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Thence, as there is
+good evidence to show, they emigrated in two streams, one of which took
+possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is supposed by
+savants to have immigrated down the coast of Eastern Africa where,
+near Mozambique, signs and remains of their occupation are not wanting.
+Indeed, it would have been very extraordinary if they did not, when
+leaving the Persian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that
+the north-east monsoon blows for six months in the year dead in that
+direction, while for the other six months it blows back again. And, by
+the way of illustrating the probability, I may add that to this day a
+very extensive trade is carried on between the Persian Gulf and Lamu and
+other East African ports as far south as Madagascar, which is of course
+the ancient Ebony Isle of the 'Arabian Nights'.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 13
+
+There are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet (see Appendix,
+Maspero's Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient, p. 746, etc.)
+Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives us no specimen of the Zu-Vendi
+writing, but what he here states seems to go a long way towards
+substantiating the theory advanced in the note on p. 149.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 14
+
+These are internal measurements.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 15
+
+Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of the dome
+and in the roof.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 16
+
+This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions to be found
+in the Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independent of the
+material splendour of the orb they worship. 'Taia', the word used
+here, has a very indeterminate meaning, and signifies essence, vital
+principle, spirit, or even God.
+
+
+Endnote 17
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 18
+
+In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married by the High
+Priest or a formally appointed deputy.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 19
+
+Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers on a framework
+of spears.
+
+
+Endnote 20
+
+The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 21
+
+Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught the light some
+time before the breaking of the dawn.--A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 22
+
+Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of the sort.--Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 23
+
+It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the "Falcon", with
+which work I am personally unacquainted.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
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diff --git a/old/allnq11.txt b/old/allnq11.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
+#1 in our series by H. Rider Haggard
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Allan Quatermain
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: November, 1996 [EBook #711]
+[This file was last updated on May 11, 2004]
+
+Edition: 11
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN QUATERMAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Typed by Ng E-Ching, Singapore <e-ching@geocities.com>
+
+
+
+
+
+I inscribe this book of adventure to my son ARTHUR JOHN RIDER
+HAGGARD in the hope that in days to come he, and many other
+boys whom I shall never know, may, in the acts and thoughts of
+Allan Quatermain and his companions, as herein recorded,
+find something to help him and them to reach to what, with Sir
+Henry Curtis, I hold to be the highest rank whereto we can
+attain -- the state and dignity of English gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+       INTRODUCTION
+I      THE CONSUL'S YARN
+II     THE BLACK HAND
+III    THE MISSION STATION
+IV     ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+V      UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+VI     THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+VII    A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+VIII   ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+IX     INTO THE UNKNOWN
+X      THE ROSE OF FIRE
+XI     THE FROWNING CITY
+XII    THE SISTER QUEENS
+XIII   ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+XIV    THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+XV     SORAIS' SONG
+XVI    BEFORE THE STATUE
+XVII   THE STORM BREAKS
+XVIII  WAR! RED WAR!
+XIX    A STRANGE WEDDING
+XX     THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+XXI    AWAY! AWAY!
+XXII   HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+XXIII  I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+December 23
+
+'I have just buried my boy, my poor handsome boy of whom I was
+so proud, and my heart is broken.  It is very hard having only
+one son to lose him thus, but God's will be done.  Who am I that
+I should complain?  The great wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut,
+and crushes us all in turn, some soon, some late -- it does not
+matter when, in the end, it crushes us all.  We do not prostrate
+ourselves before it like the poor Indians; we fly hither and
+thither -- we cry for mercy; but it is of no use, the black Fate
+thunders on and in its season reduces us to powder.
+
+'Poor Harry to go so soon! just when his life was opening to
+him.  He was doing so well at the hospital, he had passed his
+last examination with honours, and I was proud of them, much
+prouder than he was, I think.  And then he must needs go to that
+smallpox hospital.  He wrote to me that he was not afraid of
+smallpox and wanted to gain the experience; and now the disease
+has killed him, and I, old and grey and withered, am left to
+mourn over him, without a chick or child to comfort me.  I might
+have saved him, too -- I have money enough for both of us, and
+much more than enough -- King Solomon's Mines provided me with
+that; but I said, "No, let the boy earn his living, let him labour
+that he may enjoy rest."  But the rest has come to him before
+the labour.  Oh, my boy, my boy!
+
+'I am like the man in the Bible who laid up much goods and builded
+barns -- goods for my boy and barns for him to store them in;
+and now his soul has been required of him, and I am left desolate.
+I would that it had been my soul and not my boy's!
+
+'We buried him this afternoon under the shadow of the grey and
+ancient tower of the church of this village where my house is.
+It was a dreary December afternoon, and the sky was heavy with
+snow, but not much was falling.  The coffin was put down by the
+grave, and a few big flakes lit upon it.  They looked very white
+upon the black cloth!  There was a little hitch about getting
+the coffin down into the grave -- the necessary ropes had been
+forgotten: so we drew back from it, and waited in silence watching
+the big flakes fall gently one by one like heavenly benedictions,
+and melt in tears on Harry's pall.  But that was not all.  A
+robin redbreast came as bold as could be and lit upon the coffin
+and began to sing.  And then I am afraid that I broke down, and
+so did Sir Henry Curtis, strong man though he is; and as for
+Captain Good, I saw him turn away too; even in my own distress
+I could not help noticing it.'
+
+
+The above, signed 'Allan Quatermain', is an extract from my diary
+written two years and more ago.  I copy it down here because
+it seems to me that it is the fittest beginning to the history
+that I am about to write, if it please God to spare me to finish
+it.  If not, well it does not matter.  That extract was penned
+seven thousand miles or so from the spot where I now lie painfully
+and slowly writing this, with a pretty girl standing by my side
+fanning the flies from my august countenance.  Harry is there
+and I am here, and yet somehow I cannot help feeling that I am
+not far off Harry.
+
+When I was in England I used to live in a very fine house --
+at least I call it a fine house, speaking comparatively, and
+judging from the standard of the houses I have been accustomed
+to all my life in Africa -- not five hundred yards from the old
+church where Harry is asleep, and thither I went after the funeral
+and ate some food; for it is no good starving even if one has
+just buried all one's earthly hopes.  But I could not eat much,
+and soon I took to walking, or rather limping -- being permanently
+lame from the bite of a lion -- up and down, up and down the
+oak-panelled vestibule; for there is a vestibule in my house
+in England.  On all the four walls of this vestibule were placed
+pairs of horns -- about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which
+I had shot myself.  They are beautiful specimens, as I never
+keep any horns which are not in every way perfect, unless it
+may be now and again on account of the associations connected
+with them.  In the centre of the room, however, over the wide
+fireplace, there was a clear space left on which I had fixed
+up all my rifles.  Some of them I have had for forty years, old
+muzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays.  One was an
+elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed round
+the stock and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen
+-- a 'roer' they call it.  That gun, the Boer I bought it from
+many years ago told me, had been used by his father at the battle
+of the Blood River, just after Dingaan swept into Natal and slaughtered
+six hundred men, women, and children, so that the Boers named
+the place where they died 'Weenen', or the 'Place of Weeping';
+and so it is called to this day, and always will be called.
+And many an elephant have I shot with that old gun.  She always
+took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce ball, and kicked
+like the very deuce.
+
+Well, up and down I walked, staring at the guns and the horns
+which the guns had brought low; and as I did so there rose up
+in me a great craving:  -- I would go away from this place where
+I lived idly and at ease, back again to the wild land where I
+had spent my life, where I met my dear wife and poor Harry was
+born, and so many things, good, bad, and indifferent, had happened
+to me.  The thirst for the wilderness was on me; I could tolerate
+this place no more; I would go and die as I had lived, among
+the wild game and the savages.  Yes, as I walked, I began to
+long to see the moonlight gleaming silvery white over the wide
+veldt and mysterious sea of bush, and watch the lines of game
+travelling down the ridges to the water.  The ruling passion
+is strong in death, they say, and my heart was dead that night.
+But, independently of my trouble, no man who has for forty years
+lived the life I have, can with impunity go coop himself in this
+prim English country, with its trim hedgerows and cultivated
+fields, its stiff formal manners, and its well-dressed crowds.
+He begins to long -- ah, how he longs! -- for the keen breath
+of the desert air; he dreams of the sight of Zulu impis breaking
+on their foes like surf upon the rocks, and his heart rises up
+in rebellion against the strict limits of the civilized life.
+
+Ah! this civilization, what does it all come to?  For forty years
+and more I lived among savages, and studied them and their ways;
+and now for several years I have lived here in England, and have
+in my own stupid manner done my best to learn the ways of the
+children of light; and what have I found?  A great gulf fixed?
+No, only a very little one, that a plain man's thought may spring
+across.  I say that as the savage is, so is the white man, only
+the latter is more inventive, and possesses the faculty of combination;
+save and except also that the savage, as I have known him, is
+to a large extent free from the greed of money, which eats like
+a cancer into the heart of the white man.  It is a depressing
+conclusion, but in all essentials the savage and the child of
+civilization are identical.  I dare say that the highly civilized
+lady reading this will smile at an old fool of a hunter's simplicity
+when she thinks of her black bead-bedecked sister; and so will
+the superfine cultured idler scientifically eating a dinner at
+his club, the cost of which would keep a starving family for
+a week.  And yet, my dear young lady, what are those pretty things
+round your own neck? -- they have a strong family resemblance,
+especially when you wear that _very_ low dress, to the savage woman's
+beads.  Your habit of turning round and round to the sound of
+horns and tom-toms, your fondness for pigments and powders, the
+way in which you love to subjugate yourself to the rich warrior
+who has captured you in marriage, and the quickness with which
+your taste in feathered head-dresses varies -- all these things
+suggest touches of kinship; and you remember that in the fundamental
+principles of your nature you are quite identical.  As for you,
+sir, who also laugh, let some man come and strike you in the
+face whilst you are enjoying that marvellous-looking dish, and
+we shall soon see how much of the savage there is in _you_.
+
+There, I might go on for ever, but what is the good?  Civilization
+is only savagery silver-gilt.  A vainglory is it, and like a
+northern light, comes but to fade and leave the sky more dark.
+Out of the soil of barbarism it has grown like a tree, and,
+as I believe, into the soil like a tree it will once more, sooner
+or later, fall again, as the Egyptian civilization fell, as the
+Hellenic civilization fell, and as the Roman civilization and
+many others of which the world has now lost count, fell also.
+Do not let me, however, be understood as decrying our modern
+institutions, representing as they do the gathered experience
+of humanity applied for the good of all.  Of course they have
+great advantages -- hospitals for instance; but then, remember,
+we breed the sickly people who fill them.  In a savage land they
+do not exist.  Besides, the question will arise: How many of
+these blessings are due to Christianity as distinct from civilization?
+And so the balance sways and the story runs -- here a gain,
+there a loss, and Nature's great average struck across the two,
+whereof the sum total forms one of the factors in that mighty
+equation in which the result will equal the unknown quantity
+of her purpose.
+
+I make no apology for this digression, especially as this is
+an introduction which all young people and those who never like
+to think (and it is a bad habit) will naturally skip.  It seems
+to me very desirable that we should sometimes try to understand
+the limitations of our nature, so that we may not be carried
+away by the pride of knowledge.  Man's cleverness is almost indefinite,
+and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is like
+an iron ring.  You can go round and round it, you can polish
+it highly, you can even flatten it a little on one side, whereby
+you will make it bulge out the other, but you will _never_, while
+the world endures and man is man, increase its total circumference.
+It is the one fixed unchangeable thing -- fixed as the stars,
+more enduring than the mountains, as unalterable as the way of
+the Eternal.  Human nature is God's kaleidoscope, and the little
+bits of coloured glass which represent our passions, hopes, fears,
+joys, aspirations towards good and evil and what not, are turned
+in His mighty hand as surely and as certainly as it turns the
+stars, and continually fall into new patterns and combinations.
+But the composing elements remain the same, nor will there be
+one more bit of coloured glass nor one less for ever and ever.
+
+This being so, supposing for the sake of argument we divide ourselves
+into twenty parts, nineteen savage and one civilized, we must
+look to the nineteen savage portions of our nature, if we would
+really understand ourselves, and not to the twentieth, which,
+though so insignificant in reality, is spread all over the other
+nineteen, making them appear quite different from what they really
+are, as the blacking does a boot, or the veneer a table.  It
+is on the nineteen rough serviceable savage portions that we
+fall back on emergencies, not on the polished but unsubstantial
+twentieth.  Civilization should wipe away our tears, and yet
+we weep and cannot be comforted.  Warfare is abhorrent to her,
+and yet we strike out for hearth and home, for honour and fair
+fame, and can glory in the blow.  And so on, through everything.
+
+So, when the heart is stricken, and the head is humbled in the
+dust, civilization fails us utterly.  Back, back, we creep, and
+lay us like little children on the great breast of Nature, she
+that perchance may soothe us and make us forget, or at least
+rid remembrance of its sting.  Who has not in his great grief
+felt a longing to look upon the outward features of the universal
+Mother; to lie on the mountains and watch the clouds drive across
+the sky and hear the rollers break in thunder on the shore, to
+let his poor struggling life mingle for a while in her life;
+to feel the slow beat of her eternal heart, and to forget his
+woes, and let his identity be swallowed in the vast imperceptibly
+moving energy of her of whom we are, from whom we came, and with
+whom we shall again be mingled, who gave us birth, and will in
+a day to come give us our burial also.
+
+And so in my trouble, as I walked up and down the oak-panelled
+vestibule of my house there in Yorkshire, I longed once more
+to throw myself into the arms of Nature.  Not the Nature which
+you know, the Nature that waves in well-kept woods and smiles
+out in corn-fields, but Nature as she was in the age when creation
+was complete, undefiled as yet by any human sinks of sweltering
+humanity.  I would go again where the wild game was, back to
+the land whereof none know the history, back to the savages,
+whom I love, although some of them are almost as merciless as
+Political Economy.  There, perhaps, I should be able to learn
+to think of poor Harry lying in the churchyard, without feeling
+as though my heart would break in two.
+
+And now there is an end of this egotistical talk, and there shall
+be no more of it.  But if you whose eyes may perchance one day
+fall upon my written thoughts have got so far as this, I ask
+you to persevere, since what I have to tell you is not without
+its interest, and it has never been told before, nor will again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+THE CONSUL'S YARN
+
+
+A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and
+one evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking,
+when there was a ring at the outer door.  Going down the steps
+I opened it myself, and in came my old friends Sir Henry Curtis
+and Captain John Good, RN.  They entered the vestibule and sat
+themselves down before the wide hearth, where, I remember, a
+particularly good fire of logs was burning.
+
+'It is very kind of you to come round,' I said by way of making
+a remark; 'it must have been heavy walking in the snow.'
+
+They said nothing, but Sir Henry slowly filled his pipe and lit
+it with a burning ember.  As he leant forward to do so the fire
+got hold of a gassy bit of pine and flared up brightly, throwing
+the whole scene into strong relief, and I thought, What a splendid-looking
+man he is!  Calm, powerful face, clear-cut features, large grey
+eyes, yellow beard and hair -- altogether a magnificent specimen
+of the higher type of humanity.  Nor did his form belie his face.
+I have never seen wider shoulders or a deeper chest.  Indeed,
+Sir Henry's girth is so great that, though he is six feet two
+high, he does not strike one as a tall man.  As I looked at him
+I could not help thinking what a curious contrast my little dried-up
+self presented to his grand face and form.  Imagine to yourself
+a small, withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three, with thin
+hands, large brown eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and
+standing up like a half-worn scrubbing-brush -- total weight
+in my clothes, nine stone six -- and you will get a very fair
+idea of Allan Quatermain, commonly called Hunter Quatermain,
+or by the natives 'Macumazahn' -- Anglic/CHAR: e grave/, he who
+keeps a bright look-out at night, or, in vulgar English, a sharp
+fellow who is not to be taken in.
+
+Then there was Good, who is not like either of us, being short,
+dark, stout -- _very_ stout -- with twinkling black eyes, in one
+of which an eyeglass is everlastingly fixed.  I say stout, but
+it is a mild term; I regret to state that of late years Good
+has been running to fat in a most disgraceful way.  Sir Henry
+tells him that it comes from idleness and over-feeding, and
+Good does not like it at all, though he cannot deny it.
+
+We sat for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that
+stood ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary,
+as it is apt to do when one has a short week ago buried the hope
+of one's life.  Next, I opened a cupboard in the wainscoting
+and got a bottle of whisky and some tumblers and water.  I always
+like to do these things for myself: it is irritating to me to
+have somebody continually at my elbow, as though I were an
+eighteen-month-old baby.  All this while Curtis and Good had
+been silent, feeling, I suppose, that they had nothing to say
+that could do me any good, and content to give me the comfort
+of their presence and unspoken sympathy; for it was only their
+second visit since the funeral.  And it is, by the way, from
+the _presence_ of others that we really derive support in our dark
+hours of grief, and not from their talk, which often only serves
+to irritate us.  Before a bad storm the game always herd together,
+but they cease their calling.
+
+They sat and smoked and drank whisky and water, and I stood by
+the fire also smoking and looking at them.
+
+At last I spoke.  'Old friends,' I said, 'how long is it since
+we got back from Kukuanaland?'
+
+'Three years,' said Good.  'Why do you ask?'
+
+'I ask because I think that I have had a long enough spell of
+civilization.  I am going back to the veldt.'
+
+Sir Henry laid his head back in his arm-chair and laughed one
+of his deep laughs.  'How very odd,' he said, 'eh, Good?'
+
+Good beamed at me mysteriously through his eyeglass and murmured,
+'Yes, odd -- very odd.'
+
+'I don't quite understand,' said I, looking from one to the other,
+for I dislike mysteries.
+
+'Don't you, old fellow?' said Sir Henry; 'then I will explain.
+As Good and I were walking up here we had a talk.'
+
+'If Good was there you probably did,' I put in sarcastically,
+for Good is a great hand at talking.  'And what may it have been about?'
+
+'What do you think?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+I shook my head.  It was not likely that I should know what Good
+might be talking about.  He talks about so many things.
+
+'Well, it was about a little plan that I have formed -- namely,
+that if you were willing we should pack up our traps and go off
+to Africa on another expedition.'
+
+I fairly jumped at his words.  'You don't say so!' I said.
+
+'Yes I do, though, and so does Good; don't you, Good?'
+
+'Rather,' said that gentleman.
+
+'Listen, old fellow,' went on Sir Henry, with considerable animation
+of manner.  'I'm tired of it too, dead-tired of doing nothing
+more except play the squire in a country that is sick of squires.
+For a year or more I have been getting as restless as an old
+elephant who scents danger.  I am always dreaming of Kukuanaland
+and Gagool and King Solomon's Mines.  I can assure you I have
+become the victim of an almost unaccountable craving.  I am sick
+of shooting pheasants and partridges, and want to have a go at
+some large game again.  There, you know the feeling -- when one
+has once tasted brandy and water, milk becomes insipid to the
+palate.  That year we spent together up in Kukuanaland seems
+to me worth all the other years of my life put together.  I dare
+say that I am a fool for my pains, but I can't help it; I long
+to go, and, what is more, I mean to go.'  He paused, and then
+went on again.  'And, after all, why should I not go?  I have
+no wife or parent, no chick or child to keep me.  If anything
+happens to me the baronetcy will go to my brother George and
+his boy, as it would ultimately do in any case.  I am of no importance
+to any one.'
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'I thought you would come to that sooner or later.
+And now, Good, what is your reason for wanting to trek; have
+you got one?'
+
+'I have,' said Good, solemnly.  'I never do anything without
+a reason; and it isn't a lady -- at least, if it is, it's several.'
+
+I looked at him again.  Good is so overpoweringly frivolous.
+'What is it?' I said.
+
+'Well, if you really want to know, though I'd rather not speak
+of a delicate and strictly personal matter, I'll tell you: I'm
+getting too fat.'
+
+'Shut up, Good!' said Sir Henry.  'And now, Quatermain, tell
+us, where do you propose going to?'
+
+I lit my pipe, which had gone out, before answering.
+
+'Have you people ever heard of Mt Kenia?' I asked.
+
+'Don't know the place,' said Good.
+
+'Did you ever hear of the Island of Lamu?' I asked again.
+
+'No.  Stop, though -- isn't it a place about 300 miles north of Zanzibar?'
+
+'Yes.  Now listen.  What I have to propose is this.  That we
+go to Lamu and thence make our way about 250 miles inland to
+Mt Kenia; from Mt Kenia on inland to Mt Lekakisera, another 200
+miles, or thereabouts, beyond which no white man has to the best
+of my belief ever been; and then, if we get so far, right on
+into the unknown interior.  What do you say to that, my hearties?'
+
+'It's a big order,' said Sir Henry, reflectively.
+
+'You are right,' I answered, 'it is; but I take it that we are
+all three of us in search of a big order.  We want a change of
+scene, and we are likely to get one -- a thorough change.  All
+my life I have longed to visit those parts, and I mean to do
+it before I die.  My poor boy's death has broken the last link
+between me and civilization, and I'm off to my native wilds.
+And now I'll tell you another thing, and that is, that for years
+and years I have heard rumours of a great white race which is
+supposed to have its home somewhere up in this direction, and
+I have a mind to see if there is any truth in them.  If you fellows
+like to come, well and good; if not, I'll go alone.'
+
+'I'm your man, though I don't believe in your white race,' said
+Sir Henry Curtis, rising and placing his arm upon my shoulder.
+
+'Ditto,' remarked Good.  'I'll go into training at once.  By
+all means let's go to Mt Kenia and the other place with an
+unpronounceable name, and look for a white race that does not exist.
+It's all one to me.'
+
+'When do you propose to start?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'This day month,' I answered, 'by the British India steamboat;
+and don't you be so certain that things have no existence because
+you do not happen to have heard of them.  Remember King Solomon's mines!'
+
+
+Some fourteen weeks or so had passed since the date of this conversation,
+and this history goes on its way in very different surroundings.
+
+After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion
+that our best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood
+of the mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place
+over 100 miles nearer Zanzibar.  This conclusion we arrived at
+from information given to us by a German trader whom we met upon
+the steamer at Aden.  I think that he was the dirtiest German
+I ever knew; but he was a good fellow, and gave us a great deal
+of valuable information.  'Lamu,' said he, 'you goes to Lamu
+-- oh ze beautiful place!' and he turned up his fat face and
+beamed with mild rapture.  'One year and a half I live there
+and never change my shirt -- never at all.'
+
+And so it came to pass that on arriving at the island we disembarked
+with all our goods and chattels, and, not knowing where to go,
+marched boldly up to the house of Her Majesty's Consul, where
+we were most hospitably received.
+
+Lamu is a very curious place, but the things which stand out
+most clearly in my memory in connection with it are its exceeding
+dirtiness and its smells.  These last are simply awful.  Just
+below the Consulate is the beach, or rather a mud bank that is
+called a beach.  It is left quite bare at low tide, and serves
+as a repository for all the filth, offal, and refuse of the town.
+Here it is, too, that the women come to bury coconuts in the
+mud, leaving them there till the outer husk is quite rotten,
+when they dig them up again and use the fibres to make mats with,
+and for various other purposes.  As this process has been going
+on for generations, the condition of the shore can be better
+imagined than described.  I have smelt many evil odours in the
+course of my life, but the concentrated essence of stench which
+arose from that beach at Lamu as we sat in the moonlit night
+-- not under, but _on_ our friend the Consul's hospitable roof
+-- and sniffed it, makes the remembrance of them very poor and
+faint.  No wonder people get fever at Lamu.  And yet the place
+was not without a certain quaintness and charm of its own, though
+possibly -- indeed probably -- it was one which would quickly
+pall.
+
+'Well, where are you gentlemen steering for?' asked our friend
+the hospitable Consul, as we smoked our pipes after dinner.
+
+'We propose to go to Mt Kenia and then on to Mt Lekakisera,'
+answered Sir Henry.  'Quatermain has got hold of some yarn about
+there being a white race up in the unknown territories beyond.'
+
+The Consul looked interested, and answered that he had heard
+something of that, too.
+
+'What have you heard?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, not much.  All I know about it is that a year or so ago
+I got a letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station,
+"The Highlands", is placed at the highest navigable point of
+the Tana River, in which he said something about it.'
+
+'Have you the letter?' I asked.
+
+'No, I destroyed it; but I remember that he said that a man had
+arrived at his station who declared that two months' journey
+beyond Mt Lekakisera, which no white man has yet visited -- at
+least, so far as I know -- he found a lake called Laga, and that
+then he went off to the north-east, a month's journey, over desert
+and thorn veldt and great mountains, till he came to a country
+where the people are white and live in stone houses.  Here he
+was hospitably entertained for a while, till at last the priests
+of the country set it about that he was a devil, and the people
+drove him away, and he journeyed for eight months and reached
+Mackenzie's place, as I heard, dying.  That's all I know; and
+if you ask me, I believe that it is a lie; but if you want to
+find out more about it, you had better go up the Tana to Mackenzie's
+place and ask him for information.'
+
+Sir Henry and I looked at each other.  Here was something tangible.
+
+'I think that we will go to Mr Mackenzie's,' I said.
+
+'Well,' answered the Consul, 'that is your best way, but I warn
+you that you are likely to have a rough journey, for I hear that
+the Masai are about, and, as you know, they are not pleasant
+customers.  Your best plan will be to choose a few picked men
+for personal servants and hunters, and to hire bearers from village
+to village.  It will give you an infinity of trouble, but perhaps
+on the whole it will prove a cheaper and more advantageous course
+than engaging a caravan, and you will be less liable to desertion.'
+
+Fortunately there were at Lamu at this time a part of Wakwafi
+Askari (soldiers).  The Wakwafi, who are a cross between the
+Masai and the Wataveta, are a fine manly race, possessing many
+of the good qualities of the Zulu, and a great capacity for civilization.
+They are also great hunters.  As it happened, these particular
+men had recently been on a long trip with an Englishman named
+Jutson, who had started from Mombasa, a port about 150 miles
+below Lamu, and journeyed right rough Kilimanjaro, one of the
+highest known mountains in Africa.  Poor fellow, he had died
+of fever when on his return journey, and within a day's march
+of Mombasa.  It does seem hard that he should have gone off thus
+when within a few hours of safety, and after having survived
+so many perils, but so it was.  His hunters buried him, and then
+came on to Lamu in a dhow.  Our friend the Consul suggested to
+us that we had better try and hire these men, and accordingly
+on the following morning we started to interview the party,
+accompanied by an interpreter.
+
+In due course we found them in a mud hut on the outskirts of
+the town.  Three of the men were sitting outside the hut, and
+fine frank-looking fellows they were, having a more or less civilized
+appearance.  To them we cautiously opened the object of our visit,
+at first with very scant success.  They declared that they could
+not entertain any such idea, that they were worn and weary with
+long travelling, and that their hearts were sore at the loss
+of their master.  They meant to go back to their homes and rest
+awhile.  This did not sound very promising, so by way of effecting
+a diversion I asked where the remainder of them were.  I was
+told there were six, and I saw but three.  One of the men said
+they slept in the hut, and were yet resting after their labours
+-- 'sleep weighed down their eyelids, and sorrow made their hearts
+as lead: it was best to sleep, for with sleep came forgetfulness.
+But the men should be awakened.'
+
+Presently they came out of the hut, yawning -- the first two
+men being evidently of the same race and style as those already
+before us; but the appearance of the third and last nearly made
+me jump out of my skin.  He was a very tall, broad man, quite
+six foot three, I should say, but gaunt, with lean, wiry-looking
+limbs.  My first glance at him told me that he was no Wakwafi:
+he was a pure bred Zulu.  He came out with his thin aristocratic-looking
+hand placed before his face to hide a yawn, so I could only see
+that he was a 'Keshla' or ringed man {Endnote 1}, and that he
+had a great three-cornered hole in his forehead.  In another
+second he removed his hand, revealing a powerful-looking Zulu
+face, with a humorous mouth, a short woolly beard, tinged with
+grey, and a pair of brown eyes keen as a hawk's.  I knew my man
+at once, although I had not seen him for twelve years.  'How
+do you do, Umslopogaas?' I said quietly in Zulu.
+
+The tall man (who among his own people was commonly known as
+the 'Woodpecker', and also as the 'Slaughterer') started, and
+almost let the long-handled battleaxe he held in his hand fall
+in his astonishment.  Next second he had recognized me, and was
+saluting me in an outburst of sonorous language which made his
+companions the Wakwafi stare.
+
+'Koos' (chief), he began, 'Koos-y-Pagete!  Koos-y-umcool!  (Chief
+from of old -- mighty chief)  Koos!  Baba!  (father)  Macumazahn,
+old hunter, slayer of elephants, eater up of lions, clever one!
+watchful one! brave one! quick one! whose shot never misses,
+who strikes straight home, who grasps a hand and holds it to
+the death (i.e. is a true friend) Koos!  Baba!  Wise is the voice
+of our people that says, "Mountain never meets with mountain,
+but at daybreak or at even man shall meet again with man."  Behold!
+a messenger came up from Natal, "Macumazahn is dead!" cried he.
+"The land knows Macumazahn no more."  That is years ago.  And
+now, behold, now in this strange place of stinks I find Macumazahn,
+my friend.  There is no room for doubt.  The brush of the old
+jackal has gone a little grey; but is not his eye as keen, and
+are not his teeth as sharp?  Ha! ha! Macumazahn, mindest thou
+how thou didst plant the ball in the eye of the charging buffalo
+-- mindest thou --'
+
+I had let him run on thus because I saw that his enthusiasm was
+producing a marked effect upon the minds of the five Wakwafi,
+who appeared to understand something of his talk; but now I thought
+it time to put a stop to it, for there is nothing that I hate
+so much as this Zulu system of extravagant praising -- 'bongering'
+as they call it.  'Silence!' I said.  'Has all thy noisy talk
+been stopped up since last I saw thee that it breaks out thus,
+and sweeps us away?  What doest thou here with these men -- thou
+whom I left a chief in Zululand?  How is it that thou art far
+from thine own place, and gathered together with strangers?'
+
+Umslopogaas leant himself upon the head of his long battleaxe
+(which was nothing else but a pole-axe, with a beautiful handle
+of rhinoceros horn), and his grim face grew sad.
+
+'My Father,' he answered, 'I have a word to tell thee, but I
+cannot speak it before these low people (umfagozana),' and he
+glanced at the Wakwafi Askari; 'it is for thine own ear.  My
+Father, this will I say,' and here his face grew stern again,
+'a woman betrayed me to the death, and covered my name with shame
+-- ay, my own wife, a round-faced girl, betrayed me; but I escaped
+from death; ay, I broke from the very hands of those who came
+to slay me.  I struck but three blows with this mine axe Inkosikaas
+-- surely my Father will remember it -- one to the right, one
+to the left, and one in front, and yet I left three men dead.
+And then I fled, and, as my Father knows, even now that I am
+old my feet are as the feet of the Sassaby {Endnote 2}, and there
+breathes not the man who, by running, can touch me again when
+once I have bounded from his side.  On I sped, and after me came
+the messengers of death, and their voice was as the voice of
+dogs that hunt.  From my own kraal I flew, and, as I passed,
+she who had betrayed me was drawing water from the spring.  I
+fleeted by her like the shadow of Death, and as I went I smote
+with mine axe, and lo! her head fell: it fell into the water
+pan.  Then I fled north.  Day after day I journeyed on; for three
+moons I journeyed, resting not, stopping not, but running on
+towards forgetfulness, till I met the party of the white hunter
+who is now dead, and am come hither with his servants.  And nought
+have I brought with me.  I who was high-born, ay, of the blood
+of Chaka, the great king -- a chief, and a captain of the regiment
+of the Nkomabakosi -- am a wanderer in strange places, a man
+without a kraal.  Nought have I brought save this mine axe; of
+all my belongings this remains alone.  They have divided my cattle;
+they have taken my wives; and my children know my face no more.
+Yet with this axe' -- and he swung the formidable weapon round
+his head, making the air hiss as he clove it -- 'will I cut another
+path to fortune.  I have spoken.'
+
+I shook my head at him.  'Umslopogaas,' I said, 'I know thee
+from of old.  Ever ambitious, ever plotting to be great, I fear
+me that thou hast overreached thyself at last.  Years ago, when
+thou wouldst have plotted against Cetywayo, son of Panda, I warned
+thee, and thou didst listen.  But now, when I was not by thee
+to stay thy hand, thou hast dug a pit for thine own feet to fall
+in.  Is it not so?  But what is done is done.  Who can make the
+dead tree green, or gaze again upon last year's light?  Who can
+recall the spoken word, or bring back the spirit of the fallen?
+That which Time swallows comes not up again.  Let it be forgotten!
+
+'And now, behold, Umslopogaas, I know thee for a great warrior
+and a brave man, faithful to the death.  Even in Zululand, where
+all the men are brave, they called thee the "Slaughterer", and
+at night told stories round the fire of thy strength and deeds.
+Hear me now.  Thou seest this great man, my friend' -- and I
+pointed to Sir Henry; 'he also is a warrior as great as thou,
+and, strong as thou art, he could throw thee over his shoulder.
+Incubu is his name.  And thou seest this one also; him with
+the round stomach, the shining eye, and the pleasant face.  Bougwan
+(glass eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true, being
+of a curious tribe who pass their life upon the water, and live
+in floating kraals.
+
+'Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo
+Egere, the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the
+unknown beyond.  We know not what we shall find there; we go
+to hunt and seek adventures, and new places, being tired of sitting
+still, with the same old things around us.  Wilt thou come with
+us?  To thee shall be given command of all our servants; but
+what shall befall thee, that I know not.  Once before we three
+journeyed thus, in search of adventure, and we took with us a
+man such as thou -- one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him the
+king of a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), each
+of 3,000 plumed warriors, waiting on his word.  How it shall
+go with thee, I know not; mayhap death awaits thee and us.
+Wilt thou throw thyself to Fortune and come, or fearest thou,
+Umslopogaas?'
+
+The great man smiled.  'Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,'
+he said; 'I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition
+that led me to my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to
+say it, a fair woman's face.  Let it pass.  So we are going to
+see something like the old times again, Macumazahn, when we fought
+and hunted in Zululand?  Ay, I will come.  Come life, come death,
+what care I, so that the blows fall fast and the blood runs red?
+I grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought enough!  And yet
+am I a warrior among warriors; see my scars' -- and he pointed
+to countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skin
+of his chest and legs and arms.  'See the hole in my head; the
+brains gushed out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, and
+live.  Knowest thou how many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-hand
+combat, Macumazahn?  See, here is the tale of them' -- and he
+pointed to long rows of notches cut in the rhinoceros-horn handle
+of his axe.  'Number them, Macumazahn -- one hundred and three
+-- and I have never counted but those whom I have ripped open
+{Endnote 3}, nor have I reckoned those whom another man had struck.'
+
+'Be silent,' I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever
+on him; 'be silent; well art thou called the "Slaughterer".
+We would not hear of thy deeds of blood.  Remember, if thou comest
+with us, we fight not save in self-defence.  Listen, we need
+servants.  These men,' and I pointed to the Wakwafi, who had
+retired a little way during our 'indaba' (talk), 'say they will not come.'
+
+'Will not come!' shouted Umslopogaas; 'where is the dog who says
+he will not come when my Father orders?  Here, thou' -- and with
+a single bound he sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first
+spoken, and, seizing him by the arm, dragged him towards us.
+'Thou dog!' he said, giving the terrified man a shake, 'didst
+thou say that thou wouldst not go with my Father?  Say it once
+more and I will choke thee' -- and his long fingers closed round
+his throat as he said it -- 'thee, and those with thee.  Hast
+thou forgotten how I served thy brother?'
+
+'Nay, we will come with the white man,' gasped the man.
+
+'White man!' went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a
+very little provocation would have made real enough; 'of whom
+speakest thou, insolent dog?'
+
+'Nay, we will go with the great chief.'
+
+'So!' said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released
+his hold, so that the man fell backward.  'I thought you would.'
+
+'That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency
+over his companions,' Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+THE BLACK HAND
+
+
+
+In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found
+ourselves at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having
+gone through many adventures which need not be recorded here.
+Amongst other things we visited a ruined city, of which there
+are many on this coast, and which must once, to judge from their
+extent and the numerous remains of mosques and stone houses,
+have been very populous places.  These ruined cities are immeasurably
+ancient, having, I believe, been places of wealth and importance
+as far back as the Old Testament times, when they were centres
+of trade with India and elsewhere.  But their glory has departed
+now -- the slave trade has finished them -- and where wealthy
+merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and
+bargained in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court
+at night, and instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager
+voices of the bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined
+corridors.  At this particular place we discovered on a mound,
+covered up with rank growth and rubbish, two of the most beautiful
+stone doorways that it is possible to conceive.  The carving
+on them was simply exquisite, and I only regret that we had no
+means of getting them away.  No doubt they had once been the
+entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were now
+to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising mound.
+
+Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go.  Like the
+nobles and the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities
+have had their day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh,
+and as London and Paris will one day be.  Nothing may endure.
+That is the inexorable law.  Men and women, empires and cities,
+thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomed
+seas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their day, and
+all must go.  In this ruined and forgotten place the moralist
+may behold a symbol of the universal destiny.  For this system
+of ours allows no room for standing still -- nothing can loiter
+on the road and check the progress of things upwards towards
+Life, or the rush of things downwards towards Death.  The stern
+policeman Fate moves us and them on, on, uphill and downhill
+and across the level; there is no resting-place for the weary
+feet, till at last the abyss swallows us, and from the shores
+of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the Eternal.
+
+At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers
+we had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort
+large extra payment from us.  In the result he threatened to
+set the Masai -- about whom more anon -- on to us.  That night
+he, with all our hired bearers, ran away, stealing most of the
+goods which had been entrusted to them to carry.  Luckily, however,
+they had not happened to steal our rifles, ammunition, and personal
+effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling on their part,
+but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the charge of
+the five Wakwafis.  After that, it was clear to us that we had
+had enough of caravans and of bearers.  Indeed, we had not much
+left for a caravan to carry.  And yet, how were we to get on?
+
+It was Good who solved the question.  'Here is water,' he said,
+pointing to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of natives
+hunting hippopotami in canoes.  I understand that Mr Mackenzie's
+mission station is on the Tana River.  Why not get into canoes
+and paddle up to it?'
+
+This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with
+acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes
+from the surrounding natives.  I succeeded after a delay of three
+days in obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single
+log of some light wood, and capable of holding six people and
+baggage.  For these two canoes we had to pay nearly all our
+remaining cloth, and also many other articles.
+
+On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected
+a start.  In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three
+of our Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas,
+and the other two Wakwafis.  As our course lay upstream, we had
+to keep four paddles at work in each canoe, which meant that
+the whole lot of us, except Good, had to row away like galley-slaves;
+and very exhausting work it was.  I say, except Good, for, of
+course, the moment that Good got into a boat his foot was on
+his native heath, and he took command of the party.  And certainly
+he worked us.  On shore Good is a gentle, mild-mannered man,
+and given to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in
+a boat was a perfect demon.  To begin with, he knew all about
+it, and we didn't.  On all nautical subjects, from the torpedo
+fittings of a man-of-war down to the best way of handling the
+paddle of an African canoe, he was a perfect mine of information,
+which, to say the least of it, we were not.  Also his ideas of
+discipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he came the royal
+naval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid us out amply
+for all the chaff we were wont to treat him to on land; but,
+on the other hand, I am bound to say that he managed the boats admirably.
+
+After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of some cloth
+and a couple of poles, in rigging up a sail in each canoe, which
+lightened our labours not a little.  But the current ran very
+strong against us, and at the best we were not able to make more
+than twenty miles a day.  Our plan was to start at dawn, and
+paddle along till about half-past ten, by which time the sun
+got too hot to allow of further exertion.  Then we moored our
+canoes to the bank, and ate our frugal meal; after which we ate
+or otherwise amused ourselves till about three o'clock, when
+we again started, and rowed till within an hour of sundown, when
+we called a halt for the night.  On landing in the evening, Good
+would at once set to work, with the help of the Askari, to build
+a little 'scherm', or small enclosure, fenced with thorn bushes,
+and to light a fire.  I, with Sir Henry and Umslopogaas, would
+go out to shoot something for the pot.  Generally this was an
+easy task, for all sorts of game abounded on the banks of the
+Tana.  One night Sir Henry shot a young cow-giraffe, of which
+the marrow-bones were excellent; on another I got a couple of
+waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction,
+Umslopogaas (who, like most Zulus, was a vile shot with a rifle)
+managed to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent him.
+Sometimes we varied our food by shooting some guinea-fowl, or
+bush-bustard (paau) -- both of which were numerous -- with a
+shot-gun, or by catching a supply of beautiful yellow fish, with
+which the waters of the Tana swarmed, and which form, I believe,
+one of the chief food-supplies of the crocodiles.
+
+Three days after our start an ominous incident occurred.  We
+were just drawing in to the bank to make our camp as usual for
+the night, when we caught sight of a figure standing on a little
+knoll not forty yards away, and intensely watching our approach.
+One glance was sufficient -- although I was personally unacquainted
+with the tribe -- to tell me that he was a Masai Elmoran, or
+young warrior.  Indeed, had I had any doubts, they would have
+quickly been dispelled by the terrified ejaculation of '_Masai_!'
+that burst simultaneously from the lips of our Wakwafi followers,
+who are, as I think I have said, themselves bastard Masai.
+
+And what a figure he presented as he stood there in his savage
+war-gear!  Accustomed as I have been to savages all my life,
+I do not think that I have ever before seen anything quite so
+ferocious or awe-inspiring.  To begin with, the man was enormously
+tall, quite as tall as Umslopogaas, I should say, and beautifully,
+though somewhat slightly, shaped; but with the face of a devil.
+In his right hand he held a spear about five and a half feet
+long, the blade being two and a half feet in length, by nearly
+three inches in width, and having an iron spike at the end of
+the handle that measured more than a foot.  On his left arm was
+a large and well-made elliptical shield of buffalo hide, on which
+were painted strange heraldic-looking devices.  On his shoulders
+was a huge cape of hawk's feathers, and round his neck was a
+'naibere', or strip of cotton, about seventeen feet long, by
+one and a half broad, with a stripe of colour running down the
+middle of it.  The tanned goatskin robe, which formed his ordinary
+attire in times of peace, was tied lightly round his waist, so
+as to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck,
+on the right and left sides respectively, his short pear-shaped
+sime, or sword, which is made of a single piece of steel, and
+carried in a wooden sheath, and an enormous knobkerrie.  But
+perhaps the most remarkable feature of his attire consisted of
+a headdress of ostrich-feathers, which was fixed on the chin,
+and passed in front of the ears to the forehead, and, being shaped
+like an ellipse, completely framed the face, so that the diabolical
+countenance appeared to project from a sort of feather fire-screen.
+Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair, and, projecting
+from the upper portion of the calves, to which they were attached,
+were long spurs like spikes, from which flowed down tufts of
+the beautiful black and waving hair of the Colobus monkey.  Such
+was the elaborate array of the Masai Elmoran who stood watching
+the approach of our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated,
+must be seen; only those who see it do not often live to describe
+it.  Of course I could not make out all these details of his
+full dress on the occasion of this my first introduction, being,
+indeed, amply taken up with the consideration of the general
+effect, but I had plenty of subsequent opportunities of becoming
+acquainted with the items that went to make it up.
+
+Whilst we were hesitating what to do, the Masai warrior drew
+himself up in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us,
+and, turning, vanished on the further side of the slope.
+
+'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; 'our friend
+the caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the
+Masai after us.  Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'
+
+I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand,
+we had no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we
+could eat raw, so it was difficult to know what to do.  At last
+Umslopogaas simplified matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre,
+which he did, creeping off into the bush like a snake, while
+we hung off in the stream waiting for him.  In half an hour he
+returned, and told us that there was not a Masai to be seen anywhere
+about, but that he had discovered a spot where they had recently
+been encamped, and that from various indications he judged that
+they must have moved on an hour or so before; the man we saw
+having, no doubt, been left to report upon our movements.
+
+Thereupon we landed; and, having posted a sentry, proceeded to
+cook and eat our evening meal.  This done, we took the situation
+into our serious consideration.  Of course, it was possible that
+the apparition of the Masai warrior had nothing to do with us,
+that he was merely one of a band bent upon some marauding and
+murdering expedition against another tribe.  But when we recalled
+the threat of the caravan leader, and reflected on the ominous
+way in which the warrior had shaken his spear at us, this did
+not appear very probable.  On the contrary, what did seem probable
+was that the part was after us and awaiting a favourable opportunity
+to attack us.  This being so, there were two things that we could
+do -- one of which was to go on, and the other to go back.  The
+latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious
+that we should encounter as many dangers in retreat as in advance;
+and, besides, we had made up our minds to journey onwards at
+any price.  Under these circumstances, however, we did not consider
+it safe to sleep ashore, so we got into our canoes, and, paddling
+out into the middle of the stream, which was not very wide here,
+managed to anchor them by means of big stones fastened to ropes
+made of coconut-fibre, of which there were several fathoms in
+each canoe.
+
+Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined
+with anxiety as to our position, effectually prevented me from
+sleeping as the others were doing, notwithstanding the attacks
+of the aforesaid Tana mosquitoes.  And so I lay awake, smoking
+and reflecting on many things, but, being of a practical turn
+of mind, chiefly on how we were to give those Masai villains
+the slip.  It was a beautiful moonlight night, and, notwithstanding
+the mosquitoes, and the great risk we were running from fever
+from sleeping in such a spot, and forgetting that I had the cramp
+very badly in my right leg from squatting in a constrained position
+in the canoe, and that the Wakwafi who was sleeping beside me
+smelt horribly, I really began to enjoy myself.  The moonbeams
+played upon the surface of the running water that speeded unceasingly
+past us towards the sea, like men's lives towards the grave,
+till it glittered like a wide sheet of silver, that is in the
+open where the trees threw no shadows.  Near the banks, however,
+it was very dark, and the night wind sighed sadly in the reeds.
+To our left, on the further side of the river, was a little
+sandy bay which was clear of trees, and here I could make out
+the forms of numerous antelopes advancing to the water, till
+suddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon they all made
+off hurriedly.  Then after a pause I caught sight of the massive
+form of His Majesty the Lion, coming down to drink his fill after
+meat.  Presently he moved on, then came a crashing of the reeds
+about fifty yards above us, and a few minutes later a huge black
+mass rose out of the water, about twenty yards from me, and snorted.
+It was the head of a hippopotamus.  Down it went without a sound,
+only to rise again within five yards of where I sat.  This was
+decidedly too near to be comfortable, more especially as the
+hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense curiosity to know
+what on earth our canoes were.  He opened his great mouth, to
+yawn, I suppose, and gave me an excellent view of his ivories;
+and I could not help reflecting how easily he could crunch up
+our frail canoe with a single bite.  Indeed, I had half a mind
+to give him a ball from my eight-bore, but on reflection determined
+to let him alone unless he actually charged the boat.  Presently
+he sank again as noiselessly as before, and I saw no more of
+him.  Just then, on looking towards the bank on our right, I
+fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting between
+the tree trunks.  I have very keen sight, and I was almost sure
+that I saw something, but whether it was bird, beast, or man
+I could not say.  At the moment, however, a dark cloud passed
+over the moon, and I saw no more of it.  Just then, too, although
+all the other sounds of the forest had ceased, a species of horned
+owl with which I was well acquainted began to hoot with great
+persistency.  After that, save for the rustling of trees and
+reeds when the wind caught them, there was complete silence.
+
+But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become
+nervous.  There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond
+the ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller,
+and yet I undoubtedly was.  If there is one thing more than another
+of which I have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief,
+it is of presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filled
+with and possessed by a most undoubted presentiment of approaching
+evil.  I would not give way to it, however, although I felt the
+cold perspiration stand out upon my forehead.  I would not arouse
+the others.  Worse and worse I grew, my pulse fluttered like
+a dying man's, my nerves thrilled with the horrible sense of
+impotent terror which anybody who is subject to nightmare will
+be familiar with, but still my will triumphed over my fears,
+and I lay quiet (for I was half sitting, half lying, in the bow
+of the canoe), only turning my face so as to command a view of
+Umslopogaas and the two Wakwafi who were sleeping alongside of
+and beyond me.
+
+In the distance I heard a hippopotamus splash faintly, then the
+owl hooted again in a kind of unnatural screaming note {Endnote 4},
+and the wind began to moan plaintively through the trees,
+making a heart-chilling music.  Above was the black bosom of
+the cloud, and beneath me swept the black flood of the water,
+and I felt as though I and Death were utterly alone between them.
+It was very desolate.
+
+Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and my heart
+to stand still.  Was it fancy, or were we moving?  I turned my
+eyes to look for the other canoe which should be alongside of
+us.  I could not see it, but instead I saw a lean and clutching
+black hand lifting itself above the gunwale of the little boat.
+Surely it was a nightmare!  At the same instant a dim but
+devilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the water, and
+then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife, and
+an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (the
+same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something
+warm spurted into my face.  In an instant the spell was broken;
+I knew that it was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by
+swimming Masai.  Snatching at the first weapon that came to hand,
+which happened to be Umslopogaas' battleaxe, I struck with all
+my force in the direction in which I had seen the flash of the
+knife.  The blow fell upon a man's arm, and, catching it against
+the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely severed it
+from the body just above the wrist.  As for its owner, he uttered
+no sound or cry.  Like a ghost he came, and like a ghost he went,
+leaving behind him a bloody hand still gripping a great knife,
+or rather a short sword, that was buried in the heart of our
+poor servant.
+
+Instantly there arose a hubbub and confusion, and I fancied,
+rightly or wrongly, that I made out several dark heads gliding
+away towards the right-hand bank, whither we were rapidly drifting,
+for the rope by which we were moored had been severed with a
+knife.  As soon as I had realized this fact, I also realized
+that the scheme had been to cut the boat loose so that it should
+drift on to the right bank (as it would have done with the natural
+swing of the current), where no doubt a party of Masai were waiting
+to dig their shovel-headed spears into us.  Seizing one paddle
+myself, I told Umslopogaas to take another (for the remaining
+Askari was too frightened and bewildered to be of any use), and
+together we rowed vigorously out towards the middle of the stream;
+and not an instant too soon, for in another minute we should
+have been aground, and then there would have been an end of us.
+
+As soon as we were well out, we set to work to paddle the canoe
+upstream again to where the other was moored; and very hard and
+dangerous work it was in the dark, and with nothing but the notes
+of Good's stentorian shouts, which he kept firing off at intervals
+like a fog-horn, to guide us.  But at last we fetched up, and
+were thankful to find that they had not been molested at all.
+No doubt the owner of the same hand that severed our rope should
+have severed theirs also, but was led away from his purpose by
+an irresistible inclination to murder when he got the chance,
+which, while it cost us a man and him his hand, undoubtedly saved
+all the rest of us from massacre.  Had it not been for that ghastly
+apparition over the side of the boat -- an apparition that I
+shall never forget till my dying hour -- the canoe would undoubtedly
+have drifted ashore before I realized what had happened, and
+this history would never have been written by me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+THE MISSION STATION
+
+
+
+We made the remains of our rope fast to the other canoe, and
+sat waiting for the dawn and congratulating ourselves upon our
+merciful escape, which really seemed to result more from the
+special favour of Providence than from our own care or prowess.
+At last it came, and I have not often been more grateful to
+see the light, though so far as my canoe was concerned it revealed
+a ghastly sight.  There in the bottom of the little boat lay
+the unfortunate Askari, the sime, or sword, in his bosom, and
+the severed hand gripping the handle.  I could not bear the sight,
+so hauling up the stone which had served as an anchor to the
+other canoe, we made it fast to the murdered man and dropped
+him overboard, and down he went to the bottom, leaving nothing
+but a train of bubbles behind him.  Alas! when our time comes,
+most of us like him leave nothing but bubbles behind, to show
+that we have been, and the bubbles soon burst.  The hand of his
+murderer we threw into the stream, where it slowly sank.  The
+sword, of which the handle was ivory, inlaid with gold (evidently
+Arab work), I kept and used as a hunting-knife, and very useful
+it proved.
+
+Then, a man having been transferred to my canoe, we once more
+started on in very low spirits and not feeling at all comfortable
+as to the future, but fondly hoping to arrive at the 'Highlands'
+station by night.  To make matters worse, within an hour of sunrise
+it came on to rain in torrents, wetting us to the skin, and even
+necessitating the occasional baling of the canoes, and as the
+rain beat down the wind we could not use the sails, and had to
+get along as best as we could with our paddles.
+
+At eleven o'clock we halted on an open piece of ground on the
+left bank of the river, and, the rain abating a little, managed
+to make a fire and catch and broil some fish.  We did not dare
+to wander about to search for game.  At two o'clock we got off
+again, taking a supply of broiled fish with us, and shortly afterwards
+the rain came on harder than ever.  Also the river began to get
+exceedingly difficult to navigate on account of the numerous
+rocks, reaches of shallow water, and the increased force of the
+current; so that it soon became clear to us that we should not
+reach the Rev. Mackenzie's hospitable roof that night -- a prospect
+that did not tend to enliven us.  Toil as we would, we could
+not make more than an average of a mile an hour, and at five
+o'clock in the afternoon (by which time we were all utterly worn
+out) we reckoned that we were still quite ten miles below the
+station.  This being so, we set to work to make the best arrangements
+we could for the night.  After our recent experience, we simply
+did not dare to land, more especially as the banks of the Tana
+were clothed with dense bush that would have given cover to five
+thousand Masai, and at first I thought that we were going to
+have another night of it in the canoes.  Fortunately, however,
+we espied a little rocky islet, not more than fifteen miles of
+so square, situated nearly in the middle of the river.  For this
+we paddled, and, making fast the canoes, landed and made ourselves
+as comfortable as circumstances would permit, which was very
+uncomfortable indeed.  As for the weather, it continued to be
+simply vile, the rain coming down in sheets till we were chilled
+to the marrow, and utterly preventing us from lighting a fire.
+There was, however, one consoling circumstance about this rain;
+our Askari declared that nothing would induce the Masai to make
+an attack in it, as they intensely disliked moving about in the
+wet, perhaps, as Good suggested, because they hate the idea of
+washing.  We ate some insipid and sodden cold fish -- that is,
+with the exception of Umslopogaas, who, like most Zulus, cannot
+bear fish -- and took a pull of brandy, of which we fortunately
+had a few bottles left, and then began what, with one exception
+-- when we same three white men nearly perished of cold on the
+snow of Sheba's Breast in the course of our journey to Kukuanaland
+-- was, I think, the most trying night I ever experienced.  It
+seemed absolutely endless, and once or twice I feared that two
+of the Askari would have died of the wet, cold, and exposure.
+Indeed, had it not been for timely doses of brandy I am sure
+that they would have died, for no African people can stand much
+exposure, which first paralyses and then kills them.  I could
+see that even that iron old warrior Umslopogaas felt it keenly;
+though, in strange contrast to the Wakwafis, who groaned and
+bemoaned their fate unceasingly, he never uttered a single complaint.
+To make matters worse, about one in the morning we again heard
+the owl's ominous hooting, and had at once to prepare ourselves
+for another attack; though, if it had been attempted, I do not
+think that we could have offered a very effective resistance.
+But either the owl was a real one this time, or else the Masai
+were themselves too miserable to think of offensive operations,
+which, indeed, they rarely, if ever, undertake in bush veldt.
+At any rate, we saw nothing of them.
+
+At last the dawn came gliding across the water, wrapped in wreaths
+of ghostly mist, and, with the daylight, the rain ceased; and
+then, out came the glorious sun, sucking up the mists and warming
+the chill air.  Benumbed, and utterly exhausted, we dragged ourselves
+to our feet, and went and stood in the bright rays, and were
+thankful for them.  I can quite understand how it is that primitive
+people become sun worshippers, especially if their conditions
+of life render them liable to exposure.
+
+In half an hour more we were once again making fair progress
+with the help of a good wind.  Our spirits had returned with
+the sunshine, and we were ready to laugh at difficulties and
+dangers that had been almost crushing on the previous day.
+
+And so we went on cheerily till about eleven o'clock.  Just as
+we were thinking of halting as usual, to rest and try to shoot
+something to eat, a sudden bend in the river brought us in sight
+of a substantial-looking European house with a veranda round
+it, splendidly situated upon a hill, and surrounded by a high
+stone wall with a ditch on the outer side.  Right against and
+overshadowing the house was an enormous pine, the tope of which
+we had seen through a glass for the last two days, but of course
+without knowing that it marked the site of the mission station.
+I was the first to see the house, and could not restrain myself
+from giving a hearty cheer, in which the others, including the
+natives, joined lustily.  There was no thought of halting now.
+On we laboured, for, unfortunately, though the house seemed
+quite near, it was still a long way off by river, until at last,
+by one o'clock, we found ourselves at the bottom of the slope
+on which the building stood.  Running the canoes to the bank,
+we disembarked, and were just hauling them up on to the shore,
+when we perceived three figures, dressed in ordinary English-looking
+clothes, hurrying down through a grove of trees to meet us.
+
+'A gentleman, a lady, and a little girl,' ejaculated Good, after
+surveying the trio through his eyeglass, 'walking in a civilized
+fashion, through a civilized garden, to meet us in this place.
+Hang me, if this isn't the most curious thing we have seen yet!'
+
+Good was right: it certainly did seem odd and out of place --
+more like a scene out of a dream or an Italian opera than a real
+tangible fact; and the sense of unreality was not lessened when
+we heard ourselves addressed in good broad Scotch, which, however,
+I cannot reproduce.
+
+'How do you do, sirs,' said Mr Mackenzie, a grey-haired, angular
+man, with a kindly face and red cheeks; 'I hope I see you very
+well.  My natives told me an hour ago they spied two canoes with
+white men in them coming up the river; so we have just come down
+to meet you.'
+
+'And it is very glad that we are to see a white face again, let
+me tell you,' put in the lady -- a charming and refined-looking
+person.
+
+We took off our hats in acknowledgment, and proceeded to introduce
+ourselves.
+
+'And now,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'you must all be hungry and weary;
+so come on, gentlemen, come on, and right glad we are to see
+you.  The last white who visited us was Alphonse -- you will
+see Alphonse presently -- and that was a year ago.'
+
+Meanwhile we had been walking up the slope of the hill, the lower
+portion of which was fenced off, sometimes with quince fences
+and sometimes with rough stone walls, into Kaffir gardens, just
+now full of crops of mealies, pumpkins, potatoes, etc.  In the
+corners of these gardens were groups of neat mushroom-shaped
+huts, occupied by Mr Mackenzie's mission natives, whose women
+and children came pouring out to meet us as we walked.  Through
+the centre of the gardens ran the roadway up which we were walking.
+It was bordered on each side by a line of orange trees, which,
+although they had only been planted ten years, had in the lovely
+climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of which is about
+5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to imposing
+proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit.  After
+a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so -- for the hillside
+was steep -- we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered
+with fruit, which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of
+about four acres of ground that contained his private garden,
+house, church, and outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop.
+And what a garden it was!  I have always loved a good garden,
+and I could have thrown up my hands for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie's.
+First there were rows upon rows of standard European fruit-trees,
+all grafted; for on top of this hill the climate was so temperate
+that nearly all the English vegetables, trees, and flowers flourished
+luxuriantly, even including several varieties of the apple, which,
+generally, runs to wood in a warm climate and obstinately refuses
+to fruit.  Then there were strawberries and tomatoes (such tomatoes!),
+and melons and cucumbers, and, indeed, every sort of vegetable
+and fruit.
+
+'Well, you have something like a garden!' I said, overpowered
+with admiration not untouched by envy.
+
+'Yes,' answered the missionary, 'it is a very good garden, and
+has well repaid my labour; but it is the climate that I have
+to thank.  If you stick a peach-stone into the ground it will
+bear fruit the fourth year, and a rose-cutting with bloom in
+a year.  It is a lovely clime.'
+
+Just then we came to a ditch about ten feet wide, and full of
+water, on the other side of which was a loopholed stone wall
+eight feet high, and with sharp flints plentifully set in mortar
+on the coping.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, pointing to the ditch and wall, 'this
+is my magnum opus; at least, this and the church, which is the
+other side of the house.  It took me and twenty natives two years
+to dig the ditch and build the wall, but I never felt safe till
+it was done; and now I can defy all the savages in Africa, for
+the spring that fills the ditch is inside the wall, and bubbles
+out at the top of the hill winter and summer alike, and I always
+keep a store of four months' provision in the house.'
+
+Crossing over a plank and through a very narrow opening in the
+wall, we entered into what Mrs Mackenzie called _her_ domain --
+namely, the flower garden, the beauty of which is really beyond
+my power to describe.  I do not think I ever saw such roses,
+gardenias, or camellias (all reared from seeds or cuttings sent
+from England); and there was also a patch given up to a collection
+of bulbous roots mostly collected by Miss Flossie, Mr Mackenzie's
+little daughter, from the surrounding country, some of which
+were surpassingly beautiful.  In the middle of this garden, and
+exactly opposite the veranda, a beautiful fountain of clear water
+bubbled up from the ground, and fell into a stone-work basin
+which had been carefully built to receive it, whence the overflow
+found its way by means of a drain to the moat round the outer
+wall, this moat in its turn serving as a reservoir, whence an
+unfailing supply of water was available to irrigate all the gardens
+below.  The house itself, a massively built single-storied building,
+was roofed with slabs of stone, and had a handsome veranda in
+front.  It was built on three sides of a square, the fourth side
+being taken up by the kitchens, which stood separate from the
+house -- a very good plan in a hot country.  In the centre of
+this square thus formed was, perhaps, the most remarkable object
+that we had yet seen in this charming place, and that was a single
+tree of the conifer tribe, varieties of which grow freely on
+the highlands of this part of Africa.  This splendid tree, which
+Mr Mackenzie informed us was a landmark for fifty miles round,
+and which we had ourselves seen for the last forty miles of our
+journey, must have been nearly three hundred feet in height,
+the trunk measuring about sixteen feet in diameter at a yard
+from the ground.  For some seventy feet it rose a beautiful tapering
+brown pillar without a single branch, but at that height splendid
+dark green boughs, which, looked at from below, had the appearance
+of gigantic fern-leaves, sprang out horizontally from the trunk,
+projecting right over the house and flower-garden, to both of
+which they furnished a grateful proportion of shade, without
+-- being so high up -- offering any impediment to the passage
+of light and air.
+
+'What a beautiful tree!' exclaimed Sir Henry.
+
+'Yes, you are right; it is a beautiful tree.  There is not another
+like it in all the country round, that I know of,' answered Mr
+Mackenzie.  'I call it my watch tower.  As you see, I have a
+rope ladder fixed to the lowest bough; and if I want to see anything
+that is going on within fifteen miles or so, all I have to do
+is to run up it with a spyglass.  But you must be hungry, and
+I am sure the dinner is cooked.  Come in, my friends; it is but
+a rough place, but well enough for these savage parts; and I
+can tell you what, we have got -- a French cook.'  And he led
+the way on to the veranda.
+
+As I was following him, and wondering what on earth he could
+mean by this, there suddenly appeared, through the door that
+opened on to the veranda from the house, a dapper little man,
+dressed in a neat blue cotton suit, with shoes made of tanned
+hide, and remarkable for a bustling air and most enormous black
+mustachios, shaped into an upward curve, and coming to a point
+for all the world like a pair of buffalo-horns.
+
+'Madame bids me for to say that dinnar is sarved.  Messieurs,
+my compliments;' then suddenly perceiving Umslopogaas, who was
+loitering along after us and playing with his battleaxe, he threw
+up his hands in astonishment.  'Ah, mais quel homme!' he ejaculated
+in French, 'quel sauvage affreux!  Take but note of his huge
+choppare and the great pit in his head.'
+
+'Ay,' said Mr Mackenzie; 'what are you talking about, Alphonse?'
+
+'Talking about!' replied the little Frenchman, his eyes still
+fixed upon Umslopogaas, whose general appearance seemed to fascinate
+him; 'why I talk of him' -- and he rudely pointed -- 'of ce monsieur noir.'
+
+At this everybody began to laugh, and Umslopogaas, perceiving
+that he was the object of remark, frowned ferociously, for he
+had a most lordly dislike of anything like a personal liberty.
+
+'Parbleu!' said Alphonse, 'he is angered -- he makes the grimace.
+I like not his air.  I vanish.'  And he did with considerable rapidity.
+
+Mr Mackenzie joined heartily in the shout of laughter which we
+indulged in.  'He is a queer character -- Alphonse,' he said.
+'By and by I will tell you his history; in the meanwhile let
+us try his cooking.'
+
+'Might I ask,' said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent
+dinner, 'how you came to have a French cook in these wilds?'
+
+'Oh,' answered Mrs Mackenzie, 'he arrived here of his own accord
+about a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service.
+He had got into some trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar,
+where he found an application had been made by the French Government
+for his extradition.  Whereupon he rushed off up-country, and
+fell in, when nearly starved, with our caravan of men, who were
+bringing us our annual supply of goods, and was brought on here.
+You should get him to tell you the story.'
+
+When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded
+to give our host a description of our journey up here, over which
+he looked very grave.
+
+'It is evident to me,' he said, 'that those rascally Masai are
+following you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this
+house in safety.  I do not think that they will dare to attack
+you here.  It is unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men
+have gone down to the coast with ivory and goods.  There are
+two hundred of them in the caravan, and the consequence is that
+I have not more than twenty men available for defensive purposes
+in case they should attack us.  But, still, I will just give
+a few orders;' and, calling a black man who was loitering about
+outside in the garden, he went to the window, and addressed him
+in a Swahili dialect.  The man listened, and then saluted and
+departed.
+
+'I am sure I devoutly hope that we shall bring no such calamity
+upon you,' said I, anxiously, when he had taken his seat again.
+'Rather than bring those bloodthirsty villains about your ears,
+we will move on and take our chance.'
+
+'You will do nothing of the sort.  If the Masai come, they come,
+and there is an end on it; and I think we can give them a pretty
+warm greeting.  I would not show any man the door for all the
+Masai in the world.'
+
+'That reminds me,' I said, 'the Consul at Lamu told me that he
+had had a letter from you, in which you said that a man had arrived
+here who reported that he had come across a white people in the
+interior.  Do you think that there was any truth in his story?
+I ask, because I have once or twice in my life heard rumours
+from natives who have come down from the far north of the existence
+of such a race.'
+
+Mr Mackenzie, by way of answer, went out of the room and returned,
+bringing with him a most curious sword.  It was long, and all
+the blade, which was very thick and heavy, was to within a quarter
+of an inch of the cutting edge worked into an ornamental pattern
+exactly as we work soft wood with a fret-saw, the steel, however,
+being invariably pierced in such a way as not to interfere with
+the strength of the sword.  This in itself was sufficiently curious,
+but what was still more so was that all the edges of the hollow
+spaces cut through the substance of the blade were most beautifully
+inlaid with gold, which was in some way that I cannot understand
+welded on to the steel {Endnote 5}.
+
+'There,' said Mr Mackenzie, 'did you ever see a sword like that?'
+
+We all examined it and shook our heads.
+
+'Well, I have got it to show you, because this is what the man
+who said he had seen the white people brought with him, and because
+it does more or less give an air of truth to what I should otherwise
+have set down as a lie.  Look here; I will tell you all that
+I know about the matter, which is not much.  One afternoon, just
+before sunset, I was sitting on the veranda, when a poor, miserable,
+starved-looking man came limping up and squatted down before
+me.  I asked him where he came from and what he wanted, and thereon
+he plunged into a long rambling narrative about how he belonged
+to a tribe far in the north, and how his tribe was destroyed
+by another tribe, and he with a few other survivors driven still
+further north past a lake named Laga.  Thence, it appears, he
+made his way to another lake that lay up in the mountains, "a
+lake without a bottom" he called it, and here his wife and brother
+died of an infectious sickness -- probably smallpox -- whereon
+the people drove him out of their villages into the wilderness,
+where he wandered miserably over mountains for ten days, after
+which he got into dense thorn forest, and was one day found there
+by some _white men_ who were hunting, and who took him to a place
+where all the people were white and lived in stone houses.  Here
+he remained a week shut up in a house, till one night a man with
+a white beard, whom he understood to be a "medicine-man", came
+and inspected him, after which he was led off and taken through
+the thorn forest to the confines of the wilderness, and given
+food and this sword (at least so he said), and turned loose.'
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, who had been listening with breathless
+interest, 'and what did he do then?'
+
+'Oh! he seems, according to his account, to have gone through
+sufferings and hardships innumerable, and to have lived for weeks
+on roots and berries, and such things as he could catch and kill.
+But somehow he did live, and at last by slow degrees made his
+way south and reached this place.  What the details of his journey
+were I never learnt, for I told him to return on the morrow,
+bidding one of my headmen look after him for the night.  The
+headman took him away, but the poor man had the itch so badly
+that the headman's wife would not have him in the hut for fear
+of catching it, so he was given a blanket and told to sleep outside.
+As it happened, we had a lion hanging about here just then,
+and most unhappily he winded this unfortunate wanderer, and,
+springing on him, bit his head almost off without the people
+in the hut knowing anything about it, and there was an end of
+him and his story about the white people; and whether or no there
+is any truth in it is more than I can tell you.  What do you
+think, Mr Quatermain?'
+
+I shook my head, and answered, 'I don't know.  There are so many
+queer things hidden away in the heart of this great continent
+that I should be sorry to assert that there was no truth in it.
+Anyhow, we mean to try and find out.  We intend to journey to
+Lekakisera, and thence, if we live to get so far, to this Lake
+Laga; and, if there are any white people beyond, we will do our
+best to find them.'
+
+'You are very venturesome people,' said Mr Mackenzie,
+with a smile, and the subject dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+ALPHONSE AND HIS ANNETTE
+
+
+
+After dinner we thoroughly inspected all the outbuildings and
+grounds of the station, which I consider the most successful
+as well as the most beautiful place of the sort that I have seen
+in Africa.  We then returned to the veranda, where we found Umslopogaas
+taking advantage of this favourable opportunity to clean all
+the rifles thoroughly.  This was the only _work_ that he ever did
+or was asked to do, for as a Zulu chief it was beneath his dignity
+to work with his hands; but such as it was he did it very well.
+It was a curious sight to see the great Zulu sitting there upon
+the floor, his battleaxe resting against the wall behind him,
+whilst his long aristocratic-looking hands were busily employed,
+delicately and with the utmost care, cleaning the mechanism of
+the breech-loaders.  He had a name for each gun.  One -- a double
+four-bore belonging to Sir Henry -- was the Thunderer; another,
+my 500 Express, which had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'the
+little one who spoke like a whip'; the Winchester repeaters were
+'the women, who talked so fast that you could not tell one word
+from another'; the six Martinis were 'the common people'; and
+so on with them all.  It was very curious to hear him addressing
+each gun as he cleaned it, as though it were an individual, and
+in a vein of the quaintest humour.  He did the same with his
+battle-axe, which he seemed to look upon as an intimate friend,
+and to which he would at times talk by the hour, going over all
+his old adventures with it -- and dreadful enough some of them
+were.  By a piece of grim humour, he had named this axe 'Inkosi-kaas',
+which is the Zulu word for chieftainess.  For a long while I
+could not make out why he gave it such a name, and at last I
+asked him, when he informed me that the axe was very evidently
+feminine, because of her womanly habit of prying very deep into
+things, and that she was clearly a chieftainess because all men
+fell down before her, struck dumb at the sight of her beauty
+and power.  In the same way he would consult 'Inkosi-kaas' if
+in any dilemma; and when I asked him why he did so, he informed
+me it was because she must needs be wise, having 'looked into
+so many people's brains'.
+
+I took up the axe and closely examined this formidable weapon.
+It was, as I have said, of the nature of a pole-axe.  The haft,
+made out of an enormous rhinoceros horn, was three feet three
+inches long, about an inch and a quarter thick, and with a knob
+at the end as large as a Maltese orange, left there to prevent
+the hand from slipping.  This horn haft, though so massive, was
+as flexible as cane, and practically unbreakable; but, to make
+assurance doubly sure, it was whipped round at intervals of a
+few inches with copper wire -- all the parts where the hands
+grip being thus treated.  Just above where the haft entered the
+head were scored a number of little nicks, each nick representing
+a man killed in battle with the weapon.  The axe itself was made
+of the most beautiful steel, and apparently of European manufacture,
+though Umslopogaas did not know where it came from, having taken
+it from the hand of a chief he had killed in battle many years
+before.  It was not very heavy, the head weighing two and a half
+pounds, as nearly as I could judge.  The cutting part was slightly
+concave in shape -- not convex, as it generally the case with
+savage battleaxes -- and sharp as a razor, measuring five and
+three-quarter inches across the widest part.  From the back of
+the axe sprang a stout spike four inches long, for the last two
+of which it was hollow, and shaped like a leather punch, with
+an opening for anything forced into the hollow at the punch end
+to be pushed out above -- in fact, in this respect it exactly
+resembled a butcher's pole-axe.  It was with this punch end,
+as we afterwards discovered, that Umslopogaas usually struck
+when fighting, driving a neat round hole in his adversary's skull,
+and only using the broad cutting edge for a circular sweep, or
+sometimes in a melee.  I think he considered the punch a neater
+and more sportsmanlike tool, and it was from his habit of pecking
+at his enemy with it that he got his name of 'Woodpecker'.  Certainly
+in his hands it was a terribly efficient one.
+
+Such was Umslopogaas' axe, Inkosi-kaas, the most remarkable and
+fatal hand-to-hand weapon that I ever saw, and one which he cherished
+as much as his own life.  It scarcely ever left his hand except
+when he was eating, and then he always sat with it under his
+leg.
+
+Just as I returned his axe to Umslopogaas, Miss Flossie came
+up and took me off to see her collection of flowers, African
+liliums, and blooming shrubs, some of which are very beautiful,
+many of the varieties being quite unknown to me and also, I believe,
+to botanical science.  I asked her if she had ever seen or heard
+of the 'Goya' lily, which Central African explorers have told
+me they have occasionally met with and whose wonderful loveliness
+has filled them with astonishment.  This lily, which the natives
+say blooms only once in ten years, flourishes in the most arid
+soil.  Compared to the size of the bloom, the bulb is small,
+generally weighing about four pounds.  As for the flower itself
+(which I afterwards saw under circumstances likely to impress
+its appearance fixedly in my mind), I know not how to describe
+its beauty and splendour, or the indescribable sweetness of its
+perfume.  The flower -- for it has only one bloom -- rises from
+the crown of the bulb on a thick fleshy and flat-sided stem,
+the specimen that I saw measured fourteen inches in diameter,
+and is somewhat trumpet-shaped like the bloom of an ordinary
+'longiflorum' set vertically.  First there is the green sheath,
+which in its early stage is not unlike that of a water-lily,
+but which as the bloom opens splits into four portions and curls
+back gracefully towards the stem.  Then comes the bloom itself,
+a single dazzling arch of white enclosing another cup of richest
+velvety crimson, from the heart of which rises a golden-coloured
+pistil.  I have never seen anything to equal this bloom in beauty
+or fragrance, and as I believe it is but little known, I take
+the liberty to describe it at length.  Looking at it for the
+first time I well remember that I realized how even in a flower
+there dwells something of the majesty of its Maker.  To my great
+delight Miss Flossie told me that she knew the flower well and
+had tried to grow it in her garden, but without success, adding,
+however, that as it should be in bloom at this time of the year
+she thought that she could procure me a specimen.
+
+After that I fell to asking her if she was not lonely up here
+among all these savage people and without any companions of her
+own age.
+
+'Lonely?' she said.  'Oh, indeed no!  I am as happy as the day
+is long, and besides I have my own companions.  Why, I should
+hate to be buried in a crowd of white girls all just like myself
+so that nobody could tell the difference!  Here,' she said, giving
+her head a little toss, 'I am I; and every native for miles around
+knows the "Water-lily", -- for that is what they call me -- and
+is ready to do what I want, but in the books that I have read
+about little girls in England it is not like that.  Everybody
+thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistress
+likes.  Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage like
+that and not to be free -- free as the air.'
+
+'Would you not like to learn?' I asked.
+
+'So I do learn.  Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.'
+
+'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'
+
+'Afraid?  Oh no! they never interfere with me.  I think they
+believe that I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so white
+and have fair hair.  And look here,' and diving her little hand
+into the bodice of her dress she produced a double-barrelled
+nickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry that loaded, and if
+anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him.  Once I shot a
+leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along.  It
+frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell
+dead, and I have its skin upon my bed.  Look there!' she went
+on in an altered voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to
+some far-away object, 'I said just now that I had companions;
+there is one of them.'
+
+I looked, and for the first time there burst upon my sight the
+glory of Mount Kenia.  Hitherto the mountain had always been
+hidden in mist, but now its radiant beauty was unveiled for many
+thousand feet, although the base was still wrapped in vapour
+so that the lofty peak or pillar, towering nearly twenty thousand
+feet into the sky, appeared to be a fairy vision, hanging between
+earth and heaven, and based upon the clouds.  The solemn majesty
+and beauty of this white peak are together beyond the power of
+my poor pen to describe.  There it rose straight and sheer --
+a glittering white glory, its crest piercing the very blue of
+heaven.  As I gazed at it with that little girl I felt my whole
+heart lifted up with an indescribable emotion, and for a moment
+great and wonderful thoughts seemed to break upon my mind, even
+as the arrows of the setting sun were breaking upon Kenia's snows.
+Mr Mackenzie's natives call the mountain the 'Finger of God',
+and to me it did seem eloquent of immortal peace and of the pure
+high calm that surely lies above this fevered world.  Somewhere
+I had heard a line of poetry,
+
+
+A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
+
+
+and now it came into my mind, and for the first time I thoroughly
+understood what it meant.  Base, indeed, would be the man who
+could look upon that mighty snow-wreathed pile -- that white
+old tombstone of the years -- and not feel his own utter insignificance,
+and, by whatever name he calls Him, worship God in his heart.
+Such sights are like visions of the spirit; they throw wide
+the windows of the chamber of our small selfishness and let in
+a breath of that air that rushes round the rolling spheres, and
+for a while illumine our darkness with a far-off gleam of the
+white light which beats upon the Throne.
+
+Yes, such things of beauty are indeed a joy for ever, and I can
+well understand what little Flossie meant when she talked of
+Kenia as her companion.  As Umslopogaas, savage old Zulu that
+he was, said when I pointed out to him the peak hanging in the
+glittering air: 'A man might look thereon for a thousand years
+and yet be hungry to see.'  But he gave rather another colour
+to his poetical idea when he added in a sort of chant, and with
+a touch of that weird imagination for which the man was remarkable,
+that when he was dead he should like his spirit to sit upon that
+snow-clad peak for ever, and to rush down the steep white sides
+in the breath of the whirlwind, or on the flash of the lightning,
+and 'slay, and slay, and slay'.
+
+'Slay what, you old bloodhound?' I asked.
+
+This rather puzzled him, but at length he answered --
+
+'The other shadows.'
+
+'So thou wouldst continue thy murdering even after death?' I said.
+
+'I murder not,' he answered hotly; 'I kill in fair fight.  Man
+is born to kill.  He who kills not when his blood is hot is a
+woman, and no man.  The people who kill not are slaves.  I say
+I kill in fair fight; and when I am "in the shadow", as you white
+men say, I hope to go on killing in fair fight.  May my shadow
+be accursed and chilled to the bone for ever if it should fall
+to murdering like a bushman with his poisoned arrows!'  And he
+stalked away with much dignity, and left me laughing.
+
+Just then the spies whom our host had sent out in the morning
+to find out if there were any traces of our Masai friends about,
+returned, and reported that the country had been scoured for
+fifteen miles round without a single Elmoran being seen, and
+that they believed that those gentry had given up the pursuit
+and returned whence they came.  Mr Mackenzie gave a sigh of relief
+when he heard this, and so indeed did we, for we had had quite
+enough of the Masai to last us for some time.  Indeed, the general
+opinion was that, finding we had reached the mission station
+in safety, they had, knowing its strength, given up the pursuit
+of us as a bad job.  How ill-judged that view was the sequel
+will show.
+
+After the spies had gone, and Mrs Mackenzie and Flossie had retired
+for the night, Alphonse, the little Frenchman, came out, and
+Sir Henry, who is a very good French scholar, got him to tell
+us how he came to visit Central Africa, which he did in a most
+extraordinary lingo, that for the most part I shall not attempt
+to reproduce.
+
+'My grandfather,' he began, 'was a soldier of the Guard, and
+served under Napoleon.  He was in the retreat from Moscow, and
+lived for ten days on his own leggings and a pair he stole from
+a comrade.  He used to get drunk -- he died drunk, and I remember
+playing at drums on his coffin.  My father --'
+
+Here we suggested that he might skip his ancestry and come to
+the point.
+
+'Bien, messieurs!' replied this comical little man, with a polite
+bow.  'I did only wish to demonstrate that the military principle
+is not hereditary.  My grandfather was a splendid man, six feet
+two high, broad in proportion, a swallower of fire and gaiters.
+Also he was remarkable for his moustache.  To me there remains
+the moustache and -- nothing more.
+
+'I am, messieurs, a cook, and I was born at Marseilles.  In that
+dear town I spent my happy youth.  For years and years I washed
+the dishes at the Hotel Continental.  Ah, those were golden days!'
+and he sighed.  'I am a Frenchman.  Need I say, messieurs, that
+I admire beauty?  Nay, I adore the fair.  Messieurs, we admire
+all the roses in a garden, but we pluck one.  I plucked one,
+and alas, messieurs, it pricked my finger.  She was a chambermaid,
+her name Annette, her figure ravishing, her face an angel's,
+her heart -- alas, messieurs, that I should have to own it! --
+black and slippery as a patent leather boot.  I loved to desperation,
+I adored her to despair.  She transported me -- in every sense;
+she inspired me.  Never have I cooked as I cooked (for I had
+been promoted at the hotel) when Annette, my adored Annette,
+smiled on me.  Never' -- and here his manly voice broke into
+a sob -- 'never shall I cook so well again.'  Here he melted
+into tears.
+
+'Come, cheer up!' said Sir Henry in French, smacking him smartly
+on the back.  'There's no knowing what may happen, you know.
+To judge from your dinner today, I should say you were in a
+fair way to recovery.'
+
+Alphonse stopped weeping, and began to rub his back.  'Monsieur,'
+he said, 'doubtless means to console, but his hand is heavy.
+To continue: we loved, and were happy in each other's love.
+The birds in their little nest could not be happier than Alphonse
+and his Annette.  Then came the blow -- sapristi! -- when I think
+of it.  Messieurs will forgive me if I wipe away a tear.
+Mine was an evil number; I was drawn for the conscription.  Fortune
+would be avenged on me for having won the heart of Annette.
+
+'The evil moment came; I had to go.  I tried to run away, but
+I was caught by brutal soldiers, and they banged me with the
+butt-end of muskets till my mustachios curled with pain.  I had
+a cousin a linen-draper, well-to-do, but very ugly.  He had drawn
+a good number, and sympathized when they thumped me.  "To thee,
+my cousin," I said, "to thee, in whose veins flows the blue blood
+of our heroic grandparent, to thee I consign Annette.  Watch
+over her whilst I hunt for glory in the bloody field."
+
+'"Make your mind easy," said he; "I will."  As the sequel shows,
+he did!
+
+'I went.  I lived in barracks on black soup.  I am a refined
+man and a poet by nature, and I suffered tortures from the coarse
+horror of my surroundings.  There was a drill sergeant, and he
+had a cane.  Ah, that cane, how it curled!  Alas, never can I
+forget it!
+
+'One morning came the news; my battalion was ordered to Tonquin.
+The drill sergeant and the other coarse monsters rejoiced.
+I -- I made enquiries about Tonquin.  They were not satisfactory.
+In Tonquin are savage Chinese who rip you open.  My artistic
+tastes -- for I am also an artist -- recoiled from the idea of
+being ripped open.  The great man makes up his mind quickly.
+I made up my mind.  I determined not to be ripped open.  I deserted.
+
+'I reached Marseilles disguised as an old man.  I went to the
+house of my cousin -- he in whom runs my grandfather's heroic
+blood -- and there sat Annette.  It was the season of cherries.
+They took a double stalk.  At each end was a cherry.  My cousin
+put one into his mouth, Annette put the other in hers.  Then
+they drew the stalks in till their eyes met -- and alas, alas
+that I should have to say it! -- they kissed.  The game was a
+pretty one, but it filled me with fury.  The heroic blood of
+my grandfather boiled up in me.  I rushed into the kitchen.
+I struck my cousin with the old man's crutch.  He fell -- I had
+slain him.  Alas, I believe that I did slay him.  Annette screamed.
+The gendarmes came.  I fled.  I reached the harbour.  I hid
+aboard a vessel.  The vessel put to sea.  The captain found me
+and beat me.  He took an opportunity.  He posted a letter from
+a foreign port to the police.  He did not put me ashore because
+I cooked so well.  I cooked for him all the way to Zanzibar.
+When I asked for payment he kicked me.  The blood of my heroic
+grandfather boiled within me, and I shook my fist in his face
+and vowed to have my revenge.  He kicked me again.  At Zanzibar
+there was a telegram.  I cursed the man who invented telegraphs.
+Now I curse him again.  I was to be arrested for desertion,
+for murder, and que sais-je?  I escaped from the prison.  I fled,
+I starved.  I met the men of Monsieur le Cure.  They brought
+me here.  I am full of woe.  But I return not to France.  Better
+to risk my life in these horrible places than to know the Bagne.'
+
+He paused, and we nearly choked with laughter, having to turn
+our faces away.
+
+'Ah! you weep, messieurs,' he said.  'No wonder -- it is a sad
+story.'
+
+'Perhaps,' said Sir Henry, 'the heroic blood of your
+grandparent will triumph after all; perhaps you will still be
+great.  At any rate we shall see.  And now I vote we go to bed.
+I am dead tired, and we had not much sleep on that confounded
+rock last night.'
+
+And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white
+sheets seemed to us after our recent experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
+
+
+
+Next morning at breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was.
+
+'Well,' said her mother, 'when I got up this morning I found
+a note put outside my door in which --  But here it is, you can
+read it for yourself,' and she gave me the slip of paper on which
+the following was written: --
+
+
+'Dearest M--, -- It is just dawn, and I am off to the hills to
+get Mr Q-- a bloom of the lily he wants, so don't expect me till
+you see me.  I have taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple
+of boys are coming with me -- also something to eat, as I may
+be away all day, for I am determined to get the lily if I have
+to go twenty miles for it.  -- Flossie.'
+
+
+'I hope she will be all right,' I said, a little anxiously;
+'I never meant her to trouble after the flower.'
+
+'Ah, Flossie can look after herself,' said her mother; 'she often
+goes off in this way like a true child of the wilderness.'  But
+Mr Mackenzie, who came in just then and saw the note for the
+first time, looked rather grave, though he said nothing.
+
+After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked him whether
+it would not be possible to send after the girl and get her back,
+having in view the possibility of there still being some Masai
+hanging about, at whose hands she might come to harm.
+
+'I fear it would be of no use,' he answered.  'She may be fifteen
+miles off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has
+taken.  There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long range
+of rising ground stretching almost parallel with the course followed
+by the river Tana, but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad
+plain about five miles short of the house.
+
+Here I suggested that we might get up the great tree over the
+house and search the country round with a spyglass; and this,
+after Mr Mackenzie had given some orders to his people to try
+and follow Flossie's spoor, we did.
+
+The ascent of the mighty tree was rather an alarming performance,
+even with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to climb up,
+at least to a landsman; but Good came up like a lamplighter.
+
+On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs
+sprang from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon
+a platform made of boards, nailed from one bough to another,
+and large enough to accommodate a dozen people.  As for the view,
+it was simply glorious.  In ever direction the bush rolled away
+in great billows for miles and miles, as far as the glass would
+show, only here and there broken by the brighter green of patches
+of cultivation, or by the glittering surface of lakes.  To the
+northwest, Kenia reared his mighty head, and we could trace the
+Tana river curling like a silver snake almost from his feet,
+and far away beyond us towards the ocean.  It is a glorious country,
+and only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productive
+one.
+
+But look as we would, we could see no signs of Flossie and her
+donkey, so at last we had to come down disappointed.  On reaching
+the veranda I found Umslopogaas sitting there, slowly and lightly
+sharpening his axe with a small whetstone he always carried with
+him.
+
+'What doest thou, Umslopogaas?' I asked.
+
+'I smell blood,' was the answer; and I could get no more out
+of him.
+
+After dinner we again went up the tree and searched the surrounding
+country with a spyglass, but without result.  When we came down
+Umslopogaas was still sharpening Inkosi-kaas, although she already
+had an edge like a razor.  Standing in front of him, and regarding
+him with a mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse.  And
+certainly he did seem an alarming object -- sitting there, Zulu
+fashion, on his haunches, a wild look upon his intensely savage
+and yet intellectual face, sharpening, sharpening, sharpening
+at the murderous-looking axe.
+
+'Oh, the monster, the horrible man!' said the little French cook,
+lifting his hands in amazement.  'See but the hole in his head;
+the skin beats on it up and down like a baby's!  Who would nurse
+such a baby?' and he burst out laughing at the idea.
+
+For a moment Umslopogaas looked up from his sharpening, and a
+sort of evil light played in his dark eyes.
+
+'What does the little "buffalo-heifer" [so named by Umslopogaas,
+on account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say?
+Let him be careful, or I will cut his horns.  Beware, little
+man monkey, beware!'
+
+Unfortunately Alphonse, who was getting over his fear of him,
+went on laughing at 'ce drole d'un monsieur noir'.  I was about
+to warn him to desist, when suddenly the huge Zulu bounded off
+the veranda on to the open space where Alphonse was standing,
+his features alive with a sort of malicious enthusiasm, and began
+swinging the axe round and round over the Frenchman's head.
+
+'Stand still,' I shouted; 'do not move as you value your life
+-- he will not hurt you;' but I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being,
+fortunately for himself, almost petrified with horror.
+
+Then followed the most extraordinary display of sword, or rather
+of axemanship, that I ever saw.  First of all the axe went flying
+round and round over the top of Alphonse's head, with an angry
+whirl and such extraordinary swiftness that it looked like a
+continuous band of steel, ever getting nearer and yet nearer
+to that unhappy individual's skull, till at last it grazed it
+as it flew.  Then suddenly the motion was changed, and it seemed
+to literally flow up and down his body and limbs, never more
+than an eighth of an inch from them, and yet never striking them.
+It was a wonderful sight to see the little man fixed there,
+having apparently realized that to move would be to run the risk
+of sudden death, while his black tormentor towered over him,
+and wrapped him round with the quick flashes of the axe.  For
+a minute or more this went on, till suddenly I saw the moving
+brightness travel down the side of Alphonse's face, and then
+outwards and stop.  As it did so a tuft of something black fell
+to the ground; it was the tip of one of the little Frenchman's
+curling mustachios.
+
+Umslopogaas leant upon the handle of Inkosi-kaas, and broke into
+a long, low laugh; and Alphonse, overcome with fear, sank into
+a sitting posture on the ground, while we stood astonished at
+this exhibition of almost superhuman skill and mastery of a weapon.
+'Inkosi-kaas is sharp enough,' he shouted; 'the blow that clipped
+the "buffalo-heifer's" horn would have split a man from the crown
+to the chin.  Few could have struck it but I; none could have
+struck it and not taken off the shoulder too.  Look, thou little
+heifer!  Am I a good man to laugh at, thinkest thou?  For a space
+hast thou stood within a hair's-breadth of death.  Laugh not
+again, lest the hair's-breadth be wanting.  I have spoken.'
+
+'What meanest thou by such mad tricks?' I asked of Umslopogaas,
+indignantly.  'Surely thou art mad.  Twenty times didst thou
+go near to slaying the man.'
+
+'And yet, Macumazahn, I slew not.  Thrice as Inkosi-kaas flew
+the spirit entered into me to end him, and send her crashing
+through his skull; but I did not.  Nay, it was but a jest; but
+tell the "heifer" that it is not well to mock at such as I.
+Now I go to make a shield, for I smell blood, Macumazahn -- of
+a truth I smell blood.  Before the battle hast thou not seen
+the vulture grow of a sudden in the sky?  They smell the blood,
+Macumazahn, and my scent is more keen than theirs.  There is
+a dry ox-hide down yonder; I go to make a shield.'
+
+'That is an uncomfortable retainer of yours,' said Mr Mackenzie,
+who had witnessed this extraordinary scene.  'He has frightened
+Alphonse out of his wits; look!' and he pointed to the Frenchman,
+who, with a scared white face and trembling limbs, was making
+his way into the house.  'I don't think that he will ever laugh
+at "le monsieur noir" again.'
+
+'Yes,' answered I, 'it is ill jesting with such as he.  When
+he is roused he is like a fiend, and yet he has a kind heart
+in his own fierce way.  I remember years ago seeing him nurse
+a sick child for a week.  He is a strange character, but true
+as steel, and a strong stick to rest on in danger.'
+
+'He says he smells blood,' said Mr Mackenzie.  'I only trust
+he is not right.  I am getting very fearful about my little girl.
+She must have gone far, or she would be home by now.  It is
+half-past three o'clock.'
+
+I pointed out that she had taken food with her, and very likely
+would not in the ordinary course of events return till nightfall;
+but I myself felt very anxious, and fear that my anxiety betrayed
+itself.
+
+Shortly after this, the people whom Mr Mackenzie had sent out
+to search for Flossie returned, stating that they had followed
+the spoor of the donkey for a couple of miles and had then lost
+it on some stony ground, nor could they discover it again.  They
+had, however, scoured the country far and wide, but without success.
+
+After this the afternoon wore drearily on, and towards evening,
+there still being no signs of Flossie, our anxiety grew very
+keen.  As for the poor mother, she was quite prostrated by her
+fears, and no wonder, but the father kept his head wonderfully
+well.  Everything that could be done was done: people were sent
+out in all directions, shots were fired, and a continuous outlook
+kept from the great tree, but without avail.
+
+And then it grew dark, and still no sign of fair-haired little
+Flossie.
+
+At eight o'clock we had supper.  It was but a sorrowful meal,
+and Mrs Mackenzie did not appear at it.  We three also were very
+silent, for in addition to our natural anxiety as to the fate
+of the child, we were weighed down by the sense that we had brought
+this trouble on the head of our kind host.  When supper was nearly
+at an end I made an excuse to leave the table.  I wanted to get
+outside and think the situation over.  I went on to the veranda
+and, having lit my pipe, sat down on a seat about a dozen feet
+from the right-hand end of the structure, which was, as the reader
+may remember, exactly opposite one of the narrow doors of the
+protecting wall that enclosed the house and flower garden.  I
+had been sitting there perhaps six or seven minutes when I thought
+I heard the door move.  I looked in that direction and I listened,
+but, being unable to make out anything, concluded that I must
+have been mistaken.  It was a darkish night, the moon not having
+yet risen.
+
+Another minute passed, when suddenly something round fell with
+a soft but heavy thud upon the stone flooring of the veranda,
+and came bounding and rolling along past me.  For a moment I
+did not rise, but sat wondering what it could be.  Finally, I
+concluded it must have been an animal.  Just then, however, another
+idea struck me, and I got up quick enough.  The thing lay quite
+still a few feet beyond me.  I put down my hand towards it and
+it did not move: clearly it was not an animal.  My hand touched
+it.  It was soft and warm and heavy.  Hurriedly I lifted it and
+held it up against the faint starlight.
+
+_It was a newly severed human head!_
+
+I am an old hand and not easily upset, but I own that that ghastly
+sight made me feel sick.  How had the thing come there?  Whose
+was it?  I put it down and ran to the little doorway.  I could
+see nothing, hear nobody.  I was about to go out into the darkness
+beyond, but remembering that to do so was to expose myself to
+the risk of being stabbed, I drew back, shut the door, and bolted it.
+Then I returned to the veranda, and in as careless a voice as
+I could command called Curtis.  I fear, however, that my tones
+must have betrayed me, for not only Sir Henry but also Good and
+Mackenzie rose from the table and came hurrying out.
+
+'What is it?' said the clergyman, anxiously.
+
+Then I had to tell them.
+
+Mr Mackenzie turned pale as death under his red skin.  We were
+standing opposite the hall door, and there was a light in it
+so that I could see.  He snatched the head up by the hair and
+held it against the light.
+
+'It is the head of one of the men who accompanied Flossie,' he
+said with a gasp.  'Thank God it is not hers!'
+
+We all stood and stared at each other aghast.  What was to be done?
+
+Just then there was a knocking at the door that I had bolted,
+and a voice cried, 'Open, my father, open!'
+
+The door was unlocked, and in sped a terrified man.  He was one
+of the spies who had been sent out.
+
+'My father,' he cried, 'the Masai are on us!  A great body of
+them have passed round the hill and are moving towards the old
+stone kraal down by the little stream.  My father, make strong
+thy heart!  In the midst of them I saw the white ass, and on
+it sat the Water-lily [Flossie].  An Elmoran [young warrior]
+led the ass, and by its side walked the nurse weeping.  The men
+who went with her in the morning I saw not.'
+
+'Was the child alive?' asked Mr Mackenzie, hoarsely.
+
+'She was white as the snow, but well, my father.  They passed
+quite close to me, and looking up from where I lay hid I saw
+her face against the sky.'
+
+'God help her and us!' groaned the clergyman.
+
+'How many are there of them?' I asked.
+
+'More than two hundred -- two hundred and half a hundred.'
+
+'Once more we looked one on the other.  What was to be done?
+Just then there rose a loud insistent cry outside the wall.
+
+'Open the door, white man; open the door!  A herald -- a herald
+to speak with thee.'  Thus cried the voice.
+
+Umslopogaas ran to the wall, and, reaching with his long arms
+to the coping, lifted his head above it and gazed over.
+
+'I see but one man,' he said.  'He is armed, and carries a basket
+in his hand.'
+
+'Open the door,' I said.  'Umslopogaas, take thine axe and stand
+thereby.  Let one man pass.  If another follows, slay.'
+
+The door was unbarred.  In the shadow of the wall stood Umslopogaas,
+his axe raised above his head to strike.  Just then the moon
+came out.  There was a moment's pause, and then in stalked a
+Masai Elmoran, clad in the full war panoply that I have already
+described, but bearing a large basket in his hand.  The moonlight
+shone bright upon his great spear as he walked.  He was physically
+a splendid man, apparently about thirty-five years of age.  Indeed,
+none of the Masai that I saw were under six feet high, though
+mostly quite young.  When he got opposite to us he halted, put
+down the basket, and stuck the spike of his spear into the ground,
+so that it stood upright.
+
+'Let us talk,' he said.  'The first messenger we sent to you
+could not talk;' and he pointed to the head which lay upon the
+paving of the stoep -- a ghastly sight in the moonlight; 'but
+I have words to speak if ye have ears to hear.  Also I bring
+presents;' and he pointed to the basket and laughed with an air
+of swaggering insolence that is perfectly indescribable, and
+yet which one could not but admire, seeing that he was surrounded
+by enemies.
+
+'Say on,' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'I am the "Lygonani" [war captain] of a part of the Masai of
+the Guasa Amboni.  I and my men followed these three white men,'
+and he pointed to Sir Henry, Good, and myself, 'but they were
+too clever for us, and escaped hither.  We have a quarrel with
+them, and are going to kill them.'
+
+'Are you, my friend?' said I to myself.
+
+'In following these men we this morning caught two black men,
+one black woman, a white donkey, and a white girl.  One of the
+black men we killed -- there is his head upon the pavement; the
+other ran away.  The black woman, the little white girl, and
+the white ass we took and brought with us.  In proof thereof
+have I brought this basket that she carried.  Is it not thy
+daughter's basket?'
+
+Mr Mackenzie nodded, and the warrior went on.
+
+'Good!  With thee and thy daughter we have no quarrel, nor do
+we wish to harm thee, save as to thy cattle, which we have already
+gathered, two hundred and forty head -- a beast for every man's
+father.' {Endnote 6}
+
+Here Mr Mackenzie gave a groan, as he greatly valued this herd
+of cattle, which he bred with much care and trouble.
+
+'So, save for the cattle, thou mayst go free; more especially,'
+he added frankly, glancing at the wall, 'as this place would
+be a difficult one to take.  But as to these men it is otherwise;
+we have followed them for nights and days, and must kill them.
+Were we to return to our kraal without having done so, all the
+girls would make a mock of us.  So, however troublesome it
+may be, they must die.
+
+'Now I have a proposition for thee.  We would not harm the
+little girl; she is too fair to harm, and has besides a brave spirit.
+Give us one of these three men -- a life for a life -- and we
+will let her go, and throw in the black woman with her also.
+This is a fair offer, white man.  We ask but for one, not for
+the three; we must take another opportunity to kill the other
+two.  I do not even pick my man, though I should prefer the big
+one,' pointing to Sir Henry; 'he looks strong, and would die
+more slowly.'
+
+'And if I say I will not yield the man?' said Mr Mackenzie.
+
+'Nay, say not so, white man,' answered the Masai, 'for then thy
+daughter dies at dawn, and the woman with her says thou hast
+no other child.  Were she older I would take her for a servant;
+but as she is so young I will slay her with my own hand -- ay,
+with this very spear.  Thou canst come and see, an' thou wilt.
+I give thee a safe conduct;' and the fiend laughed aloud as
+his brutal jest.
+
+Meanwhile I had been thinking rapidly, as one does in emergencies,
+and had come to the conclusion that I would exchange myself against
+Flossie.  I scarcely like to mention the matter for fear it should
+be misunderstood.  Pray do not let any one be misled into thinking
+that there was anything heroic about this, or any such nonsense.
+It was merely a matter of common sense and common justice.
+My life was an old and worthless one, hers was young and valuable.
+Her death would pretty well kill her father and mother also,
+whilst nobody would be much the worse for mine; indeed, several
+charitable institutions would have cause to rejoice thereat.
+It was indirectly through me that the dear little girl was in
+her present position.  Lastly, a man was better fitted to meet
+death in such a peculiarly awful form than a sweet young girl.
+Not, however, that I meant to let these gentry torture me to
+death -- I am far too much of a coward to allow that, being naturally
+a timid man; my plan was to see the girl safely exchanged and
+then to shoot myself, trusting that the Almighty would take the
+peculiar circumstances of the case into consideration and pardon
+the act.  All this and more went through my mind in very few
+seconds.
+
+'All right, Mackenzie,' I said, 'you can tell the man that I
+will exchange myself against Flossie, only I stipulate that she
+shall be safely in this house before they kill me.'
+
+'Eh?' said Sir Henry and Good simultaneously.  'That you don't.'
+
+'No, no,' said Mr Mackenzie.  'I will have no man's blood upon
+my hands.  If it please God that my daughter should die this
+awful death, His will be done.  You are a brave man (which I
+am not by any means) and a noble man, Quatermain, but you shall
+not go.'
+
+'If nothing else turns up I shall go,' I said decidedly.
+
+'This is an important matter,' said Mackenzie, addressing the
+Lygonani, 'and we must think it over.  You shall have our answer
+at dawn.'
+
+'Very well, white man,' answered the savage indifferently; 'only
+remember if thy answer is late thy little white bud will never
+grow into a flower, that is all, for I shall cut it with this,'
+and he touched the spear.  'I should have thought that thou wouldst
+play a trick and attack us at night, but I know from the woman
+with the girl that your men are down at the coast, and that thou
+hast but twenty men here.  It is not wise, white man,' he added
+with a laugh, 'to keep so small a garrison for you "boma" [kraal].
+Well, good night, and good night to you also, other white men,
+whose eyelids I shall soon close once and for all.  At dawn thou
+wilt bring me word.  If not, remember it shall be as I have said.'
+Then turning to Umslopogaas, who had all the while been standing
+behind him and shepherding him as it were, 'Open the door for
+me, fellow, quick now.'
+
+This was too much for the old chief's patience.  For the last
+ten minutes his lips had been, figuratively speaking, positively
+watering over the Masai Lygonani, and this he could not stand.
+Placing his long hand on the Elmoran's shoulder he gripped it
+and gave him such a twist as brought him face to face with himself.
+Then, thrusting his fierce countenance to within a few inches
+of the Masai's evil feather-framed features, he said in a low
+growling voice: --
+
+'Seest thou me?'
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see thee.'
+
+'And seest thou this?' and he held Inkosi-kaas before his eyes.
+
+'Ay, fellow, I see the toy; what of it?'
+
+'Thou Masai dog, thou boasting windbag, thou capturer of little
+girls, with this "toy" will I hew thee limb from limb.  Well
+for thee that thou art a herald, or even now would I strew thy
+members about the grass.'
+
+The Masai shook his great spear and laughed loud and long as
+he answered, 'I would that thou stoodst against me man to man,
+and we would see,' and again he turned to go still laughing.
+
+'Thou shalt stand against me man to man, be not afraid,' replied
+Umslopogaas, still in the same ominous voice.  'Thou shalt stand
+face to face with Umslopogaas, of the blood of Chaka, of the
+people of the Amazulu, a captain in the regiment of the Nkomabakosi,
+as many have done before, and bow thyself to Inkosi-kaas, as
+many have done before.  Ay, laugh on, laugh on! tomorrow night
+shall the jackals laugh as they crunch thy ribs.'
+
+When the Lygonani had gone, one of us thought of opening the
+basket he had brought as a proof that Flossie was really their
+prisoner.  On lifting the lid it was found to contain a most
+lovely specimen of both bulb and flower of the Goya lily, which
+I have already described, in full bloom and quite uninjured,
+and what was more a note in Flossie's childish hand written in
+pencil upon a greasy piece of paper that had been used to wrap
+up some food in: --
+
+
+'Dearest Father and Mother,' ran the note, 'The Masai caught
+us when we were coming home with the lily.  I tried to escape
+but could not.  They killed Tom: the other man ran away.  They
+have not hurt nurse and me, but say that they mean to exchange
+us against one of Mr Quatermain's party.  _I will have nothing
+of the sort_.  Do not let anybody give his life for me.  Try and
+attack them at night; they are going to feast on three bullocks
+they have stolen and killed.  I have my pistol, and if no help
+comes by dawn I will shoot myself.  They shall not kill me.
+If so, remember me always, dearest father and mother.  I am very
+frightened, but I trust in God.  I dare not write any more as
+they are beginning to notice.  Goodbye.  -- Flossie.'
+
+
+Scrawled across the outside of this was 'Love to Mr Quatermain.
+They are going to take the basket, so he will get the lily.'
+
+When I read those words, written by that brave little girl in
+an hour of danger sufficiently near and horrible to have turned
+the brain of a strong man, I own I wept, and once more in my
+heart I vowed that she should not die while my life could be
+given to save her.
+
+Then eagerly, quickly, almost fiercely, we fell to discussing
+the situation.  Again I said that I would go, and again Mackenzie
+negatived it, and Curtis and Good, like the true men that they
+are, vowed that, if I did, they would go with me, and die back
+to back with me.
+
+'It is,' I said at last, 'absolutely necessary that an effort
+of some sort should be made before the morning.'
+
+'Then let us attack them with what force we can muster, and take
+our chance,' said Sir Henry.
+
+'Ay, ay,' growled Umslopogaas, in Zulu; 'spoken like a man, Incubu.
+What is there to be afraid of?  Two hundred and fifty Masai,
+forsooth!  How many are we?  The chief there [Mr Mackenzie] has
+twenty men, and thou, Macumazahn, hast five men, and there are
+also five white men -- that is, thirty men in all -- enough,
+enough.  Listen now, Macumazahn, thou who art very clever and
+old in war.  What says the maid?  These men eat and make merry;
+let it be their funeral feast.  What said the dog whom I hope
+to hew down at daybreak?  That he feared no attack because we
+were so few.  Knowest thou the old kraal where the men have camped?
+I saw it this morning; it is thus:' and he drew an oval on the
+floor; 'here is the big entrance, filled up with thorn bushes,
+and opening on to a steep rise.  Why, Incubu, thou and I with
+axes will hold it against an hundred men striving to break out!
+Look, now; thus shall the battle go.  Just as the light begins
+to glint upon the oxen's horns -- not before, or it will be too
+dark, and not later, or they will be awakening and perceive us
+-- let Bougwan creep round with ten men to the top end of the
+kraal, where the narrow entrance is.  Let them silently slay
+the sentry there so that he makes no sound, and stand ready.
+Then, Incubu, let thee and me and one of the Askari -- the one
+with the broad chest -- he is a brave man -- creep to the wide
+entrance that is filled with thorn bushes, and there also slay
+the sentry, and armed with battleaxes take our stand also one
+on each side of the pathway, and one a few paces beyond to deal
+with such as pass the twain at the gate.  It is there that the
+rush will come.  That will leave sixteen men.  Let these men
+be divided into two parties, with one of which shalt thou go,
+Macumazahn, and with one the "praying man" [Mr Mackenzie], and,
+all armed with rifles, let them make their way one to the right
+side of the kraal and one to the left; and when thou, Macumazahn,
+lowest like an ox, all shall open fire with the guns upon the
+sleeping men, being very careful not to hit the little maid.
+Then shall Bougwan at the far end and his ten men raise the
+war-cry, and, springing over the wall, put the Masai there to
+the sword.  And it shall happen that, being yet heavy with food
+and sleep, and bewildered by the firing of the guns, the falling
+of men, and the spears of Bougwan, the soldiers shall rise and
+rush like wild game towards the thorn-stopped entrance, and there
+the bullets from either side shall plough through them, and there
+shall Incubu and the Askari and I wait for those who break across.
+Such is my plan, Macumazahn; if thou hast a better, name it.'
+
+When he had done, I explained to the others such portions of
+his scheme as they had failed to understand, and they all joined
+with me in expressing the greatest admiration of the acute and
+skilful programme devised by the old Zulu, who was indeed, in
+his own savage fashion, the finest general I ever knew.  After
+some discussion we determined to accept the scheme, as it stood,
+it being the only one possible under the circumstances, and giving
+the best chance of success that such a forlorn hope would admit
+of -- which, however, considering the enormous odds and the character
+of our foe, was not very great.
+
+'Ah, old lion!' I said to Umslopogaas, 'thou knowest how to lie
+in wait as well as how to bite, where to seize as well as where
+to hang on.'
+
+'Ay, ay, Macumazahn,' he answered.  'For thirty years have I
+been a warrior, and have seen many things.  It will be a good fight.
+I smell blood -- I tell thee, I smell blood.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+THE NIGHT WEARS ON
+
+
+
+As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire
+population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the
+stout stone wall, and were now to be seen -- men, women, and
+countless children -- huddled up together in little groups, and
+all talking at once in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners
+and customs, and of the fate that they had to expect if those
+bloodthirsty savages succeeded in getting over the stone wall.
+
+Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan
+of action as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for
+four sharp boys of from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatched
+them to various points where they could keep an outlook upon
+the Masai camp, with others to report from time to time what
+was going on.  Other lads and even women were stationed at intervals
+along the wall in order to guard against the possibility of surprise.
+
+After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting
+force were summoned by our host into the square formed by the
+house, and there, standing by the bole of the great conifer,
+he earnestly addressed them and our four Askari.  Indeed, it
+formed a very impressive scene -- one not likely to be forgotten
+by anybody who witnessed it.  Immediately by the tree stood the
+angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched as he talked,
+and the other resting against the giant bole, his hat off, and
+his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of his
+mind.  Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair,
+had her face hidden in her hand.  On the other side of her was
+Alphonse, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood
+the three of us, with Umslopogaas' grim and towering form in
+the background, resting, as usual, on his axe.  In front stood
+and squatted the group of armed men -- some with rifles in their
+hands, and others with spears and shields -- following with eager
+attention every word that fell from the speaker's lips.  The
+white light of the moon peering in beneath the lofty boughs threw
+a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the melancholy
+soughing of the night wind passing through the millions of pine
+needles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already
+a sufficiently tragic occasion.
+
+'Men,' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances
+of the case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them
+the proposed plan of our forlorn hope -- 'men, for years I have
+been a good friend to you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding
+you and yours from harm, and ye have prospered with me.  Ye have
+seen my child -- the Water-lily, as ye call her -- grow year
+by year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood, and from
+childhood on towards maidenhood.  She has been your children's
+playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved
+her.'
+
+'We have,' said a deep voice, 'and we will die to save her.'
+
+'I thank you from my heart -- I thank you.  Sure am I that now,
+in this hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like
+to be cut off by cruel and savage men -- who of a truth "know
+not what they do" -- ye will strive your best to save her, and
+to save me and her mother from broken hearts.  Think, too, of
+your own wives and children.  If she dies, her death will be
+followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even if
+we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and
+your goods and cattle swept away.  I am, as ye well know, a man
+of peace.  Never in all these years have I lifted my hand to
+shed man's blood; but now I say strike, strike, in the name of
+God, Who bade us protect our lives and homes.  Swear to me,'
+he went on with added fervour -- 'swear to me that whilst a man
+of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost with me and
+with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody and
+cruel death.'
+
+'Say no more, my father,' said the same deep voice, that belonged
+to a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'we swear it.  May we and
+ours die the death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals
+and the kites, if we break the oath!  It is a fearful thing to
+do, my father, so few to strike at so many, yet will we do it
+or die in the doing.  We swear!'
+
+'Ay, thus say we all,' chimed in the others.
+
+'Thus say we all,' said I.
+
+'It is well,' went on Mr Mackenzie.  'Ye are true men and not
+broken reeds to lean on.  And now, friends -- white and black
+together -- let us kneel and offer up our humble supplication
+to the Throne of Power, praying that He in the hollow of Whose
+hand lie all our lives, Who giveth life and giveth death, may
+be pleased to make strong our arms that we may prevail in what
+awaits us at the morning's light.'
+
+And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except Umslopogaas,
+who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on Inkosi-kaas.
+The fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped nought, unless
+it were his battleaxe.
+
+'Oh God of gods!' began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous
+with emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof;
+'Protector of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian
+of the helpless, hear Thou our prayer!  Almighty Father, to Thee
+we come in supplication.  Hear Thou our prayer!  Behold, one
+child hast Thou given us -- an innocent child, nurtured in Thy
+knowledge -- and now she lies beneath the shadow of the sword,
+in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men.  Be
+with her now, oh God, and comfort her!  Save her, oh Heavenly
+Father!  Oh God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and
+our fingers to fight, in Whose strength are hid the destinies
+of men, be Thou with us in the hour of strife.  When we go forth
+into the shadow of death, make Thou us strong to conquer.  Breathe
+Thou upon our foes and scatter them; turn Thou their strength
+to water, and bring their high-blown pride to nought; compass
+us about with Thy protection; throw over us the shield of Thy
+power; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; help
+us now that the cruel man would dash our little ones against
+the stones!  Hear Thou our prayer!  And for those of us who,
+kneeling now on earth in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise
+adore Thy Presence on the Throne, hear our prayer!  Make them
+clean, oh God; wash away their offences in the blood of the Lamb;
+and when their spirits pass, oh receive Thou them into the haven
+of the just.  Go forth, oh Father, go forth with us into the
+battle, as with the Israelites of old.  Oh God of battle, hear
+Thou our prayer!'
+
+He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and then
+began our preparations in good earnest.  As Umslopogaas said,
+it was time to stop 'talking' and get to business.  The men who
+were to form each little party were carefully selected, and still
+more carefully and minutely instructed as to what was to be done.
+After much consideration it was agreed that the ten men led
+by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not to
+carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself,
+who had a revolver as well as a short sword -- the Masai 'sime'
+which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered
+in the canoe.  We feared that if they had firearms the result
+of three cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of
+our own people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of
+us that the work they had to do would best be carried out with
+cold steel -- especially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great
+advocate of cold steel.  We had with us four Winchester repeating
+rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis.  I armed myself with one
+of the repeaters -- my own; an excellent weapon for this kind
+of work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and fitted
+with ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome sliding mechanism
+which they generally have.  Mr Mackenzie took another, and the
+two remaining ones were given to two of his men who understood
+the use of them and were noted shots.  The Martinis and some
+rifles of Mr Mackenzie's were served out, together with a plentiful
+supply of ammunition, to the other natives who were to form the
+two parties whose duty it was to be to open fire from separate
+sides of the kraal on the sleeping Masai, and who were fortunately
+all more or less accustomed to the use of a gun.
+
+As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed -- with an axe.
+It may be remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of
+the Askari were to hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal
+against the anticipated rush of men striving to escape.  Of course,
+for such a purpose as this guns were useless.  Therefore Sir
+Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm themselves in like fashion.
+It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his little store a selection
+of the very best and English-made hammer-backed axe-heads.  Sir
+Henry selected one of these weighing about two and a half pounds
+and very broad in the blade, and the Askari took another a size
+smaller.  After Umslopogaas had put an extra edge on these two
+axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which Mr
+Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock, made of a light but
+exceedingly tough native wood, something like English ash, only
+more springy.  When two suitable helves had been selected with
+great care and the ends of the hafts notched to prevent the hand
+from slipping, the axe-heads were fixed on them as firmly as
+possible, and the weapons immersed in a bucket of water for half
+an hour.  The result of this was to swell the wood in the socket
+in such a fashion that nothing short of burning would get it
+out again.  When this important matter had been attended to by
+Umslopogaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a little
+tin-lined deal case, which contained -- what do you think? --
+nothing more or less than four mail shirts.
+
+It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had
+made in another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts
+of native make, and remembering this, I had suggested before
+we started on our present hazardous expedition that we should
+have some made to fit us.  There was a little difficulty about
+this, as armour-making is pretty well an extinct art, but they
+can do most things in the way of steel work in Birmingham if
+they are put to it and you will pay the price, and the end of
+it was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts it
+is possible to see.  The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the
+web being composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny
+rings of the best steel made.  These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved
+and high-necked jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather,
+were not bright, but browned like the barrel of a gun; and mine
+weighed exactly seven pounds and fitted me so well that I found
+I could wear it for days next to my skin without being chafed.
+Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary make, viz. a jersey with
+little dependent flaps meant to afford some protection to the
+upper part of the thighs, and another of his own design fashioned
+on the pattern of the garments advertised as 'combinations' and
+weighing twelve pounds.  This combination shirt, of which the
+seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down
+to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it
+had to be laced up at the back and, of course, involved some
+extra weight.  With these shirts were what looked like four brown
+cloth travelling caps with ear pieces.  Each of these caps was,
+however, quilted with steel links so as to afford a most valuable
+protection for the head.
+
+It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days
+of bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but
+where one has to do with savages, armed with cutting weapons
+such as assegais or battleaxes, they afford the most valuable
+protection, being, if well made, quite invulnerable to them.
+I have often thought that if only the English Government had
+in our savage wars, and more especially in the Zulu war, thought
+fit to serve out light steel shirts, there would be many a man
+alive today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten.
+
+To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in
+bringing these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had
+not been stolen by our rascally bearers when they ran away with
+our goods.  As Curtis had two, and after considerable deliberation,
+had made up his mind to wear his combination one himself -- the
+extra three or four pounds' weight being a matter of no account
+to so strong a man, and the protection afforded to the thighs
+being a very important matter to a fighting man not armed with
+a shield of any kind -- I suggested that he should lend the other
+to Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory of
+his post.  He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who came
+bearing Sir Henry's axe, which he had now fixed up to his satisfaction,
+with him.  When we showed him the steel shirt, and explained
+to him that we wanted him to wear it, he at first declined, saying
+that he had fought in his own skin for thirty years, and that
+he was not going to begin now to fight in an iron one.  Thereupon
+I took a heavy spear, and, spreading the shirt upon the floor,
+drove the spear down upon it with all my strength, the weapon
+rebounding without leaving a mark upon the tempered steel.  This
+exhibition half converted him; and when I pointed out to him
+how necessary it was that he should not let any old-fashioned
+prejudices he might possess stand in the way of a precaution
+which might preserve a valuable life at a time when men were
+scarce, and also that if he wore this shirt he might dispense
+with a shield, and so have both hands free, he yielded at once,
+and proceeded to invest his frame with the 'iron skin'.  And
+indeed, although made for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu
+like a skin.  The two men were almost of a height; and, though
+Curtis looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that the
+difference was more imaginary than real, the fact being that,
+although he was plumper and rounder, he was not really bigger,
+except in the arm.  Umslopogaas had, comparatively speaking,
+thin arms, but they were as strong as wire ropes.  At any rate,
+when they both stood, axe in hand, invested in the brown mail,
+which clung to their mighty forms like a web garment, showing
+the swell of every muscle and the curve of every line, they formed
+a pair that any ten men might shrink from meeting.
+
+It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning, and the spies reported
+that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten enormous
+quantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round their
+watchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each opening
+of the kraal.  Flossie, they added, was sitting not far from
+the wall in the centre of the western side of the kraal, and
+by her were the nurse and the white donkey, which was tethered
+to a peg.  Her feet were bound with a rope, and warriors were
+lying about all round her.
+
+As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then
+we all took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of
+hours.  I could not help admiring the way in which old Umslopogaas
+flung himself upon the floor, and, unmindful of what was hanging
+over him, instantly sank into a deep sleep.  I do not know how
+it was with the others, but I could not do as much.  Indeed,
+as is usual with me on these occasions, I am sorry to say that
+I felt rather frightened; and, now that some of the enthusiasm
+had gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate what we
+had undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did not
+like it.  We were but thirty men all told, a good many of whom
+were no doubt quite unused to fighting, and we were going to
+engage two hundred and fifty of the fiercest, bravest, and most
+formidable savages in Africa, who, to make matters worse, were
+protected by a stone wall.  It was, indeed, a mad undertaking,
+and what made it even madder was the exceeding improbability
+of our being able to take up our positions without attracting
+the notice of the sentries.  Of course if we once did that --
+and any slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun,
+might do it -- we were done for, for the whole camp would be
+up in a second, and our only hope lay in surprise.
+
+The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable reflections
+was near an open window that looked on to the veranda, through
+which came an extraordinary sound of groaning and weeping.  For
+a time I could not make out what it was, but at last I got up
+and, putting my head out of the window, stared about.  Presently
+I saw a dim figure kneeling on the end of the veranda and beating
+his breast -- in which I recognized Alphonse.  Not being able
+to understand his French talk or what on earth he was at, I called
+to him and asked him what he was doing.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he sighed, 'I do make prayer for the souls of
+those whom I shall slay tonight.'
+
+'Indeed,' I said, 'then I wish that you would do it a little
+more quietly.'
+
+Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans.  And so
+the time passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a whisper
+through the window, for of course everything had now to be done
+in the most absolute silence.  'Three o'clock,' he said: 'we
+must begin to move at half-past.'
+
+I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound
+to say that if it had not been that just then I had not got a
+laugh anywhere about me, I should have exploded at the sight
+he presented armed for battle.  To begin with, he had on a clergyman's
+black swallow-tail and a kind of broad-rimmed black felt hat,
+both of which he had donned on account, he said, of their dark
+colour.  In his hand was the Winchester repeating rifle we had
+lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing belt, like those
+worn by English boys, were, first, a huge buckhorn-handled carving
+knife with a guard to it, and next a long-barrelled Colt's revolver.
+
+'Ah, my friend,' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'you
+are looking at my "carver".  I thought it might come in handy
+if we came to close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many
+is the pig I have killed with it.'
+
+By this time everybody was up and dressing.  I put on a light
+Norfolk jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy
+to hold my cartridges, and buckled on my revolver.  Good did
+the same, but Sir Henry put on nothing except his mail shirt,
+steel-lined cap, and a pair of 'veldt-schoons' or soft hide shoes,
+his legs being bare from the knees down.  His revolver he strapped
+on round his middle outside the armoured shirt.
+
+Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under
+the big tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly
+armed, etc.  At the last moment we made one change.  Finding
+that two of the men who were to have gone with the firing parties
+knew little or nothing of guns, but were good spearsmen, we took
+away their rifles, supplied them with shields and long spears
+of the Masai pattern, and took them off to join Curtis, Umslopogaas,
+and the Askari in holding the wide opening; it having become
+clear to us that three men, however brave and strong, were too
+few for the work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
+
+
+
+Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent
+darkness waiting till the moment came to start.  It was, perhaps,
+the most trying time of all -- that slow, slow quarter of an
+hour.  The minutes seemed to drag along with leaden feet, and
+the quiet, the solemn hush, that brooded over all -- big, as
+it were, with a coming fate, was most oppressive to the spirits.
+I once remember having to get up before dawn to see a man hanged,
+and I then went through a very similar set of sensations, only
+in the present instance my feelings were animated by that more
+vivid and personal element which naturally appertains rather
+to the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic
+spectator.  The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the
+short passage of an hour would mean for some, and perhaps all
+of them, the last great passage to the unknown or oblivion; the
+bated whispers in which they spoke; even Sir Henry's continuous
+and thoughtful examination of his woodcutter's axe and the fidgety
+way in which Good kept polishing his eyeglass, all told the same
+tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to breaking-point.  Only
+Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and taking an
+occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly and
+completely unmoved.  Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
+
+The moon went down.  For a long while she had been getting nearer
+and nearer to the horizon.  Now she finally sank and left the
+world in darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern
+sky that palely heralded the dawn.
+
+Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm
+and striving to stifle her sobs.
+
+'Twenty minutes to four,' he said, 'it ought to be light enough
+to attack at twenty minutes past four.  Captain Good had better
+be moving, he will want three or four minutes' start.'
+
+Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a
+jocular sort of way -- which I could not help feeling it must
+have cost him something to muster up -- and, ever polite, took
+off his steel-lined cap to Mrs Mackenzie and started for his
+position at the head of the kraal, to reach which he had to make
+a detour by some paths known to the natives.
+
+Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody
+in the Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who
+were walking up and down in front of the respective entrances,
+appeared to be fast asleep.  Then the rest of us took the road.
+First came the guide, then Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi
+Askari, and Mr Mackenzie's two mission natives armed with long
+spears and shields.  I followed immediately after with Alphonse
+and five natives all armed with guns, and Mr Mackenzie brought
+up the rear with the six remaining natives.
+
+The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot
+of the hill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about
+eight hundred yards from the Mission buildings.  The first five
+hundred yards of this distance we traversed quietly indeed, but
+at a good pace; after that we crept forward as silently as a
+leopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts from bush to bush and
+stone to stone.  When I had gone a little way I chanced to look
+behind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggering along
+with white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which was
+at full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back.  Having
+halted and carefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again,
+and all went well till we were within one hundred yards or so
+of the kraal, when his teeth began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
+
+'If you don't stop that I will kill you,' I whispered savagely;
+for the idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering
+cook was too much for me.  I began to fear that he would betray
+us, and heartily wished we had left him behind.
+
+'But, monsieur, I cannot help it,' he answered, 'it is the cold.'
+
+Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan.  In the
+pocket of the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that
+I had used some time before to clean a gun with.  'Put this in
+your mouth,' I whispered again, giving him the rag; 'and if I
+hear another sound you are a dead man.'  I knew that that would
+stifle the clatter of his teeth.  I must have looked as if I
+meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and continued
+his journey in silence.
+
+Then we crept on again.
+
+At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal.  Between us
+and it was an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa
+bush and a couple of tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover.
+We were still hidden in fairly thick bush.  It was beginning
+to grow light.  The stars had paled and a sickly gleam played
+about the east and was reflected on the earth.  We could see
+the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also make
+out the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires.
+We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at
+the opening.  Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking
+idly up and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance.
+We had hoped to catch him napping, but it was not to be.  He
+seemed particularly wide awake.  If we could not kill that man,
+and kill him silently, we were lost.  There we crouched and watched
+him.  Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces ahead of me,
+turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go down on
+his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when the
+sentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grass
+without a sound.
+
+The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas
+crept on.  He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived
+and there waited.  Still the sentry walked up and down.  Presently
+he turned and looked over the wall into the camp.  Instantly
+the human snake who was stalking him glided on ten yards and
+got behind one of the tussocks of the thistle-like plant, reaching
+it as the Elmoran turned again.  As he did so his eye fell upon
+this patch of thistles, and it seemed to strike him that it did
+not look quite right.  He advanced a pace towards it -- halted,
+yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw it
+at it.  It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the
+armour shirt.  Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us.
+Luckily, too, the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which
+would certainly have been detected.  Apparently satisfied that
+there was nothing wrong, he then gave over his investigations
+and contented himself with leaning on his spear and standing
+gazing idly at the tuft.  For at least three minutes did he stand
+thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, and there we lay
+in the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every moment that
+we should be discovered or that some untoward accident would
+happen.  I could hear Alphonse's teeth going like anything on
+the oiled rag, and turning my head round made an awful face at
+him.  But I am bound to state that my own heart was at much the
+same game as the Frenchman's castanets, while the perspiration
+was pouring from my body, causing the wash-leather-lined shirt
+to stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether I was in the pitiable
+state known by schoolboys as a 'blue fright'.
+
+At last the ordeal came to an end.  The sentry glanced at the
+east, and appeared to note with satisfaction that his period
+of duty was coming to an end -- as indeed it was, once and for
+all -- for he rubbed his hands and began to walk again briskly
+to warm himself.
+
+The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on
+again, and reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a
+couple of paces of his return beat.
+
+Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterly
+unconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it.  Had
+he looked down he could scarcely have failed to see, but he did
+not do so.
+
+He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself,
+and with outstretched hand followed in his tracks.
+
+A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the
+great Zulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could see
+his long lean hands close round the Masai's throat.  Then followed
+a convulsive twining of the two dark bodies, and in another second
+I saw the Masai's head bent back, and heard a sharp crack, something
+like that of a dry twig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground,
+his limbs moving spasmodically.
+
+Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the
+warrior's neck.
+
+For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat
+till he was sure that there was nothing more to fear from him,
+and then he rose and beckoned to us to advance, which we did
+on all fours, like a colony of huge apes.  On reaching the kraal
+we saw that the Masai had still further choked this entrance,
+which was about ten feet wide -- no doubt in order to guard against
+attack -- by dragging four or five tops of mimosa trees up to
+it.  So much the better for us, I reflected; the more obstruction
+there was the slower would they be able to come through.  Here
+we separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadow
+of the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas took
+their stations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmen
+and the Askari lying down in front of it.  I and my men crept
+on up the right side of the kraal, which was about fifty paces
+long.
+
+When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances
+of four paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me,
+however.  Then I peeped for the first time over the wall.  It
+was getting fairly light now, and the first thing I saw was the
+white donkey, exactly opposite to me, and close by it I could
+make out the pale face of little Flossie, who was sitting as
+the lad had described, some ten paces from the wall.  Round her
+lay many warriors, sleeping.  At distances all over the surface
+of the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which slept
+some five-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food.
+Now and then a man would raise himself, yawn, and look at the
+east, which was turning primrose; but none got up.  I determined
+to wait another five minutes, both to allow the light to increase,
+so that we could make better shooting, and to give Good and his
+party -- of whom we could see or hear nothing -- every opportunity
+to make ready.
+
+The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain
+and forest and river -- mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence
+of eternal snows, looked out across the earth -- till presently
+a beam from the unrisen sun lit upon his heaven-kissing crest
+and purpled it with blood; the sky above grew blue, and tender
+as a mother's smile; a bird began to pipe his morning song, and
+a little breeze passing through the bush shook down the dewdrops
+in millions to refresh the waking world.  Everywhere was peace
+and the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in the
+heart of cruel man!
+
+Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having
+already selected my man on whom I meant to open fire -- a great
+fellow sprawling on the ground within three feet of little Flossie
+-- Alphonse's teeth began to chatter again like the hoofs of
+a galloping giraffe, making a great noise in the silence.  The
+rag had dropped out in the agitation of his mind.  Instantly
+a Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sitting up, gazed
+about him, looking for the cause of the sound.  Moved beyond
+myself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pit
+of the Frenchman's stomach.  This stopped his chattering; but,
+as he doubled up, he managed to let off his gun in such a manner
+that the bullet passed within an inch of my head.
+
+There was no need for a signal now.  From both sides of the kraal
+broke out a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing
+with a snap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he
+was jumping up.  Then from the top end of the kraal there rang
+an awful yell, in which I rejoiced to recognize Good's piercing
+notes rising clear and shrill above the din, and in another second
+followed such a scene as I have never seen before nor shall again.
+With an universal howl of terror and fury the brawny crowd of
+savages within the kraal sprang to their feet, many of them to
+fall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead before they
+had moved a yard.  For a moment they stood undecided, and then
+hearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the top
+end of the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they
+as by one impulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance.
+As they went we kept pouring our fire with terrible effect into
+the thickening mob as fast as we could load.  I had emptied my
+repeater of the ten shots it contained and was just beginning
+to slip in some more when I bethought me of little Flossie.
+Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lying kicking, having
+been knocked over either by one of our bullets or a Masai spear-thrust.
+There were no living Masai near, but the black nurse was on
+her feet and with a spear cutting the rope that bound Flossie's
+feet.  Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and began
+to climb over it, an example which the little girl followed.
+But Flossie was evidently very stiff and cramped, and could
+only go slowly, and as she went two Masai flying down the kraal
+caught sight of her and rushed towards her to kill her.  The
+first fellow came up just as the poor little girl, after a desperate
+effort to climb the wall, fell back into the kraal.  Up flashed
+the great spear, and as it did so a bullet from my rifle found
+its home in the holder's ribs, and over he went like a shot rabbit.
+But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had only that
+one cartridge in the magazine!  Flossie had scrambled to her
+feet and was facing the second man, who was advancing with raised
+spear.  I turned my head aside and felt sick as death.  I could
+not bear to see him stab her.  Glancing up again, to my surprise
+I saw the Masai's spear lying on the ground, while the man himself
+was staggering about with both hands to his head.  Suddenly I
+saw a puff of smoke proceeding apparently from Flossie, and the
+man fell down headlong.  Then I remembered the Derringer pistol
+she carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it at
+him, thereby saving her life.  In another instant she had made
+an effort, and assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top,
+had scrambled over the wall, and I knew that she was, comparatively
+speaking, safe.
+
+All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took
+more than fifteen seconds to enact.  I soon got the magazine
+of the repeater filled again with cartridges, and once more opened
+fire, not on the seething black mass which was gathering at the
+end of the kraal, but on fugitives who bethought them to climb
+the wall.  I picked off several of these men, moving down towards
+the end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving at the corner,
+or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see, and by means
+of my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took place
+there.
+
+By this time some two hundred Masai -- allowing that we had up
+to the present accounted for fifty -- had gathered together in
+front of the thorn-stopped entrance, drive thither by the spears
+of Good's men, whom they doubtless supposed were a large force
+instead of being but ten strong.  For some reason it never occurred
+to them to try and rush the wall, which they could have scrambled
+over with comparative ease; they all made for the fence, which
+was really a strongly interwoven fortification.  With a bound
+the first warrior went at it, and even before he touched the
+ground on the other side I saw Sir Henry's great axe swing up
+and fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, and he
+sank into the middle of the thorns.  Then with a yell and a crash
+they began to break through as they might, and ever as they came
+the great axe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead
+one by one, each man thus helping to build up a barrier against
+his fellows.  Those who escaped the axes of the pair fell at
+the hands of the Askari and the two Mission Kaffirs, and those
+who passed scatheless from them were brought low by my own and
+Mackenzie's fire.
+
+Faster and more furious grew the fighting.  Single Masai would
+spring upon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one
+or other of the axemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly
+to the mail shirts, the result was always the same.  Presently
+there was a great swing of the axe, a crashing sound, and another
+dead Masai.  That is, if the man was engaged with Sir Henry.
+If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with the result indeed
+would be the same, but it would be differently attained.  It
+was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handed
+stroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continually
+at his adversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end
+of the axe as a woodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood.
+Presently a peck would go home, and his enemy would drop down
+with a neat little circular hole in his forehead or skull, exactly
+similar to that which a cheese-scoop makes in a cheese.  He never
+used the broad blade of the axe except when hard pressed, or
+when striking at a shield.  He told me afterwards that he did
+not consider it sportsmanlike.
+
+Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had
+to cease firing into the mass for fear of killing some of them
+(as it was, one of them was slain in this way).  Mad and desperate
+with fear, the Masai by a frantic effort burst through the thorn
+fence and piled-up dead, and, sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, and
+the other three before them, into the open.  And now it was that
+we began to lose men fast.  Down went our poor Askari who was
+armed with the axe, a great spear standing out a foot behind
+his back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood with
+him went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others of
+our party shared their fate.  For a moment I feared the fight
+was lost -- certainly it trembled in the balance.  I shouted
+to my men to cast down their rifles, and to take spears and throw
+themselves into the melee.  They obeyed, their blood being now
+thoroughly up, and Mr Mackenzie's people followed their example.
+
+This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung
+in the balance.
+
+Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the
+dark mass of Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain.
+And ever above the din rose Good's awful yell of encouragement
+as he plunged to wherever the fight was thickest; and ever, with
+an almost machine-like regularity, the two axes rose and fell,
+carrying death and disablement at every stroke.  But I could
+see that the strain was beginning to tell upon Sir Henry, who
+was bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breath was coming
+in gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blue and
+knotted cords.  Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, was
+hard pressed.  I noticed that he had given up 'woodpecking',
+and was now using the broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, 'browning'
+his enemy wherever he could hit him, instead of drilling scientific
+holes in his head.  I myself did not go into the melee, but hovered
+outside like the swift 'back' in a football scrimmage, putting
+a bullet through a Masai whenever I got a chance.  I was more
+use so.  I fired forty-nine cartridges that morning, and I did
+not miss many shots.
+
+Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise
+against us.  We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives
+left now, and the Masai had at least fifty.  Of course if they
+had kept their heads, and shaken themselves together, they could
+soon have made an end of the matter; but that is just what they
+did not do, not having yet recovered from their start, and some
+of them having actually fled from their sleeping-places without
+their weapons.  Still by now many individuals were fighting with
+their normal courage and discretion, and this alone was sufficient
+to defeat us.  To make matters worse just then, when Mackenzie's
+rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a 'sime', or sword,
+made a rush for him.  The clergyman flung down his gun, and drawing
+his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had dropped
+out in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle.  Presently,
+locked in a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on the
+ground behind the wall, and for some time I, being amply occupied
+with my own affairs, and in keeping my skin from being pricked,
+remained in ignorance of his fate or how the duel had ended.
+
+To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex
+of a human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for
+us.  Just then, however, a fortunate thing happened.  Umslopogaas,
+either by accident or design, broke out of the ring and engaged
+a warrior at some few paces from it.  As he did so, another man
+ran up and struck him with all his force between his shoulders
+with his great spear, which, falling on the tough steel shirt,
+failed to pierce it and rebounded.  For a moment the man stared
+aghast -- protective armour being unknown among these tribes
+-- and then he yelled out at the top of his voice --
+
+'_They are devils -- bewitched, bewitched!_'  And seized by a
+sudden panic, he threw down his spear, and began to fly.  I cut
+short his career with a bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man,
+and then the panic spread to the others.
+
+'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in every
+direction, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most
+part even throwing down their shields and spears.
+
+On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell.  It
+was a slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked
+or given.  One incident, however, is worth detailing.  Just as
+I was hoping that it was all done with, suddenly from under a
+heap of slain where he had been hiding, an unwounded warrior
+sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying dead like an antelope,
+sped like the wind up the kraal towards the spot where I was
+standing at the moment.  But he was not alone, for Umslopogaas
+came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like motion
+for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in
+the Masai the herald of the previous night.  Finding that, run
+as he would, his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and
+turned round to give battle.  Umslopogaas also pulled up.
+
+'Ah, ah,' he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, 'it is thou whom
+I talked with last night -- the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer
+of little girls -- he who would kill a little girl!  And thou
+didst hope to stand man to man and face to face with Umslopogaas,
+an Induna of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of the
+Amazulu?  Behold, thy prayer is granted!  And I didst swear to
+hew thee limb from limb, thou insolent dog.  Behold, I will do
+it even now!'
+
+The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu
+with his spear.  As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside,
+and swinging Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands,
+brought the broad blade down with such fearful force from behind
+upon the Masai's shoulder just where the neck is set into the
+frame, that its razor edge shore right through bone and flesh
+and muscle, almost severing the head and one arm from the body.
+
+'_Ou!_' ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe;
+'I have kept my word.  It was a good stroke.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+ALPHONSE EXPLAINS
+
+
+And so the fight was ended.  On returning from the shocking scene
+it sudden struck me that I had seen nothing of Alphonse since
+the moment, some twenty minutes before -- for though this fight
+has taken a long while to describe, it did not take long in reality
+-- when I had been forced to hit him in the wind with the result
+of nearly getting myself shot.  Fearing that the poor little
+man had perished in the battle, I began to hunt among the dead
+for his body, but, not being able either to see or hear anything
+of it, I concluded that he must have survived, and walked down
+the side of the kraal where we had first taken our stand, calling
+him by name.  Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal wall
+stood a very ancient tree of the banyan species.  So ancient
+was it that all the inside had in the course of ages decayed
+away, leaving nothing but a shell of bark.
+
+'Alphonse,' I called, as I walked down the wall.  'Alphonse!'
+
+'Oui, monsieur,' answered a voice.  'Here am I.'
+
+I looked round but could see nobody.  'Where?' I cried.
+
+'Here am I, monsieur, in the tree.'
+
+I looked, and there, peering out of a hole in the trunk of the
+banyan about five feet from the ground, I saw a pale face and
+a pair of large mustachios, one clipped short and the other as
+lamentably out of curl as the tail of a newly whipped pug.  Then,
+for the first time, I realized what I had suspected before --
+namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward.  I walked up to him.
+'Come out of that hole,' I said.
+
+'Is it finished, monsieur?' he asked anxiously; 'quite finished?
+Ah, the horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!'
+
+'Come out, you little wretch,' I said, for I did not feel amiable;
+'it is all over.'
+
+'So, monsieur, then my prayers have prevailed?  I emerge,'
+and he did.
+
+As we were walking down together to join the others, who were
+gathered in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which
+now resembled a veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped
+so far and been hiding under a bush, suddenly sprang up and charged
+furiously at us.  Off went Alphonse with a howl of terror, and
+after him flew the Masai, bent upon doing some execution before
+he died.  He soon overtook the poor little Frenchman, and would
+have finished him then and there had I not, just as Alphonse
+made a last agonized double in the vain hope of avoiding the
+yard of steel that was flashing in his immediate rear, managed
+to plant a bullet between the Elmoran's broad shoulders, which
+brought matters to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman
+was concerned.  But just then he tripped and fell flat, and the
+body of the Masai fell right on the top of him, moving convulsively
+in the death struggle.  Thereupon there arose such a series of
+piercing howls that I concluded that before he died the savage
+must have managed to stab poor Alphonse.  I ran up in a hurry
+and pulled the Masai off, and there beneath him lay Alphonse
+covered with blood and jerking himself about like a galvanized
+frog.  Poor fellow! thought I, he is done for, and kneeling down
+by him I began to search for his wound as well as his struggles
+would allow.
+
+'Oh, the hole in my back!' he yelled.  'I am murdered.  I am
+dead.  Oh, Annette!'
+
+I searched again, but could see no wound.  Then the truth dawned
+on me -- the man was frightened, not hurt.
+
+'Get up!' I shouted, 'Get up.  Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
+You are not touched.'
+
+Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse.  'But, monsieur, I
+thought I was,' he said apologetically; 'I did not know that
+I had conquered.'  Then, giving the body of the Masai a kick,
+he ejaculated triumphantly, 'Ah, dog of a black savage, thou
+art dead; what victory!'
+
+Thoroughly disgusted, I left Alphonse to look after himself,
+which he did by following me like a shadow, and proceeded to
+join the others by the large entrance.  The first thing that
+I saw was Mackenzie, seated on a stone with a handkerchief twisted
+round his thigh, from which he was bleeding freely, having, indeed,
+received a spear-thrust that passed right through it, and still
+holding in his hand his favourite carving knife now bent nearly
+double, from which I gathered that he had been successful in
+his rough and tumble with the Elmoran.
+
+'Ah, Quatermain!' he sang out in a trembling, excited voice,
+'so we have conquered; but it is a sorry sight, a sorry sight;'
+and then breaking into broad Scotch and glancing at the bent
+knife in his hand, 'It fashes me sair to have bent my best carver
+on the breastbone of a savage,' and he laughed hysterically.
+Poor fellow, what between his wound and the killing excitement
+he had undergone his nerves were much shaken, and no wonder!
+It is hard upon a man of peace and kindly heart to be called
+upon to join in such a gruesome business.  But there, fate puts
+us sometimes into very comical positions!
+
+At the kraal entrance the scene was a strange one.  The slaughter
+was over by now, and the wounded men had been put out of their
+pain, for no quarter had been given.  The bush-closed entrance
+was trampled flat, and in place of bushes it was filled with
+the bodies of dead men.  Dead men, everywhere dead men -- they
+lay about in knots, they were flung by ones and twos in every
+position upon the open spaces, for all the world like the people
+on the grass in one of the London parks on a particularly hot
+Sunday in August.  In front of this entrance, on a space which
+had been cleared of dead and of the shields and spears which
+were scattered in all directions as they had fallen or been thrown
+from the hands of their owners, stood and lay the survivors of
+the awful struggle, and at their feet were four wounded men.
+We had gone into the fight thirty strong, and of the thirty
+but fifteen remained alive, and five of them (including Mr Mackenzie)
+were wounded, two mortally.  Of those who held the entrance,
+Curtis and the Zulu alone remained.  Good had lost five men killed,
+I had lost two killed, and Mackenzie no less than five out of
+the six with him.  As for the survivors they were, with the exception
+of myself who had never come to close quarters, red from head
+to foot -- Sir Henry's armour might have been painted that colour
+-- and utterly exhausted, except Umslopogaas, who, as he grimly
+stood on a little mound above a heap of dead, leaning as usual
+upon his axe, did not seem particularly distressed, although
+the skin over the hole in his head palpitated violently.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn!' he said to me as I limped up, feeling very
+sick, 'I told thee that it would be a good fight, and it has.
+Never have I seen a better, or one more bravely fought.  As
+for this iron shirt, surely it is "tagati" [bewitched]; nothing
+could pierce it.  Had it not been for the garment I should have
+been _there_,' and he nodded towards the great pile of dead men
+beneath him.
+
+'I give it thee; thou art a brave man,' said Sir Henry, briefly.
+
+'Koos!' answered the Zulu, deeply pleased both at the gift and
+the compliment.  'Thou, too, Incubu, didst bear thyself as a
+man, but I must give thee some lessons with the axe; thou dost
+waste thy strength.'
+
+Just then Mackenzie asked about Flossie, and we were all greatly
+relieved when one of the men said he had seen her flying towards
+the house with the nurse.  Then bearing such of the wounded as
+could be moved at the moment with us, we slowly made our way
+towards the Mission-house, spent with toil and bloodshed, but
+with the glorious sense of victory against overwhelming odds
+glowing in our hearts.  We had saved the life of the little maid,
+and taught the Masai of those parts a lesson that they will not
+forget for ten years -- but at what a cost!
+
+Painfully we made our way up the hill which, just a little more
+than an hour before, we had descended under such different circumstances.
+At the gate of the wall stood Mrs Mackenzie waiting for us.
+When her eyes fell upon us, however, she shrieked out, and covered
+her face with her hands, crying, 'Horrible, horrible!'  Nor were
+her fears allayed when she discovered her worthy husband being
+borne upon an improvized stretcher; but her doubts as to the
+nature of his injury were soon set at rest.  Then when in a few
+brief words I had told her the upshot of the struggle (of which
+Flossie, who had arrived in safety, had been able to explain
+something) she came up to me and solemnly kissed me on the forehead.
+
+'God bless you all, Mr Quatermain; you have saved my child's
+life,' she said simply.
+
+Then we went in and got our clothes off and doctored our wounds;
+I am glad to say I had none, and Sir Henry's and Good's were,
+thanks to those invaluable chain shirts, of a comparatively harmless
+nature, and to be dealt with by means of a few stitches and sticking-
+plaster. Mackenzie's, however, were serious, though fortunately
+the spear had not severed any large artery.  After that we had
+a bath, and what a luxury it was!  And having clad ourselves
+in ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dining-room, where breakfast
+was set as usual.  It was curious sitting down there, drinking
+tea and eating toast in an ordinary nineteenth-century sort of
+way just as though we had not employed the early hours in a regular
+primitive hand-to-hand Middle-Ages kind of struggle.  As Good
+said, the whole thing seemed more as though one had had a bad
+nightmare just before being called, than as a deed done.  When
+we were finishing our breakfast the door opened, and in came
+little Flossie, very pale and tottery, but quite unhurt.  She
+kissed us all and thanked us.  I congratulated her on the presence
+of mind she had shown in shooting the Masai with her Derringer
+pistol, and thereby saving her own life.
+
+'Oh, don't talk of it!' she said, beginning to cry hysterically;
+'I shall never forget his face as he went turning round and round,
+never -- I can see it now.'
+
+I advised her to go to bed and get some sleep, which she did,
+and awoke in the evening quite recovered, so far as her strength
+was concerned.  It struck me as an odd thing that a girl who
+could find the nerve to shoot a huge black ruffian rushing to
+kill her with a spear should have been so affected at the thought
+of it afterwards; but it is, after all, characteristic of the
+sex.  Poor Flossie!  I fear that her nerves will not get over
+that night in the Masai camp for many a long year.  She told
+me afterwards that it was the suspense that was so awful, having
+to sit there hour after hour through the livelong night utterly
+ignorant as to whether or not any attempt was to be made to rescue
+her.  She said that on the whole she did not expect it, knowing
+how few of us, and how many of the Masai -- who, by the way,
+came continually to stare at her, most of them never having seen
+a white person before, and handled her arms and hair with their
+filthy paws.  She said also that she had made up her mind that
+if she saw no signs of succour by the time the first rays of
+the rising sun reached the kraal she would kill herself with
+the pistol, for the nurse had heard the Lygonani say that they
+were to be tortured to death as soon as the sun was up if one
+of the white men did not come in their place.  It was an awful
+resolution to have to take, but she meant to act on it, and I
+have little doubt but what she would have done so.  Although
+she was at an age when in England girls are in the schoolroom
+and come down to dessert, this 'child of the wilderness' had
+more courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a woman
+of mature age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefully
+drilled and educated out of any originality or self-resource
+that nature may have endowed them with.
+
+When breakfast was over we all turned in and had a good sleep,
+only getting up in time for dinner; after which meal we once
+more adjourned, together with all the available population --
+men, women, youths, and girls -- to the scene of the morning's
+slaughter, our object being to bury our own dead and get rid
+of the Masai by flinging them into the Tana River, which ran
+within fifty yards of the kraal.  On reaching the spot we disturbed
+thousands upon thousands of vultures and a sort of brown bush
+eagle, which had been flocking to the feast from miles and miles
+away.  Often have I watched these great and repulsive birds,
+and marvelled at the extraordinary speed with which they arrive
+on a scene of slaughter.  A buck falls to your rifle, and within
+a minute high in the blue ether appears a speck that gradually
+grows into a vulture, then another, and another.  I have heard
+many theories advanced to account for the wonderful power of
+perception nature has given these birds.  My own, founded on
+a good deal of observation, is that the vultures, gifted as they
+are with powers of sight greater than those given by the most
+powerful glass, quarter out the heavens among themselves, and
+hanging in mid-air at a vast height -- probably from two to three
+miles above the earth -- keep watch, each of them, over an enormous
+stretch of country.  Presently one of them spies food, and instantly
+begins to sink towards it.  Thereon his next neighbour in the
+airy heights sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at a distance
+perhaps of some miles, follows his example, knowing that food
+has been sighted.  Down he goes, and all the vultures within
+sight of him follow after, and so do all those in sight of them.
+In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be summoned
+to the feast in a few minutes.
+
+We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to
+read the Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie,
+confined to bed), as he was generally allowed to possess the
+best voice and most impressive manner.  It was melancholy in
+the extreme, but, as Good said, it might have been worse, for
+we might have had 'to bury ourselves'.  I pointed out that this
+would have been a difficult feat, but I knew what he meant.
+
+Next we set to work to load an ox-wagon which had been brought
+round from the Mission with the dead bodies of the Masai, having
+first collected the spears, shields, and other arms.  We loaded
+the wagon five times, about fifty bodies to the load, and emptied
+it into the Tana.  From this it was evident that very few of
+the Masai could have escaped.  The crocodiles must have been
+well fed that night.  One of the last bodies we picked up was
+that of the sentry at the upper end.  I asked Good how he managed
+to kill him, and he told me that he had crept up much as Umslopogaas
+had done, and stabbed him with his sword.  He groaned a good
+deal, but fortunately nobody heard him.  As Good said, it was
+a horrible thing to have to do, and most unpleasantly like
+cold-blooded murder.
+
+And so with the last body that floated away down the current
+of the Tana ended the incident of our attack on the Masai camp.
+The spears and shields and other arms we took up to the Mission,
+where they filled an outhouse.  One incident, however, I must
+not forget to mention.  As we were returning from performing
+the obsequies of our Masai friends we passed the hollow tree
+where Alphonse had secreted himself in the morning.  It so happened
+that the little man himself was with us assisting in our unpleasant
+task with a far better will than he had shown where live Masai
+were concerned.  Indeed, for each body that he handled he found
+an appropriate sarcasm.  Alphonse throwing Masai into the Tana
+was a very different creature from Alphonse flying for dear life
+from the spear of a live Masai.  He was quite merry and gay,
+he clapped his hands and warbled snatches of French songs as
+the grim dead warriors went 'splash' into the running waters
+to carry a message of death and defiance to their kindred a hundred
+miles below.  In short, thinking that he wanted taking down a
+peg, I suggested holding a court-martial on him for his conduct
+in the morning.
+
+Accordingly we brought him to the tree where he had hidden, and
+proceeded to sit in judgment on him, Sir Henry explaining to
+him in the very best French the unheard-of cowardice and enormity
+of his conduct, more especially in letting the oiled rag out
+of his mouth, whereby he nearly aroused the Masai camp with
+teeth-chattering and brought about the failure of our plans:
+ending up with a request for an explanation.
+
+But if we expected to find Alphonse at a loss and put him to
+open shame we were destined to be disappointed.  He bowed and
+scraped and smiled, and acknowledged that his conduct might at
+first blush appear strange, but really it was not, inasmuch as
+his teeth were not chattering from fear -- oh, dear no! oh, certainly
+not! he marvelled how the 'messieurs' could think of such a thing
+-- but from the chill air of the morning.  As for the rag, if
+monsieur could have but tasted its evil flavour, being compounded
+indeed of a mixture of stale paraffin oil, grease, and gunpowder,
+monsieur himself would have spat it out.  But he did nothing
+of the sort; he determined to keep it there till, alas! his stomach
+'revolted', and the rag was ejected in an access of involuntary
+sickness.
+
+'And what have you to say about getting into the hollow tree?'
+asked Sir Henry, keeping his countenance with difficulty.
+
+'But, monsieur, the explanation is easy; oh, most easy! it was
+thus: I stood there by the kraal wall, and the little grey monsieur
+hit me in the stomach so that my rifle exploded, and the battle
+began.  I watched whilst recovering myself from monsieur's cruel
+blow; then, messieurs, I felt the heroic blood of my grandfather
+boil up in my veins.  The sight made me mad.  I ground my teeth!
+Fire flashed from my eyes!  I shouted "En avant!" and longed
+to slay.  Before my eyes there rose a vision of my heroic grandfather!
+In short, I was mad!  I was a warrior indeed!  But then in my
+heart I heard a small voice: "Alphonse," said the voice, "restrain
+thyself, Alphonse!  Give not way to this evil passion!  These
+men, though black, are brothers!  And thou wouldst slay them?
+Cruel Alphonse!"  The voice was right.  I knew it; I was about
+to perpetrate the most horrible cruelties: to wound! to massacre!
+to tear limb from limb!  And how restrain myself?  I looked round;
+I saw the tree, I perceived the hole.  "Entomb thyself," said
+the voice, "and hold on tight!  Thou wilt thus overcome temptation
+by main force!"  It was bitter, just when the blood of my heroic
+grandfather boiled most fiercely; but I obeyed!  I dragged my
+unwilling feet along; I entombed myself!  Through the hole I
+watched the battle!  I shouted curses and defiance on the foe!
+I noted them fall with satisfaction!  Why not?  I had not robbed
+them of their lives.  Their gore was not upon my head.  The blood
+of my heroic --'
+
+'Oh, get along with you, you little cur!' broke out Sir Henry,
+with a shout of laughter, and giving Alphonse a good kick which
+sent him flying off with a rueful face.
+
+In the evening I had an interview with Mr Mackenzie, who was
+suffering a good deal from his wounds, which Good, who was a
+skilful though unqualified doctor, was treating him for.  He
+told me that this occurrence had taught him a lesson, and that,
+if he recovered safely, he meant to hand over the Mission to
+a younger man, who was already on his road to join him in his
+work, and return to England.
+
+'You see, Quatermain,' he said, 'I made up my mind to it, this
+very morning, when we were creeping down those benighted savages.
+"If we live through this and rescue Flossie alive," I said to
+myself, "I will go home to England; I have had enough of savages."
+Well, I did not think that we should live through it at the
+time; but thanks be to God and you four, we have lived through
+it, and I mean to stick to my resolution, lest a worse thing
+befall us.  Another such time would kill my poor wife.  And besides,
+Quatermain, between you and me, I am well off; it is thirty thousand
+pounds I am worth today, and every farthing of it made by honest
+trade and savings in the bank at Zanzibar, for living here costs
+me next to nothing.  So though it will be hard to leave this
+place, which I have made to blossom like a rose in the wilderness,
+and harder still to leave the people I have taught, I shall go.'
+
+'I congratulate you on your decision,' answered I, 'for two reasons.
+The first is, that you owe a duty to your wife and daughter,
+and more especially to the latter, who should receive some education
+and mix with girls of her own race, otherwise she will grow up
+wild, shunning her kind.  The other is, that as sure as I am
+standing here, sooner or later the Masai will try to avenge the
+slaughter inflicted on them today.  Two or three men are sure
+to have escaped the confusion who will carry the story back to
+their people, and the result will be that a great expedition
+will one day be sent against you.  It might be delayed for a
+year, but sooner or later it will come.  Therefore, if only for
+that reason, I should go.  When once they have learnt that you
+are no longer here they may perhaps leave the place alone.'
+{Endnote 8}
+
+'You are quite right,' answered the clergyman.  'I will turn
+my back upon this place in a month.  But it will be a wrench,
+it will be a wrench.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+INTO THE UNKNOWN
+
+
+
+A week had passed, and we all sat at supper one night in the
+Mission dining-room, feeling very much depressed in spirits,
+for the reason that we were going to say goodbye to our kind
+friends, the Mackenzies, and depart upon our way at dawn on the
+morrow.  Nothing more had been seen or heard of the Masai, and
+save for a spear or two which had been overlooked and was rusting
+in the grass, and a few empty cartridges where we had stood outside
+the wall, it would have been difficult to tell that the old cattle
+kraal at the foot of the slope had been the scene of so desperate
+a struggle.  Mackenzie was, thanks chiefly to his being so temperate
+a man, rapidly recovering from his wound, and could get about
+on a pair of crutches; and as for the other wounded men, one
+had died of gangrene, and the rest were in a fair way to recovery.
+Mr Mackenzie's caravan of men had also returned from the coast,
+so that the station was now amply garrisoned.
+
+Under these circumstances we concluded, warm and pressing as
+were the invitations for us to stay, that it was time to move
+on, first to Mount Kenia, and thence into the unknown in search
+of the mysterious white race which we had set our hearts on discovering.
+This time we were going to progress by means of the humble but
+useful donkey, of which we had collected no less than a dozen,
+to carry our goods and chattels, and, if necessary, ourselves.
+We had now but two Wakwafis left for servants, and found it
+quite impossible to get other natives to venture with us into
+the unknown parts we proposed to explore -- and small blame to
+them.  After all, as Mr Mackenzie said, it was odd that three
+men, each of whom possessed many of those things that are supposed
+to make life worth living -- health, sufficient means, and position,
+etc. -- should from their own pleasure start out upon a wild-goose
+chase, from which the chances were they never would return.
+But then that is what Englishmen are, adventurers to the backbone;
+and all our magnificent muster-roll of colonies, each of which
+will in time become a great nation, testify to the extraordinary
+value of the spirit of adventure which at first sight looks like
+a mild form of lunacy.  'Adventurer' -- he that goes out to meet
+whatever may come.  Well, that is what we all do in the world
+one way or another, and, speaking for myself, I am proud of the
+title, because it implies a brave heart and a trust in Providence.
+Besides, when many and many a noted Croesus, at whose feet the
+people worship, and many and many a time-serving and word-coining
+politician are forgotten, the names of those grand-hearted old
+adventurers who have made England what she is, will be remembered
+and taught with love and pride to little children whose unshaped
+spirits yet slumber in the womb of centuries to be.  Not that
+we three can expect to be numbered with such as these, yet have
+we done something -- enough, perhaps, to throw a garment over
+the nakedness of our folly.
+
+That evening, whilst we were sitting on the veranda, smoking
+a pipe before turning in, who should come up to us but Alphonse,
+and, with a magnificent bow, announce his wish for an interview.
+Being requested to 'fire away', he explained at some length
+that he was anxious to attach himself to our party -- a statement
+that astonished me not a little, knowing what a coward the little
+man was.  The reason, however, soon appeared.  Mr Mackenzie was
+going down to the coast, and thence on to England.  Now, if he
+went down country, Alphonse was persuaded that he would be seized,
+extradited, sent to France, and to penal servitude.  This was
+the idea that haunted him, as King Charles's head haunted Mr
+Dick, and he brooded over it till his imagination exaggerated
+the danger ten times.  As a matter of fact, the probability is
+that his offence against the laws of his country had long ago
+been forgotten, and that he would have been allowed to pass unmolested
+anywhere except in France; but he could not be got to see this.
+Constitutional coward as the little man was, he infinitely preferred
+to face the certain hardships and great risks and dangers of
+such an expedition as ours, than to expose himself, notwithstanding
+his intense longing for his native land, to the possible scrutiny
+of a police officer -- which is after all only another exemplification
+of the truth that, to the majority of men, a far-off foreseen
+danger, however shadowy, is much more terrible than the most
+serious present emergency.  After listening to what he had to
+say, we consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with Mr
+Mackenzie's knowledge and consent, to accept his offer.  To begin
+with, we were very short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, active
+fellow, who could turn his hand to anything, and cook -- ah,
+he _could_ cook!  I believe that he would have made a palatable
+dish of those gaiters of his heroic grandfather which he was
+so fond of talking about.  Then he was a good-tempered little
+man, and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous, vainglorious
+talk was a source of infinite amusement to us; and what is more,
+he never bore malice.  Of course, his being so pronounced a coward
+was a great drawback to him, but now that we knew his weakness
+we could more or less guard against it.  So, after warning him
+of the undoubted risks he was exposing himself to, we told him
+that we would accept his offer on condition that he would promise
+implicit obedience to our orders.  We also promised to give him
+wages at the rate of ten pounds a month should he ever return
+to a civilized country to receive them.  To all of this he agreed
+with alacrity, and retired to write a letter to his Annette,
+which Mr Mackenzie promised to post when he got down country.
+He read it to us afterwards, Sir Henry translating, and a wonderful
+composition it was.  I am sure the depth of his devotion and
+the narration of his sufferings in a barbarous country, 'far,
+far from thee, Annette, for whose adored sake I endure such sorrow,'
+ought to have touched the feelings of the stoniest-hearted chambermaid.
+
+Well, the morrow came, and by seven o'clock the donkeys were
+all loaded, and the time of parting was at hand.  It was a melancholy
+business, especially saying goodbye to dear little Flossie.
+She and I were great friends, and often used to have talks together
+-- but her nerves had never got over the shock of that awful
+night when she lay in the power of those bloodthirsty Masai.
+'Oh, Mr Quatermain,' she cried, throwing her arms round my neck
+and bursting into tears, 'I can't bear to say goodbye to you.
+I wonder when we shall meet again?'
+
+'I don't know, my dear little girl,' I said, 'I am at one end
+of life and you are at the other.  I have but a short time before
+me at best, and most things lie in the past, but I hope that
+for you there are many long and happy years, and everything lies
+in the future.  By-and-by you will grow into a beautiful woman,
+Flossie, and all this wild life will be like a far-off dream
+to you; but I hope, even if we never do meet again, that you
+will think of your old friend and remember what I say to you
+now.  Always try to be good, my dear, and to do what is right,
+rather than what happens to be pleasant, for in the end, whatever
+sneering people may say, what is good and what is happy are the
+same.  Be unselfish, and whenever you can, give a helping hand
+to others -- for the world is full of suffering, my dear, and
+to alleviate it is the noblest end that we can set before us.
+If you do that you will become a sweet and God-fearing woman,
+and make many people's lives a little brighter, and then you
+will not have lived, as so many of your sex do, in vain.  And
+now I have given you a lot of old-fashioned advice, and so I
+am going to give you something to sweeten it with.  You see this
+little piece of paper.  It is what is called a cheque.  When
+we are gone give it to your father with this note -- not before,
+mind.  You will marry one day, my dear little Flossie, and it
+is to buy you a wedding present which you are to wear, and your
+daughter after you, if you have one, in remembrance of Hunter
+Quatermain.
+
+Poor little Flossie cried very much, and gave me a lock of her
+bright hair in return, which I still have.  The cheque I gave
+her was for a thousand pounds (which being now well off, and
+having no calls upon me except those of charity, I could well
+afford), and in the note I directed her father to invest it for
+her in Government security, and when she married or came of age
+to buy her the best diamond necklace he could get for the money
+and accumulated interest.  I chose diamonds because I think that
+now that King Solomon's Mines are lost to the world, their price
+will never be much lower than it is at present, so that if in
+after-life she should ever be in pecuniary difficulties, she
+will be able to turn them into money.
+
+Well, at last we got off, after much hand-shaking, hat-waving,
+and also farewell saluting from the natives, Alphonse weeping
+copiously (for he has a warm heart) at parting with his master
+and mistress; and I was not sorry for it at all, for I hate those
+goodbyes.  Perhaps the most affecting thing of all was to witness
+Umslopogaas' distress at parting with Flossie, for whom the grim
+old warrior had conceived a strong affection.  He used to say
+that she was as sweet to see as the only star on a dark night,
+and was never tired of loudly congratulating himself on having
+killed the Lygonani who had threatened to murder her.  And that
+was the last we saw of the pleasant Mission-house -- a true oasis
+in the desert -- and of European civilization.  But I often think
+of the Mackenzies, and wonder how they got down country, and
+if they are now safe and well in England, and will ever see these
+words.  Dear little Flossie!  I wonder how she fares there where
+there are no black folk to do her imperious bidding, and no sky-piercing
+snow-clad Kenia for her to look at when she gets up in the morning.
+And so goodbye to Flossie.
+
+After leaving the Mission-house we made our way, comparatively
+unmolested, past the base of Mount Kenia, which the Masai call
+'Donyo Egere', or the 'speckled mountain', on account of the
+black patches of rock that appear upon its mighty spire, where
+the sides are too precipitous to allow of the snow lying on them;
+then on past the lonely lake Baringo, where one of our two remaining
+Askari, having unfortunately trodden on a puff-adder, died of
+snake-bite, in spite of all our efforts to save him.  Thence
+we proceeded a distance of about a hundred and fifty miles to
+another magnificent snow-clad mountain called Lekakisera, which
+has never, to the best of my belief, been visited before by a
+European, but which I cannot now stop to describe.  There we
+rested a fortnight, and then started out into the trackless and
+uninhabited forest of a vast district called Elgumi.  In this
+forest alone there are more elephants than I ever met with or
+heard with before.  The mighty mammals literally swarm there
+entirely unmolested by man, and only kept down by the natural
+law that prevents any animals increasing beyond the capacity
+of the country they inhabit to support them.  Needless to say,
+however, we did not shoot many of them, first because we could
+not afford to waste ammunition, of which our stock was getting
+perilously low, a donkey loaded with it having been swept away
+in fording a flooded river; and secondly, because we could not
+carry away the ivory, and did not wish to kill for the mere sake
+of slaughter.  So we let the great beasts be, only shooting one
+or two in self-protection.  In this district, the elephants,
+being unacquainted with the hunter and his tender mercies, would
+allow one to walk up to within twenty yards of them in the open,
+while they stood, with their great ears cocked for all the world
+like puzzled and gigantic puppy-dogs, and stared at that new
+and extraordinary phenomenon -- man.  Occasionally, when the
+inspection did not prove satisfactory, the staring ended in a
+trumpet and a charge, but this did not often happen.  When it
+did we had to use our rifles.  Nor were elephants the only wild
+beasts in the great Elgumi forest.  All sorts of large game abounded,
+including lions -- confound them!  I have always hated the sight
+of a lion since one bit my leg and lamed me for life.  As a consequence,
+another thing that abounded was the dreadful tsetse fly, whose
+bite is death to domestic animals.  Donkeys have, together with
+men, hitherto been supposed to enjoy a peculiar immunity from
+its attacks; but all I have to say, whether it was on account
+of their poor condition, or because the tsetse in those parts
+is more poisonous than usual, I do not know, but ours succumbed
+to its onslaught.  Fortunately, however, that was not till two
+months or so after the bites had been inflicted, when suddenly,
+after a two days' cold rain, they all died, and on removing the
+skins of several of them I found the long yellow streaks upon
+the flesh which are characteristic of death from bites from the
+tsetse, marking the spot where the insect had inserted his proboscis.
+On emerging from the great Elgumi forest, we, still steering
+northwards, in accordance with the information Mr Mackenzie had
+collected from the unfortunate wanderer who reached him only
+to die so tragically, struck the base in due course of the large
+lake, called Laga by the natives, which is about fifty miles
+long by twenty broad, and of which, it may be remembered, he
+made mention.  Thence we pushed on nearly a month's journey over
+great rolling uplands, something like those in the Transvaal,
+but diversified by patches of bush country.
+
+All this time we were continually ascending at the rate of about
+one hundred feet every ten miles.  Indeed the country was on
+a slope which appeared to terminate at a mass of snow-tipped
+mountains, for which we were steering, and where we learnt the
+second lake of which the wanderer had spoken as the lake without
+a bottom was situated.  At length we arrived there, and, having
+ascertained that there _was_ a large lake on top of the mountains,
+ascended three thousand feet more till we came to a precipitous
+cliff or edge, to find a great sheet of water some twenty miles
+square lying fifteen hundred feet below us, and evidently occupying
+an extinct volcanic crater or craters of vast extent.  Perceiving
+villages on the border of this lake, we descended with great
+difficulty through forests of pine trees, which now clothed the
+precipitous sides of the crater, and were well received by the
+people, a simple, unwarlike folk, who had never seen or even
+heard of a white man before, and treated us with great reverence
+and kindness, supplying us with as much food and milk as we could
+eat and drink.  This wonderful and beautiful lake lay, according
+to our aneroid, at a height of no less than 11,450 feet above
+sea-level, and its climate was quite cold, and not at all unlike
+that of England.  Indeed, for the first three days of our stay
+there we saw little or nothing of the scenery on account of an
+unmistakable Scotch mist which prevailed.  It was this rain that
+set the tsetse poison working in our remaining donkeys, so that
+they all died.
+
+This disaster left us in a very awkward position, as we had now
+no means of transport whatever, though on the other hand we had
+not much to carry.  Ammunition, too, was very short, amounting
+to but one hundred and fifty rounds of rifle cartridges and some
+fifty shot-gun cartridges.  How to get on we did not know; indeed
+it seemed to us that we had about reached the end of our tether.
+Even if we had been inclined to abandon the object of our search,
+which, shadow as it was, was by no means the case, it was ridiculous
+to think of forcing our way back some seven hundred miles to
+the coast in our present plight; so we came to the conclusion
+that the only thing to be done was to stop where we were -- the
+natives being so well disposed and food plentiful -- for the
+present, and abide events, and try to collect information as
+to the countries beyond.
+
+Accordingly, having purchased a capital log canoe, large enough
+to hold us all and our baggage, from the headman of the village
+we were staying in, presenting him with three empty cold-drawn
+brass cartridges by way of payment, with which he was perfectly
+delighted, we set out to make a tour of the lake in order to
+find the most favourable place to make a camp.  As we did not
+know if we should return to this village, we put all our gear
+into the canoe, and also a quarter of cooked water-buck, which
+when young is delicious eating, and off we set, natives having
+already gone before us in light canoes to warn the inhabitants
+of the other villages of our approach.
+
+As we were puddling leisurely along Good remarked upon the extraordinary
+deep blue colour of the water, and said that he understood from
+the natives, who were great fishermen -- fish, indeed, being
+their principal food -- that the lake was supposed to be wonderfully
+deep, and to have a hole at the bottom through which the water
+escaped and put out some great fire that was raging below.
+
+I pointed out to him that what he had heard was probably a legend
+arising from a tradition among the people which dated back to
+the time when one of the extinct parasitic volcanic cones was
+in activity.  We saw several round the borders of the lake which
+had no doubt been working at a period long subsequent to the
+volcanic death of the central crater which now formed the bed
+of the lake itself.  When it finally became extinct the people
+would imagine that the water from the lake had run down and put
+out the big fire below, more especially as, though it was constantly
+fed by streams running from the snow-tipped peaks about, there
+was no visible exit to it.
+
+The farther shore of the lake we found, on approaching it, to
+consist of a vast perpendicular wall of rock, which held the
+water without any intermediate sloping bank, as elsewhere.  Accordingly
+we paddled parallel with this precipice, at a distance of about
+a hundred paces from it, shaping our course for the end of the
+lake, where we knew that there was a large village.
+
+As we went we began to pass a considerable accumulation of floating
+rushes, weed, boughs of trees, and other rubbish, brought, Good
+supposed, to this spot by some current, which he was much puzzled
+to account for.  Whilst we were speculating about this, Sir Henry
+pointed out a flock of large white swans, which were feeding
+on the drift some little way ahead of us.  Now I had already
+noticed swans flying about this lake, and, having never come
+across them before in Africa, was exceedingly anxious to obtain
+a specimen.  I had questioned the natives about them, and learnt
+that they came from over the mountain, always arriving at certain
+periods of the year in the early morning, when it was very easy
+to catch them, on account of their exhausted condition.  I also
+asked them what country they came from, when they shrugged their
+shoulders, and said that on the top of the great black precipice
+was stony inhospitable land, and beyond that were mountains with
+snow, and full of wild beasts, where no people lived, and beyond
+the mountains were hundreds of miles of dense thorn forest, so
+thick that even the elephants could not get through it, much
+less men.  Next I asked them if they had ever heard of white
+people like ourselves living on the farther side of the mountains
+and the thorn forest, whereat they laughed.  But afterwards a
+very old woman came and told me that when she was a little girl
+her grandfather had told her that in his youth _his_ grandfather
+had crossed the desert and the mountains, and pierced the thorn
+forest, and seen a white people who lived in stone kraals beyond.
+Of course, as this took the tale back some two hundred and fifty
+years, the information was very indefinite; but still there it
+was again, and on thinking it over I grew firmly convinced that
+there was some truth in all these rumours, and equally firmly
+determined to solve the mystery.  Little did I guess in what
+an almost miraculous way my desire was to be gratified.
+
+Well, we set to work to stalk the swans, which kept drawing,
+as they fed, nearer and nearer to the precipice, and at last
+we pushed the canoe under shelter of a patch of drift within
+forty yards of them.  Sir Henry had the shot-gun, loaded with
+No. 1, and, waiting for a chance, got two in a line, and, firing
+at their necks, killed them both.  Up rose the rest, thirty or
+more of them, with a mighty splashing; and, as they did so, he
+gave them the other barrel.  Down came one fellow with a broken
+wing, and I saw the leg of another drop and a few feathers start
+out of his back; but he went on quite strong.  Up went the swans,
+circling ever higher till at last they were mere specks level
+with the top of the frowning precipice, when I saw them form
+into a triangle and head off for the unknown north-east.  Meanwhile
+we had picked up our two dead ones, and beautiful birds they
+were, weighing not less than about thirty pounds each, and were
+chasing the winged one, which had scrambled over a mass of driftweed
+into a pool of clear water beyond.  Finding a difficulty in forcing
+the canoe through the rubbish, I told our only remaining Wakwafi
+servant, whom I knew to be an excellent swimmer, to jump over,
+dive under the drift, and catch him, knowing that as there were
+no crocodiles in this lake he could come to no harm.  Entering
+into the fun of the thing, the man obeyed, and soon was dodging
+about after the winged swan in fine style, getting gradually
+nearer to the rock wall, against which the water washed as he
+did so.
+
+Presently he gave up swimming after the swan, and began to cry
+out that he was being carried away; and, indeed, we saw that,
+though he was swimming with all his strength towards us, he was
+being drawn slowly to the precipice.  With a few desperate strokes
+of our paddles we pushed the canoe through the crust of drift
+and rowed towards the man as hard as we could, but, fast as we
+went, he was drawn faster to the rock.  Suddenly I saw that before
+us, just rising eighteen inches or so above the surface of the
+lake, was what looked like the top of the arch of a submerged
+cave or railway tunnel.  Evidently, from the watermark on the
+rock several feet above it, it was generally entirely submerged;
+but there had been a dry season, and the cold had prevented the
+snow from melting as freely as usual; so the lake was low and
+the arch showed.  Towards this arch our poor servant was being
+sucked with frightful rapidity.  He was not more than ten fathoms
+from it, and we were about twenty when I saw it, and with little
+help from us the canoe flew along after him.  He struggled bravely,
+and I thought that we should have saved him, when suddenly I
+perceived an expression of despair come upon his face, and there
+before our eyes he was sucked down into the cruel swirling blue
+depths, and vanished.  At the same moment I felt our canoe seized
+as with a mighty hand, and propelled with resistless force towards
+the rock.
+
+We realized our danger now and rowed, or rather paddled, furiously
+in our attempt to get out of the vortex.  In vain; in another
+second we were flying straight for the arch like an arrow, and
+I thought that we were lost.  Luckily I retained sufficient presence
+of mind to shout out, instantly setting the example by throwing
+myself into the bottom of the canoe, 'Down on your faces -- down!'
+and the others had the sense to take the hint.  In another instant
+there was a grinding noise, and the boat was pushed down till
+the water began to trickle over the sides, and I thought that
+we were gone.  But no, suddenly the grinding ceased, and we could
+again feel the canoe flying along.  I turned my head a little
+-- I dared not lift it -- and looked up.  By the feeble light
+that yet reached the canoe, I could make out that a dense arch
+of rock hung just over our heads, and that was all.  In another
+minute I could not even see as much as that, for the faint light
+had merged into shadow, and the shadows had been swallowed up
+in darkness, utter and complete.
+
+For an hour or  so we lay there, not daring to lift our heads
+for fear lest the brains should be dashed out of them, and scarcely
+able to speak even, on account of the noise of the rushing water
+which drowned our voices.  Not, indeed, that we had much inclination
+to speak, seeing that we were overwhelmed by the awfulness of
+our position and the imminent fear of instant death, either by
+being dashed against the sides of the cavern, or on a rock, or
+being sucked down in the raging waters, or perhaps asphyxiated
+by want of air.  All of these and many other modes of death presented
+themselves to my imagination as I lay at the bottom of the canoe,
+listening to the swirl of the hurrying waters which ran whither
+we knew not.  One only other sound could I hear, and that was
+Alphonse's intermittent howl of terror coming from the centre
+of the canoe, and even that seemed faint and unnatural.  Indeed,
+the whole thing overpowered my brain, and I began to believe
+that I was the victim of some ghastly spirit-shaking nightmare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+THE ROSE OF FIRE
+
+
+
+On we flew, drawn by the mighty current, till at last I noticed
+that the sound of the water was not half so deafening as it had
+been, and concluded that this must be because there was more
+room for the echoes to disperse in.  I could now hear Alphonse's
+howls much more distinctly; they were made up of the oddest mixture
+of invocations to the Supreme Power and the name of his beloved
+Annette that it is possible to conceive; and, in short, though
+their evident earnestness saved them from profanity, were, to
+say the least, very remarkable.  Taking up a paddle I managed
+to drive it into his ribs, whereon he, thinking that the end
+had come, howled louder than ever.  Then I slowly and cautiously
+raised myself on my knees and stretched my hand upwards, but
+could touch no roof.  Next I took the paddle and lifted it above
+my head as high as I could, but with the same result.  I also
+thrust it out laterally to the right and left, but could touch
+nothing except water.  Then I bethought me that there was in
+the boat, amongst our other remaining possessions, a bull's-eye
+lantern and a tin of oil.  I groped about and found it, and having
+a match on me carefully lit it, and as soon as the flame had
+got a hold of the wick I turned it on down the boat.  As it happened,
+the first thing the light lit on was the white and scared face
+of Alphonse, who, thinking that it was all over at last, and
+that he was witnessing a preliminary celestial phenomenon, gave
+a terrific yell and was with difficulty reassured with the paddle.
+As for the other three, Good was lying on the flat of his back,
+his eyeglass still fixed in his eye, and gazing blankly into
+the upper darkness.  Sir Henry had his head resting on the thwarts
+of the canoe, and with his hand was trying to test the speed
+of the water.  But when the beam of light fell upon old Umslopogaas
+I could really have laughed.  I think I have said that we had
+put a roast quarter of water-buck into the canoe.  Well, it so
+happened that when we all prostrated ourselves to avoid being
+swept out of the boat and into the water by the rock roof, Umslopogaas's
+head had come down uncommonly near this roast buck, and so soon
+as he had recovered a little from the first shock of our position
+it occurred to him that he was hungry.  Thereupon he coolly cut
+off a chop with Inkosi-kaas, and was now employed in eating it
+with every appearance of satisfaction.  As he afterwards explained,
+he thought that he was going 'on a long journey', and preferred
+to start on a full stomach.  It reminded me of the people who
+are going to be hanged, and who are generally reported in the
+English daily papers to have made 'an excellent breakfast'.
+
+As soon as the others saw that I had managed to light the lamp,
+we bundled Alphonse into the farther end of the canoe with a
+threat which calmed him down wonderfully, that if he would insist
+upon making the darkness hideous with his cries we would put
+him out of suspense by sending him to join the Wakwafi and wait
+for Annette in another sphere, and began to discuss the situation
+as well as we could.  First, however, at Good's suggestion, we
+bound two paddles mast-fashion in the bows so that they might
+give us warning against any sudden lowering of the roof of the
+cave or waterway.  It was clear to us that we were in an underground
+river or, as Alphonse defined it, 'main drain', which carried
+off the superfluous waters of the lake.  Such rivers are well
+known to exist in many parts of the world, but it has not often
+been the evil fortune of explorers to travel by them.  That the
+river was wide we could clearly see, for the light from the bull's-eye
+lantern failed to reach from shore to shore, although occasionally,
+when the current swept us either to one side or the other, we
+could distinguish the rock wall of the tunnel, which, as far
+as we could make out, appeared to arch about twenty-five feet
+above our heads.  As for the current itself, it ran, Good estimated,
+at least eight knots, and, fortunately for us, was, as is usual,
+fiercest in the middle of the stream.  Still, our first act was
+to arrange that one of us, with the lantern and a pole there
+was in the canoe, should always be in the bows ready, if possible,
+to prevent us from being stove in against the side of the cave
+or any projecting rock.  Umslopogaas, having already dined, took
+the first turn.  This was absolutely, with one exception, all
+that we could do towards preserving our safety.  The exception
+was that another of us took up a position in the stern with a
+paddle by means of which it was possible to steer the canoe more
+or less and to keep her from the sides of the cave.  These matters
+attended to, we made a somewhat sparing meal off the cold buck's
+meat (for we did not know how long it might have to last us),
+and then feeling in rather better spirits I gave my opinion that,
+serious as it undoubtedly was, I did not consider our position
+altogether without hope, unless, indeed, the natives were right,
+and the river plunged straight down into the bowels of the earth.
+If not, it was clear that it must emerge somewhere, probably
+on the other side of the mountains, and in that case all we had
+to think of was to keep ourselves alive till we got there, wherever
+'there' might be.  But, of course, as Good lugubriously pointed
+out, on the other hand we might fall victims to a hundred unsuspected
+horrors -- or the river might go on winding away inside the earth
+till it dried up, in which case our fate would indeed be an
+awful one.
+
+'Well, let us hope for the best and prepare ourselves for the
+worst,' said Sir Henry, who is always cheerful and even spirited
+-- a very tower of strength in the time of trouble.  'We have
+come out of so many queer scrapes together, that somehow I almost
+fancy we shall come out of this,' he added.
+
+This was excellent advice, and we proceeded to take it each in
+our separate way -- that is, except Alphonse, who had by now
+sunk into a sort of terrified stupor.  Good was at the helm and
+Umslopogaas in the bows, so there was nothing left for Sir Henry
+and myself to do except to lie down in the canoe and think.
+It certainly was a curious, and indeed almost a weird, position
+to be placed in -- rushing along, as we were, through the bowels
+of the earth, borne on the bosom of a Stygian river, something
+after the fashion of souls being ferried by Charon, as Curtis
+said.  And how dark it was!  The feeble ray from our little lamp
+did but serve to show the darkness.  There in the bows sat old
+Umslopogaas, like Pleasure in the poem, {Endnote 9} watchful
+and untiring, the pole ready to his hand, and behind in the shadow
+I could just make out the form of Good peering forward at the
+ray of light in order to make out how to steer with the paddle
+that he held and now and again dipped into the water.
+
+'Well, well,' thought I, 'you have come in search of adventures,
+Allan my boy, and you have certainly got them.  At your time
+of life, too!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself; but somehow
+you are not, and, awful as it all is, perhaps you will pull through
+after all; and if you don't, why, you cannot help it, you see!
+And when all's said and done an underground river will make
+a very appropriate burying-place.'
+
+At first, however, I am bound to say that the strain upon the
+nerves was very great.  It is trying to the coolest and most
+experienced person not to know from one hour to another if he
+has five minutes more to live, but there is nothing in this world
+that one cannot get accustomed to, and in time we began to get
+accustomed even to that.  And, after all, our anxiety, though
+no doubt natural, was, strictly speaking, illogical, seeing that
+we never know what is going to happen to us the next minute,
+even when we sit in a well-drained house with two policemen patrolling
+under the window --nor how long we have to live.  It is all arranged
+for us, my sons, so what is the use of bothering?
+
+It was nearly midday when we made our dive into darkness, and
+we had set our watch (Good and Umslopogaas) at two, having agreed
+that it should be of a duration of five hours.  At seven o'clock,
+accordingly, Sir Henry and I went on, Sir Henry at the bow and
+I at the stern, and the other two lay down and went to sleep.
+For three hours all went well, Sir Henry only finding it necessary
+once to push us off from the side; and I that but little steering
+was required to keep us straight, as the violent current did
+all that was needed, though occasionally the canoe showed a tendency
+which had to be guarded against to veer and travel broadside
+on.  What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful
+river was: how did the air keep fresh?  It was muggy and thick,
+no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even
+remarkably unpleasant.  The only explanation that I can suggest
+is that the water of the lake had sufficient air in it to keep
+the atmosphere of the tunnel from absolute stagnation, this air
+being given out as it proceeded on its headlong way.  Of course
+I only give the solution of the mystery for what it is worth,
+which perhaps is not much.
+
+When I had been for three hours or so at the helm, I began to
+notice a decided change in the temperature, which was getting
+warmer.  At first I took no notice of it, but when, at the expiration
+of another half-hour, I found that it was getting hotter and
+hotter, I called to Sir Henry and asked him if he noticed it,
+or if it was only my imagination.  'Noticed it!' he answered;
+'I should think so.  I am in a sort of Turkish bath.'  Just about
+then the others woke up gasping, and were obliged to begin to
+discard their clothes.  Here Umslopogaas had the advantage, for
+he did not wear any to speak of, except a moocha.
+
+Hotter it grew, and hotter yet, till at last we could scarcely
+breathe, and the perspiration poured out of us.  Half an hour
+more, and though we were all now stark naked, we could hardly
+bear it.  The place was like an antechamber of the infernal regions
+proper.  I dipped my hand into the water and drew it out almost
+with a cry; it was nearly boiling.  We consulted a little thermometer
+we had -- the mercury stood at 123 degrees.  From the surface
+of the water rose a dense cloud of steam.  Alphonse groaned out
+that we were already in purgatory, which indeed we were, though
+not in the sense that he meant it.  Sir Henry suggested that
+we must be passing near the seat of some underground volcanic
+fire, and I am inclined to think, especially in the light of
+what subsequently occurred, that he was right.  Our sufferings
+for some time after this really pass my powers of description.
+We no longer perspired, for all the perspiration had been sweated
+out of us.  We simply lay in the bottom of the boat, which we
+were now physically incapable of directing, feeling like hot
+embers, and I fancy undergoing very much the same sensations
+that the poor fish do when they are dying on land -- namely,
+that of slow suffocation.  Our skins began to crack, and the
+blood to throb in our heads like the beating of a steam-engine.
+
+This had been going on for some time, when suddenly the river
+turned a little, and I heard Sir Henry call out from the bows
+in a hoarse, startled voice, and, looking up, saw a most wonderful
+and awful thing.  About half a mile ahead of us, and a little
+to the left of the centre of the stream -- which we could now
+see was about ninety feet broad -- a huge pillar-like jet of
+almost white flame rose from the surface of the water and sprang
+fifty feet into the air, when it struck the roof and spread out
+some forty feet in diameter, falling back in curved sheets of
+fire shaped like the petals of a full-blown rose.  Indeed this
+awful gas jet resembled nothing so much as a great flaming flower
+rising out of the black water.  Below was the straight stalk,
+a foot or more thick, and above the dreadful bloom.  And as for
+the fearfulness of it and its fierce and awesome beauty, who
+can describe it?  Certainly I cannot.  Although we were now some
+five hundred yards away, it, notwithstanding the steam, lit up
+the whole cavern as clear as day, and we could see that the roof
+was here about forty feet above us, and washed perfectly smooth
+with water.  The rock was black, and here and there I could make
+out long shining lines of ore running through it like great veins,
+but of what metal they were I know not.
+
+On we rushed towards this pillar of fire, which gleamed fiercer
+than any furnace ever lit by man.
+
+'Keep the boat to the right, Quatermain -- to the right,' shouted
+Sir Henry, and a minute afterwards I saw him fall forward senseless.
+Alphonse had already gone.  Good was the next to go.  There
+they lay as though dead; only Umslopogaas and I kept our senses.
+We were within fifty yards of it now, and I saw the Zulu's head
+fall forward on his hands.  He had gone too, and I was alone.
+I could not breathe; the fierce heat dried me up.  For yards
+and yards round the great rose of fire the rock-roof was red-hot.
+The wood of the boat was almost burning.  I saw the feathers
+on one of the dead swans begin to twist and shrivel up; but I
+would not give in.  I knew that if I did we should pass within
+three or four yards of the gas jet and perish miserably.  I set
+the paddle so as to turn the canoe as far from it as possible,
+and held on grimly.
+
+My eyes seemed to be bursting from my head, and through my closed
+lids I could see the fierce light.  We were nearly opposite now;
+it roared like all the fires of hell, and the water boiled furiously
+around it.  Five seconds more.  We were past; I heard the roar
+behind me.
+
+Then I too fell senseless.  The next thing that I recollect is
+feeling a breath of air upon my face.  My eyes opened with great
+difficulty.  I looked up.  Far, far above me there was light,
+though around me was great gloom.  Then I remembered and looked.
+The canoe still floated down the river, and in the bottom of
+it lay the naked forms of my companions.  'Were they dead?' I
+wondered.  'Was I left alone in this awful place?'  I knew not.
+Next I became conscious of a burning thirst.  I put my hand
+over the edge of the boat into the water and drew it up again
+with a cry.  No wonder: nearly all the skin was burnt off the
+back of it.  The water, however, was cold, or nearly so, and
+I drank pints and splashed myself all over.  My body seemed to
+suck up the fluid as one may see a brick wall suck up rain after
+a drought; but where I was burnt the touch of it caused intense
+pain.  Then I bethought myself of the others, and, dragging myself
+towards them with difficulty, I sprinkled them with water, and
+to my joy they began to recover -- Umslopogaas first, then the
+others.  Next they drank, absorbing water like so many sponges.
+Then, feeling chilly -- a queer contrast to our recent sensations
+-- we began as best we could to get into our clothes.  As we
+did so Good pointed to the port side of the canoe: it was all
+blistered with heat, and in places actually charred.  Had it
+been built like our civilized boats, Good said that the planks
+would certainly have warped and let in enough water to sink us;
+but fortunately it was dug out of the soft, willowy wood of a
+single great tree, and had sides nearly three inches and a bottom
+four inches thick.  What that awful flame was we never discovered,
+but I suppose that there was at this spot a crack or hole in
+the bed of the river through which a vast volume of gas forced
+its way from its volcanic home in the bowels of the earth towards
+the upper air.  How it first became ignited is, of course, impossible
+to say -- probably, I should think, from some spontaneous explosion
+of mephitic gases.
+
+As soon as we had got some things together and shaken ourselves
+together a little, we set to work to make out where we were now.
+I have said that there was light above, and on examination we
+found that it came from the sky.  Our rive that was, Sir Henry
+said, a literal realization of the wild vision of the poet
+{Endnote 10}, was no longer underground, but was running on its
+darksome way, not now through 'caverns measureless to man', but
+between two frightful cliffs which cannot have been less than
+two thousand feet high.  So high were they, indeed, that though
+the sky was above us, where we were was dense gloom -- not darkness
+indeed, but the gloom of a room closely shuttered in the daytime.
+Up on either side rose the great straight cliffs, grim and forbidding,
+till the eye grew dizzy with trying to measure their sheer height.
+The little space of sky that marked where they ended lay like
+a thread of blue upon their soaring blackness, which was unrelieved
+by any tree or creeper.  Here and there, however, grew ghostly
+patches of a long grey lichen, hanging motionless to the rock
+as the white beard to the chin of a dead man.  It seemed as though
+only the dregs or heavier part of the light had sunk to the bottom
+of this awful place.  No bright-winged sunbeam could fall so low:
+they died far, far above our heads.
+
+By the river's edge was a little shore formed of round fragments
+of rock washed into this shape by the constant action of water,
+and giving the place the appearance of being strewn with thousands
+of fossil cannon balls.  Evidently when the water of the underground
+river is high there is no beach at all, or very little, between
+the border of the stream and the precipitous cliffs; but now
+there was a space of seven or eight yards.  And here, on this
+beach, we determined to land, in order to rest ourselves a little
+after all that we had gone through and to stretch our limbs.
+It was a dreadful place, but it would give an hour's respite
+from the terrors of the river, and also allow of our repacking
+and arranging the canoe.  Accordingly we selected what looked
+like a favourable spot, and with some little difficulty managed
+to beach the canoe and scramble out on to the round, inhospitable
+pebbles.
+
+'My word,' called out Good, who was on shore the first, 'what
+an awful place!  It's enough to give one a fit.'  And he laughed.
+
+Instantly a thundering voice took up his words, magnifying them
+a hundred times.  '_Give one a fit -- Ho! ho! ho!' -- 'A fit,
+Ho! ho! ho!_' answered another voice in wild accents from far
+up the cliff -- _a fit! a fit! a fit!_ chimed in voice after voice
+-- each flinging the words to and fro with shouts of awful laughter
+to the invisible lips of the other till the whole place echoed
+with the words and with shrieks of fiendish merriment, which
+at last ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
+
+'Oh, mon Dieu!' yelled Alphonse, startled quite out of such
+self-command as he possessed.
+
+'_Mon Dieu!  Mon Dieu!  Mon Dieu!_' the Titanic echoes thundered,
+shrieked, and wailed in every conceivable tone.
+
+'Ah,' said Umslopogaas calmly, 'I clearly perceive that devils
+live here.  Well, the place looks like it.'
+
+I tried to explain to him that the cause of all the hubbub was
+a very remarkable and interesting echo, but he would not believe it.
+
+'Ah,' he said, 'I know an echo when I hear one.  There was one lived
+opposite my kraal in Zululand, and the Intombis [maidens] used
+to talk with it.  But if what we hear is a full-grown echo, mine
+at home can only have been a baby.  No, no -- they are devils
+up there.  But I don't think much of them, though,' he added,
+taking a pinch of snuff.  'They can copy what one says, but they
+don't seem to be able to talk on their own account, and they
+dare not show their faces,' and he relapsed into silence, and
+apparently paid no further attention to such contemptible fiends.
+
+After this we found it necessary to keep our conversation down
+to a whisper -- for it was really unbearable to have every word
+one uttered tossed to and fro like a tennis-ball, as precipice
+called to precipice.
+
+But even our whispers ran up the rocks in mysterious murmurs
+till at last they died away in long-drawn sighs of sound.  Echoes
+are delightful and romantic things, but we had more than enough
+of them in that dreadful gulf.
+
+As soon as we had settled ourselves a little on the round stones,
+we went on to wash and dress our burns as well as we could.
+As we had but a little oil for the lantern, we could not spare
+any for this purpose, so we skinned one of the swans, and used
+the fat off its breast, which proved an excellent substitute.
+Then we repacked the canoe, and finally began to take some food,
+of which I need scarcely say we were in need, for our insensibility
+had endured for many hours, and it was, as our watches showed,
+midday.  Accordingly we seated ourselves in a circle, and were
+soon engaged in discussing our cold meat with such appetite as
+we could muster, which, in my case at any rate, was not much,
+as I felt sick and faint after my sufferings of the previous
+night, and had besides a racking headache.  It was a curious
+meal.  The gloom was so intense that we could scarcely see the
+way to cut our food and convey it to our mouths.  Still we got
+on pretty well, till I happened to look behind me -- my attention
+being attracted by a noise of something crawling over the stones,
+and perceived sitting upon a rock in my immediate rear a huge
+species of black freshwater crab, only it was five times the
+size of any crab I ever saw.  This hideous and loathsome-looking
+animal had projecting eyes that seemed to glare at one, very
+long and flexible antennae or feelers, and gigantic claws.
+Nor was I especially favoured with its company.  From every quarter
+dozens of these horrid brutes were creeping up, drawn, I suppose,
+by the smell of the food, from between the round stones and out
+of holes in the precipice.  Some were already quite close to
+us.  I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and as I
+did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and
+give the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up
+with a howl, and set the 'wild echoes flying' in sober earnest.
+Just then, too, another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse's
+leg, and declined to part with it, and, as may be imagined, a
+considerable scene ensued.  Umslopogaas took his axe and cracked
+the shell of one with the flat of it, whereon it set up a horrid
+screaming which the echoes multiplied a thousandfold, and began
+to foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew hundreds more of
+its friends out of unsuspected holes and corners.  Those on the
+spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like creditors
+on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with their
+huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the
+fragments to their mouths.  Seizing whatever weapons were handy,
+such as stones or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters
+-- whose numbers were increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose
+stench was overpowering.  So fast as we cracked their armour
+others seized the injured ones and devoured them, foaming at
+the mouth, and screaming as they did so.  Nor did the brutes
+stop at that.  When they could they nipped hold of us -- and
+awful nips they were -- or tried to steal the meat.  One enormous
+fellow got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to drag
+it off.  Instantly a score of others flung themselves upon the
+prey, and then began a ghastly and disgusting scene.  How the
+monsters foamed and screamed, and rent the flesh, and each other!
+It was a sickening and unnatural sight, and one that will haunt
+all who saw it till their dying day -- enacted as it was in the
+deep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of the
+many-toned nerve-shaking echoes.  Strange as it may seem to say
+so, there was something so shockingly human about these fiendish
+creatures -- it was as though all the most evil passions and
+desires of man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and
+gone mad.  They were so dreadfully courageous and intelligent,
+and they looked as if they _understood_.  The whole scene might
+have furnished material for another canto of Dante's 'Inferno',
+as Curtis said.
+
+
+'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all go
+off our heads,' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the
+hint.  Pushing the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling
+by hundreds and making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks,
+we bundled into it and got out into mid-stream, leaving behind
+us the fragments of our meal and the screaming, foaming, stinking
+mass of monsters in full possession of the ground.
+
+'Those are the devils of the place,' said Umslopogaas with the
+air of one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt
+almost inclined to agree with him.
+
+Umslopogaas' remarks were like his axe -- very much to the point.
+
+'What's to be done next?' said Sir Henry blankly.
+
+'Drift, I suppose,' I answered, and we drifted accordingly.
+All the afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in
+the gloom beneath the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing
+when day ended and night began, for down in that vast gulf the
+difference was not marked, till at length Good pointed out a
+star hanging right above us, which, having nothing better to
+do, we observed with great interest.  Suddenly it vanished, the
+darkness became intense, and a familiar murmuring sound filled
+the air.  'Underground again,' I said with a groan, holding up
+the lamp.  Yes, there was no doubt about it.  I could just make
+out the roof.  The chasm had come to an end and the tunnel had
+recommenced.  And then there began another long, long night of
+danger and horror.  To describe all its incidents would be too
+wearisome, so I will simply say that about midnight we struck
+on a flat projecting rock in mid-stream and were as nearly as
+possible overturned and drowned.  However, at last we got off,
+and went upon the uneven tenor of our way.  And so the hours
+passed till it was nearly three o'clock.  Sir Henry, Good, and
+Alphonse were asleep, utterly worn out; Umslopogaas was at the
+bow with the pole, and I was steering, when I perceived that
+the rate at which we were travelling had perceptibly increased.
+Then, suddenly, I heard Umslopogaas make an exclamation, and
+next second came a sound as of parting branches, and I became
+aware that the canoe was being forced through hanging bushes
+or creepers.  Another minute, and the breath of sweet open air
+fanned my face, and I felt that we had emerged from the tunnel
+and were floating upon clear water.  I say felt, for I could
+see nothing, the darkness being absolutely pitchy, as it often
+is just before the dawn.  But even this could scarcely damp my
+joy.  We were out of that dreadful river, and wherever we might
+have got to this at least was something to be thankful for.
+And so I sat down and inhaled the sweet night air and waited
+for the dawn with such patience as I could command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+THE FROWNING CITY
+
+
+
+For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile
+gone to sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and
+huge misty shapes moved over the surface of the water like ghosts
+of long-forgotten dawns.  They were the vapours rising from their
+watery bed to greet the sun.  Then the grey turned to primrose,
+and the primrose grew to red.  Next, glorious bars of light sprang
+up across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant messengers
+of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy way, scattering the
+ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a kiss, as they
+flew from range to range and longitude to longitude.  Another
+moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself came
+forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and
+a flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and
+covered her with brightness, and it was day.
+
+But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above,
+for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though
+the whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool.
+By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I
+saw that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of
+which I could not make out the shore.  Some eight or ten miles
+behind us, however, there stretched as far as the eye could reach
+a range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining wall of
+the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some entrance
+in these hills that the subterranean river found its way into
+the open water.  Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be
+the fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary
+strength and directness of the current of the mysterious river
+that the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering to
+it.  Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just
+then, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one
+it was.  Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas
+called my attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle
+brought the canoe to the spot, whereupon we discovered that the
+object was the body of a man floating face downwards.  This was
+bad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas having turned
+him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunken
+features the lineaments of -- whom do you suppose?  None other
+than our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before
+in the waters of the subterranean river.  It quite frightened
+me.  I thought that we had left him behind for ever, and behold!
+borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us,
+and with us had reached the end.  His appearance also was dreadful,
+for he bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire -- one
+arm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair being burnt
+off.  The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they
+preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen
+upon his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down.  Really
+the sight unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that
+we had gone through, and I was heartily glad when suddenly and
+without any warning the body began to sink just as though it
+had had a mission, which having been accomplished, it retired;
+the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its back allowed
+a free passage to the gas.  Down it went to the transparent depths
+-- fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at last
+a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other
+to the surface, alone remained where it had passed.  At length
+these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant.
+Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
+
+'What did he follow us for?' he asked.  ''Tis an ill omen for
+thee and me, Macumazahn.'  And he laughed.
+
+I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions.
+If people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to keep
+them to themselves.  I detest individuals who make on the subject
+of their disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream
+that they saw one hanged as a common felon, or some such horror,
+will insist upon telling one all about it at breakfast, even
+if they have to get up early to do it.
+
+Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly
+at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more
+beneath the blue sky.  Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions
+as to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was
+that, as we were excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoever
+left to eat except a few scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh),
+having abandoned all that remained of our provisions to those
+horrible freshwater crabs, we determined to make for the shore.
+But a new difficulty arose.  We did not know where the shore
+was, and, with the exception of the cliffs through which the
+subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wide
+expanse of sparkling blue water.  Observing, however, that the
+long flights of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded
+that they were advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore
+to pass the day in the lake, and accordingly headed the boat
+towards the quarter whence they came, and began to paddle.  Before
+long, however, a stiffish breeze sprang up, blowing directly
+in the direction we wanted, so we improvized a sail with a blanket
+and the pole, which took us along merrily.  This done, we devoured
+the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the sweet lake
+water, and then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn up.
+
+When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching
+the horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that
+he saw land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour
+of the water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth of
+a river.  In another minute we perceived a great golden dome,
+not unlike that of St Paul's, piercing the morning mists, and
+while we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reported
+another and still more important discovery, namely, that a small
+sailing-boat was advancing towards us.  This bit of news, which
+we were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threw
+us into a considerable flutter.  That the natives of this unknown
+lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that
+they possessed some degree of civilization.  In a few more minutes
+it became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancing
+boat had made us out.  For a moment or two she hung in the wind
+as though in doubt, and then came tacking towards us with great
+swiftness.  In ten more minutes she was within a hundred yards,
+and we saw that she was a neat little boat -- not a canoe 'dug
+out', but built more or less in the European fashion with planks,
+and carrying a singularly large sail for her size.  But our attention
+was soon diverted from the boat to her crew, which consisted
+of a man and a woman, _nearly as white as ourselves_.
+
+We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be
+mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it.  They were not
+fair, but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white
+as distinguished from a black race, as white, for instance, as
+Spaniards or Italians.  It was a patent fact.  So it was true,
+after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, we
+had discovered this wonderful people.  I could have shouted for
+joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing;
+and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other
+on the unexpected success of our wild search.  All my life had
+I heard rumours of a white race that existed in the highlands
+of this vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof,
+and now here I saw it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded.
+Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was right when he wrote
+'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', which he tells me means that
+out of Africa there always comes some new thing.
+
+The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique,
+and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features,
+and an intelligent face.  He was dressed in a brown cloth garment,
+something like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an
+unmistakable kilt of the same material.  The legs and feet were
+bare.  Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings of
+yellow metal that I judged to be gold.  The woman had a sweet
+face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling brown hair.
+Her dress was made of the same material as the man's, and consisted,
+as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen under-garment that
+hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip of cloth,
+about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the
+body in graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder
+so that the end, which was dyed blue or purple or some other
+colour, according to the social standing of the wearer, hung
+down in front, the right arm and breast being, however, left
+quite bare.  A more becoming dress, especially when, as in the
+present case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite impossible
+to conceive.  Good (who has an eye for such things) was greatly
+struck with it, and so indeed was I.  It was so simple and yet
+so effective.
+
+Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the
+man and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished
+at us.  As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear
+and wonder, and for a while hovered round our canoe, but would
+not approach.  At last, however, he came within hailing distance,
+and called to us in a language that sounded soft and pleasing
+enough, but of which we could not understand one word.  So we
+hailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch,
+Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I am acquainted
+with, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues;
+indeed, they appeared to bewilder him.  As for the lady, she was
+busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning
+the compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass,
+a proceeding that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise.
+At length, the man, being unable to make anything of us, suddenly
+turned his boat round and began to head off for the shore,
+his little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow.
+As she passed across our bows the man turned to attend to the
+large sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss his hand
+to the young lady.  I was horrified at this proceeding, both on
+general grounds and because I feared that she might take offence,
+but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and
+seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged,
+she promptly kissed hers back.
+
+'Ah!' said I.  'It seems that we have at last found a language
+that the people of this country understand.'
+
+'In which case,' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an invaluable
+interpreter.'
+
+I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities, and he
+knows it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects.
+'It is very clear to me,' I said, 'that the man will be back
+before long with a host of his fellows, so we had best make up
+our minds as to how we are going to receive them.'
+
+'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir Henry.
+
+As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square
+tin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under
+a pile of baggage.  Now we had often remonstrated with Good about
+this tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry,
+and he had never given any very explicit account as to its contents;
+but he had insisted on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it
+might come in very useful one day.
+
+'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir Henry.
+
+'Do -- why dress, of course!  You don't expect me to appear in
+a new country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to his
+soiled and worn garments, which were however, like all Good's
+things, very tidy, and with every tear neatly mended.
+
+We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless
+interest.  His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly
+competent in such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the
+most approved fashion.  I think that if he had had some hot water
+and a cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the latter;
+but he had not.  This done, he suggested that we should lower
+the sail of the canoe and all take a bath, which we did, greatly
+to the horror and astonishment of Alphonse, who lifted his hands
+and ejaculated that these English were indeed a wonderful people.
+Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred Zulus,
+scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of swimming
+about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement.
+We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water,
+and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and
+produced first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had
+left a London steam laundry, and then some garments wrapped first
+in brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper.  We watched
+this undoing with the tenderest interest and much speculation.
+One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their splendours,
+carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he did
+so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its golden epaulettes,
+lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's full-dress
+uniform -- dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots
+and all.  We literally gasped.
+
+'_What!_' we said, '_what!_  Are you going to put those things on?'
+
+'Certainly,' he answered composedly; 'you see so much depends
+upon a first impression, especially,' he added, 'as I observe
+that there are ladies about.  One at least of us ought to be
+decently dressed.'
+
+We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when
+we considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the
+contents of that box for all these months.  Only one suggestion
+did we make -- namely, that he should wear his mail shirt next
+his skin.  He replied that he feared it would spoil the set of
+his coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the creases
+out, but finally consented to this precautionary measure.  The
+most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old Umslopogaas's
+astonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's transformation.
+When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to the
+medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the still waters
+of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient
+history, whose name I cannot remember, but who fell in love with
+his own shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings.
+
+'Oh, Bougwan!' he said.  'Oh, Bougwan!  I always thought thee
+an ugly little man, and fat -- fat as the cows at calving time;
+and now thou art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out.
+Surely, Bougwan, it hurts my eyes to look at thee.'
+
+Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell
+the truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had
+brought him down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased
+at Umslopogaas's admiration.  As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted.
+
+'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air -- the air of the warrior.
+It is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore.
+Monsieur is complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand --'
+
+Here we stopped Alphonse.
+
+As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit
+of emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves
+up as well as we could.  The most, however, that we were able
+to do was to array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes,
+of which we each had several, all the fine clothes in the world
+could never make it otherwise than scrubby and insignificant;
+but Sir Henry looked what he is, a magnificent man in his nearly
+new tweed suit, gaiters, and boots.  Alphonse also got himself
+up to kill, giving an extra turn to his enormous moustaches.
+Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way given to
+the vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern
+and a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till
+it shone like Good's patent leather boots.  Then he put on the
+mail shirt Sir Henry had given him and his 'moocha', and, having
+cleaned up Inkosi-kaas a little, stood forth complete.
+
+All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as we had
+finished bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land,
+or, rather, for the mouth of a great river.  Presently -- in
+all about an hour and a half after the little boat had left us
+-- we saw emerging from the river or harbour a large number of
+boats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons burden.  One of these
+was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the rest sailed.
+Looking through the glass we soon made out that the row-boat
+was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort
+of uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man
+of venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and
+a sword strapped to his side, who was evidently the commander
+of the craft.  The other boats were apparently occupied by people
+brought out by curiosity, and were rowing or sailing towards
+us as quickly as they could.
+
+'Now for it,' said I.  'What is the betting?  Are they going
+to be friendly or to put an end to us?'
+
+Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike
+appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a
+little anxious.
+
+Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about
+two hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be
+a bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power by
+shooting some of them if possible.  This, unluckily enough, struck
+us as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore
+rifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left, and prepared
+for action.  There were four of the animals, a big bull, a cow,
+and two young ones, one three parts grown.  We got up to them
+without difficulty, the great animals contenting themselves with
+sinking down into the water and rising again a few yards farther
+on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as being peculiar.
+When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards away,
+Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown
+young one.  The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes,
+and, crashing through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leaving
+a long train of blood behind it.  At the same moment I fired
+at the cow, and Good at the old bull.  My shot took effect, but
+not fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigious
+splashing, only to rise again presently blowing and grunting
+furiously, dyeing all the water round her crimson, when I killed
+her with the left barrel.  Good, who is an execrable shot, missed
+the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting the
+side of his face as it passed.  On glancing up, after I had fired
+my second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen among
+were evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternation
+caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious.
+Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear; others
+turned and made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentleman
+with the sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted
+his big row-boat.  We had, however, but little time for observation,
+for just then the old bull, rendered furious by the wound he
+had received, rose fair within forty yards of us, glaring savagely.
+We all fired, and hit him in various places, and down he went.
+We all fired, and hit him in various places, and down he went,
+badly wounded.  Curiosity now began to overcome the fear of the
+onlookers, and some of them sailed on up close to us, amongst
+these being the man and woman whom we had first seen a couple
+of hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside.  Just then
+the great brute rose again within ten yards of their base, and
+instantly with a roar of fury made at it open-mouthed.  The woman
+shrieked, and the man tried to give the boat way, but without
+success.  In another second I saw the huge red jaws and gleaming
+ivories close with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous
+mouthful out of its side and capsizing it.  Down went the boat,
+leaving its occupants struggling in the water.  Next moment,
+before we could do anything towards saving them, the huge and
+furious creature was up again and making open-mouthed at the
+poor girl, who was struggling in the water.  Lifting my rifle
+just as the grinding jaws were about to close on her, I fired
+over her head right down the hippopotamus's throat.  Over he
+went, and commenced turning round and round, snorting, and blowing
+red streams of blood through his nostrils.  Before he could recover
+himself, however, I let him have the other barrel in the side
+of the throat, and that finished him.  He never moved or struggled
+again, but instantly sank.  Our next effort was directed towards
+saving the girl, the man having swum off towards another boat;
+and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling her into
+the canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably
+exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance, and
+we could see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened,
+were consulting what to do.  Without giving them time for further
+consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to
+ourselves, we instantly took our paddles and advanced towards
+them, Good standing in the bow and taking off his cocked hat
+politely in ever direction, his amiable features suffused by
+a bland but intelligent smile.  Most of the craft retreated as
+we advanced, but a few held their ground, while the big row-boat
+came on to meet us.  Presently we were alongside, and I could
+see that our appearance -- and especially Good's and Umslopogaas's
+-- filled the venerable-looking commander with astonishment,
+not unmixed with awe.  He was dressed after the same fashion
+as the man we first met, except that his shirt was not made of
+brown cloth, but of pure white linen hemmed with purple.  The
+kilt, however, was identical, and so were the thick rings of
+gold around the arm and beneath the left knee.  The rowers wore
+only a kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist.  Good took
+off his hat to the old gentleman with an extra flourish, and
+inquired after his health in the purest English, to which he
+replied by laying the first two fingers of his right hand horizontally
+across his lips and holding them there for a moment, which we
+took as his method of salutation.  Then he also addressed some
+remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished
+our first interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did
+not understand by shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders.
+This last Alphonse, being to the manner born, did to perfection,
+and in so polite a way that nobody could take any offence.  Then
+we came a standstill, till I, being exceedingly hungry, thought
+I might as well call attention to the fact, and did so first
+by opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then rubbing my
+stomach.  These signals the old gentleman clearly understood,
+for he nodded his head vigorously, and pointed towards the harbour;
+and at the same time one of the men on his boat threw us a line
+and motioned to us to make it fast, which we did.  The row-boat
+then took us in tow, and went with great rapidity towards the
+mouth of the river, accompanied by all the other boats.  In about
+twenty minutes more we reached the entrance to the harbour, which
+was crowded with boats full of people who had come out to see
+us.  We observed that all the occupants were more or less of
+the same type, though some were fairer than others.  Indeed,
+we noticed certain ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness;
+and the darkest shade of colour which we saw was about that of
+a rather swarthy Spaniard.  Presently the wide river gave a sweep,
+and when it did so an exclamation of astonishment and delight
+burst from our lips as we caught our first view of the place
+that we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning City (from
+mi, which means city, and losis, a frown).
+
+At a distance of some five hundred yards from the river's bank
+rose a sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in
+height, which had no doubt once formed the bank itself -- the
+intermediate space of land now utilized as docks and roadways
+having been gained by draining, and deepening and embanking
+the stream.
+
+On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of the same
+granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square,
+the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced
+at its base by a little door.  This imposing place we afterwards
+discovered was the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens.
+At the back of the palace the town sloped gently upwards to
+a flashing building of white marble, crowned by the golden dome
+which we had already observed.  The city was, with the exception
+of this one building, entirely built of red granite, and laid
+out in regular blocks with splendid roadways between.  So far
+as we could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached,
+with gardens round them, which gave some relief to the eye wearied
+with the vista of red granite.  At the back of the palace a road
+of extraordinary width stretched away up the hill for a distance
+of a mile and a half or so, and appeared to terminate at an open
+space surrounding the gleaming building that crowned the hill.
+But right in front of us was the wonder and glory of Milosis
+-- the great staircase of the palace, the magnificence of which
+took our breath away.  Let the reader imagine, if he can, a splendid
+stairway, sixty-five feet from balustrade to balustrade, consisting
+of two vast flights, each of one hundred and twenty-five steps
+of eight inches in height by three feet broad, connected by a
+flat resting-place sixty feet in length, and running from the
+palace wall on the edge of the precipice down to meet a waterway
+or canal cut to its foot from the river.  This marvellous staircase
+was supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of which the
+resting-place between the two flights formed the crown; that
+is, the connecting open space lay upon it.  From this archway
+sprang a subsidiary flying arch, or rather something that resembled
+a flying arch in shape, such as none of us had seen in any other
+country, and of which the beauty and wonder surpassed all that
+we had ever imagined.  Three hundred feet from point to point,
+and no less than five hundred and fifty round the curve, that
+half-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for a space
+of fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the parent
+archway, and the other embedded in the solid granite of the side
+of the precipice.
+
+This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of which
+any living man might have been proud, both on account of its
+magnitude and its surpassing beauty.  Four times, as we afterwards
+learnt, did the work, which was commenced in remote antiquity,
+fail, and was then abandoned for three centuries when half-finished,
+till at last there rose a youthful engineer named Rademas, who
+said that he would complete it successfully, and staked his life
+upon it.  If he failed he was to be hurled from the precipice
+he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded, he was to be rewarded
+by the hand of the king's daughter.  Five years was given to
+him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour and
+material.  Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeing
+failure to be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on
+the morrow of the third collapse.  That night, however, a beautiful
+woman came to him in a dream and touched his forehead, and of
+a sudden he saw a vision of the completed work, and saw too through
+the masonry and how the difficulties connected with the flying
+arch that had hitherto baffled his genius were to be overcome.
+Then he awoke and once more commenced the work, but on a different
+plan, and behold! he achieved it, and on the last day of the
+five years he led the princess his bride up the stair and into
+the palace.  And in due course he became king by right of his
+wife, and founded the present Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this
+day called the 'House of the Stairway', thus proving once more
+how energy and talent are the natural stepping-stones to grandeur.
+And to commemorate his triumph he fashioned a statue of himself
+dreaming, and of the fair woman who touched him on the forehead,
+and placed it in the great hall of the palace, and there it stands
+to this day.
+
+Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city beyond.
+No wonder they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly those
+mighty works in solid granite did seem to frown down upon our
+littleness in their sombre splendour.  This was so even in the
+sunshine, but when the storm-clouds gathered on her imperial
+brow Milosis looked more like a supernatural dwelling-place,
+or some imagining of a poet's brain, than what she is --
+a mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations out
+of the red silence of the mountain side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+THE SISTER QUEENS
+
+
+
+The big rowing-boat glided on up the cutting that ran almost
+to the foot of the vast stairway, and then halted at a flight
+of steps leading to the landing-place.  Here the old gentleman
+disembarked, and invited us to do so likewise, which, having
+no alternative, and being nearly starved, we did without hesitation
+-- taking our rifles with us, however.  As each of us landed,
+our guide again laid his fingers on his lips and bowed deeply,
+at the same time ordering back the crowds which had assembled
+to gaze on us.  The last to leave the canoe was the girl we had
+picked out of the water, for whom her companion was waiting.
+Before she went away she kissed my hand, I suppose as a token
+of gratitude for having saved her from the fury of the hippopotamus;
+and it seemed to me that she had by this time quite got over
+any fear she might have had of us, and was by no means anxious
+to return in such a hurry to her lawful owners.  At any rate,
+she was going to kiss Good's hand as well as mine, when the young
+man interfered and led her off.  As soon as we were on shore,
+a number of the men who had rowed the big boat took possession
+of our few goods and chattels, and started with them up the splendid
+staircase, our guide indicating to us by means of motions that
+the things were perfectly safe.  This done, he turned to the
+right and led the way to a small house, which was, as I afterwards
+discovered, an inn.  Entering into a good-sized room, we saw
+that a wooden table was already furnished with food, presumably
+in preparation for us.  Here our guide motioned us to be seated
+on a bench that ran the length of the table.  We did not require
+a second invitation, but at once fell to ravenously on the viands
+before us, which were served on wooden platters, and consisted
+of cold goat's-flesh, wrapped up in some kind of leaf that gave
+it a delicious flavour, green vegetables resembling lettuces,
+brown bread, and red wine poured from a skin into horn mugs.
+This wine was peculiarly soft and good, having something of
+the flavour of Burgundy.  Twenty minutes after we sat down at
+that hospitable board we rose from it, feeling like new men.
+After all that we had gone through we needed two things, food
+and rest, and the food of itself was a great blessing to us.
+Two girls of the same charming cast of face as the first whom
+we had seen waited on us while we ate, and very nicely they did
+it.  They were also dressed in the same fashion namely, in a
+white linen petticoat coming to the knee, and with the toga-like
+garment of brown cloth, leaving bare the right arm and breast.
+I afterwards found out that this was the national dress, and
+regulated by an iron custom, though of course subject to variations.
+Thus, if the petticoat was pure white, it signified that the
+wearer was unmarried; if white, with a straight purple stripe
+round the edge, that she was married and a first or legal wife;
+if with a black stripe, that she was a widow.  In the same way
+the toga, or 'kaf', as they call it, was of different shades
+of colour, from pure white to the deepest brown, according to
+the rank of the wearer, and embroidered at the end in various
+ways.  This also applies to the 'shirts' or tunics worn by the
+men, which varied in material and colour; but the kilts were
+always the same except as regards quality.  One thing, however,
+every man and woman in the country wore as the national insignia,
+and that was the thick band of gold round the right arm above
+the elbow, and the left leg beneath the knee.  People of high
+rank also wore a torque of gold round the neck, and I observed
+that our guide had one on.
+
+So soon as we had finished our meal our venerable conductor,
+who had been standing all the while, regarding us with inquiring
+eyes, and our guns with something as like fear as his pride would
+allow him to show, bowed towards Good, whom he evidently took
+for the leader of the party on account of the splendour of his
+apparel, and once more led the way through the door and to the
+foot of the great staircase.  Here we paused for a moment to
+admire two colossal lions, each hewn from a single block of pure
+black marble, and standing rampant on the terminations of the
+wide balustrades of the staircase.  These lions are magnificently
+executed, and it is said were sculptured by Rademas, the great
+prince who designed the staircase, and who was without doubt,
+to judge from the many beautiful examples of his art that we
+saw afterwards, one of the finest sculptors who ever lived, either
+in this or any other country.  Then we climbed almost with a
+feeling of awe up that splendid stair, a work executed for all
+time and that will, I do not doubt, be admired thousands of years
+hence by generations unborn unless an earthquake should throw
+it down.  Even Umslopogaas, who as a general rule made it a point
+of honour not to show astonishment, which he considered undignified,
+was fairly startled out of himself, and asked it the 'bridge
+had been built by men or devils', which was his vague way of
+alluding to any supernatural power.  But Alphonse did not care
+about it.  Its solid grandeur jarred upon the frivolous little
+Frenchman, who said that it was all 'tres magnifique, mais triste
+-- ah, triste!' and went on to suggest that it would be improved
+if the balustrades were _gilt_.
+
+On we went up the first flight of one hundred and twenty steps,
+across the broad platform joining it to the second flight, where
+we paused to admire the glorious view of one of the most beautiful
+stretches of country that the world can show, edged by the blue
+waters of the lake.  Then we passed on up the stair till at last
+we reached the top, where we found a large standing space to
+which there were three entrances, all of small size.  Two of
+these opened on to rather narrow galleries or roadways cut in
+the face of the precipice that ran round the palace walls and
+led to the principal thoroughfares of the city, and were used
+by the inhabitants passing up and down from the docks.  These
+were defended by gates of bronze, and also, as we afterwards
+learnt, it was possible to let down a portion of the roadways
+themselves by withdrawing certain bolts, and thus render it quite
+impracticable for an enemy to pass.  The third entrance consisted
+of a flight of ten curved black marble steps leading to a doorway
+cut in the palace wall.  This wall was in itself a work of art,
+being built of huge blocks of granite to the height of forty
+feet, and so fashioned that its face was concave, whereby it
+was rendered practically impossible for it to be scaled.  To
+this doorway our guide led us.  The door, which was massive,
+and made of wood protected by an outer gate of bronze, was closed;
+but on our approach it was thrown wide, and we were met by the
+challenge of a sentry, who was armed with a heavy triangular-bladed
+spear, not unlike a bayonet in shape, and a cutting sword, and
+protected by breast and back plates of skilfully prepared hippopotamus
+hide, and a small round shield fashioned of the same tough material.
+The sword instantly attracted our attention; it was practically
+identical with the one in the possession of Mr Mackenzie which
+he had obtained from the ill-starred wanderer.  There was no
+mistaking the gold-lined fretwork cut in the thickness of the
+blade.  So the man had told the truth after all.  Our guide instantly
+gave a password, which the soldier acknowledged by letting the
+iron shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement,
+and we passed on through the massive wall into the courtyard
+of the palace.  This was about forty yards square, and laid out
+in flower-beds full of lovely shrubs and plants, many of which
+were quite new to me.  Through the centre of this garden ran
+a broad walk formed of powdered shells brought from the lake
+in the place of gravel.  Following this we came to another doorway
+with a round heavy arch, which is hung with thick curtains, for
+there are no doors in the palace itself.  Then came another short
+passage, and we were in the great hall of the palace, and once
+more stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeur
+of the place.
+
+The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet
+long by eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved
+wood.  Down the entire length of the building there are on either
+side, and at a distance of twenty feet from the wall, slender
+shafts of black marble springing sheer to the roof, beautifully
+fluted, and with carved capitals.  At one end of this great place
+which these pillars support is the group of which I have already
+spoken as executed by the King Rademas to commemorate his building
+of the staircase; and really, when we had time to admire it,
+its loveliness almost struck us dumb.  The group, of which the
+figures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is about
+half as large again as life, and represents a young man of noble
+countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch.  One arm
+is carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his head
+reposes upon the other, its curling locks partially hiding it.
+Bending over him, her hand resting on his forehead, is a draped
+female form of such white loveliness as to make the beholder's
+breath stand still.  And as for the calm glory that shines upon
+her perfect face -- well, I can never hope to describe it.  But
+there it rests like the shadow of an angel's smile; and power,
+love, and divinity all have their part in it.  Her eyes are fixed
+upon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most extraordinary thing
+about this beautiful work is the success with which the artist
+has succeeded in depicting on the sleeper's worn and weary face
+the sudden rising of a new and spiritual thought as the spell
+begins to work within his mind.  You can see that an inspiration
+is breaking in upon the darkness of the man's soul as the dawn
+breaks in upon the darkness of night.  It is a glorious piece
+of statuary, and none but a genius could have conceived it.
+Between each of the black marble columns is some such group of
+figures, some allegorical, and some representing the persons
+and wives of deceased monarchs or great men; but none of them,
+in our opinion, comes up the one I have described, although several
+are from the hand of the sculptor and engineer, King Rademas.
+
+In the exact centre of the hall was a solid mass of black marble
+about the size of a baby's arm-chair, which it rather resembled
+in appearance.  This, as we afterwards learnt, was the sacred
+stone of this remarkable people, and on it their monarchs laid
+their hand after the ceremony of coronation, and swore by the
+sun to safeguard the interests of the empire, and to maintain
+its customs, traditions, and laws.  This stone was evidently
+exceedingly ancient (as indeed all stones are), and was scored
+down its sides with long marks or lines, which Sir Henry said
+proved it to have been a fragment that at some remote period
+in its history had been ground in the iron jaws of glaciers.
+There was a curious prophecy about this block of marble, which
+was reported among the people to have fallen from the sun, to
+the effect that when it was shattered into fragments a king of
+alien race should rule over the land.  As the stone, however,
+looked remarkably solid, the native princes seemed to have a
+fair chance of keeping their own for many a long year.
+
+At the end of the hall is a dais spread with rich carpets, on
+which two thrones are set side by side.  These thrones are shaped
+like great chairs, and made of solid gold.  The seats are richly
+cushioned, but the backs are left bare, and on each is carved
+the emblem of the sun, shooting out his fiery rays in all directions.
+The footstools are golden lions couchant, with yellow topazes
+set in them for eyes.  There are no other gems about them.
+
+The place is lighted by numerous but narrow windows, placed high
+up, cut on the principle of the loopholes to be seen in ancient
+castles, but innocent of glass, which was evidently unknown here.
+
+Such is a brief description of this splendid hall in which we
+now found ourselves, compiled of course from our subsequent knowledge
+of it.  On this occasion we had but little time for observation,
+for when we entered we perceived that a large number of men were
+gathered together in front of the two thrones, which were unoccupied.
+The principal among them were seated on carved wooden chairs
+ranged to the right and the left of the thrones, but not in front
+of them, and were dressed in white tunics, with various embroideries
+and different coloured edgings, and armed with the usual pierced
+and gold-inlaid swords.  To judge from the dignity of their appearance,
+they seemed one and all to be individuals of very great importance.
+Behind each of these great men stood a small knot of followers
+and attendants.
+
+Seated by themselves, in a little group to the left of the throne,
+were six men of a different stamp.  Instead of wearing the ordinary
+kilt, they were clothed in long robes of pure white linen, with
+the same symbol of the sun that is to be seen on the back of
+the chairs, emblazoned in gold thread upon the breast.  This
+garment was girt up at the waist with a simple golden curb-like
+chain, from which hung long elliptic plates of the same metal,
+fashioned in shiny scales like those of a fish, that, as their
+wearers moved, jingled and reflected the light.  They were all
+men of mature age and of a severe and impressive cast of features,
+which was rendered still more imposing by the long beards they wore.
+
+The personality of one individual among them, however, impressed
+us at once.  He seemed to stand out among his fellows and refuse
+to be overlooked.  He was very old -- eighty at least -- and
+extremely tall, with a long snow-white beard that hung nearly
+to his waist.  His features were aquiline and deeply cut, and
+his eyes were grey and cold-looking.  The heads of the others
+were bare, but this man wore a round cap entirely covered with
+gold embroidery, from which we judged that he was a person of
+great importance; and indeed we afterwards discovered that he
+was Agon, the High Priest of the country.  As we approached,
+all these men, including the priests, rose and bowed to us with
+the greatest courtesy, at the same time placing the two fingers
+across the lips in salutation.  Then soft-footed attendants advanced
+from between the pillars, bearing seats, which were placed in
+a line in front of the thrones.  We three sat down, Alphonse
+and Umslopogaas standing behind us.  Scarcely had we done so
+when there came a blare of trumpets from some passage to the
+right, and a similar blare from the left.  Next a man with a
+long white wand of ivory appeared just in front of the right-hand
+throne, and cried out something in a loud voice, ending with
+the word _Nyleptha_, repeated three times; and another man, similarly
+attired, called out a similar sentence before the other throne,
+but ending with the word _Sorais_, also repeated thrice.  Then
+came the tramp of armed men from each side entrance, and in filed
+about a score of picked and magnificently accoutred guards, who
+formed up on each side of the thrones, and let their heavy iron-handled
+spears fall simultaneously with a clash upon the black marble
+flooring.  Another double blare of trumpets, and in from either
+side, each attended by six maidens, swept the two Queens of Zu-Vendis,
+everybody in the hall rising to greet them as they came.
+
+I have seen beautiful women in my day, and am no longer thrown
+into transports at the sight of a pretty face; but language fails
+me when I try to give some idea of the blaze of loveliness that
+then broke upon us in the persons of these sister Queens.  Both
+were young -- perhaps five-and-twenty years of age -- both were
+tall and exquisitely formed; but there the likeness stopped.
+One, Nyleptha, was a woman of dazzling fairness; her right arm
+and breast bare, after the custom of her people, showed like
+snow even against her white and gold-embroidered 'kaf', or toga.
+And as for her sweet face, all I can say is, that it was one
+that few men could look on and forget.  Her hair, a veritable
+crown of gold, clustered in short ringlets over her shapely head,
+half hiding the ivory brow, beneath which eyes of deep and glorious
+grey flashed out in tender majesty.  I cannot attempt to describe
+her other features, only the mouth was most sweet, and curved
+like Cupid's bow, and over the whole countenance there shone
+an indescribable look of loving-kindness, lit up by a shadow
+of delicate humour that lay upon her face like a touch of silver
+on a rosy cloud.
+
+She wore no jewels, but on her neck, arm, and knee were the usual
+torques of gold, in this instance fashioned like a snake; and
+her dress was of pure white linen of excessive fineness, plentifully
+embroidered with gold and with the familiar symbols of the sun.
+
+Her twin sister, Sorais, was of a different and darker type of
+beauty.  Her hair was wavy like Nyleptha's but coal-black, and
+fell in masses on her shoulders; her complexion was olive, her
+eyes large, dark, and lustrous; the lips were full, and I thought
+rather cruel.  Somehow her face, quiet and even cold as it is,
+gave an idea of passion in repose, and caused one to wonder involuntarily
+what its aspect would be if anything occurred to break the calm.
+It reminded me of the deep sea, that even on the bluest days
+never loses its visible stamp of power, and in its murmuring
+sleep is yet instinct with the spirit of the storm.  Her figure,
+like her sister's, was almost perfect in its curves and outlines,
+but a trifle more rounded, and her dress was absolutely the same.
+
+As this lovely pair swept onwards to their respective thrones,
+amid the deep attentive silence of the Court, I was bound to
+confess to myself that they did indeed fulfil my idea of royalty.
+Royal they were in every way -- in form, in grace, and queenly
+dignity, and in the barbaric splendour of their attendant pomp.
+But methought that they needed no guards or gold to proclaim
+their power and bind the loyalty of wayward men.  A glance from
+those bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips, and while
+the red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as these
+will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
+
+But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and
+therefore not devoid of curiosity.  As they passed to their seats
+I saw both of them glance swiftly in our direction.  I saw, too,
+that their eyes passed by me, seeing nothing to charm them in
+the person of an insignificant and grizzled old man.  Then they
+looked with evident astonishment on the grim form of old Umslopogaas,
+who raised his axe in salutation.  Attracted next by the splendour
+of Good's apparel, for a second their glance rested on him like
+a humming moth upon a flower, then off it darted to where Sir
+Henry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a window playing upon his
+yellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the outlines of his
+massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat gloomy hall.
+He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha's full, and
+thus for the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has
+ever been my lot to see looked one upon another.  And why it
+was I know not, but I saw the swift blood run up Nyleptha's skin
+as the pink lights run up the morning sky.  Red grew her fair
+bosom and shapely arm, red the swanlike neck; the rounded cheeks
+blushed red as the petals of a rose, and then the crimson flood
+sank back to whence it came and left her pale and trembling.
+
+I glanced at Sir Henry.  He, too, had coloured up to the eyes.
+
+'Oh, my word!' thought I to myself, 'the ladies have come on
+the stage, and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.'
+And I sighed and shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a
+woman is like the beauty of the lightning -- a destructive thing
+and a cause of desolation.  By the time that I had finished my
+reflections both the Queens were on the thrones, for all this
+had happened in about six seconds.  Once more the unseen trumpets
+blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen Sorais
+motioned to us to do likewise.
+
+Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward
+our guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding
+by the hand the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescued
+from the hippopotamus.  Having made obeisance he proceeded to
+address the Queens, evidently describing to them the way and
+place where we had been found.  It was most amusing to watch
+the astonishment, not unmixed with fear, reflected upon their
+faces as they listened to his tale.  Clearly they could not understand
+how we had reached the lake and been found floating on it, and
+were inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural causes.
+Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequent
+appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we
+had shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there
+was something very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history
+was frequently interrupted by indignant exclamations from the
+little group of white-robed priests and even from the courtiers,
+while the two Queens listened with an amazed expression, especially
+when our guide pointed to the rifles in our hands as being the
+means of destruction.  And here, to make matters clear, I may
+as well explain at once that the inhabitants of Zu-Vendis are
+sun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another the hippopotamus
+is sacred among them.  Not that they do not kill it, because
+at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands -- which
+are specially preserved in large lakes up the country -- and
+use their hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent
+them from considering these animals as sacred to the sun. {Endnote 11}
+Now, as ill luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we
+had shot were a family of tame animals that were kept in the
+mouth of the port and daily fed by priests whose special duty
+it was to attend to them.  When we shot them I thought that the
+brutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we afterwards
+ascertained, the cause of it.  Thus it came about that in attempting
+to show off we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated nature.
+
+When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long
+beard and round cap, whose appearance I have already described,
+and who was, as I have said, the High Priest of the country,
+and known by the name of Agon, rose and commenced an impassioned
+harangue.  I did not like the look of his cold grey eye as he
+fixed it on us.  I should have liked it still less had I known
+that in the name of the outraged majesty of his god he was demanding
+that the whole lot of us should be offered up as a sacrifice
+by means of being burnt alive.
+
+After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him
+in a soft and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his
+gestures of dissent, to be putting the other side of the question
+before him.  Then Nyleptha spoke in liquid accents.  Little did
+we know that she was pleading for our lives.  Finally, she turned
+and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of middle age with a black
+beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as we afterwards learnt,
+was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the country; apparently
+appealing to him for support.  Now when Sir Henry had caught
+her eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that the
+incident had not escaped this man's notice, and, what is more,
+that it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lip
+and his hand tightened on his sword-hilt.  Afterwards we learnt
+that he was an aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage,
+which accounted for it.  This being so, Nyleptha could not have
+appealed to a worse person, for, speaking in slow, heavy tones,
+he appeared to confirm all that the High Priest Agon had said.
+As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee, and, resting
+her chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile upon
+her lips, as though she saw through the man, and was determined
+to be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed,
+her eyes flashed, and she did indeed look lovely.  Finally she
+turned to Agon and seemed to give some sort of qualified assent,
+for he bowed at her words; and as she spoke she moved her hands
+as though to emphasize what she said; while all the time Sorais
+kept her chin on her hand and smiled.  Then suddenly Nyleptha
+made a sign, the trumpets blew again, and everybody rose to leave
+the hall save ourselves and the guards, whom she motioned to stay.
+
+When they were all gone she bent forward and, smiling sweetly,
+partially by signs and partially by exclamations made it clear
+to us that she was very anxious to know where we came from.
+The difficulty was how to explain, but at last an idea struck
+me.  I had my large pocket-book in my pocket and a pencil.  Taking
+it out, I made a little sketch of a lake, and then as best I
+could I drew the underground river and the lake at the other
+end.  When I had done this I advanced to the steps of the throne
+and gave it to her.  She understood it at once and clapped her
+hands with delight, and then descending from the throne took
+it to her sister Sorais, who also evidently understood.  Next
+she took the pencil from me, and after examining it with curiosity
+proceeded to make a series of delightful little sketches, the
+first representing herself holding out both hands in welcome,
+and a man uncommonly like Sir Henry taking them.  Next she drew
+a lovely little picture of a hippopotamus rolling about dying
+in the water, and of an individual, in whom we had no difficulty
+in recognizing Agon the High Priest, holding up his hands in
+horror on the bank.  Then followed a most alarming picture of
+a dreadful fiery furnace and of the same figure, Agon, poking
+us into it with a forked stick.  This picture perfectly horrified
+me, but I was a little reassured when she nodded sweetly and
+proceeded to make a fourth drawing -- a man again uncommonly
+like Sir Henry, and of two women, in whom I recognized Sorais
+and herself, each with one arm around him, and holding a sword
+in protection over him.  To all of these Sorais, who I saw was
+employed in carefully taking us all in -- especially Curtis --
+signified her approval by nodding.
+
+At last Nyleptha drew a final sketch of a rising sun, indicating
+that she must go, and that we should meet on the following morning;
+whereat Sir Henry looked so disappointed that she saw it, and,
+I suppose by way of consolation, extended her hand to him to
+kiss, which he did with pious fervour.  At the same time Sorais,
+off whom Good had never taken his eyeglass during the whole indaba
+[interview], rewarded him by giving him her hand to kiss, though,
+while she did so, her eyes were fixed upon Sir Henry.  I am glad
+to say that I was not implicated in these proceedings; neither
+of them gave _me_ her hand to kiss.
+
+Then Nyleptha turned and addressed the man who appeared to be
+in command of the bodyguard, apparently from her manner and his
+frequent obeisances, giving him very stringent and careful orders;
+after which, with a somewhat coquettish nod and smile, she left
+the hall, followed by Sorais and most of the guards.
+
+When the Queens had gone, the officer whom Nyleptha had addressed
+came forward and with many tokens of deep respect led us from
+the hall through various passages to a sumptuous set of apartments
+opening out of a large central room lighted with brazen swinging
+lamps (for it was now dusk) and richly carpeted and strewn with
+couches.  On a table in the centre of the room was set a profusion
+of food and fruit, and, what is more, flowers.  There was a delicious
+wine also in ancient-looking sealed earthenware flagons, and
+beautifully chased golden and ivory cups to drink it from.  Servants,
+male and female, also were there to minister to us, and whilst
+we ate, from some recess outside the apartment
+
+
+   'The silver lute did speak between
+    The trumpet's lordly blowing;'
+
+
+and altogether we found ourselves in a sort of earthly paradise
+which was only disturbed by the vision of that disgusting High
+Priest who intended to commit us to the flames.  But so very
+weary were we with our labours that we could scarcely keep ourselves
+awake through the sumptuous meal, and as soon as it was over
+we indicated that we desired to sleep.  As a further precaution
+against surprise we left Umslopogaas with his axe to sleep in
+the main chamber near the curtained doorways leading to the apartments
+which we occupied respectively, Good and I in the one, and Sir
+Henry and Alphonse in the other.  Then throwing off our clothes,
+with the exception of the mail shirts, which we considered it
+safer to keep on, we flung ourselves down upon the low and luxurious
+couches, and drew the silk-embroidered coverlids over us.
+
+In two minutes I was just dropping off when I was aroused by
+Good's voice.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he said, 'did you ever see such eyes?'
+
+'Eyes!' I said, crossly; 'what eyes?'
+
+'Why, the Queen's, of course!  Sorais, I mean -- at least
+I think that is her name.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' I yawned; 'I didn't notice them much:
+I suppose they are good eyes,' and again I dropped off.
+
+Five minutes or so elapsed, and I was once more awakened.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' said the voice.
+
+'Well,' I answered testily, 'what is it now?'
+
+'Did you notice her ankle?  The shape --'
+
+This was more than I could stand.  By my bed stood the veldtschoons
+I had been wearing.  Moved quite beyond myself, I took them up
+and threw them straight at Good's head -- and hit it.
+
+Afterwards I slept the sleep of the just, and a very heavy sleep
+it must be.  As for Good, I don't know if he went to sleep or
+if he continued to pass Sorais' beauties in mental review, and,
+what is more, I don't care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+ABOUT THE ZU-VENDI PEOPLE
+
+
+
+And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in
+this novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep.  Perhaps we should
+except Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined,
+imagine lying in her bed of state encompassed by her maidens,
+tiring women, guards, and all the other people and appurtenances
+that surround a throne, and yet not able to slumber for thinking
+of the strangers who had visited a country where no such strangers
+had ever come before, and wondering, as she lay awake, who they
+were and what their past has been, and if she was ugly compared
+to the women of their native place.  I, however, not being poetically
+inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some account
+of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled, needless
+to state, from information which we subsequently collected.
+
+The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu-Vendis,
+from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendis, 'place or country'.  Why it is
+called the Yellow Country I have never been able to ascertain
+accurately, nor do the inhabitants themselves know.  Three reasons
+are, however, given, each of which would suffice to account for
+it.  The first is that the name owes its origin to the great
+quantity of gold that is found in the land.  Indeed, in this
+respect Zu-Vendis is a veritable Eldorado, the precious metal
+being extraordinarily plentiful.  At present it is collected
+from purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected,
+and which are situated within a day's journey from Milosis, being
+mostly found in pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce
+up to six or seven pounds in weight.  But other diggings of a
+similar nature are known to exist, and I have besides seen great
+veins of gold-bearing quartz.  In Zu-Vendis gold is a much commoner
+metal than silver, and thus it has curiously enough come to pass
+that silver is the legal tender of the country.
+
+The second reason given is, that at certain times of the year
+the native grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good,
+turn as yellow as ripe corn; and the third arises from a tradition
+that the people were originally yellow skinned, but grew white
+after living for many generations upon these high lands.  Zu-Vendis
+is a country about the size of France, is, roughly speaking,
+oval in shape; and on every side cut off from the surrounding
+territory by illimitable forests of impenetrable thorn, beyond
+which are said to be hundreds of miles of morasses, deserts,
+and great mountains.  It is, in short, a huge, high tableland
+rising up in the centre of the dark continent, much as in southern
+Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the surrounding
+veldt.  Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a level
+of about nine thousand feet above the sea, but most of the land
+is even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being,
+I believe, about eleven thousand feet.  As a consequence the
+climate is, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar
+to that of southern England, only brighter and not so rainy.
+The land is, however, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals
+and temperate fruits and timber to perfection; and in the lower-lying
+parts even produces a hardy variety of sugar-cane.  Coal is found
+in great abundance, and in many places crops out from the surface;
+and so is pure marble, both black and white.  The same may be
+said of almost every metal except silver, which is scarce, and
+only to be obtained from a range of mountains in the north.
+
+Zu-Vendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery,
+including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western
+boundary beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the
+other piercing the country from north to south, and passing at
+a distance of about eighty miles from Milosis, from which town
+its higher peaks are distinctly visible.  This range forms the
+chief watershed of the land.  There are also three large lakes
+-- the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and which is
+named Milosis after the city, covering some two hundred square
+miles of country -- and numerous small ones, some of them salt.
+
+The population of this favoured land is, comparatively speaking,
+dense, numbering at a rough estimate from ten to twelve millions.
+It is almost purely agricultural in its habits, and divided
+into great classes as in civilized countries.  There is a territorial
+nobility, a considerable middle class, formed principally of
+merchants, officers of the army, etc.; but the great bulk of
+the people are well-to-do peasants who live upon the lands of
+the lords, from whom they hold under a species of feudal tenure.
+The best bred people in the country are, as I think I have said,
+pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance; but
+the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any
+negro or other African characteristics.  As to their descent
+I can give no certain information.  Their written records, which
+extend back for about a thousand years, give no hint of it.
+One very ancient chronicler does indeed, in alluding to some
+old tradition that existed in his day, talk of it as having probably
+originally 'come down with the people from the coast', but that
+may mean little or nothing.  In short, the origin of the Zu-Vendi
+is lost in the mists of time.  Whence they came or of what race
+they are no man knows.  Their architecture and some of their
+sculptures suggest an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin;
+but it is well known that their present remarkable style of building
+has only sprung up within the last eight hundred years, and they
+certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theology or customs.
+Again, their appearance and some of their habits are rather Jewish;
+but here again it seems hardly conceivable that they should have
+utterly lost all traces of the Jewish religion.  Still, for aught
+I know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes whom people are
+so fond of discovering all over the world, or they may not.
+I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find them,
+and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of
+it, if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which
+is exceedingly doubtful.
+
+And now after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to
+hazard a theory of my own, though it is only a very little one,
+as the young lady said in mitigation of her baby.  This theory
+is founded on a legend which I have heard among the Arabs on
+the east coast, which is to the effect that 'more than two thousand
+years ago' there were troubles in the country which was known
+as Babylonia, and that thereon a vast horde of Persians came
+down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by the
+north-east monsoon to the east coast of Africa, where, according
+to the legend, 'the sun and fire worshippers' fell into conflict
+with the belt of Arab settlers who even then were settled on
+the east coast, and finally broke their way through them, and,
+vanishing into the interior, were no more seen.  Now, I ask,
+is it not at least possible that the Zu-Vendi people are the
+descendants of these 'sun and fire worshippers' who broke through
+the Arabs and vanished?  As a matter of fact, there is a good
+deal in their characters and customs that tallies with the somewhat
+vague ideas that I have of Persians.  Of course we have no books
+of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does
+not fail him, there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about
+500 BC, whereon a vast multitude were expelled from the city.
+Anyhow, it is a well-established fact that there have been many
+separate emigrations of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the
+east coast of Africa up to as lately as seven hundred years ago.
+There are Persian tombs at Kilwa, on the east coast, still in
+good repair, which bear dates showing them to be just seven hundred
+years old. {Endnote 12}
+
+In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are,
+oddly enough, excessively warlike, and as they cannot from the
+exigencies of their position make war upon other nations, they
+fight among each other like the famed Kilkenny cats, with the
+happy result that the population never outgrows the power of
+the country to support it.  This habit of theirs is largely fostered
+by the political condition of the country.  The monarchy is nominally
+an absolute one, save in so far as it is tempered by the power
+of the priests and the informal council of the great lords; but,
+as in many other institutions, the king's writ does not run unquestioned
+throughout the length and breadth of the land.  In short, the
+whole system is a purely feudal one (though absolute serfdom
+or slavery is unknown), all the great lords holding nominally
+from the throne, but a number of them being practically independent,
+having the power of life and death, waging war against and making
+peace with their neighbours as the whim or their interests lead
+them, and even on occasion rising in open rebellion against their
+royal master or mistress, and, safely shut up in their castles
+and fenced cities, as far from the seat of government, successfully
+defying them for years.
+
+Zu-Vendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact
+that will be well appreciated when I state that eight different
+dynasties have sat upon the throne in the last one thousand years,
+every one of which took its rise from some noble family that
+succeeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary struggle.
+At the date of our arrival in the country things were a little
+better than they had been for some centuries, the last king,
+the father of Nyleptha and Sorais, having been an exceptionally
+able and vigorous ruler, and, as a consequence, he kept down
+the power of the priests and nobles.  On his death, two years
+before we reached Zu-Vendis, the twin sisters, his children,
+were, following an ancient precedent, called to the throne, since
+an attempt to exclude either would instantly have provoked a
+sanguinary civil war; but it was generally felt in the country
+that this measure was a most unsatisfactory one, and could hardly
+be expected to be permanent.  Indeed, as it was, the various
+intrigues that were set on foot by ambitious nobles to obtain
+the hand of one or other of the queens in marriage had disquieted
+the country, and the general opinion was that there would be
+bloodshed before long.
+
+I will now pass on to the question of the Zu-Vendi religion,
+which is nothing more or less than sun-worship of a pronounced
+and highly developed character.  Around this sun-worship is grouped
+the entire social system of the Zu-Vendi.  It sends its roots
+through every institution and custom of the land.  From the cradle
+to the grave the Zu-Vendi follows the sun in every sense of the
+saying.  As an infant he is solemnly held up in its light and
+dedicated to 'the symbol of good, the expression of power, and
+the hope of Eternity', the ceremony answering to our baptism.
+Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point out the glorious
+orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god, and he worships
+it at its up-rising and down-setting.  Then when still quite
+small, he goes, holding fast to the pendent end of his mother's
+'kaf' (toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the nearest city,
+and there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the
+golden central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon,
+he hears the white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of
+praise and sees the people fall down to adore, and then, amidst
+the blowing of the golden trumpets, watched the sacrifice thrown
+into the fiery furnace beneath the altar.  Here he comes again
+to be declared 'a man' by the priests, and consecrated to war
+and to good works; here before the solemn altar he leads his
+bride; and here too, if differences shall unhappily arise, he
+divorces her.
+
+And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is travelled,
+and he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer
+a man.  Here they bear him dead and lay his bier upon the falling
+brazen doors before the eastern altar, and when the last ray
+from the setting sun falls upon his white face the bolts are
+drawn and he vanishes into the raging furnace beneath and is ended.
+
+The priests of the Sun do not marry, but are recruited by young
+men specially devoted to the work by their parents and supported
+by the State.  The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood
+lies with the Crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be
+dispossessed, and it is scarcely too much to say that they really
+rule the land.  To begin with, they are a united body sworn to
+obedience and secrecy, so that an order issued by the High Priest
+at Milosis will be instantly and unhesitatingly acted upon by
+the resident priest of a little country town three or four hundred
+miles off.  They are the judges of the land, criminal and civil,
+an appeal lying only to the lord paramount of the district, and
+from him to the king; and they have, of course, practically unlimited
+jurisdiction over religious and moral offences, together with
+a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of more highly
+civilized lands, is a very effective weapon.  Indeed, their rights
+and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here
+that the priests of the Sun are wise in their generation, and
+do not push things too far.  It is but very seldom that they
+go to extremes against anybody, being more inclined to exercise
+the prerogative of mercy than run the risk of exasperating the
+powerful and vigorous-minded people on whose neck they have set
+their yoke, lest it should rise and break it off altogether.
+
+Another source of the power of the priests is their practical
+monopoly of learning, and their very considerable astronomical
+knowledge, which enables them to keep a hold on the popular mind
+by predicting eclipses and even comets.  In Zu-Vendis only a
+few of the upper classes can read and write, but nearly all the
+priests have this knowledge, and are therefore looked upon as
+learned men.
+
+The law of the country is, on the whole, mild and just, but differs
+in several respects from our civilized law.  For instance, the
+law of England is much more severe upon offences against property
+than against the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion
+is money.  A man may half kick his wife to death or inflict horrible
+sufferings upon his children at a much cheaper rate of punishment
+than he can compound for the theft of a pair of old boots.
+In Zu-Vendis this is not so, for there they rightly or wrongly look
+upon the person as of more consequence than goods and chattels,
+and not, as in England, as a sort of necessary appendage to the
+latter.  For murder the punishment is death, for treason death,
+for defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, and for
+attempting to quit the country (which is looked on as a sacrilege)
+death.  In each case the method of execution is the same, and
+a rather awful one.  The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery
+furnace beneath one of the altars to the Sun.  For all other
+offences, including the offence of idleness, the punishment is
+forced labour upon the vast national buildings which are always
+going on in some part of the country, with or without periodical
+floggings, according to the crime.
+
+The social system of the Zu-Vendi allows considerable liberty
+to the individual, provided he does not offend against the laws
+and customs of the country.  They are polygamous in theory, though
+most of them have only one wife on account of the expense.  By
+law a man is bound to provide a separate establishment for each
+wife.  The first wife also is the legal wife, and her children
+are said to be 'of the house of the Father'.  The children of
+the other wives are of the houses of their respective mothers.
+This does not, however, imply any slur upon either mother or
+children.  Again, a first wife can, on entering into the married
+state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other wife.
+This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the great
+upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus
+numbers but gives greater importance to the first wife, who is
+thus practically the head of several households.  Marriage is
+looked upon as primarily a civil contract, and, subject to certain
+conditions and to a proper provision for children, is dissoluble
+at the will of both contracting parties, the divorce, or 'unloosing',
+being formally and ceremoniously accomplished by going through
+certain portions of the marriage ceremony backwards.
+
+The Zu-Vendi are on the whole a very kindly, pleasant, and light-hearted
+people.  They are not great traders and care little about money,
+only working to earn enough to support themselves in that class
+of life in which they were born.  They are exceedingly conservative,
+and look with disfavour upon changes.  Their legal tender is
+silver, cut into little squares of different weights; gold is
+the baser coin, and is about of the same value as our silver.
+It is, however, much prized for its beauty, and largely used
+for ornaments and decorative purposes.  Most of the trade, however,
+is carried on by means of sale and barter, payment being made
+in kind.  Agriculture is the great business of the country, and
+is really well understood and carried out, most of the available
+acreage being under cultivation.  Great attention is also given
+to the breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed
+by any I have ever seen either in Europe or Africa.
+
+The land belongs theoretically to the Crown, and under the Crown
+to the great lords, who again divide it among smaller lords,
+and so on down to the little peasant farmer who works his forty
+'reestu' (acres) on a system of half-profits with his immediate
+lord.  In fact the whole system is, as I have said, distinctly
+feudal, and it interested us much to meet with such an old friend
+far in the unknown heart of Africa.
+
+The taxes are very heavy.  The State takes a third of a man's
+total earnings, and the priesthood about five per cent on the
+remainder.  But on the other hand, if a man through any cause
+falls into bona fide misfortune the State supports him in the
+position of life to which he belongs.  If he is idle, however,
+he is sent to work on the Government undertakings, and the State
+looks after his wives and children.  The State also makes all
+the roads and builds all town houses, about which great care
+is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent.  It also
+keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provides
+watchmen, etc.  In return for their five per cent the priests
+attend to the service of the temples, carry out all religious
+ceremonies, and keep schools, where they teach whatever they
+think desirable, which is not very much.  Some of the temples
+also possess private property, but priests as individuals cannot
+hold property.
+
+And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering.
+Are the Zu-Vendi a civilized or barbarous people?  Sometimes
+I think the one, sometimes the other.  In some branches of art
+they have attained the very highest proficiency.  Take for instance
+their buildings and their statuary.  I do not think that the
+latter can be equalled either in beauty or imaginative power
+anywhere in the world, and as for the former it may have been
+rivalled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has never been
+since.  But, on the other hand, they are totally ignorant of
+many other arts.  Till Sir Henry, who happened to know something
+about it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime,
+they could not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather
+primitive.  A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch;
+indeed, ours delighted them exceedingly.  They know nothing about
+steam, electricity, or gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves
+nothing about printing or the penny post.  Thus they are spared
+many evils, for of a truth our age has learnt the wisdom of the
+old-world saying, 'He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.'
+
+As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative
+people who know no better, and might therefore be expected to
+turn to the sun and worship him as the all-Father, but it cannot
+justly be called elevating or spiritual.  It is true that they
+do sometimes speak of the sun as the 'garment of the Spirit',
+but it is a vague term, and what they really adore is the fiery
+orb himself.  They also call him the 'hope of eternity', but
+here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the phrase conveys
+any very clear impression to their minds.  Some of them do indeed
+believe in a future life for the good -- I know Nyleptha does
+firmly -- but it is a private faith arising from the promptings
+of the spirit, not an essential of their creed.  So on the whole
+I cannot say that I consider this sun-worship as a religion indicative
+of a civilized people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual,
+or however moral and high-sounding the maxims of its priests,
+many of whom, I am sure, have their own opinions on the whole
+subject; though of course they have nothing but praise for a
+system which provides them with so many of the good things of
+this world.
+
+There are now only two more matters to which I need allude --
+namely, the language and the system of calligraphy.  As for
+the former, it is soft-sounding, and very rich and flexible.
+Sir Henry says that it sounds something like modern Greek,
+but of course it has no connection with it.  It is easy to acquire,
+being simple in its construction, and a peculiar quality about it
+is its euphony, and the way in which the sound of the words
+adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed.  Long before
+we mastered the language, we could frequently make out what
+was meant by the ring of the sentence.  It is on this account
+that the language lends itself so well to poetical declamation,
+of which these remarkable people are very fond.  The Zu-Vendi
+alphabet seems, Sir henry says, to be derived, like every other
+known system of letters, from a Phoenician source, and therefore
+more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
+Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned in such
+matters.  All I know about it is that their alphabet consists
+of twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O,
+are not very unlike our own.  The whole affair is, however, clumsy
+and puzzling. {Endnote 13}  But as the people of Zu-Vendi are
+not given to the writing of novels, or of anything except business
+documents and records of the briefest character, it answers their
+purpose well enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+THE FLOWER TEMPLE
+
+
+
+It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning
+following our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly
+twelve hours, and I must say that I did indeed feel better.
+Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep! and what a difference twelve
+hours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil and
+danger.  It is like going to bed one man and getting up another.
+
+I sat up upon my silken couch -- never had I slept upon such
+a bed before -- and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass
+fixed on me from the recesses of his silken couch.  There was
+nothing else of him to be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew
+from the look of it that he was awake, and waiting till I woke
+up to begin.
+
+'I say, Quatermain,' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observe
+her skin?  It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.'
+
+'Now look here, Good,' I remonstrated, when there came a sound
+at the curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary,
+who signified by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath.
+We gladly consented, and were conducted to a delightful marble
+chamber, with a pool of running crystal water in the centre of
+it, into which we gaily plunged.  When we had bathed, we returned
+to our apartment and dressed, and then went into the central
+room where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a morning
+meal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, though
+I should be puzzled to describe the dishes.  After breakfast
+we lounged round and admired the tapestries and carpets and some
+pieces of statuary that were placed about, wondering the while
+what was going to happen next.  Indeed, by this time our minds
+were in such a state of complete bewilderment that we were, as
+a matter of fact, ready for anything that might arrive.  As for
+our sense of astonishment, it was pretty well obliterated.  Whilst
+we were still thus engaged, our friend the captain of the guard
+presented himself, and with many obeisances signified that we
+were to follow him, which we did, not without doubts and heart-searchings
+-- for we guessed that the time had come when we should have
+to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with our
+cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest.  However, there was no
+help for it, and personally I took great comfort in the promise
+of the protection of the sister Queens, knowing that if ladies
+have a will they can generally find a way; so off we started
+as though we liked it.  A minute's walk through a passage and
+an outer court brought us to the great double gates of the palace
+that open on to the wide highway which runs uphill through the
+heart of Milosis to the Temple of the Sun a mile away, and thence
+down the slope on the farther side of the temple to the outer
+wall of the city.
+
+These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily
+beautiful work in metal.  Between them -- for one set is placed
+at the entrance to an interior, and one at that of the exterior
+wall -- is a fosse, forty-five feet in width.  This fosse is
+filled with water and spanned by a drawbridge, which when lifted
+makes the palace nearly impregnable to anything except siege
+guns.  As we came, one half of the wide gates were flung open,
+and we passed over the drawbridge and presently stood gazing
+up one of the most imposing, if not the most imposing, roadways
+in the world.  It is a hundred feet from curb to curb, and on
+either side, not cramped and crowded together, as is our European
+fashion, but each standing in its own grounds, and built equidistant
+from and in similar style to the rest, are a series of splendid,
+single-storied mansions, all of red granite.  These are the town
+houses of the nobles of the Court, and stretch away in unbroken
+lines for a mile or more till the eye is arrested by the glorious
+vision of the Temple of the Sun that crowns the hill and heads
+the roadway.
+
+As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon,
+there suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn
+by two white horses.  These chariots are two-wheeled, and made
+of wood.  They are fitted with a stout pole, the weight of which
+is supported by leathern girths that form a portion of the harness.
+The wheels are made with four spokes only, are tired with iron,
+and quite innocent of springs.  In the front of the chariot,
+and immediately over the pole, is a small seat for the driver,
+railed round to prevent him from being jolted off.  Inside the
+machine itself are three low seats, one at each side, and one
+with the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door.
+The whole vehicle is lightly and yet strongly made, and, owing
+to the grace of the curves, though primitive, not half so ugly
+as might be expected.
+
+But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses
+did not.  They were simply splendid, not very large but strongly
+built, and well ribbed up, with small heads, remarkably large
+and round hoofs, and a great look of speed and blood.  I have
+often and often wondered whence this breed, which presents many
+distinct characteristics, came, but like that of its owners,
+it history is obscure.  Like the people the horses have always
+been there.  The first and last of these chariots were occupied
+by guards, but the centre two were empty, except for the driver,
+and to these we were conducted.  Alphonse and I got into the
+first, and Sir Henry, Good, and Umslopogaas into the one behind,
+and then suddenly off we went.  And we did go!  Among the Zu-Vendi
+it is not usual to trot horses either riding or driving, especially
+when the journey to be made is a short one -- they go at full
+gallop.  As soon as we were seated the driver called out, the
+horses sprang forward, and we were whirled away at a speed sufficient
+to take one's breath, and which, till I got accustomed to it,
+kept me in momentary fear of an upset.  As for the wretched Alphonse,
+he clung with a despairing face to the side of what he called
+this 'devil of a fiacre', thinking that every moment was his
+last.  Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going,
+and I told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were going
+to be sacrificed by burning.  You should have seen his face as
+he grasped the side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror.
+
+But the wild-looking charioteer only leant forward over his flying
+steeds and shouted; and the air, as it went singing past, bore
+away the sound of Alphonse's lamentations.
+
+And now before us, in all its marvellous splendour and dazzling
+loveliness, shone out the Temple of the Sun -- the peculiar pride
+of the Zu-Vendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's,
+Temple was to the Jews.  The wealth, and skill, and labour of
+generations had been given to the building of this wonderful
+place, which had been only finally completed within the last
+fifty years.  Nothing was spared that the country could produce,
+and the result was indeed worthy of the effort, not so much on
+account of its size -- for there are larger fanes in the world
+-- as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and beauty
+of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship.  The building
+(that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden
+ground on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling-places of
+the priests) is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome-covered
+central hall, from which radiate twelve petal-shaped courts,
+each dedicated to one of the twelve months, and serving as the
+repositories of statues reared in memory of the illustrious dead.
+The width of the circle beneath the dome is three hundred feet,
+the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and the length of
+the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of their
+roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome
+exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised
+heart.  Thus the exact measurement from the centre of the central
+altar to the extreme point of any one of the rounded rays would
+be three hundred feet (the width of the circle itself), or a
+total of six hundred feet from the rounded extremity of one ray
+or petal to the extremity of the opposite one. {Endnote 14}
+
+The building itself is of pure and polished white marble, which
+shows out in marvellous contrast to the red granite of the frowning
+city, on whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diadem
+upon the forehead of a dusky queen.  The outer surface of the
+dome and of the twelve petal courts is covered entirely with
+thin sheets of beaten gold; and from the extreme point of the
+roof of each of these petals a glorious golden form with a trumpet
+in its hand and widespread wings is figured in the very act of
+soaring into space.  I really must leave whoever reads this to
+imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashing
+when the sun strikes -- flashing like a thousand fires aflame
+on a mountain of polished marble -- so fiercely that the reflection
+can be clearly seen from the great peaks of the range a hundred
+miles away.
+
+It is a marvellous sight -- this golden flower upborne upon the
+cool white marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such
+another.  What makes the whole effect even more gorgeous is that
+a belt of a hundred and fifty feet around the marble wall of
+the temple is planted with an indigenous species of sunflower,
+which were at the time when we first saw them a sheet of golden
+bloom.
+
+The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two
+northernmost of the rays or petal courts, and is protected first
+by the usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble,
+beautifully carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid with
+gold.  When these are passed there is only the thickness of the
+wall, which is, however, twenty-five feet (for the Zu-Vendi build
+for all time), and another slight wall also of white marble,
+introduced in order to avoid causing a visible gap in the inner
+skin of the wall, and you stand in the circular hall under the
+great dome.  Advancing to the central altar you look upon as
+beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive.  You
+are in the middle of the holy place, and above you the great
+white marble dome (for the inner skin, like the outer, is of
+polished marble throughout) arches away in graceful curves something
+like that of St Paul's in London, only at a slighter angle, and
+from the funnel-like opening at the exact apex a bright beam
+of light pours down upon the golden altar.  At the east and the
+west are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacred
+twilight to the heart.  In ever direction, 'white, mystic, wonderful',
+open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a single
+arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and
+dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. {Endnote 15}
+
+Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of
+which thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you
+turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though
+you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned
+with curls of faint blue smoke.  It is of marble overlaid with
+pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height,
+and thirty-six in circumference.  Here also, hinged to the foundations
+of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold.  All night and,
+except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed over
+the altar itself exactly as the petals of a water-lily close
+over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun at
+midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon
+the golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery,
+only to close again when the ray has passed.
+
+Nor is this all.  Standing in semicircles at equal distances
+from each other on the north and south of the sacred place are
+ten golden angels, or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped
+and draped.  These figures, which are slightly larger than life-size,
+stand with bent heads in an attitude of adoration, their faces
+shadowed by their wings, and are most imposing and of exceeding
+beauty.
+
+There is but one thing further which calls for description
+in this altar, which is, that to the east the flooring in front
+of it is not of pure white marble, as elsewhere throughout the
+building, but of solid brass, and this is also the case in front
+of the other two altars.
+
+The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape,
+and placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing,
+and are not enfolded in golden petals.  They are, however, also
+of gold, the sacred fire burns on each, and a golden-winged figure
+stands on either side of them.  Two great golden rays run up
+the wall behind them, but where the third or middle one should
+be is an opening in the wall, wide on the outside, but narrow
+within, like a loophole turned inwards.  Through the eastern
+loophole stream the first beams of the rising sun, and strike
+right across the circle, touching the folded petals of the great
+gold flower as they pass till they impinge upon the western altar.
+In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest
+for a while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness.
+It is the promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening
+to the dawn.
+
+With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures
+about them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly
+empty and devoid of ornamentation -- a circumstance that to my
+fancy adds greatly to its splendour.
+
+Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building,
+to the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their
+complete simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice.
+But I cannot, so it is useless talking more about it.  But when
+I compare this great work of genius to some of the tawdry buildings
+and tinsel ornamentation produced in these latter days by European
+ecclesiastical architects, I feel that even highly civilized
+art might learn something from the Zu-Vendi masterpieces.  I
+can only say that the exclamation which sprang to my lips as
+soon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light of that
+glorious building, and its white and curving beauties, perfect
+and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by
+one, was, 'Well! a dog would feel religious here.'  It is vulgarly
+put, but perhaps it conveys my meaning more clearly than any
+polished utterance.
+
+At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers,
+who appeared to be under the orders of a priest; and by them
+we were conducted into one of the ray or 'petal' courts, as the
+priests call them, and there left for at least half-an-hour.
+Here we conferred together, and realizing that we stood in great
+danger of our lives, determined, if any attempt should be made
+upon us, to sell them as dearly as we could -- Umslopogaas announcing
+his fixed intention of committing sacrilege on the person of
+Agon, the High Priest, by splitting his head with Inkosi-kaas.
+From where we stood we could perceive that an immense multitude
+were pouring into the temple, evidently in expectation of some
+unusual event, and I could not help fearing that we had to do
+with it.  And here I may explain that every day, when the sunlight
+falls upon the central altar, and the trumpets sound, a burnt
+sacrifice is offered to the Sun, consisting generally of the
+carcase of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn.  This
+even comes off about midday; of course, not always exactly at
+that hour, but as Zu-Vendis is situated not far from the Line,
+although -- being so high above the sea it is very temperate
+-- midday and the falling of the sunlight on the altar were generally
+simultaneous.  Today the sacrifice was to take place at about
+eight minutes past twelve.
+
+Just at twelve o'clock a priest appeared, and made a sign, and
+the officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected
+to advance, which we did with the best grace that we could muster,
+all except Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly began
+to chatter.  In a few seconds we were out of the court and looking
+at a vast sea of human faces stretching away to the farthest
+limits of the great circle, all straining to catch a glimpse
+of the mysterious strangers who had committed sacrilege; the
+first strangers, mind you, who, to the knowledge of the multitude,
+had ever set foot in Zu-Vendis since such time that the memory
+of man runneth not to the contrary.
+
+As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd that
+went echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush
+of excitement grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink light
+on a stretch of pale cloud, and a very curious effect it was.
+On we passed down a lane cut through the heart of the human
+mass, till presently we stood upon the brazen patch of flooring
+to the east of the central altar, and immediately facing it.
+For some thirty feet around the golden-winged figures the space
+was roped off, and the multitudes stood outside the ropes.  Within
+were a circle of white-robed gold-cinctured priests holding long
+golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front of us
+was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap upon
+his head.  His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage.
+We took our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing what
+was prepared for us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissing
+sound proceeding apparently from the floor for which I could
+not account.  Then came a pause, and I looked around to see if
+there was any sign of the two Queens, Nyleptha and Sorais, but
+they were not there.  To the right of us, however, was a bare
+space that I guessed was reserved for them.
+
+We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high
+up in the dome.  Then came another murmur from the multitude,
+and up a long lane, leading to the open space to our right, we
+saw the two Queens walking side by side.  Behind them were some
+nobles of the Court, among whom I recognized the great lord Nasta,
+and behind them again a body of about fifty guards.  These last
+I was very glad to see.  Presently they had all arrived and taken
+their stand, the two Queens in the front, the nobles to the right
+and left, and the guards in a double semicircle behind them.
+
+Then came another silence, and Nyleptha looked up and caught
+my eye; it seemed to me that there was meaning in her glance,
+and I watched it narrowly.  From my eye it travelled down to
+the brazen flooring, on the outer edge of which we stood.  Then
+followed a slight and almost imperceptible sidelong movement
+of the head.  I did not understand it, and it was repeated.
+Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off the brazen
+floor.  One more glance and I was sure of it -- there was danger
+in standing on the floor.  Sir Henry was placed on one side of
+me, Umslopogaas on the other.  Keeping my eyes fixed straight
+before me, I whispered to them, first in Zulu and then in English,
+to draw slowly back inch by inch till half their feet were resting
+on the marble flooring where the brass ceased.  Sir Henry whispered
+on to Good and Alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shifted
+backwards; so slowly that nobody, except Nyleptha and Sorais,
+who saw everything seemed to notice the movement.  Then I glanced
+again at Nyleptha, and saw that, by an almost imperceptible nod,
+she indicated approval.  All the while Agon's eyes were fixed
+upon the altar before him apparently in an ecstasy of contemplation,
+and mine were fixed upon the small of his back in another sort
+of ecstasy.  Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and in a solemn
+and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for convenience'
+sake I append a rough, a _very_ rough, translation here, though,
+of course, I did not then comprehend its meaning.  It was
+an invocation to the Sun, and ran somewhat as follows: --
+
+
+  There is silence upon the face of the Earth and the waters thereof!
+  Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird;
+  The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness,
+  Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star,
+  The Earth is faint with longing and wet with the tears of her desire;
+  The star-girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted.
+  She lies enshrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave-clothes,
+  And stretches her pale hands to the East.
+
+  Lo! away in the farthest East there is the shadow of a light;
+  The Earth seeth and lifts herself.  She looks out from beneath
+  the hollow of her hand.
+  Then thy great angels fly forth from the Holy Place, oh Sun,
+  They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness and shrivel it up.
+  They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones;
+  Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night;
+  They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man,
+  And behold!  Thy glory comes, oh Sun!
+
+  Oh, Thou beautiful one, Thou drapest thyself in fire.
+  The wide heavens are thy pathway: thou rollest o'er them as a chariot.
+  The Earth is thy bride.  Thou dost embrace her and
+  she brings forth children;
+  Yea, Thou favourest her, and she yields her increase.
+  Thou art the All Father and the giver of life, oh Sun.
+  The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness;
+  The old men creep forth and seeing remember their strength.
+  Only the dead forget Thee, oh Sun!
+
+  When Thou art wroth then Thou dost hide Thy face;
+  Thou drawest around Thee a thick curtain of shadows.
+  Then the Earth grows cold and the Heavens are dismayed;
+  They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder:
+  They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain;
+  They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing.
+  The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale;
+  The old men and the little children go unto their appointed place
+  When Thou withdrawest thy light, oh Sun!
+
+  Say, what art Thou, oh Thou matchless Splendour --
+  Who set Thee on high, oh Thou flaming Terror?
+  When didst Thou begin, and when is the day of Thy ending?
+  Thou art the raiment of the living Spirit. {Endnote 16}
+  None did place Thee on high, for Thou was the Beginning.
+  Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten;
+  Nay, Thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal.
+  Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and
+  measurest out the centuries.
+  Oh Father of Life! oh dark-dispelling Sun!
+
+
+He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough
+thing after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive
+in the original; and then, after a moment's pause, he glanced up
+towards the funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added --
+
+
+Oh Sun, descend upon thine Altar!
+
+
+As he spoke a wonderful and a beautiful thing happened.  Down
+from on high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving
+the twilight like a sword of fire.  Full upon the closed petals
+it fell and ran shimmering down their golden sides, and then
+the glorious flower opened as though beneath the bright influence.
+Slowly it opened, and as the great petals fell wide and revealed
+the golden altar on which the fire ever burns, the priests blew
+a blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people there rose
+a shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came echoing
+down the marble walls.  And now the flower altar was open, and
+the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beat
+it down, so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow
+recesses whence it rose.  As it vanished, the mellow notes of
+the trumpets rolled out once more.  Again the old priest flung
+up his hands and called aloud --
+
+
+We sacrifice to thee, oh Sun!
+
+
+Once more I caught Nyleptha's eye; it was fixed upon the brazen flooring.
+
+'Look out,' I said, aloud; and as I said it, I saw Agon bend
+forward and touch something on the altar.  As he did so, the
+great white sea of faces around us turned red and then white
+again, and a deep breath went up like a universal sigh.
+Nyleptha leant forward, and with an involuntary movement covered
+her eyes with her hand.  Sorais turned and whispered to the officer
+of the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the whole
+of the brazen flooring slid from before our feet, and there in
+its place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft terminating
+in a most awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big enough
+and hot enough to heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war.
+
+With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched
+Alphonse, who was paralysed with fear, and would have fallen
+into the fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had not
+Sir Henry caught him in his strong hand as he was vanishing and
+dragged him back.
+
+Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got
+back to back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle
+in his attempts to take shelter under our legs.  We all had our
+revolvers on -- for though we had been politely disarmed of our
+guns on leaving the palace, of course these people did not know
+what a revolver was.  Umslopogaas, too, had his axe, of which
+no effort had been made to deprive him, and now he whirled it
+round his head and sent his piercing Zulu war-shout echoing up
+the marble walls in fine defiant fashion.  Next second, the priests,
+baffled of their prey, had drawn swords from beneath their white
+robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a stag at bay.
+I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or be
+lost, so as the first man came bounding along -- and a great
+tall fellow he was -- I sent a heavy revolver ball through him,
+and down he fell at the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking
+frantically, into the fiery gulf that had been prepared for us.
+
+Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect
+of the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests
+halted, paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come on
+again Sorais had called out something, and we, together with
+the two Queens and most of the courtiers, were being surrounded
+with a wall of armed men.  In a moment it was done, and still
+the priests hesitated, and the people hung in the balance like
+a herd of startled buck as it were, making no sign one way or
+the other.
+
+The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had
+finished him, and a great silence fell upon the place.
+
+Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face
+of a devil.  'Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,' he cried to the
+Queens.  'Has not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers,
+and would ye, as Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over
+evildoers?  Are not the creatures sacred to the Sun dead?  And
+is not a priest of the Sun also dead, but now slain by the magic
+of these strangers, who come as the winds out of heaven, whence
+we know not, and who are what we know not?  Beware, oh Queens,
+how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God, even before
+His high altar!  There is a Power that is more than your power;
+there is a Justice that is higher than your justice.  Beware
+how ye lift an impious hand against it!  Let the sacrifice be
+sacrificed, oh Queens.'
+
+Then Sorais made answer in her deep quiet tones, that always
+seemed to me to have a suspicion of mockery about them, however
+serious the theme: 'Oh, Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy
+desire, and thou hast spoken truth.  But it is thou who wouldst
+lift an impious hand against the justice of thy God.  Bethink
+thee the midday sacrifice is accomplished; the Sun hath claimed
+his priest as a sacrifice.'
+
+This was a novel idea, and the people applauded it.
+
+'Bethink thee what are these men?  They are strangers found floating
+on the bosom of a lake.  Who brought them here?  How came they
+here?  How know you that they also are not servants of the Sun?
+ Is this the hospitality that ye would have our nation show to
+those whom chance brings to them, to throw them to the flames?
+ Shame on you!  Shame on you!  What is hospitality?  To receive
+the stranger and show him favour.  To bind up his wounds, and
+find a pillow for his head, and food for him to eat.  But thy
+pillow is the fiery furnace, and thy food the hot savour of the
+flame.  Shame on thee, I say!'
+
+She paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the
+multitude, and seeing that it was favourable, changed her tone
+from one of remonstrance to one of command.
+
+'Ho! place there,' she cried; 'place, I say; make way for the
+Queens, and those whom the Queens cover with their "kaf" (mantle).'
+
+'And if I refuse, oh Queen?' said Agon between his teeth.
+
+'Then will I cut a path with my guards,' was the proud answer;
+'ay, even in the presence of thy sanctuary, and through the bodies
+of thy priests.'
+
+Agon turned livid with baffled fury.  He glanced at the people
+as though meditating an appeal to them, but saw clearly that
+their sympathies were all the other way.  The Zu-Vendi are a
+very curious and sociable people, and great as was their sense
+of the enormity that we had committed in shooting the sacred
+hippopotami, they did not like the idea of the only real live
+strangers they had seen or heard of being consigned to a fiery
+furnace, thereby putting an end for ever to their chance of extracting
+knowledge and information from, and gossiping about us.  Agon
+saw this and hesitated, and then for the first time Nyleptha
+spoke in her soft sweet voice.
+
+'Bethink thee, Agon,' she said, 'as my sister Queen has said,
+these men may also be servants of the Sun.  For themselves they
+cannot speak, for their tongues are tied.  Let the matter be
+adjourned till such time as they have learnt our language.  Who
+can be condemned without a hearing?  When these men can plead
+for themselves, then it will be time to put them to the proof.'
+
+Here was a clever loophole of escape, and the vindictive old
+priest took it, little as he liked it.
+
+'So be it, oh Queens,' he said.  'Let the men go in peace, and
+when they have learnt our tongue then let them speak.  And I,
+even I, will make humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence
+fall on the land by cause of the sacrilege.'
+
+These words were received with a murmur of applause, and in another
+minute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal
+guards.
+
+But it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact
+substance of what had passed, and how hardly our lives had been
+wrung out of the cruel grip of the Zu-Vendi priesthood, in the
+face of which even the Queens were practically powerless.  Had
+it not been for their strenuous efforts to protect us we should
+have been slain even before we set foot in the Temple of the
+Sun.  The attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery pit as an
+offering was a last artifice to attain this end when several
+others quite unsuspected by us had already failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+SORAIS' SONG
+
+
+
+After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to
+our quarters in the palace and had a very good time.  The two
+Queens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing
+us honour and showering gifts upon us.  As for that painful little
+incident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were
+quite content to leave it.  Every day deputations and individuals
+waited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts,
+and our instruments, especially our watches, with which they
+were much delighted.  In short, we became quite the rage, so
+much so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendi
+began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry's
+shooting jacket.  One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
+and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion.
+This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those
+who generally came to visit us.  They were little insignificant
+men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour;
+and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing
+the details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they took
+copious notes and measurements.  Good was much flattered at the
+time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading
+tailors of Milosis.  A fortnight afterwards, however, when on
+attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
+or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very
+fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind.
+I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust.
+It was after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because
+our clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up, that we
+resolved to adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable one
+we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked sufficiently
+ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse!  Only Umslopogaas would
+have none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce
+old Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim
+and naked as his own battleaxe.
+
+Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made
+very good progress.  On the morning following our adventure in
+the temple, three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves
+armed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and
+indicated that they had been sent to teach us.  So, with the
+exception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will, doing
+four hours a day.  As for Umslopogaas, he would have none of
+that either.  He did not wish to learn that 'woman's talk', not
+he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
+and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive
+way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag
+under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang
+up with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes
+of our learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt to
+teach _him_ Zu-Vendi.
+
+Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more
+and more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were
+given up to recreation.  Sometimes we made trips, notably one
+to the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both of
+which I wish I had space and time to describe; and sometimes
+we went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose,
+and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agricultural
+enclosures and our horses were magnificent.  This is not to be
+wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our command,
+in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given
+to us by Nyleptha.
+
+Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great
+favour among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a
+species of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and
+strength of its flight.  When attacked by the hawk this bird
+appears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flies
+high into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport.  I have seen
+one of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed
+by the hawk.  Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitary
+snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in this
+country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and
+highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail.  The zigzagging
+of the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and
+movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful
+one.  Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of
+a very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and it
+certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and
+soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and
+then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some
+cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
+but that piercing eye.  Still finer is the spectacle when the
+eagle takes the buck running.
+
+On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some
+of the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages
+clustering beneath their walls.  Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields
+and well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them as
+filled me with delight, for I do love a good tree.  There it
+stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type
+of the best sort of man.  How proudly it lifts its bare head
+to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices
+when the spring has come again!  How grand its voice is, too,
+when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot
+equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf.  All
+day it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and
+thus passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through the
+centuries, come storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance from
+the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as the slow years roll
+by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay.  And
+so on and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs,
+dynasties -- all save the landscape it adorns and human nature
+-- till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle
+and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke
+to his fungus-fingered work.
+
+Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
+
+In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself
+to dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties -- not every night,
+indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they had
+not much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it.
+And I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the
+most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with.
+How true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always
+the most simple and kindly.  It is from your half-and-half sort
+of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the difference
+between the two being very much what you one sees every day in
+England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family,
+and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take the
+place'.  I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her
+sweet simplicity, and her kindly genuine interest even in little
+things.  She is the simplest woman I ever knew, and where her
+passions are not involved, one of the sweetest; but she can look
+queenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as any savage too.
+
+For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the
+first time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis.
+It came about in this way -- all through Good's weakness for
+ladies' society.  When we had been employed for some three months
+in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master Good that he was getting
+rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the honour to lead
+us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without saying
+a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiar
+fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the deeper
+intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by ladies
+-- young ladies, he was careful to explain.  In his own country,
+he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking
+and most charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers
+who happened to come that way, etc.
+
+All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed.  There
+was, they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation
+of the beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain
+porosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical body
+by the healthful influences of sun and air.  Consequently it
+was probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little
+faster if suitable teachers could be found.  Another thing was
+that, as the female sex was naturally loquacious, good practice
+would be gained in the viva voce department of our studies.
+
+To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
+departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with
+our wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views should
+be met.
+
+Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I
+trust and believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where
+we were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning,
+we found, instead of our usual venerable tutors, three of the
+best-looking young women whom Milosis could produce -- and that
+is saying a good deal -- who blushed and smiled and curtseyed,
+and gave us to understand that they were there to carry on our
+instruction.  Then Good, as we gazed at one another in bewilderment,
+thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his memory
+before -- but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous
+evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
+should be carried on by the other sex.  I was overwhelmed, and
+appealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they?  If
+we sent them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings,
+eh?  One doesn't like to be rough, you see; and they look regular
+_blues_, don't they, eh?'
+
+By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest
+of the three, and so with a sigh I yielded.  That day everything
+went very well: the young ladies were certainly very clever,
+and they only smiled when we blundered.  I never saw Good so
+attentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared to
+tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest.  'Ah,' thought I, 'will
+it always be thus?'
+
+Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed
+with questions about our native country, what the ladies were
+like there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could
+in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness
+was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which
+she replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plain
+teaching woman and nothing else, and that it was not kind 'to
+deceive a poor girl so'.  Then we had a little singing that was
+really charming, so natural and unaffected.  The Zu-Vendi love-songs
+are most touching.  On the third day we were all quite intimate.
+Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his fair
+teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his
+own.  I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian
+art, and never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to
+drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst in
+the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared, so far as I
+could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the great
+educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq., though
+in a very modified or rather spiritualized form.  The lady softly
+repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers; 'eyes',
+and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and -- but just
+at that moment _my_ young lady dropped the cockroach down my back
+and ran away laughing.  Now if there is one thing I loathe more
+than another it is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself,
+and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the cushion she
+had been sitting on and threw it after her.  Imagine then my
+shame -- my horror, and my distress -- when the door opened,
+and, attended by two guards only, in walked _Nyleptha_.  The cushion
+could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the
+guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried
+to look as though I had not thrown it.  Good ceased his sighing,
+and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir
+Henry whistled and looked silly.  As for the poor girls, they
+were utterly dumbfounded.
+
+And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower
+even above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red,
+and then pale as death.
+
+'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair
+but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman.'
+
+The men hesitated, as well they might.
+
+'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice,
+'or will ye not?'
+
+Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears.
+By this time Sir Henry had recovered himself, and saw that
+the comedy was likely to turn into a tragedy.
+
+'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time
+getting in front of the terrified girl.  'Shame on thee,
+Nyleptha -- shame!  Thou shalt not kill her.'
+
+'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her.
+Thou couldst hardly do less in honour,' answered the
+infuriated Queen; 'but she shall die -- she shall die,'
+and she stamped her little foot.
+
+'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her.  I am thy
+servant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.'  And he bowed
+towards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
+
+'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost
+make a mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and
+I suppose not knowing what else to do, she burst into such a
+storm of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionate
+distress, that, old as I am, I must say I envied Curtis his task
+of supporting her.  It was rather odd to see him holding her
+in his arms considering what had just passed -- a thought that
+seemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself
+free and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
+
+Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message
+to the girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city
+and return to their homes in the country, and that no further
+harm would come to them; and accordingly they went, one of them
+remarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and that
+it was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little
+serviceable Zu-Vendi.  Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and,
+overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my favourite
+lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away.  After that
+our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless
+to say to my great relief.
+
+That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal
+supper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache.
+That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth
+she was present at supper as usual, and with the most gracious
+and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table.
+No allusion was made to the little affair described above beyond
+her saying, with a charming air of innocence, that when she came
+to see us at our studies the other day she had been seized with
+a giddiness from which she had only now recovered.  She supposed,
+she added with a touch of the humour that was common to her,
+that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected her.
+
+In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not
+look quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those
+quick glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of
+a man must have gone through him like a knife, and the subject
+dropped entirely.  Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended
+to put us through an examination to see what we had learnt, and
+to express herself well satisfied with the results.  Indeed,
+she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her
+own account, and very interesting we found it.
+
+And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and
+laughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and
+look at us and read us all like a book, only from time to time
+saying a few words, and smiling that quick ominous smile of hers
+which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloud
+than anything else.  And as near to her as he dared would sit
+Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting
+seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking personally,
+I felt terribly afraid.  I watched her keenly, and soon I found
+out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heart
+bitterly jealous of Nyleptha.  Another thing I found out, and
+the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she _also_
+was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis.  Of course I could not
+be sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman;
+but I noticed one or two little things, and, as elephant hunters
+know, dried grass shows which way the wind has set.
+
+And so another three months passed over us, by which time we
+had all attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi
+language, which is an easy one to learn.  And as the time went
+on we became great favourites with the people, and even with
+the courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness,
+because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show them
+how to make glass, which was a national want, and also, by the
+help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predict
+various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by
+the native astronomers.  We even succeeded in demonstrating the
+principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned men,
+who were filled with amazement; and several other things of the
+same sort we did.  And so it came about that the people made
+up their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out
+of the country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility even
+if we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour and
+made officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent
+quarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was
+asked upon questions of national policy.
+
+But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one,
+on the horizon.  We had indeed heard no more of those confounded
+hippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed that
+our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful
+priesthood headed by Agon appeased.  On the contrary, it was
+burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed,
+and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright
+direct hatred born of jealousy.  Hitherto, the priests had been
+the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as well as
+from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration.
+But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange
+inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow
+to this state of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went
+far towards destroying the priestly prestige.  A still worse
+affront to them, however, was the favour with which we were regarded,
+and the trust that was reposed in us.  All these things tended
+to make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan,
+the most powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom.
+
+Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of
+some of the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to
+us had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened
+to break out into open flame.  Nasta had for some years been
+a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage, and when we appeared
+on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there
+were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means
+out of his reach.  But now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha
+smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess
+the cause.  Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to
+Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain
+side.  With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door
+was closed on him for ever.  So Nasta bethought himself of the
+thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding
+through the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn
+the gates of Milosis with our heads.
+
+But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt
+and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the
+formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been
+proclaimed by the Queens during the year.
+
+Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance,
+and with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us
+of it as we sat at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony
+of the law-giving.
+
+Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly
+showed his agitation.
+
+'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the
+great Lord?' asked I, in a jesting manner.
+
+'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu
+names in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory
+shoulder.  'Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when
+the wooer has thirty thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?'
+ And from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis.
+
+Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
+'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me.  'Listen.
+I have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I
+love Nyleptha.  What am I to do?'
+
+Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
+consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as
+seemed the wisest to me.
+
+'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,' I said.  'Now is your time,
+now or never.  Listen.  In the sitting-chamber get near to her,
+and whisper to her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue
+at the end of the great hall.  I will keep watch for you there.
+Now or never, Curtis.'
+
+We passed on into the other room.  Nyleptha was sitting, her
+hands before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face.
+A little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured
+tones.
+
+The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that,
+according to their habit, the Queens would retire.  As yet, Sir
+Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private: indeed,
+though we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no means easy
+to see them alone.  I racked my brains, and at last an idea came
+to me.
+
+'Will the Queen be pleased,' I said, bowing low before Sorais,
+'to sing to her servants?  Our hearts are heavy this night; sing
+to us, oh Lady of the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among the
+people).
+
+'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart,
+yet will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she rose
+and went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not
+unlike a zither, and struck a few wandering chords.
+
+Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her
+rounded voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with
+so eerie and sad a refrain, that it made the very blood stand
+still.  Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed to melt far
+away, and then to grow again and travel on, laden with all the
+sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost.  It was
+a marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to it properly.
+However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a translation
+of its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at all.
+
+
+  SORAIS' SONG
+
+  As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,
+  As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging,
+  So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.
+
+  As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,
+  As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
+  So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.
+
+  As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,
+  As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending,
+  So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.
+
+  So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,
+  A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
+  Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us.
+
+
+Refrain
+
+Oh, the world is fair at the dawning -- dawning -- dawning,
+But the red sun sinks in blood -- the red sun sinks in blood.
+
+
+I only wish that I could write down the music too.
+
+'Now, Curtis, now,' I whispered, when she began the second verse,
+and turned my back.
+
+'Nyleptha,' he said -- for my nerves were so much on the stretch
+that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through
+Sorais' divine notes -- 'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this
+night, upon my life I must.  Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'
+
+'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before
+her; 'Queens are not like other people.  I am surrounded and watched.'
+
+'Listen, Nyleptha, thus.  I will be before the statue of Rademas
+in the great hall at midnight.  I have the countersign and can
+pass in.  Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him
+the Zulu.  Oh come, my Queen, deny me not.'
+
+'It is not seemly,' she murmured, 'and tomorrow --'
+
+Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain,
+and Sorais slowly turned her round.
+
+'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see
+that thou fail me not.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+BEFORE THE STATUE
+
+
+
+It was night -- dead night -- and the silence lay on the
+Frowning City like a cloud.
+
+Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself
+threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to
+the great Throne Chamber.  Once we were met by the fierce rattling
+challenge of the sentry.  I gave the countersign, and the man
+grounded his spear and let us pass.  Also we were officers of
+the Queens' bodyguard, and in that capacity had a right to come
+and go unquestioned.
+
+We gained the hall in safety.  So empty and so still was it,
+that even when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed
+up the lofty walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly
+against the carven roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of dead
+men haunting the place that once they trod.
+
+It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me.  The moon was full,
+and threw great pencils and patches of light through the high
+windowless openings in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful
+upon the blackness of the marble floor, like white flowers on
+a coffin.  One of these silver arrows fell upon the statue of
+the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bent over him, illumining
+it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear light, reminding
+me of that with which Catholics illumine the altars of their
+cathedrals.
+
+Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited.  Sir Henry
+and I close together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness,
+so that I could only just make out his towering outline leaning
+on the outline of an axe.
+
+So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against
+the cold marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give
+a quick catching breath.  Then from far away there came a little
+sound as though the statues that lined the walls were whispering
+to each other some message of the ages.
+
+It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress.  Nearer it grew, and
+nearer yet.  We could see a figure steal from patch to patch
+of moonlight, and even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet.
+Another second and I saw the black silhouette of the old Zulu
+raise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha was before us.
+
+Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within
+the circle of the moonlight!  Her hand was pressed upon her heart,
+and her white bosom heaved beneath it.  Round her head a broidered
+scarf was loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face,
+and thus rendering it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent
+as it is to a certain extent upon the imagination, is never so
+beautiful as when it is half hid.  There she stood radiant but
+half doubting, stately and yet so sweet.  It was but a moment,
+but I then and there fell in love with her myself, and have remained
+so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like an angel out
+of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman.  Low we bowed
+before her, and then she spoke.
+
+'I have come,' she whispered, 'but it was at great risk.  Ye
+know not how I am watched.  The priests watch me.  Sorais watches
+me with those great eyes of hers.  My very guards are spies upon
+me.  Nasta watches me too.  Oh, let him be careful!' and she
+stamped her foot.  'Let him be careful; I am a woman, and therefore
+hard to drive.  Ay, and I am a Queen, too, and can still avenge.
+Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving him my hand
+I take his head,' and she ended the outburst with a little sob,
+and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
+
+'Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu' (Curtis had taught
+her to call him so).  'Doubtless it is about business of the
+State, for I know that thou art ever full of great ideas and
+plans for my welfare and my people's.  So even as a Queen should
+I have come, though I greatly fear the dark alone,' and again
+she laughed and gave him a glance from her grey eyes.
+
+At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets
+'of the State' should not be made public property; but she would
+not let me go far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards
+or so, saying that she feared surprise.  So it came to pass that,
+however unwillingly, I heard all that passed.
+
+'Thou knowest, Nyleptha,' said Sir Henry, 'that it was for none
+of these things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place.
+Nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me,
+for -- I love thee.'
+
+As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and
+change.  The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there
+shone a great light of love which seemed to glorify it, and make
+it like that of the marble angel overhead.  I could not help
+thinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinct
+which made the long dead Rademas limn, in the features of the
+angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of his own
+descendant.  Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struck
+by the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha's face,
+he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back
+again at his beloved.
+
+'Thou sayest thou dost love me,' she said in a low voice, 'and
+thy voice rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak
+the truth?'
+
+'Though,' she went on with proud humility, and in the stately
+third person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, 'I be
+as nothing in the eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards
+him, 'who comes from among a wonderful people, to whom my people
+are but children, yet here am I a queen and a leader of men,
+and if I would go to battle a hundred thousand spears shall sparkle
+in my train like stars glimmering down the path of the bent moon.
+And although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my lord,'
+and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed again, 'yet
+here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever since
+I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel
+concerning me, as though forsooth,' she added with a flash of
+passion, 'I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf,
+or a horse to be sold to the highest bidder.  Let my lord pardon
+me if I weary my lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say that
+he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore
+would I say that though my love and my hand be not much to my
+lord, yet to me are they all.'
+
+'Oh!' she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice,
+and modifying her dignified mode of address.  'Oh, how can I
+know that thou lovest but me?  How can I know that thou wilt
+not weary of me and seek thine own place again, leaving me desolate?
+ Who is there to tell me but that thou lovest some other woman,
+some fair woman unknown to me, but who yet draws breath beneath
+this same moon that shines on me tonight?  Tell me _how_ am I to
+know?'  And she clasped her hands and stretched them out towards
+him and looked appealingly into his face.
+
+'Nyleptha,' answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of
+speech; 'I have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell
+thee how much I love thee?  Is there then a measure for love?
+ Yet will I try.  I say not that I have never looked upon another
+woman with favour, but this I say that I love thee with all my
+life and with all my strength; that I love thee now and shall
+love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe beyond
+my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music
+to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when
+thou art there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not
+it is as though the light was dead.  Oh, Nyleptha, I will never
+leave thee; here and now for thy dear sake I will forget my people
+and my father's house, yea, I renounce them all.  By thy side
+will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side will I die.'
+
+He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like
+a lily, and said never a word.
+
+'Look!' he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight
+played so brightly.  'Thou seest that angel woman who rests her
+hand upon the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how
+at her touch his soul flames up and shines out through his flesh,
+even as a lamp at the touch of the fire, so is it with me and
+thee, Nyleptha.  Thou hast awakened my soul and called it forth,
+and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine, but _thine_ and thine
+only.  There is no more for me to say; in thy hands is my life.'
+ And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue, looking
+very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a god.
+
+Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes,
+all alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face,
+as though to read his very soul.  Then at last she spoke, low
+indeed, but clearly as a silver bell.
+
+'Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee.  Ill will
+be the day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn
+that I have believed a lie.  And now hearken to me, oh man, who
+hath wandered here from far to steal my heart and make me all
+thine own.  I put my hand upon thy hand thus, and thus I, whose
+lips have never kissed before, do kiss thee on the brow; and
+now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss, ay, by my people's
+weal and by my throne that like enough I shall lose for thee
+-- by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by the
+eternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live
+and die.  And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till
+death, ay, and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and
+that thy will shall be my will, and thy ways my ways.
+
+'Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who
+loves; I, who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet
+I do my homage;' and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself
+down on her knees on the cold marble before him.  And after that
+I really do not know, for I could stand it no longer, and cleared
+off to refresh myself with a little of old Umslopogaas' society,
+leaving them to settle it their own way, and a very long time
+they were about it.
+
+I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and
+surveying the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile
+of amusement.
+
+'Ah, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I suppose it is because I am getting
+old, but I don't think that I shall ever learn to understand
+the ways of you white people.  Look there now, I pray thee, they
+are a pretty pair of doves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn?
+ He wants a wife, and she wants a husband, then why does he not
+pay his cows down {Endnote 17} like a man and have done with
+it?  It would save a deal of trouble, and we should have had
+our night's sleep.  But there they go, talk, talk, talk, and
+kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things.  Eugh!'
+
+Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 'pair of doves'
+came strolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and
+Nyleptha remarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty
+effects on the marble.  Then, for she was in a most gracious
+mood, she took my hand and said that I was 'her Lord's' dear
+friend, and therefore most dear to her -- not a word for my own
+sake, you see.  Next she lifted Umslopogaas' axe, and examined
+it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that he might
+soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
+
+After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a
+tender glance at her lover, glided off into the darkness
+like a beautiful vision.
+
+When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident,
+Curtis asked me jocularly what I was thinking about.
+
+'I am wondering,' I answered, 'on what principle it is arranged
+that some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love
+with them, while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody;
+and I am also wondering how many brave men's lives this night's
+work will cost.'  It was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow
+all the feelings do not evaporate with age, and I could not help
+being a little jealous of my old friend's luck.  Vanity, my sons;
+vanity of vanities!
+
+On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence,
+and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere
+about the mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings
+in a duckpond, till they flowed over the brim of his eyeglass
+and went where sweet smiles go.  The fact of the matter, however,
+was that not only was Good rejoiced about the thing on its own
+merits but also for personal reasons.  He adored Sorais quite
+as earnestly as Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and his adoration
+had not altogether prospered.  Indeed, it had seemed to him and
+to me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen favoured Curtis
+in her own curious inscrutable way much more than Good.  Therefore
+it was a relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was
+permanently  and satisfactorily attached in another direction.
+His face fell a little, however, when he was told that the whole
+thing was to be kept as secret as the dead, above all from Sorais
+for the present, inasmuch as the political convulsion which would
+follow such an announcement at the moment would be altogether
+too great to face and would very possibly, if prematurely made,
+shake Nyleptha from her throne.
+
+That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could
+not help smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last,
+and reflecting that, if walls could speak, they would have strange
+tales to tell.
+
+What actresses women are!  There, high upon her golden throne,
+draped in her blazoned 'kaf' or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha,
+and when Sir Henry came in a little late, dressed in the full
+uniform of an officer of her guard and humbly bent himself before
+her, she merely acknowledged his salute with a careless nod and
+turned her head coldly aside.  It was a very large Court, for
+not only did the signing of the laws attract many outside of
+those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour that Nasta
+was going to publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriage had
+gone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowded
+to its utmost capacity.  There were our friends the priests in
+force, headed by Agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye;
+and a most imposing band they were, with their long white embroidered
+robes girt with a golden chain from which hung the fish-like
+scales.  There, too, were a number of the lords, each with a
+band of brilliantly attired attendants, and prominent among them
+was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and looking
+unusually pleasant.  It was a splendid and impressive sight,
+especially when the officer after having read out each law handed
+them to the Queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and
+the Queens' guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute.
+This reading and signing of the laws took a long time, but at
+length it came to an end, the last one reciting that 'whereas
+distinguished strangers, etc.', and proceeding to confer on the
+three of us the rank of 'lords', together with certain military
+commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen.  When it was
+read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual,
+but I saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, while
+Nasta ground his teeth.  They did not like the favour that was
+shown to us, which under all the circumstances was not perhaps
+unnatural.
+
+Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing
+humbly, though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at
+the hands of the Queen Nyleptha.
+
+Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed
+the 'well-beloved lord' to speak on, whereon in a few
+straightforward soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
+
+Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest
+Agon took up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and
+power pointed out the many advantages of the proposed alliance;
+how it would consolidate the kingdom, for Nasta's dominions,
+of which he was virtually king, were to Zu-Vendis much what Scotland
+used to be to England; how it would gratify the wild mountaineers
+and be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta was a famous general;
+how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and would
+gain the blessing and approval of the 'Sun', i.e. of the office
+of the High Priest, and so on.  Many of his arguments were undoubtedly
+valid, and there was, looking at it from a political point of
+view, everything to be said for the marriage.  But unfortunately
+it is difficult to play the game of politics with the persons
+of young and lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies
+of themselves on a chessboard.  Nyleptha's face, while Agon spouted
+away, was a perfect study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the
+smile it set like a stone, and her eyes began to flash ominously.
+
+At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer.  Before
+she did so, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice
+sufficiently loud for me to catch what she said, 'Bethink thee
+well, my sister, ere thou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones
+may hang upon thy words.'
+
+Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais
+leant back again and listened.
+
+'Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,' she said, 'that
+my poor hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but
+that Agon here should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of
+the Sun upon my union.  Methinks that in another minute he would
+have wed us fast ere the bride had said her say.  Nasta, I thank
+thee, and I will bethink me of thy words, but now as yet I have
+no mind for marriage, that as a cup of which none know the taste
+until they begin to drink it.  Again I thank thee, Nasta,' and
+she made as though she would rise.
+
+The great lord's face turned almost as black as his beard with
+fury, for he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal
+of his suit.
+
+'Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,' he said, restraining
+himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, 'my
+heart shall surely treasure them.  And now I crave another boon,
+namely, the royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities
+in the north till such time as the Queen shall say my suit nay
+or yea.  Mayhap,' he added, with a sneer, 'the Queen will be
+pleased to visit me there, and to bring with her these stranger
+lords,' and he scowled darkly towards us.  'It is but a poor
+country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers,
+and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout
+a welcome to her.'
+
+This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was
+received in complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered
+it with spirit.
+
+'Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my
+train, and for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince,
+will I bring two from the lowlands who call me Queen, and we
+will see which is the staunchest breed.  Till then farewell.'
+
+The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly
+broke up in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with
+a heavy heart foreseeing civil war.
+
+After this there was quiet for a few weeks.  Curtis and the Queen
+did not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow
+the true relation in which they stood to each other to leak out;
+but do what they would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing
+fly in a dark room, and yet quite as audible, began to hum
+round and round, and at last to settle on her throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+THE STORM BREAKS
+
+
+
+And now it was that the trouble which at first had been but a
+cloud as large as a man's hand began to loom very black and big
+upon our horizon, namely, Sorais' preference for Sir Henry.
+I saw the storm drawing nearer and nearer; and so, poor fellow,
+did he.  The affection of so lovely and highly-placed a woman
+was not a thing that could in a general way be considered a calamity
+by any man, but, situated as Curtis was, it was a grievous burden
+to bear.
+
+To begin with, Nyleptha, though altogether charming, was, it must
+be admitted, of a rather jealous disposition, and was sometimes
+apt to visit on her lover's head her indignation at the marks
+of what Alphonse would have called the 'distinguished consideration'
+with which her royal sister favoured him.  Then the enforced
+secrecy of his relation to Nyleptha prevented Curtis from taking
+some opportunity of putting a stop, or trying to put a stop,
+to this false condition of affairs, by telling Sorais, in a casual
+but confidential way, that he was going to marry her sister.
+A third sting in Sir Henry's honey was that he knew that Good
+was honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking but
+most attractive Lady of the Night.  Indeed, poor Bougwan was
+wasting himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her,
+his face getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick
+in it; while she, with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave
+him encouragement enough to keep him going, thinking, no doubt,
+that he might be useful as a stalking-horse.  I tried to give
+him a hint, in as delicate a way as I could, but he flew into
+a huff and would not listen to me, so I was determined to let
+ill along, for fear of making it worse.  Poor Good, he really
+was very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all sorts
+of absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit.
+One of them was the writing -- with the assistance of one of
+the grave and revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatever
+may have been the measure of his erudition, did not understand
+how to scan a line -- of a most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song,
+of which the continually recurring refrain was something about
+'I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will kiss thee!'  Now among the
+Zu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless thing for young men
+to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do in the southern
+countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songs
+to them.  The young men may or may not be serious; but no offence
+is meant and none is taken, even by ladies of the highest rank,
+who accept the whole thing as an English girl would a
+gracefully-turned compliment.
+
+Availing himself of this custom, Good bethought him that would
+serenade Sorais, whose private apartments, together with those
+of her maidens, were exactly opposite our own, on the further
+side of a narrow courtyard which divided one section of the great
+palace from another.  Accordingly, having armed himself with
+a native zither, on which, being an adept with the light guitar,
+he had easily learned to strum, he proceeded at midnight -- the
+fashionable hour for this sort of caterwauling -- to make night
+hideous with his amorous yells.  I was fast asleep when they
+began, but they soon woke me up -- for Good possesses a tremendous
+voice and has no notion of time -- and I ran to my window-place
+to see what was the matter.  And there, standing in the full
+moonlight in the courtyard, I perceived Good, adorned with an
+enormous ostrich feather head-dress and a flowing silken cloak,
+which it is the right thing to wear upon these occasions, and
+shouting out the abominable song which he and the old gentleman
+had evolved, to a jerky, jingling accompaniment.  From the direction
+of the quarters of the maids of honour came a succession of faint
+sniggerings; but the apartments of Sorais herself -- whom I devoutly
+pitied if she happened to be there -- were silent as the grave.
+There was absolutely no end to that awful song, with its eternal
+'I will kiss thee!' and at last neither I nor Sir Henry, whom
+I had summoned to enjoy the sight, could stand it any longer;
+so, remembering the dear old story, I put my head to the window
+opening, and shouted, 'For Heaven's sake, Good, don't go on talking
+about it, but _kiss_ her and let's all go to sleep!'  That choked
+him off, and we had no more serenading.
+
+Then whole thing formed a laughable incident in a tragic business.
+How deeply thankful we ought to be that even the most serious
+matters have generally a silver lining about them in the shape
+of a joke, if only people could see it.  The sense of humour
+is a very valuable possession in life, and ought to be cultivated
+in the Board schools -- especially in Scotland.
+
+Well, the more Sir Henry held off the more Sorais came on, as
+is not uncommon in such cases, till at last things got very queer
+indeed.  Evidently she was, by some strange perversity of mind,
+quite blinded to the true state of the case; and I, for one,
+greatly dreaded the moment of her awakening.  Sorais was a dangerous
+woman to be mixed up with, either with or without one's consent.
+At last the evil moment came, as I saw it must come.  One fine
+day, Good having gone out hawking, Sir Henry and I were sitting
+quietly talking over the situation, especially with reference
+to Sorais, when a Court messenger arrived with a written note,
+which we with some difficulty deciphered, and which was to the
+effect that 'the Queen Sorais commanded the attendance of the
+Lord Incubu in her private apartments, whither he would be conducted
+by the bearer'.
+
+'Oh my word!' groaned Sir Henry.  'Can't you go instead, old fellow?'
+
+'Not if I know it,' I said with vigour.  'I had rather face a
+wounded elephant with a shot-gun.  Take care of your own business,
+my boy.  If you will be so fascinating you must take the consequences.
+I would not be in your place for an empire.'
+
+'You remind me of when I was going to be flogged at school and
+the other boys came to console me,' he said gloomily.  'What
+right has this Queen to command my attendance, I should like
+to know?  I won't go.'
+
+'But you must; you are one of her officers and bound to obey
+her, and she knows it.  And after all it will soon be over.'
+
+'That's just what they used to say,' he said again.  'I only
+hope she won't put a knife into me.  I believe that she is quite
+capable of it.'  And off he started very faintheartedly,
+and no wonder.
+
+I sat and waited, and at the end of about forty-five minutes
+he returned, looking a good deal worse than when he went.
+
+'Give me something to drink,' he said hoarsely.
+
+I got him a cup of wine, and asked what was the matter.
+
+'What is the matter?  Why if ever there was trouble there's trouble
+now.  You know when I left you?  Well, I was shown straight into
+Sorais' private chamber, and a wonderful place it is; and there
+she sat, quite alone, upon a silken couch at the end of the room,
+playing gently upon that zither of hers.  I stood before her,
+and for a while she took no notice of me, but kept on playing
+and singing a little, and very sweet music it was.  At last she
+looked up and smiled.
+
+'"So thou art come," she said.  "I thought perchance thou hadst
+gone about the Queen Nyleptha's business.  Thou art ever on her
+business, and I doubt not a good servant and a true."
+
+'To this I merely bowed, and said I was there to receive the
+Queen's word.
+
+'"Ah yes, I would talk with thee, but be thou seated.  It wearies
+me to look so high," and she made room for me beside her on the
+couch, placing herself with her back against the end, so as to
+have a view of my face.
+
+'"It is not meet," I said, "that I should make myself equal with
+the Queen."
+
+'"I said be seated," was her answer, so I sat down, and she began
+to look at me with those dark eyes of hers.  There she sat like
+an incarnate spirit of beauty, hardly talking at all, and when
+she did, very low, but all the while looking at me.  There was
+a white flower in her black hair, and I tried to keep my eyes
+on it and count the petals, but it was of no use.  At last, whether
+it was her gaze, or the perfume in her hair, or what I do not
+know, but I almost felt as though I was being mesmerized.  At
+last she roused herself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said, "lovest thou power?"
+
+'I replied that I supposed all men loved power of one sort or another.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said.  "Lovest thou wealth?"
+
+'I said I liked wealth for what it brought.
+
+'"Thou shalt have it," she said.  "And lovest thou beauty?"
+
+'To this I replied that I was very fond of statuary and architecture,
+or something silly of that sort, at which she frowned, and there
+was a pause.  By this time my nerves were on such a stretch that
+I was shaking like a leaf.  I knew that something awful was going
+to happen, but she held me under a kind of spell, and I could
+not help myself.
+
+'"Incubu," she said at length, "wouldst thou be a king?  Listen,
+wouldst thou be a king?  Behold, stranger, I am minded to make
+thee king of all Zu-Vendis, ay and husband of Sorais of the Night.
+Nay, peace and hear me.  To no man among my people had I thus
+opened out my secret heart, but thou art an outlander and therefore
+I speak without shame, knowing all I have to offer and how hard
+it had been thee to ask.  See, a crown lies at thy feet, my lord
+Incubu, and with that fortune a woman whom some have wished to
+woo.  Now mayst thou answer, oh my chosen, and soft shall thy
+words fall upon mine ears."
+
+'"Oh Sorais," I said, "I pray thee speak not thus" -- you see
+I had not time to pick and choose my words -- "for this thing
+cannot be.  I am bethrothed to thy sister Nyleptha, oh Sorais,
+and I love her and her alone."
+
+'Next moment it struck me that I had said an awful thing, and
+I looked up to see the results.  When I spoke, Sorais' face was
+hidden in her hands, and as my words reached her she slowly raised
+it, and I shrank back dismayed.  It was ashy white, and her eyes
+were flaming.  She rose to her feet and seemed to be choking,
+but the awful thing was that she was so quiet about it all.
+Once she looked at a side table, on which lay a dagger, and from
+it to me, as though she thought of killing me; but she did not
+take it up.  At last she spoke one word, and one only --
+
+'"_Go!_"
+
+'And I went, and glad enough I was to get out of it, and here
+I am.  Give me another cup of wine, there's a good fellow,
+and tell me, what is to be done?'
+
+I shook my head, for the affair was indeed serious.  As one of the
+poets says,
+
+
+'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned',
+
+
+more especially if the woman is a queen and a Sorais, and indeed
+I feared the very worst, including imminent danger to ourselves.
+
+'Nyleptha had better be told of this at once,' I said, 'and perhaps
+I had better tell her; she might receive your account with suspicion.'
+
+'Who is captain of her guard tonight?' I went on.
+
+'Good.'
+
+'Very well then, there will be no chance of her being got at.
+Don't look surprised.  I don't think that her sister would stick
+at that.  I suppose one must tell Good of what has happened.'
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' said Sir Henry.  'It would hurt his feelings,
+poor fellow!  You see, he takes a lively personal interest in Sorais.'
+
+'That's true; and after all, perhaps there is no need to tell him.
+He will find out the truth soon enough.  Now, you mark my words,
+Sorais will throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in
+the North there, and there will be such a war as has not been
+known in Zu-Vendis for centuries.  Look there!' and I pointed
+to two Court messengers, who were speeding away from the door
+of Sorais' private apartments.  'Now follow me,' and I ran up
+a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the roof of our
+quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over the
+palace wall.  The first thing we saw was one of the messengers
+speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the
+Queen's word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched
+in vain.  Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously
+through the northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized
+the other messenger.
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit.  She is acting at
+once, and will strike quick and hard.  You have insulted her,
+my boy, and the blood will flow in rivers before the stain is
+washed away, and yours with it, if she can get hold of you.
+Well, I'm off to Nyleptha.  Just you stop where you are, old
+fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again.  You'll need
+them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human nature
+in the rough for fifty years for nothing.'  And off I went accordingly.
+
+I gained audience of the Queen without trouble.  She was expecting
+Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured
+face instead.
+
+'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits
+not upon me?  Say, is he sick?'
+
+I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado,
+I plunged into my story and told it from beginning to end.  Oh,
+what a rage she flew into!  It was a sight to see her, she looked
+so lovely.
+
+'How darest thou come to me with such a tale?' she cried.  'It
+is a lie to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.'
+
+'Pardon me, oh Queen,' I answered, 'I said that Sorais was making
+love to thy lord.'
+
+'Spin me no spiders' webs of words.  Is not the thing the same
+thing?  The one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes,
+and what matters it which is the most guilty?  Sorais! oh, I
+hate her -- Sorais is a queen and my sister.  She had not stooped
+so low had he not shown the way.  Oh, truly hath the poet said
+that man is like a snake, whom to touch is poison, and whom none
+can hold.'
+
+'The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread
+the poet.  Nyleptha,' I went on, 'thou knowest well that thy
+words are empty foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.'
+
+'How darest thou?' she broke in, stamping her foot.  'Hast my
+false lord sent thee to me to insult me also?  Who art thou,
+stranger, that thou shouldst speak to me, the Queen, after this
+sort?  How darest thou?'
+
+'Yea, I dare.  Listen.  The moments which thou dost waste in
+idle anger may well cost thee thy crown and all of us our lives.
+Already Sorais' horsemen go forth and call to arms.  In thee
+days' time Nasta will rouse himself in his fastnesses like a
+lion in the evening, and his growling will be heard throughout
+the North.  The "Lady of the Night" (Sorais) hath a sweet voice,
+and she will not sing in vain.  Her banner will be borne from
+range to range and valley to valley, and warriors will spring
+up in its track like dust beneath a whirlwind; half the army
+will echo her war-cry; and in every town and hamlet of this wide
+land the priests will call out against the foreigner and will
+preach her cause as holy.  I have spoken, oh Queen!'
+
+Nyleptha was quite calm now; her jealous anger had passed; and
+putting off the character of a lovely headstrong lady, with a
+rapidity and completeness that distinguished her, she put on
+that of a queen and a woman of business.  The transformation
+was sudden but entire.
+
+'Thy words are very wise, Macumazahn.  Forgive me my folly.
+Ah, what a Queen I should be if only I had no heart!  To be heartless
+-- that is to conquer all.  Passion is like the lightning, it
+is beautiful, and it links the earth to heaven, but alas it blinds!
+
+'And thou thinkest that my sister Sorais would levy war upon
+me.  So be it.  She shall not prevail against me.  I, too, have
+my friends and my retainers.  There are many, I say, who will
+shout "Nyleptha!" when my pennon runs up on peak and pinnacle,
+and the light of my beacon fires leaps tonight from crag to crag,
+bearing the message of my war.  I will break her strength and
+scatter her armies.  Eternal night shall be the portion of Sorais
+of the Night.  Give me that parchment and the ink.  So.
+Now summon the officer in the ante-room.  He is a trusty man.'
+
+I did as I was bid! and the man, a veteran and quiet-looking
+gentleman of the guard, named Kara, entered, bowing low.
+
+'Take this parchment,' said Nyleptha; 'it is thy warrant; and
+guard every place of in and outgoing in the apartments of my
+sister Sorais, the "Lady of the Night", and a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
+Let none come in and none go out, or thy life shall pay the
+cost.'
+
+The man looked startled, but he merely said, 'The Queen's word
+be done,' and departed.  Then Nyleptha sent a messenger to Sir
+Henry, and presently he arrived looking uncommonly uncomfortable.
+I thought that another outburst was about to follow, but wonderful
+are the ways of woman; she said not a word about Sorais and his
+supposed inconstancy, greeting him with a friendly nod, and stating
+simply that she required his advice upon high matters.  All the
+same there was a look in her eye, and a sort of suppressed energy
+in her manner towards him, that makes me think that she had not
+forgotten the affair, but was keeping it for a private occasion.
+
+Just after Curtis arrived the officer returned, and reported
+that Sorais was _gone_.  The bird had flown to the Temple, stating
+that she was going, as was sometimes the custom among Zu-Vendi
+ladies of rank, to spend the night in meditation before the altar.
+We looked at each other significantly.  The blow had fallen
+very soon.
+
+Then we set to work.
+
+Generals who could be trusted were summoned from their quarters,
+and as much of the State affairs as was thought desirable was
+told to each, strict injunctions being given to them to get all
+their available force together.  The same was done with such
+of the more powerful lords as Nyleptha knew she could rely on,
+several of whom left that very day for distant parts of the country
+to gather up their tribesmen and retainers.  Sealed orders were
+dispatched to the rulers of far-off cities, and some twenty messengers
+were sent off before nightfall with instructions to ride early
+and late till they reached the distant chiefs to whom their letters
+were addressed: also many spies were set to work.  All the afternoon
+and evening we laboured, assisted by some confidential scribes,
+Nyleptha showing an energy and resource of mind that astonished
+me, and it was eight o'clock before we got back to our quarters.
+Here we heard from Alphonse, who was deeply aggrieved because
+our non-return had spoilt his dinner (for he had turned cook
+again now), that Good had come back from his hawking and gone
+on duty.  As instructions had already been given to the officer
+of the outer guard to double the sentries at the gate, and as
+we had no reason to fear any immediate danger, we did not think
+it worth while to hunt him up and tell him anything of what had
+passed, which at best was, under the peculiar circumstances of
+the case, one of those tasks that one prefers to postpone, so
+after swallowing our food we turned in to get some much-needed
+rest.  Before we did so, however, it occurred to Curtis to tell
+old Umslopogaas to keep a look-out in the neighbourhood of Nyleptha's
+private apartments.  Umslopogaas was now well known about the
+place, and by the Queen's order allowed to pass whither he would
+by the guards, a permission of which he often availed himself
+by roaming about the palace during the still hours in a nocturnal
+fashion that he favoured, and which is by no means uncommon amongst
+black men generally.  His presence in the corridors would not,
+therefore, be likely to excite remark.  Without any comment the
+Zulu took up his axe and departed, and we also departed to bed.
+
+I seemed to have been asleep but a few minutes when I was awakened
+by a peculiar sensation of uneasiness.  I felt that somebody
+was in the room and looking at me, and instantly sat up, to see
+to my surprise that it was already dawn, and that there, standing
+at the foot of my couch and looking peculiarly grim and gaunt
+in the grey light, was Umslopogaas himself.
+
+'How long hast thou been there?' I asked testily, for it is not
+pleasant to be aroused in such a fashion.
+
+'Mayhap the half of an hour, Macumazahn.  I have a word for thee.'
+
+'Speak on,' I said, now wide enough awake.
+
+'As I was bid I went last night to the place of the White Queen
+and hid myself behind a pillar in the second anteroom, beyond
+which is the sleeping-place of the Queen.  Bougwan (Good) was
+in the first anteroom alone, and outside the curtain of that
+room was a sentry, but I had a mind to see if I could pass in
+unseen, and I did, gliding behind them both.  There I waited
+for many hours, when suddenly I perceived a dark figure coming
+secretly towards me.  It was the figure of a woman, and in her
+hand she held a dagger.  Behind that figure crept another unseen
+by the woman.  It was Bougwan following in her tracks.  His shoes
+were off, and for so fat a man he followed very well.  The woman
+passed me, and the starlight shone upon her face.'
+
+'Who was it?' I asked impatiently.
+
+'The face was the face of the "Lady of the Night", and of a truth
+she is well named.
+
+'I waited, and Bougwan passed me also.  Then I followed.
+So we went slowly and without a sound up the long chamber.
+First the woman, then Bougwan, and then I; and the woman saw
+not Bougwan, and Bougwan saw not me.  At last the "Lady of the
+Night" came to the curtains that shut off the sleeping place
+of the White Queen, and put out her left hand to part them.
+She passed through, and so did Bougwan, and so did I.  At the
+far end of the room is the bed of the Queen, and on it she lay
+very fast asleep.  I could hear her breathe, and see one white
+arm lying on the coverlid like a streak of snow on the dry grass.
+The "Lady of the Night" doubled herself thus, and with the long
+knife lifted crept towards the bed.  So straight did she gaze
+thereat that she never thought to look behind her.  When she
+was quite close Bougwan touched her on the arm, and she caught
+her breath and turned, and I saw the knife flash, and heard it
+strike.  Well was it for Bougwan that he had the skin of iron
+on him, or he had been pierced.  Then for the first time he saw
+who the woman was, and without a word he fell back astonished,
+and unable to speak.  She, too, was astonished, and spoke not,
+but suddenly she laid her finger on her lip, thus, and walked
+towards and through the curtain, and with her went Bougwan.
+So close did she pass to me that her dress touched me, and I
+was nigh to slaying her as she went.  In the first outer room
+she spoke to Bougwan in a whisper and, clasping her hands thus,
+she pleaded with him, but what she said I know not.  And so they
+passed on to the second outer room, she pleading and he shaking
+his head, and saying, "Nay, nay, nay".  And it seemed to me that
+he was about to call the guard, when she stopped talking and
+looked at him with great eyes, and I saw that he was bewitched
+by her beauty.  Then she stretched out her hand and he kissed
+it, whereon I gathered myself together to advance and take her,
+seeing that now had Bougwan become a woman, and no longer knew
+the good from the evil, when behold! she was gone.'
+
+'Gone!' I ejaculated.
+
+'Ay, gone, and there stood Bougwan staring at the wall like one
+asleep, and presently he went too, and I waited a while and came
+away also.'
+
+'Art thou sure, Umslopogaas,' said I, 'that thou hast not been
+a dreamer this night?'
+
+In reply he opened his left hand, and produced about three inches
+of a blade of a dagger of the finest steel.  'If I be, Macumazahn,
+behold what the dream left with me.  The knife broke upon Bougwan's
+bosom and as I passed I picked this up in the sleeping-place
+of the White Queen.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+WAR!  RED WAR!
+
+
+
+Telling Umslopogaas to wait, I tumbled into my clothes and went
+off with him to Sir Henry's room, where the Zulu repeated his
+story word for word.  It was a sight to watch Curtis' face as
+he heard it.
+
+'Great Heavens!' he said: 'here have I been sleeping away while
+Nyleptha was nearly murdered -- and all through me, too.  What
+a fiend that Sorais must be!  It would have served her well if
+Umslopogaas had cut her down in the act.'
+
+'Ay,' said the Zulu.  'Fear not; I should have slain her ere
+she struck.  I was but waiting the moment.
+
+I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that many a thousand
+doomed lives would have been saved if he had meted out to Sorais
+the fate she meant for her sister.  And, as the issue proved,
+I was right.
+
+After he had told his tale Umslopogaas went off unconcernedly
+to get his morning meal, and Sir Henry and I fell to talking.
+
+At first he was very bitter against Good, who, he said, was no
+longer to be trusted, having designedly allowed Sorais to escape
+by some secret stair when it was his duty to have handed her
+over to justice.  Indeed, he spoke in the most unmeasured terms
+on the matter.  I let him run on awhile, reflecting to myself
+how easy we find it to be hard on the weaknesses of others, and
+how tender we are to our own.
+
+'Really, my dear fellow,' I said at length, 'one would never
+think, to hear you talk, that you were the man who had an interview
+with this same lady yesterday, and found it rather difficult
+to resist her fascinations, notwithstanding your ties to one
+of the loveliest and most loving women in the world.  Now suppose
+it was Nyleptha who had tried to murder Sorais, and _you_ had
+caught her, and she had pleaded with you, would you have been
+so very eager to hand her over to an open shame, and to death
+by fire?  Just look at the matter through Good's eyeglass for
+a minute before you denounce an old friend as a scoundrel.'
+
+He listened to this jobation submissively, and then frankly
+acknowledged that he had spoken hardly.  It is one of the
+best points in Sir Henry's character that he is always ready
+to admit it when he is in the wrong.
+
+But, though I spoke up thus for Good, I was not blind to the
+fact that, however natural his behaviour might be, it was obvious
+that he was being involved in a very awkward and disgraceful
+complication.  A foul and wicked murder had been attempted, and
+he had let the murderess escape, and thereby, among other things,
+allowed her to gain a complete ascendency over himself.  In fact,
+he was in a fair way to become her tool -- and no more dreadful
+fate can befall a man than to become the tool of an unscrupulous
+woman, or indeed of any woman.  There is but one end to it: when
+he is broken, or has served her purpose, he is thrown away --
+turned out on the world to hunt for his lost self-respect.  Whilst
+I was pondering thus, and wondering what was to be done -- for
+the whole subject was a thorny one -- I suddenly heard a great
+clamour in the courtyard outside, and distinguished the voice
+of Umslopogaas and Alphonse, the former cursing furiously, and
+the latter yelling in terror.
+
+Hurrying out to see what was the matter, I was met by a ludicrous
+sight.  The little Frenchman was running up the courtyard at
+an extraordinary speed, and after him sped Umslopogaas like a
+great greyhound.  Just as I came out he caught him, and, lifting
+him right off his legs, carried him some paces to a beautiful
+but very dense flowering shrub which bore a flower not unlike
+the gardenia, but was covered with short thorns.  Next, despite
+his howls and struggles, he with one mighty thrust plunged poor
+Alphonse head first into the bush, so that nothing but the calves
+of his legs and heels remained in evidence.  Then, satisfied
+with what he had done, the Zulu folded his arms and stood grimly
+contemplating the Frenchman's kicks, and listening to his yells,
+which were awful.
+
+'What art thou doing?' I said, running up.  'Wouldst thou kill
+the man?  Pull him out of the bush!'
+
+With a savage grunt he obeyed, seizing the wretched Alphonse
+by the ankle, and with a jerk that must have nearly dislocated
+it, tearing him out of the heart of the shrub.  Never did I see
+such a sight as he presented, his clothes half torn off his back,
+and bleeding as he was in every direction from the sharp thorns.
+There he lay and yelled and rolled, and there was no getting
+anything out of him.
+
+At last, however, he got up and, ensconcing himself behind me,
+cursed old Umslopogaas by every saint in the calendar, vowing
+by the blood of his heroic grandfather that he would poison him,
+and 'have his revenge'.
+
+At last I got to the truth of the matter.  It appeared that Alphonse
+habitually cooked Umslopogaas's porridge, which the latter ate
+for breakfast in the corner of the courtyard, just as he would
+have done at home in Zululand, from a gourd, and with a wooden
+spoon.  Now Umslopogaas had, like many Zulus, a great horror
+of fish, which he considered a species of water-snake; so Alphonse,
+who was as fond of playing tricks as a monkey, and who was also
+a consummate cook, determined to make him eat some.  Accordingly
+he grated up a quantity of white fish very finely, and mixed
+it with the Zulu's porridge, who swallowed it nearly all down
+in ignorance of what he was eating.  But, unfortunately for Alphonse,
+he could not restrain his joy at this sight, and came capering
+and peering round, till at last Umslopogaas, who was very clever
+in his way, suspected something, and, after a careful examination
+of the remains of his porridge, discovered 'the buffalo heifer's
+trick', and, in revenge, served him as I have said.  Indeed,
+the little man was fortunate not to get a broken neck for his
+pains; for, as one would have thought, he might have learnt from
+the episode of his display of axemanship that 'le Monsieur noir'
+was an ill person to play practical jokes upon.
+
+This incident was unimportant enough in itself, but I narrate
+it because it led to serious consequences.  As soon as he had
+stanched the bleeding from his scratches and washed himself,
+Alphonse went off still cursing, to recover his temper, a process
+which I knew from experience would take a very long time.  When
+he had gone I gave Umslopogaas a jobation and told him that I
+was ashamed of his behaviour.
+
+'Ah, well, Macumazahn,' he said, 'you must be gentle with me,
+for here is not my place.  I am weary of it, weary to death of
+eating and drinking, of sleeping and giving in marriage.  I love
+not this soft life in stone houses that takes the heart out of
+a man, and turns his strength to water and his flesh to fat.
+I love not the white robes and the delicate women, the blowing
+of trumpets and the flying of hawks.  When we fought the Masai
+at the kraal yonder, ah, then life was worth the living, but
+here is never a blow struck in anger, and I begin to think I
+shall go the way of my fathers and lift Inkosi-kaas no more,'
+and he held up the axe and gazed at it in sorrow.
+
+'Ah,' I said, 'that is thy complaint, is it?  Thou hast the
+blood-sickness, hast thou?  And the Woodpecker wants a tree.
+And at thy age, too.  Shame on thee! Umslopogaas.'
+
+'Ay, Macumazahn, mine is a red trade, yet is it better and more
+honest than some.  Better is it to slay a man in fair fight than
+to suck out his heart's blood in buying and selling and usury
+after your white fashion.  Many a man have I slain, yet is there
+never a one that I should fear to look in the face again, ay,
+many are there who once were friends, and whom I should be right
+glad to snuff with.  But there! there! thou hast thy ways, and
+I mine: each to his own people and his own place.  The high-veldt
+ox will die in the fat bush country, and so is it with me, Macumazahn.
+I am rough, I know it, and when my blood is warm I know not
+what to do, but yet wilt thou be sorry when the night swallows
+me and I am utterly lost in blackness, for in thy heart thou
+lovest me, my father, Macumazahn the fox, though I be nought
+but a broken-down Zulu war-dog -- a chief for whom there is no
+room in his own kraal, an outcast and a wanderer in strange places:
+ay, I love thee, Macumazahn, for we have grown grey together,
+and there is that between us that cannot be seen, and yet is
+too strong for breaking;' and he took his snuff-box, which was
+made of an old brass cartridge, from the slit in his ear where
+he always carried it, and handed it to me for me to help myself.
+
+I took the pinch of snuff with some emotion.  It was quite true,
+I was much attached to the bloodthirsty old ruffian.  I do not
+know what was the charm of his character, but it had a charm;
+perhaps it was its fierce honesty and directness; perhaps one
+admired his almost superhuman skill and strength, or it may have
+been simply that he was so absolutely unique.  Frankly, with
+all my experience of savages, I never knew a man quite like him,
+he was so wise and yet such a child with it all; and though it
+seems laughable to say so, like the hero of the Yankee parody,
+he 'had a tender heart'.  Anyway, I was very fond of him, though
+I should never have thought of telling him so.
+
+'Ay, old wolf,' I said, 'thine is a strange love.  Thou wouldst
+split me to the chin if I stood in thy path tomorrow.'
+
+'Thou speakest truth, Macumazahn, that would I if it came in
+the way of duty, but I should love thee all the same when the
+blow had gone fairy home.  Is there any chance of some fighting
+here, Macumazahn?' he went on in an insinuating voice.  'Methought
+that what I saw last night did show that the two great Queens
+were vexed one with another.  Else had the "Lady of the Night"
+not brought that dagger with her.'
+
+I agreed with him that it showed that more or less pique and
+irritation existed between the ladies, and told him how things
+stood, and that they were quarrelling over Incubu.
+
+'Ah, is it so?' he exclaimed, springing up in delight; 'then
+will there be war as surely as the rivers rise in the rains --
+war to the end.  Women love the last blow as well as the last
+word, and when they fight for love they are pitiless as a wounded
+buffalo.  See thou, Macumazahn, a woman will swim through blood
+to her desire, and think nought of it.  With these eyes have
+I seen it once, and twice also.  Ah, Macumazahn, we shall see
+this fine place of houses burning yet, and hear the battle cries
+come ringing up the street.  After all, I have not wandered for
+nothing.  Can this folk fight, think ye?'
+
+Just then Sir Henry joined us, and Good arrived, too, from another
+direction, looking very pale and hollow-eyed.  The moment Umslopogaas
+saw the latter he stopped his bloodthirsty talk and greeted him.
+
+'Ah, Bougwan,' he cried, 'greeting to thee, Inkoos!  Thou art
+surely weary.  Didst thou hunt too much yesterday?'  Then, without
+waiting for an answer, he went on --
+
+'Listen, Bougwan, and I will tell thee a story; it is about a
+woman, therefore wilt thou hear it, is it not so?
+
+'There was a man and he had a brother, and there was a woman
+who loved the man's brother and was beloved of the man.  But
+the man's brother had a favourite wife and loved not the woman,
+and he made a mock of her.  Then the woman, being very cunning
+and fierce-hearted for revenge, took counsel with herself and
+said to the man, "I love thee, and if thou wilt make war upon
+thy brother I will marry thee."  And he knew it was a lie, yet
+because of his great love of the woman, who was very fair, did
+he listen to her words and made war.  And when many people had
+been killed his brother sent to him, saying, "Why slayest thou
+me?  What hurt have I done unto thee?  From my youth up have
+I not loved thee?  When thou wast little did I not nurture thee,
+and have we not gone down to war together and divided the cattle,
+girl by girl, ox by ox, and cow by cow?  Why slayest thou me,
+my brother, son of my own mother?"
+
+'Then the man's heart was heavy, and he knew that his path was
+evil, and he put aside the tempting of the woman and ceased to
+make war on his brother, and lived at peace in the same kraal
+with him.  And after a time the woman came to him and said, "I
+have lost the past, I will be thy wife."  And in his heart he
+knew that it was a lie and that she thought the evil thing,
+yet because of his love did he take her to wife.
+
+'And the very night that they were wed, when the man was plunged
+into a deep sleep, did the woman arise and take his axe from
+his hand and creep into the hut of his brother and slay him in
+his rest.  Then did she slink back like a gorged lioness and
+place the thong of the red axe back upon his wrist and go her ways.
+
+'And at the dawning the people came shouting, "Lousta is slain
+in the night," and they came unto the hut of the man, and there
+he lay asleep and by him was the red axe.  Then did they remember
+the war and say, "Lo! he hath of a surety slain his brother,"
+and they would have taken and killed him, but he rose and fled
+swiftly, and as he fleeted by he slew the woman.
+
+'But death could not wipe out the evil she had done, and on him
+rested the weight of all her sin.  Therefore is he an outcast
+and his name a scorn among his own people; for on him, and him
+only, resteth the burden of her who betrayed.  And, therefore,
+does he wander afar, without a kraal and without an ox or a wife,
+and therefore will he die afar like a stricken buck and his name
+be accursed from generation to generation, in that the people
+say that he slew his brother, Lousta, by treachery in the night-time.'
+
+The old Zulu paused, and I saw that he was deeply agitated by
+his own story.  Presently he lifted his head, which he had bowed
+to his breast, and went on:
+
+'I was the man, Bougwan.  Ou!  I was that man, and now hark
+thou!  Even as I am so wilt thou be -- a tool, a plaything, an
+ox of burden to carry the evil deeds of another.  Listen!  When
+thou didst creep after the "Lady of the Night" I was hard upon
+thy track.  When she struck thee with the knife in the sleeping
+place of the White Queen I was there also; when thou didst
+let her slip away like a snake in the stones I saw thee, and
+I knew that she had bewitched thee and that a true man had abandoned
+the truth, and he who aforetime loved a straight path had taken
+a crooked way.  Forgive me, my father, if my words are sharp,
+but out of a full heart are they spoken.  See her no more, so
+shalt thou go down with honour to the grave.  Else because of
+the beauty of a woman that weareth as a garment of fur shalt
+thou be even as I am, and perchance with more cause.  I have
+said.'
+
+Throughout this long and eloquent address Good had been perfectly
+silent, but when the tale began to shape itself so aptly to his
+own case, he coloured up, and when he learnt that what had passed
+between him and Sorais had been overseen he was evidently much
+distressed.  And now, when at last he spoke, it was in a tone
+of humility quite foreign to him.
+
+'I must say,' he said, with a bitter little laugh, 'that I scarcely
+thought that I should live to be taught my duty by a Zulu; but
+it just shows what we can come to.  I wonder if you fellows can
+understand how humiliated I feel, and the bitterest part of it
+is that I deserve it all.  Of course I should have handed Sorais
+over to the guard, but I could not, and that is a fact.  I let
+her go and I promised to say nothing, more is the shame to me.
+She told me that if I would side with her she would marry me
+and make me king of this country, but thank goodness I did find
+the heart to say that even to marry her I could not desert my
+friends.  And now you can do what you like, I deserve it all.
+All I have to say is that I hope that you may never love a woman
+with all your heart and then be so sorely tempted of her,' and
+he turned to go.
+
+'Look here, old fellow,' said Sir Henry, 'just stop a minute.
+I have a little tale to tell you too.'  And he went on to narrate
+what had taken place on the previous day between Sorais and himself.
+
+This was a finishing stroke to poor Good.  It is not pleasant
+to any man to learn that he has been made a tool of, but when
+the circumstances are as peculiarly atrocious as in the present
+case, it is about as bitter a pill as anybody can be called on
+to swallow.
+
+'Do you know,' he said, 'I think that between you, you fellows
+have about worked a cure,' and he turned and walked away, and
+I for one felt very sorry for him.  Ah, if the moths would always
+carefully avoid the candle, how few burnt wings there would be!
+
+That day was a Court day, when the Queens sat in the great hall
+and received petitions, discussed laws, money grants, and so
+forth, and thither we adjourned shortly afterwards.  On our way
+we were joined by Good, who was looking exceedingly depressed.
+
+When we got into the hall Nyleptha was already on her throne
+and proceeding with business as usual, surrounded by councillors,
+courtiers, lawyers, priests, and an unusually strong guard.
+It was, however, easy to see from the air of excitement and expectation
+on the faces of everybody present that nobody was paying much
+attention to ordinary affairs, the fact being that the knowledge
+that civil war was imminent had now got abroad.  We saluted Nyleptha
+and took our accustomed places, and for a little while things
+went on as usual, when suddenly the trumpets began to call outside
+the palace, and from the great crowd that was gathered there
+in anticipation of some unusual event there rose a roar of
+'_Sorais!  Sorais!_'
+
+Then came the roll of many chariot wheels, and presently the
+great curtains at the end of the hall were drawn wide and through
+them entered the 'Lady of the Night' herself.  Nor did she come
+alone.  Preceding her was Agon, the High Priest, arrayed in his
+most gorgeous vestments, and on either side were other priests.
+The reason for their presence was obvious -- coming with them
+it would have been sacrilege to attempt to detain her.  Behind
+her were a number of the great lords, and behind them a small
+body of picked guards.  A glance at Sorais herself was enough
+to show that her mission was of no peaceful kind, for in place
+of her gold embroidered 'kaf' she wore a shining tunic formed
+of golden scales, and on her head a little golden helmet.  In
+her hand, too, she bore a toy spear, beautifully made and fashioned
+of solid silver.  Up the hall she came, looking like a lioness
+in her conscious pride and beauty, and as she came the spectators
+fell back bowing and made a path for her.  By the sacred stone
+she halted, and laying her hand on it, she cried out with a loud
+voice to Nyleptha on the throne, 'Hail, oh Queen!'
+
+'All hail, my royal sister!' answered Nyleptha.  'Draw thou near.
+Fear not, I give thee safe conduct.'
+
+Sorais answered with a haughty look, and swept on up the hall
+till she stood right before the thrones.
+
+'A boon, oh Queen!' she cried again.
+
+'Speak on, my sister; what is there that I can give thee who
+hath half our kingdom?'
+
+'Thou canst tell me a true word -- me and the people of Zu-Vendis.
+Art thou, or art thou not, about to take this foreign wolf,'
+and she pointed to Sir Henry with her toy spear, 'to be a husband
+to thee, and share thy bed and throne?'
+
+Curtis winced at this, and turning towards Sorais, said to her
+in a low voice, 'Methinks that yesterday thou hadst other names
+than wolf to call me by, oh Queen!' and I saw her bite her lips
+as, like a danger flag, the blood flamed red upon her face.
+As for Nyleptha, who is nothing if not original, she, seeing
+that the thing was out, and that there was nothing further to
+be gained by concealment, answered the question in a novel and
+effectual manner, inspired thereto, as I firmly believe, by coquetry
+and a desire to triumph over her rival.
+
+Up she rose and, descending from the throne, swept in all the
+glory of her royal grace on to where her lover stood.  There
+she stopped and untwined the golden snake that was wound around
+her arm.  Then she bade him kneel, and he dropped on one knee
+on the marble before her, and next, taking the golden snake with
+both her hands, she bent the pure soft metal round his neck,
+and when it was fast, deliberately kissed him on the brow and
+called him her 'dear lord'.
+
+'Thou seest,' she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators
+had died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his
+feet, 'I have put my collar round the "wolf's" neck, and behold!
+he shall be my watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen
+Sorais, my sister, and to those with thee.  Fear not,' she went
+on, smiling sweetly on her lover, and pointing to the golden
+snake she had twined round his massive throat, 'if my yoke be
+heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not gall thee.'
+
+Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud
+tone, 'Ay, Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here
+gathered together, by this sign do I take the foreigner to husband,
+even here in the face of you all.  What, am I a Queen, and yet
+not free to choose the man whom I will love?  Then should I be
+lower than the meanest girl in all my provinces.  Nay, he hath
+won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and all I
+have -- ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord fairer
+and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge
+of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so being
+what he is!'  And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him,
+and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people.  And such
+was her sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and
+so beautiful she looked standing hand in hand there at her lover's
+side, so sure of him and of herself, and so ready to risk all
+things and endure all things for him, that most of those who
+saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever forget,
+caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her blushing
+face, and cheered her like wild things.  It was a bold stroke
+for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human
+nature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and
+not afraid to break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible
+to appeals to its poetical side.
+
+And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the
+Night stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear
+to see her sister's triumph, which robbed her of the man whom
+she had hoped to win, and in the awfulness of her jealous anger
+she trembled and turned white like an aspen in the wind.  I think
+I have said somewhere of her that she reminded me of the sea
+on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping power about
+her.  Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the furious
+ocean it awed and yet fascinated me.  A really handsome woman
+in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such beauty
+and such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only say
+that the effect produced was well worthy of the two.
+
+She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple
+rings beneath her glowing eyes.  Thrice she tried to speak and
+thrice she failed, but at last her voice came.  Raising her silver
+spear, she shook it, and the light gleamed from it and from the
+golden scales of her cuirass.
+
+'And thinkest thou, Nyleptha,' she said in notes which pealed
+through the great hall like a clarion, 'thinkest thou that I,
+Sorais, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander
+shall sit upon my father's throne and rear up half-breeds to
+fill the place of the great House of the Stairway?  Never! never!
+while there is life in my bosom and a man to follow me and a
+spear to strike with.  Who is on my side?  Who?
+
+'Now hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither
+to prey with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed
+the deadly sin against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee War
+-- red War!  Ay, I say to thee that the path of thy passion shall
+be marked out by the blazing of thy towns and watered with the
+blood of those who cleave to thee.  On thy head rest the burden
+of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the dying and
+the cries of the widows and those who are left fatherless for
+ever and for ever.
+
+'I tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from
+thy throne, and that thou shalt be hurled -- ay, hurled even
+from the topmost stair of the great way to the foot thereof,
+in that thou hast covered the name of the House of him who built
+it with black shame.  And I tell ye strangers -- all save Bougwan,
+whom because thou didst do me a service I will save alive if
+thou wilt leave these men and follow me' (here poor Good shook
+his head vigorously and ejaculated 'Can't be done' in English)
+-- 'that I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alive
+in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that
+fly east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles
+of the Temple, so that ye may be a token and a warning to the
+land.  And as for thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another
+fashion that I will not tell thee now.'
+
+She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like
+a storm, and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration,
+ran through the hall.  Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with
+dignity:
+
+'Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak
+as thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened.
+Yet if thou wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against
+thee, for if my hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron
+when it grips thine armies by the throat.  Sorais, I fear thee
+not.  I weep for that which thou wilt bring upon our people and
+on thyself, but for myself I say -- I fear thee not.  Yet thou,
+who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover and my lord from
+me, whom today thou dost call a "foreign wolf", to be _thy_ lover
+and _thy_ lord' (here there was an immense sensation in the hall),
+'thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst
+enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place --
+ay, even by a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me,
+thy sister, as I lay asleep --'
+
+'It is false, it is false!' rang out Agon's and a score of other voices.
+
+'It is _not_ false,' said I, producing the broken point of the
+dagger and holding it up.  'Where is the haft from which
+this flew, oh Sorais?'
+
+'It is not false,' cried Good, determined at last to act like
+a loyal man.  'I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen's
+bed, and on my breast the dagger broke.'
+
+'Who is on my side?' cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear,
+for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her.  'What,
+Bougwan, thou comest not?' she said, addressing Good, who was
+standing close to her, in a low, concentrated voice.  'Thou pale-souled
+fool, for a reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of
+me and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husband
+and a king!  At least I hold _thee_ in chains that cannot be
+broken.
+
+'_War!  War!  War!_' she cried.  'Here, with my hand upon the
+sacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the
+Zu-Vendi set their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war
+to the end.  Who follows Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?'
+
+Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable
+confusion.  Many present hastened to throw in their lot with
+the 'Lady of the Night', but some came from her following to
+us.  Amongst the former was an under officer of Nyleptha's own
+guard, who suddenly turned and made a run for the doorway through
+which Sorais' people were already passing.  Umslopogaas, who
+was present and had taken the whole scene in, seeing with admirable
+presence of mind that if this soldier got away others would follow
+his example, seized the man, who drew his sword and struck at
+him.  Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and, avoiding
+the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe,
+till in a few seconds the man's fate overtook him and he fell
+with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
+
+This was the first blood spilt in the war.
+
+'Shut the gates,' I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch
+Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing
+sacrilege.  But the order came too late, her guards were already
+passing through them, and in another minute the streets echoed
+with the furious galloping of horses and the rolling of her chariots.
+
+So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing
+like a whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her
+headquarters at M'Arstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and
+thirty miles to the north of Milosis.
+
+And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments
+and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once
+more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening
+Inkosi-kaas's razor edge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+A STRANGE WEDDING
+
+
+
+One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before
+the gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who,
+as we had every reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, and
+the heart and soul of her party.  This cunning and ferocious
+old man had not forgiven us for those hippopotami, or rather
+that was what he said.  What he meant was that he would never
+brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and foreign
+learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping
+us out.  Also he knew that we possessed a different system of
+religion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting
+to introduce it into Zu-Vendis.  One day he asked me if we had
+any religion in our country, and I told him that so far as I
+could remember we had ninety-five different ones.  You might
+have knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficult
+not to pity a high priest of a well-established cult who is haunted
+by the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.
+
+When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I
+discussed what was to be done with him.  I was for closely incarcerating
+him, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce
+a disastrous effect throughout the country.  'Ah!' she added,
+with a stamp of her foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen,
+I will break the power of those priests, with their rites and
+revels and dark secret ways.'  I only wished that old Agon could
+have heard her, it would have frightened him.
+
+'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I suppose
+that we may as well let him go.  He is of no use here.'
+
+Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in
+a dry little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'
+
+'Eh?' said Curtis.  'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.'
+
+She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that
+was as shy as it was sweet.
+
+Then at last he understood.
+
+'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously.  'Dost thou
+mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?'
+
+'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid answer; 'but
+if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'
+-- pointing to the entrance to a private chapel -- 'and am I
+not ready to do the will of my lord?  Listen, oh my lord!  In
+eight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for
+thou shalt lead my armies, and in war -- men sometimes fall,
+and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if
+only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely
+eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the
+red heart of a rose.
+
+'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and with
+my crown my life and thine also.  Sorais is very strong and very
+bitter, and if she prevails she will not spare.  Who can read
+the future?  Happiness is the world's White Bird, that alights
+seldom, and flies fast and far till one day he is lost in the
+clouds.  Therefore should we hold him fast if by any chance he
+rests for a little space upon our hand.  It is not wise to neglect
+the present for the future, for who knows what the future will
+be, Incubu?  Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them,
+for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others
+bloom that we shall never see.'  And she lifted her sweet face
+to him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a curious
+pang of jealousy and turned and went away.  They never took much
+notice of whether I was there or not, thinking, I suppose, that
+I was an old fool, and that it did not matter one way or the
+other, and really I believe that they were right.
+
+So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general,
+and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window
+as a vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox.
+
+And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking
+very radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and
+even Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at
+a real wedding.  Of course we said yes, and off we went to the
+chapel, where we found Agon looking as sulky as any High Priest
+possibly could, and no wonder.  It appeared that he and Nyleptha
+had a slight difference of opinion about the coming ceremony.
+He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of his
+priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry and told
+him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to
+be obeyed.  Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the
+Eighth to perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be
+married, she would be married, and that he should marry her.
+{Endnote 18}
+
+He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched
+her argument thus --
+
+'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
+prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his
+subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars
+down on Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I _can_ leave him to contemplate
+the altar of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is
+his natural vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon!
+thou shalt be placed before the altar yonder with nought but
+a little water till such time as thou hast reconsidered the matter.'
+
+Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning
+without his breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so
+he presently modified his views and consented to marry them,
+saying at the same time that he washed his hands of all responsibility
+in the matter.
+
+So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite
+maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and
+downcast eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any
+sort, as seems to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries
+of the world.  She did not wear a single ornament, even her gold
+circlets were removed, and I thought that if possible she looked
+more lovely than ever without them, as really superbly beautiful
+women do.
+
+She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand
+and led him up before the altar, and after a little pause, in
+a slow, clear voice uttered the following words, which are customary
+in Zu-Vendis if the bride desires and the man consents: --
+
+'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman
+to wife unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?'
+
+'I swear it,' answered Sir Henry; adding in English, 'One is
+quite enough for me.'
+
+Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the altar, came
+forward and gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate
+that I could not follow it, but it appeared to be an invocation
+to the Sun to bless the union and make it fruitful.  I observed
+that Nyleptha listened very closely to every word, and afterwards
+discovered that she was afraid lest Agon should play her a trick,
+and by going through the invocations backwards divorce them instead
+of marry them.  At the end of the invocations they were asked,
+as in our service, if they took each other for husband and wife,
+and on their assenting they kissed each other before the altar,
+and the service was over, so far as their rites were concerned.
+But it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, and
+so I produced a Prayer-Book, which has, together which the 'Ingoldsby
+Legends', that I often read when I lie awake at night, accompanied
+me in all my later wanderings.  I gave it to my poor boy Harry
+years ago, and after his death I found it among his things and
+took it back again.
+
+'Curtis,' I said, 'I am not a clergyman, and I do not know if
+what I am going to propose is allowable -- I know it is not legal
+-- but if you and the Queen have no objection I should like to read
+the English marriage service over you.  It is a solemn step which
+you are taking, and I think that you ought, so far as circumstances
+will allow, to give it the sanction of your own religion.'
+
+'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I wish you would.
+I do not feel half married yet.'
+
+Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that her husband
+wished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites prevailing
+in his own country, and so I set to work and read the service,
+from 'Dearly beloved' to 'amazement', as well as I could; and
+when I came to 'I, Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,' I translated,
+and also 'I, Nyleptha, take thee, Henry,' which she repeated
+after me very well.  Then Sir Henry took a plain gold ring from
+his little finger and placed it on hers, and so on to the end.
+The ring had been Curtis' mother's wedding-ring, and I could
+not help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire lady
+would have been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ring
+was to serve a similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
+
+As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this second
+ceremony was going on, for he at once understood that it was
+religious in its nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five
+new faiths which loomed so ominously in his eyes.  Indeed, he
+at once set me down as a rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly.
+However, in the end off he went, positively bristling with indignation,
+and I knew that we might look out for danger from his direction.
+
+And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also, leaving the
+happy pair to themselves, and very low we all felt.  Marriages
+are supposed to be cheerful things, but my experience is that
+they are very much the reverse to everybody, except perhaps the
+two people chiefly interested.  They mean the breaking-up of
+so many old ties as well as the undertaking of so many new ones,
+and there is always something sad about the passing away of the
+old order.  Now to take this case for instance: Sir Henry Curtis
+is the best and kindest fellow and friend in the world, but he
+has never been quite the same since that little scene in the
+chapel.  It is always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that -- Nyleptha,
+in short, from morning till night in one way or another, either
+expressed or understood.  And as for the old friends -- well,
+of course they have taken the place that old friends ought to
+take, and which ladies are as a rule very careful to see they
+do take when a man marries, and that is, the second place.  Yes,
+he would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a fact for all
+that.  He is not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet and
+very charming, but I think that she likes him to understand that
+she has married _him_, and not Quatermain, Good, and Co.  But
+there! what is the use of grumbling?  It is all very right and
+proper, as any married lady would have no difficulty in explaining,
+and I am a selfish, jealous old man, though I hope I never show
+it.
+
+So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged in an
+extra fine flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and
+presently one of our attendants came and told a story that gave
+us something to think about.
+
+It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel with
+Umslopogaas, Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper
+to sulk over his scratches.  Well, it appears that he walked
+right past the Temple to the Sun, down the wide road on the further
+side of the slope it crowns, and thence on into the beautiful
+park, or pleasure gardens, which are laid out just beyond the
+outer wall.  After wandering about there for a little he started
+to return, but was met near the outer gate by Sorais' train of
+chariots, which were galloping furiously along the great northern
+road.  When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais halted her train
+and called to him.  On approaching he was instantly seized and
+dragged into one of the chariots and carried off, 'crying out
+loudly', as our informant said, and as from my general knowledge
+of him I can well believe.
+
+At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais could
+have had in carrying off the poor little Frenchman.  She could
+hardly stoop so low as to try to wreak her fury on one whom she
+knew was only a servant.  At last, however, an idea occurred
+to me.  We three were, as I think I have said, much revered by
+the people of Zu-Vendis at large, both because we were the first
+strangers they had ever seen, and because we were supposed to
+be the possessors of almost supernatural wisdom.  Indeed, though
+Sorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves' -- or, to translate
+it more accurately, 'foreign hyenas' -- was sure to go down very
+well with the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt,
+likely to be particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population.
+The Zu-Vendi people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seeking
+for some new thing, and just because we were so new our presence
+was on the whole acceptable to them.  Again, Sir Henry's magnificent
+personal appearance made a deep impression upon a race who possess
+a greater love of beauty than any other I have ever been acquainted
+with.  Beauty may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendis
+it is almost worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuary
+shows.  The people said openly in the market-places that there
+was not a man in the country to touch Curtis in personal appearance,
+as with the exception of Sorais there was no woman who could
+compete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that they
+should marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husband
+for their Queen.  Now, from all this it will be seen that the
+outcry against us was to a considerable extent fictitious, and
+nobody knew it better than Sorais herself.  Consequently it struck
+me that it might have occurred to her that down in the country
+and among the country people, it would be better to place the
+reason of her conflict with her sister upon other and more general
+grounds than Nyleptha's marriage with the stranger.  It would
+be easy in a land where there had been so many civil wars to
+rake out some old cry that would stir up the recollection of
+buried feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one.
+This being so, it was of great importance to her to have one
+of the strangers with her whom she could show to the common people
+as a great Outlander, who had been so struck by the justice of
+her cause that he had elected to leave his companions and follow
+her standard.
+
+This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a hold of
+Good, whom she would have used till he ceased to be of service
+and then cast off.  But Good having drawn back she grasped at
+the opportunity of securing Alphonse, who was not unlike him
+in personal appearance though smaller, no doubt with the object
+of showing him off in the cities and country as the great Bougwan
+himself.  I told Good that I thought that that was her plan,
+and his face was a sight to see -- he was so horrified at the
+idea.
+
+'What,' he said, 'dress up that little wretch to represent me?
+Why, I shall have to get out of the country!  My reputation
+will be ruined for ever.'
+
+I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not pleasant to
+be personated all over a strange country by an arrant little
+coward, and I can quite sympathize with his vexation.
+
+Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in solitary
+grandeur, feeling very much as though we had just returned from
+burying a friend instead of marrying one, and next morning the
+work began in good earnest.  The messages and orders which had
+been despatched by Nyleptha two days before now began to take
+effect, and multitudes of armed men came pouring into the city.
+We saw, as may be imagined, but very little of Nyleptha and
+not too much of Curtis during those next few days, but Good and
+I sat daily with the council of generals and loyal lords, drawing
+up plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the distribution
+of commands, and a hundred and one other things.  Men came in
+freely, and all the day long the great roads leading to Milosis
+were spotted with the banners of lords arriving from their distant
+places to rally round Nyleptha.
+
+After the first few days it became clear that we should be able
+to take the field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty
+thousand cavalry, a very respectable force considering how short
+was the time we had to collect it, and that about half the regular
+army had elected to follow Sorais.
+
+But if our force was large, Sorais' was, according to the reports
+brought in day by day by our spies, much larger.  She had taken
+up her headquarters at a very strong town called M'Arstuna, situated,
+as I have said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countryside
+was flocking to her standard.  Nasta had poured down from his
+highlands and was on his way to join her with no less than twenty-five
+thousand of his mountaineers, the most terrible soldiers to face
+in all Zu-Vendis.  Another mighty lord, named Belusha, who lived
+in the great horse-breeding district, had come in with twelve
+thousand cavalry, and so on.  Indeed, what between one thing
+and another, it seemed certain that she would gather a fully
+armed host of nearly one hundred thousand men.
+
+And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up her
+camp and march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the country
+as she came.  Thereon arose the question whether it would be
+best to meet her at Milosis or to go out and give her battle.
+When our opinion was asked upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatingly
+gave it in favour of an advance.  If we were to shut ourselves
+up in the city and wait to be attacked, it seemed to us that
+our inaction would be set down to fear.  It is so important,
+especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very little will
+suffice to turn men's opinions one way or the other, to be up
+and doing something.  Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate
+if the cause does not move but sits down to conquer.  Therefore
+we cast our vote for moving out and giving battle in the open,
+instead of waiting till we were drawn from our walls like a badger
+from a hole.
+
+Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to
+say, did that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready
+to flash out fire.  A great map of the country was brought and
+spread out before her.  About thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna,
+where Sorais lay, and ninety odd miles from Milosis, the road
+ran over a neck of land some two and a half miles in width, and
+flanked on either side by forest-clad hills which, without being
+lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite impracticable
+for a great baggage-laden army to cross.  She looked earnestly
+at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in
+some women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger
+upon this neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband,
+said, with a proud air of confidence and a toss of the golden
+head --
+
+'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies.  I know the spot, here
+shalt thou meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before
+the storm.'
+
+But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+THE BATTLE OF THE PASS
+
+
+
+It was on the third morning after this incident of the map that
+Sir Henry and I started.  With the exception of a small guard,
+all the great host had moved on the night before, leaving the
+Frowning City very silent and empty.  Indeed, it was found impossible
+to leave any garrison with the exception of a personal guard
+for Nyleptha, and about a thousand men who from sickness or one
+cause or another were unable to proceed with the army; but as
+Milosis was practically impregnable, and as our enemy was in
+front of and not behind us, this did not so much matter.
+
+Good and Umslopogaas had gone on with the army, but Nyleptha
+accompanied Sir Henry and myself to the city gates, riding a
+magnificent white horse called Daylight, which was supposed to
+be the fleetest and most enduring animal in Zu-Vendis.  Her face
+bore traces of recent weeping, but there were no tears in her
+eyes now, indeed she was bearing up bravely against what must
+have been a bitter trail to her.  At the gate she reined in her
+horse and bade us farewell.  On the previous day she had reviewed
+and addressed the officers of the great army, speaking to them
+such high, eloquent words, and expressing so complete a confidence
+in their valour and in their ultimate victory, that she quite
+carried their hearts away, and as she rode from rank to rank
+they cheered her till the ground shook.  And now today the same
+mood seemed to be on her.
+
+'Fare thee well, Macumazahn!' she said.  'Remember, I trust to
+thy wits, which are as a needle to a spear-handle compared to
+those of my people, to save us from Sorais.  I know that thou
+wilt do thy duty.'
+
+I bowed and explained to her my horror of fighting, and my fear
+lest I should lose my head, at which she laughed gently and turned
+to Curtis.
+
+'Fare thee well, my lord!' she said.  'Come back with victory,
+and as a king, or on thy soldiers' spears.' {Endnote 19}
+
+Sir Henry said nothing, but turned his horse to go; perhaps he
+had a bit of a lump in his throat.  One gets over it afterwards,
+but these sort of partings are trying when one has only been
+married a week.
+
+'Here,' added Nyleptha, 'will I greet thee when ye return in
+triumph.  And now, my lords, once more, farewell!'
+
+Then we rode on, but when we had gone a hundred and fifty yards
+or so, we turned and perceived her still sitting on her horse
+at the same spot, and looking out after us beneath her hand,
+and that was the last we saw of her.  About a mile farther on,
+however, we heard galloping behind us, and looking round, saw
+a mounted soldier coming towards us, leading Nyleptha's matchless
+steed -- Daylight.
+
+'The Queen sends the white stallion as a farewell gift to her
+Lord Incubu, and bids me tell my lord that he is the fleetest
+and most enduring horse in all the land,' said the soldier, bending
+to his saddle-bow before us.
+
+At first Sir Henry did not want to take the horse, saying that
+he was too good for such rough work, but I persuaded him to do
+so, thinking that Nyleptha would be hurt if he did not.  Little
+did I guess at the time what service that noble horse would render
+in our sorest need.  It is curious to look back and realize upon
+what trivial and apparently coincidental circumstances great
+events frequently turn as easily and naturally as a door on its
+hinges.
+
+Well, we took the horse, and a beauty he was, it was a perfect
+pleasure to see him move, and Curtis having sent back his greetings
+and thanks, we proceeded on our journey.
+
+By midday we overtook the rear-guard of the great army of which
+Sir Henry then formally took over the command.  It was a heavy
+responsibility, and it oppressed him very much, but the Queen's
+injunctions on the point were such as did not admit of being
+trifled with.  He was beginning to find out that greatness has
+its responsibilities as well as its glories.
+
+Then we marched on without meeting with any opposition, almost
+indeed without seeing anybody, for the populations of the towns
+and villages along our route had for the most part fled, fearing
+lest they should be caught between the two rival armies and ground
+to powder like grain between the upper and the nether stones.
+
+On the evening of the fourth day, for the progress of so great
+a multitude was necessarily slow, we camped two miles this side
+of the neck or ridge I have spoken of, and our outposts brought
+us word that Sorais with all her power was rolling down upon
+us, and had pitched her camp that night ten miles the farther
+side of the neck.
+
+Accordingly before dawn we sent forward fifteen hundred cavalry
+to seize the position.  Scarcely had they occupied it, however,
+before they were attacked by about as many of Sorais' horsemen,
+and a very smart little cavalry fight ensued, with a loss to
+us of about thirty men killed.  On the advance of our supports,
+however, Sorais' force drew off, carrying their dead and wounded
+with them.
+
+The main body of the army reached the neck about dinner-time,
+and I must say that Nyleptha's judgment had not failed her, it
+was an admirable place to give battle in, especially to a superior
+force.
+
+The road ran down a mile or more, through ground too broken to
+admit of the handling of any considerable force, till it reached
+the crest of a great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentle
+slope to the banks of a little stream, and then rolled away again
+up a still gentler slope to the plain beyond, the distance from
+the crest of the land-wave down to the stream being a little
+over half a mile, and from the stream up to the plain beyond
+a trifle less.  The length of this wave of land at its highest
+point, which corresponded exactly with the width of the neck
+of the land between the wooded hills, was about two miles and
+a quarter, and it was protected on either side by dense, rocky,
+bush-clad ground, that afforded a most valuable cover to the
+flanks of the army and rendered it almost impossible for them
+to be turned.
+
+It was on the hither slope of this neck of land that Curtis encamped
+his army in the same formation that he had, after consultation
+with the various generals, Good, and myself, determined that
+they should occupy in the great pitched battle which now appeared
+to be imminent.
+
+Our force of sixty thousand men was, roughly speaking, divided
+as follows.  In the centre was a dense body of twenty thousand
+foot-soldiers, armed with spears, swords, and hippopotamus-hide
+shields, breast and back plates. {Endnote 20}  These formed the
+chest of the army, and were supported by five thousand foot,
+and three thousand horse in reserve.  On either side of this
+chest were stationed seven thousand horse arranged in deep, majestic
+squadrons; and beyond and on either side but slightly in front
+of them again were two bodies, each numbering about seven thousand
+five hundred spearmen, forming the right and left wings of the
+army, and each supported by a contingent of some fifteen hundred
+cavalry.  This makes in all sixty thousand men.
+
+Curtis commanded in chief, I was in command of the seven thousand
+horse between the chest and right wing, which was commanded by
+Good, and the other battalions and squadrons were entrusted to
+Zu-Vendis generals.
+
+Scarcely had we taken up our positions before Sorais' vast army
+began to swarm on the opposite slope about a mile in front of
+us, till the whole place seemed alive with the multitude of her
+spearpoints, and the ground shook with the tramp of her battalions.
+It was evident that the spies had not exaggerated; we were outnumbered
+by at least a third.  At first we expected that Sorais was going
+to attack us at once, as the clouds of cavalry which hung upon
+her flanks executed some threatening demonstrations, but she
+thought better of it, and there was no fight that day.  As for
+the formation of her great forces I cannot now describe it with
+accuracy, and it would only serve to bewilder if I did, but I
+may say, generally, that in its leading features it resembled
+our own, only her reserve was much greater.
+
+Opposite our right wing, and forming Sorais' left wing, was a
+great army of dark, wild-looking men, armed with sword and shield
+only, which, I was informed, was composed of Nasta's twenty-five
+thousand savage hillsmen.
+
+'My word, Good,' said I, when I saw them, 'you will catch it
+tomorrow when those gentlemen charge!' whereat Good not unnaturally
+looked rather anxious.
+
+All day we watched and waited, but nothing happened, and at last
+night fell, and a thousand watch-fires twinkled brightly on the
+slopes, to wane and die one by one like the stars they resembled.
+As the hours wore on, the silence gradually gathered more deeply
+over the opposing hosts.
+
+It was a very wearying night, for in addition to the endless
+things that had to be attended to, there was our gnawing suspense
+to reckon with.  The fray which tomorrow would witness would
+be so vast, and the slaughter so awful, that stout indeed must
+the heart have been that was not overwhelmed at the prospect.
+And when I thought of all that hung upon it, I own I felt ill,
+and it made me very sad to reflect that these mighty forces were
+gathered for destruction, simply to gratify the jealous anger
+of a woman.  This was the hidden power which was to send those
+dense masses of cavalry, flashing like human thunderbolts across
+the plain, and to roll together the fierce battalions as clouds
+when hurricane meets hurricane.  It was a dreadful thought, and
+set one wondering about the responsibilities of the great ones
+of the earth.  Deep into the night we sat, with pale faces and
+heavy hearts, and took counsel, whilst the sentries tramped up
+and down, down and up, and the armed and plumed generals came
+and went, grim and shadow-like.
+
+And so the time wore away, till everything was ready for the
+coming slaughter; and I lay down and thought, and tried to get
+a little rest, but could not sleep for fear of the morrow --
+for who could say what the morrow would bring forth?  Misery
+and death, this was certain; beyond that we knew not, and I confess
+I was very much afraid.  But as I realized then, it is useless
+to question that eternal Sphinx, the future.  From day to day
+she reads aloud the riddles of the yesterday, of which the puzzled
+wordlings of all ages have not answered one, nor ever will, guess
+they never so wildly or cry they never so loud.
+
+And so at length I gave up wondering, being forced humbly to
+leave the issue in the balancing hands of Providence and the
+morrow.
+
+And at last up came the red sun, and the huge camps awoke with
+a clash, and a roar, and gathered themselves together for battle.
+It was a beautiful and awe-inspiring scene, and old Umslopogaas,
+leaning on his axe, contemplated it with grim delight.
+
+'Never have I seen the like, Macumazahn, never,' he said.  'The
+battles of my people are as the play of children to what this
+will be.  Thinkest thou that they will fight it out?'
+
+'Ay,' I answered sadly, 'to the death.  Content thyself, "Woodpecker",
+for once shalt thou peck thy fill.'
+
+Time went on, and still there was no sign of an attack.  A force
+of cavalry crossed the brook, indeed, and rode slowly along our
+front, evidently taking stock of our position and numbers.  With
+this we did not attempt to interfere, as our decision was to
+stand strictly on the defensive, and not to waste a single man.
+The men breakfasted and stood to their arms, and the hours wore
+on.  About midday, when the men were eating their dinner, for
+we thought they would fight better on full stomachs, a shout
+of '_Sorais, Sorais_' arose like thunder from the enemy's extreme
+right, and taking the glass, I was able to clearly distinguish
+the 'Lady of the Night' herself, surrounded by a glittering staff,
+and riding slowly down the lines of her battalions.  And as she
+went, that mighty, thundering shout rolled along before her like
+the rolling of ten thousand chariots, or the roaring of the ocean
+when the gale turns suddenly and carries the noise of it to the
+listener's ears, till the earth shook, and the air was full of
+the majesty of sound.
+
+Guessing that this was a prelude to the beginning of the battle,
+we remained still and made ready.
+
+We had not long to wait.  Suddenly, like flame from a cannon's
+mouth, out shot two great tongue-like forces of cavalry, and
+came charging down the slope towards the little stream, slowly
+at first, but gathering speed as they came.  Before they got
+to the stream, orders reached me from Sir Henry, who evidently
+feared that the shock of such a charge, if allowed to fall unbroken
+upon our infantry, would be too much for them, to send five thousand
+sabres to meet the force opposite to me, at the moment when it
+began to mount the stiffest of the rise about four hundred yards
+from our lines.  This I did, remaining behind myself with the
+rest of my men.
+
+Off went the five thousand horsemen, drawn up in a wedge-like
+form, and I must say that the general in command handled them
+very ably.  Starting at a hand gallop, for the first three hundred
+yards he rode straight at the tip of the tongue-shaped mass of
+cavalry which, numbering, so far as I could judge, about eight
+thousand sabres, was advancing to charge us.  Then he suddenly
+swerved to the right and put on the pace, and I saw the great
+wedge curl round, and before the foe could check himself and
+turn to meet it, strike him about halfway down his length, with
+a crashing rending sound, like that of the breaking-up of vast
+sheets of ice.  In sank the great wedge, into his heart, and
+as it cut its way hundreds of horsemen were thrown up on either
+side of it, just as the earth is thrown up by a ploughshare,
+or more like still, as the foaming water curls over beneath the
+bows of a rushing ship.  In, yet in, vainly does the tongue twist
+its ends round in agony, like an injured snake, and strive to
+protect its centre; still farther in, by Heaven! right through,
+and so, amid cheer after cheer from our watching thousands, back
+again upon the severed ends, beating them down, driving them
+as a gale drives spray, till at last, amidst the rushing of hundreds
+of riderless horses, the flashing of swords, and the victorious
+clamour of their pursuers, the great force crumples up like an
+empty glove, then turns and gallops pell-mell for safety back
+to its own lines.
+
+I do not think it reached them more than two-thirds as strong
+as it went out ten minutes before.  The lines which were now
+advancing to the attack, opened and swallowed them up, and my
+force returned, having only suffered a loss of about five hundred
+men -- not much, I thought, considering the fierceness of the
+struggle.  I could also see that the opposing bodies of cavalry
+on our left wing were drawing back, but how the fight went with
+them I do not quite know.  It is as much as I can do to describe
+what took place immediately around me.
+
+By this time the dense masses of the enemy's left, composed almost
+entirely of Nasta's swordsmen, were across the little stream,
+and with alternate yells of 'Nasta' and 'Sorais', with dancing
+banners and gleaming swords, were swarming up towards us like
+ants.
+
+Again I received orders to try and check this movement, and also
+the main advance against the chest of our army, by means of cavalry
+charges, and this I did to the best of my ability, by continually
+sending squadrons of about a thousand sabres out against them.
+These squadrons did the enemy much damage, and it was a glorious
+sight to see them flash down the hillside, and bury themselves
+like a living knife in the heart of the foe.  But, also, we lost
+many men, for after the experience of a couple of these charges,
+which had drawn a sort of bloody St Andrew's cross of dead and
+dying through the centre of Nasta's host, our foes no longer
+attempted to offer an unyielding front to their irresistible
+weight, but opened out to let the rush go through, throwing themselves
+on the ground and hamstringing hundreds of horses as they passed.
+
+And so, notwithstanding all that we could do, the enemy drew
+nearer, till at last he hurled himself upon Good's force of seven
+thousand five hundred regulars, who were drawn up to receive
+them in three strong squares.  About the same time, too, an awful
+and heartshaking roar told me that the main battle had closed
+in on the centre and extreme left.  I raised myself in my stirrups
+and looked down to my left; so far as the eye could see there
+was a long dazzling shimmer of steel as the sun glanced upon
+falling sword and thrusting spear.
+
+To and fro swung the contending lines in that dread struggle,
+now giving way, now gaining a little in the mad yet ordered confusion
+of attack and defence.  But it was as much as I could do to keep
+count of what was happening to our own wing; and, as for the
+moment the cavalry had fallen back under cover of Good's three
+squares, I had a fair view of this.
+
+Nasta's wild swordsmen were now breaking in red waves against
+the sullen rock-like squares.  Time after time did they yell
+out their war-cries, and hurl themselves furiously against the
+long triple ridges of spear points, only to be rolled back as
+billows are when they meet the cliff.
+
+And so for four long hours the battle raged almost without a
+pause, and at the end of that time, if we had gained nothing
+we had lost nothing.  Two attempts to turn our left flank by
+forcing a way through the wood by which it was protected had
+been defeated; and as yet Nasta's swordsmen had, notwithstanding
+their desperate efforts, entirely failed to break Good's three
+squares, though they had thinned their numbers by quite a third.
+
+As for the chest of the army where Sir Henry was with his staff
+and Umslopogaas, it had suffered dreadfully, but it had held
+its own with honour, and the same may be said of our left battle.
+
+At last the attacks slackened, and Sorais' army drew back, having,
+I began to think, had enough of it.  On this point, however,
+I was soon undeceived, for splitting up her cavalry into comparatively
+small squadrons, she charged us furiously with them, all along
+the line, and then once more sullenly rolled her tens of thousands
+of sword and spearmen down upon our weakened squares and squadrons;
+Sorais herself directing the movement, as fearless as a lioness
+heading the main attack.  On they came like an avalanche -- I saw
+her golden helm gleaming in the van -- our counter charges of cavalry
+entirely failing to check their forward sweep.  Now they had
+struck us, and our centre bent in like a bow beneath the weight
+of their rush -- it parted, and had not the ten thousand men
+in reserve charged down to its support it must have been utterly
+destroyed.  As for Good's three squares, they were swept backwards
+like boats upon an incoming tide, and the foremost one was burst
+into and lost half its remaining men.  But the effort was too
+fierce and terrible to last.  Suddenly the battle came, as it
+were, to a turning-point, and for a minute or two stood still.
+
+Then it began to move towards Sorais' camp.  Just then, too,
+Nasta's fierce and almost invincible highlanders, either because
+they were disheartened by their losses or by way of a ruse, fell
+back, and the remains of Good's gallant squares, leaving the
+positions they had held for so many hours, cheered wildly, and
+rashly followed them down the slope, whereon the swarms of swordsmen
+turned to envelop them, and once more flung themselves upon them
+with a yell.  Taken thus on every side, what remained of the
+first square was quickly destroyed, and I perceived that the
+second, in which I could see Good himself mounted on a large
+horse, was on the point of annihilation.  A few more minutes
+and it was broken, its streaming colours sank, and I lost sight
+of Good in the confused and hideous slaughter that ensued.
+
+Presently, however, a cream-coloured horse with a snow-white
+mane and tail burst from the ruins of the square and came rushing
+past me riderless and with wide streaming reins, and in it I
+recognized the charger that Good had been riding.  Then I hesitated
+no longer, but taking with me half my effective cavalry force,
+which now amounted to between four and five thousand men, I commended
+myself to God, and, without waiting for orders, I charged straight
+down upon Nasta's swordsmen.  Seeing me coming, and being warned
+by the thunder of my horses' hoofs, the majority of them faced
+round, and gave us a right warm welcome.  Not an inch would they
+yield; in vain did we hack and trample them down as we ploughed
+a broad red furrow through their thousands; they seemed to re-arise
+by hundreds, driving their terrible sharp swords into our horses,
+or severing their hamstrings, and then hacking the troopers who
+came to the ground with them almost into pieces.  My horse was
+speedily killed under me, but luckily I had a fresh one, my own
+favourite, a coal-black mare Nyleptha had given me, being held
+in reserve behind, and on this I afterwards mounted.  Meanwhile
+I had to get along as best I could, for I was pretty well lost
+sight of by my men in the mad confusion of the moment.  My voice,
+of course, could not be heard in the midst of the clanging of
+steel and the shrieks of rage and agony.  Presently I found myself
+mixed up with the remnants of the square, which had formed round
+its leader Good, and was fighting desperately for existence.
+I stumbled against somebody, and glancing down, caught sight
+of Good's eyeglass.  He had been beaten to his knee.  Over him
+was a great fellow swinging a heavy sword.  Somehow I managed
+to run the man through with the sime I had taken from the Masai
+whose hand I had cut off; but as I did so, he dealt me a frightful
+blow on the left side and breast with the sword, and though my
+chain shirt saved my life, I felt that I was badly hurt.  For
+a minute I fell on to my hands and knees among the dead and dying,
+and turned sick and faint.  When I came to again I saw that Nasta's
+spearmen, or rather those of them who remained, were retreating
+back across the stream, and that Good was there by me smiling sweetly.
+
+'Near go that,' he shouted; 'but all's well that ends well.'
+
+I assented, but I could not help feeling that it had not ended
+well for me.  I was sorely hurt.
+
+Just then we saw the smaller bodies of cavalry stationed on our
+extreme right and left, and which were now reinforced by the
+three thousand sabres which we had held in reserve, flash out
+like arrows from their posts and fall upon the disordered flanks
+of Sorais' forces, and that charge decided the issue of the battle.
+In another minute or two the enemy was in slow and sullen retreat
+across the little stream, where they once more re-formed.  Then
+came another lull, during which I managed to get a second horse,
+and received my orders to advance from Sir Henry, and then with
+one fierce deep-throated roar, with a waving of banners and a
+wide flashing of steel, the remains of our army took the offensive
+and began to sweep down, slowly indeed, but irresistibly from
+the positions they had so gallantly held all day.
+
+At last it was our turn to attack.
+
+On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and
+were approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary
+sight.  Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly clasped
+around his horse's neck, against which his blanched cheek was
+tightly pressed, was a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendi
+general, but in whom, as he came nearer, I recognized none other
+than our lost Alphonse.  It was impossible even then to mistake
+those curling mustachios.  In a minute he was tearing through
+our ranks and narrowly escaped being cut down, till at last somebody
+caught his horse's bridle, and he was brought to me just as a
+momentary halt occurred in our advance to allow what remained
+of our shattered squares to form into line.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulate
+with fright, 'grace to the sky, it is you!  Ah, what I have endured!
+ But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the laches.  But listen,
+monsieur -- I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered
+tomorrow at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards
+will leave their posts, and the priests are going to kill her.
+Ah yes! they little thought it, but I was ensconced beneath
+a banner, and I heard it all.'
+
+'What?' I said, horror-struck; 'what do you mean?'
+
+'What I say, monsieur; that devil of a Nasta he went last night
+to settle the affair with the Archbishop [Agon].  The guard will
+leave open the little gate leading from the great stair and go
+away, and Nasta and Agon's priests will come in and kill her.
+Themselves they would not kill her.'
+
+'Come with me,' I said, and, shouting to the staff-officer next
+to me to take over the command, I snatched his bridle and galloped
+as hard as I could for the spot, between a quarter and half a
+mile off, where I saw the royal pennon flying, and where I knew
+that I should find Curtis if he were still alive.  On we tore,
+our horses clearing heaps of dead and dying men, and splashing
+through pools of blood, on past the long broken lines of spearmen
+to where, mounted on the white stallion Nasta had sent to him
+as a parting gift, I saw Sir Henry's form towering above the
+generals who surrounded him.
+
+Just as we reached him the advance began again.  A bloody cloth
+was bound around his head, but I saw that his eye was as bright
+and keen as ever.  Beside him was old Umslopogaas, his axe red
+with blood, but looking quite fresh and uninjured.
+
+'What's wrong, Quatermain?' he shouted.
+
+'Everything.  There is a plot to murder the Queen tomorrow at
+dawn.  Alphonse here, who has just escaped from Sorais, has overheard
+it all,' and I rapidly repeated to him what the Frenchman had
+told me.
+
+Curtis' face turned deadly pale and his jaw dropped.
+
+'At dawn,' he gasped, 'and it is now sunset; it dawns before
+four and we are nearly a hundred miles off -- nine hours at the
+outside.  What is to be done?'
+
+An idea entered into my head.  'Is that horse of yours fresh?'
+I said.
+
+'Yes, I have only just got on to him -- when my last was killed,
+and he has been fed.'
+
+'So is mine.  Get off him, and let Umslopogaas mount; he can
+ride well.  We will be at Milosis before dawn, or if we are not
+-- well, we cannot help it.  No, no; it is impossible for you
+to leave now.  You would be seen, and it would turn the fate
+of the battle.  It is not half won yet.  The soldiers would think
+you were making a bolt of it.  Quick now.'
+
+In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang
+into the empty saddle.
+
+'Now farewell,' I said.  'Send a thousand horsemen with remounts
+after us in an hour if possible.  Stay, despatch a general to
+the left wing to take over the command and explain my absence.'
+
+'You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?' he said in a
+broken voice.
+
+'Ay, that I will.  Go on; you are being left behind.'
+
+He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped
+off to join the advance, which by this time was fording the little
+brook that now ran red with the blood of the fallen.
+
+As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as
+arrows leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out
+of the sight of slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoil
+and shouting, which only came to our ears as a faint, far-off
+roaring like the sound of distant breakers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+AWAY!  AWAY!
+
+
+
+At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our
+horses; and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which,
+illumined as it was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining
+the whole scene red, looked from where we were more like some
+wild titanic picture than an actual hand-to-hand combat.  The
+distinguishing scenic effect from that distance was the countless
+distinct flashes of light reflected from the swords and spears,
+otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have been expected.
+The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was being
+fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and the
+wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what
+was tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant
+when viewed from the distance.  But is it not thus with all the
+affairs and doings of our race about which we blow the loud trumpet
+and make such a fuss and worry?  How utterly antlike, and morally
+and physically insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyes
+that watch them from the arching depths above!
+
+'We win the day, Macumazahn,' said old Umslopogaas, taking in
+the whole situation with a glance of his practised eye.  'Look,
+the Lady of the Night's forces give on every side, there is no
+stiffness left in them, they bend like hot iron, they are fighting
+with but half a heart.  But alas! the battle will in a manner
+be drawn, for the darkness gathers, and the regiments will not
+be able to follow and slay!' -- and he shook his head sadly.
+'But,' he added, 'I do not think that they will fight again.
+We have fed them with too strong a meat.  Ah! it is well to
+have lived!  At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.'
+
+By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by
+side I told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed,
+all the lives that had been lost that day would have been lost
+in vain.
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these,
+and to be there before the dawn!  Well -- away! away! man can
+but try, Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to
+split that old "witch-finder's" [Agon's] skull for him.  Once
+he wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker", did he?  And now
+he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he?  Good!
+ So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely,
+be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard.  Ay,
+by T'Chaka's head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he
+galloped.  By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately
+there would be a moon later, and the road was good.
+
+On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
+had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide
+steady stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile.
+Down the side of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that
+stretched to the foot of far-off hills.  Nearer and nearer grew
+the blue hills; now we were travelling up their steeps, and now
+we were over and passing towards others that sprang up like visions
+in the far, faint distance beyond.
+
+On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet
+of the night, that was set like a song to the falling music of
+our horses' hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some
+forgotten starving dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, past
+lonely moated dwellings; on, through the white patchy moonlight,
+that lay coldly upon the wide bosom of the earth, as though there
+was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for hour after hour!
+
+We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious
+horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they
+filled their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring
+of their round hoofs.  Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas
+look beside me, mounted upon the great white horse, like Death
+in the Revelation of St John, as now and again lifting his fierce
+set face he gazed out along the road, and pointed with his axe
+towards some distant rise or house.
+
+And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
+
+At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was
+beginning to give out.  I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight,
+and we were considerably more than half way.  On the top of a
+rise was a little spring, which I remembered because I had slept
+by it a few nights before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaas
+to pull up, having determined to give the horses and ourselves
+ten minutes to breathe in.  He did so, and we dismounted -- that
+is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me off, for what
+with fatigue, stiffness, and the pain of my wound, I could not
+do so for myself; and then the gallant horses stood panting there,
+resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat fell
+drip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds
+in the still night air.
+
+Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring
+and drank deep of its sweet waters.  I had had nothing but a
+single mouthful of wine since midday, when the battle began,
+and I was parched up, though my fatigue was too great to allow
+me to feel hungry.  Then, having laved my fevered head and hands,
+I returned, and the Zulu went and drank.  Next we allowed the
+horses to take a couple of mouthfuls each -- no more; and oh,
+what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from the water!
+ There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling up
+and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting the
+condition of the horses.  My mare, gallant animal though she
+was, was evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her
+eye looked sick and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha's glorious horse
+-- who, if he is served aright, should, like the steeds who saved
+great Rameses in his need, feed for the rest of his days out
+of a golden manger -- was still comparatively speaking fresh,
+notwithstanding the fact that he had had by far the heavier weight
+to carry.  He was 'tucked up', indeed, and his legs were weary,
+but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his shapely head up
+and gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that seemed to
+say that whoever failed _he_ was good for those five-and-forty miles
+that yet lay between us and Milosis.  Then Umslopogaas helped me
+into the saddle and -- vigorous old savage that he was! -- vaulted
+into his own without touching a stirrup, and we were off once more,
+slowly at first, till the horses got into their stride, and then
+more swiftly.  So we passed over another ten miles, and then came
+a long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three times
+did my poor black mare nearly come to the ground with me.  But on
+the top she seemed to gather herself together, and rattled down
+the slope with long, convulsive strides, breathing in gasps.
+We did that three or four miles more swiftly than any since we
+had started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last effort,
+and I was right.  Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between her
+teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for
+some three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or three
+jerky strides, pulled herself up and fell with a crash right on
+to her head, I rolling myself free as she did so.  As I struggled
+to my feet the brave beast raised her head and looked at me with
+piteous bloodshot eyes, and then her head dropped with a groan
+and she was dead.  Her heart was broken.
+
+Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him
+in dismay.  There were still more than twenty miles to do by
+dawn, and how were we to do it with one horse?  It seemed hopeless,
+but I had forgotten the old Zulu's extraordinary running powers.
+
+Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to
+hoist me into it.
+
+'What wilt thou do?' I asked.
+
+'Run,' he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
+
+Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the
+relief it was to me to get that change of horses!  Anybody who
+has ever ridden against time will know what it meant.
+
+Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving
+the gaunt Zulu a lift at every stride.  It was a wonderful thing
+to see old Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightly
+parted and his nostrils agape like the horse's.  Every five miles
+or so we stopped for a few minutes to let him get his breath,
+and then flew on again.
+
+'Canst thou go farther,' I said at the third of these stoppages,
+'or shall I leave thee to follow me?'
+
+He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us.  It was the
+Temple of the Sun, now not more than five miles away.
+
+'I reach it or I die,' he gasped.
+
+Oh, that last five miles!  The skin was rubbed from the inside
+of my legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish.
+Nor was that all.  I was exhausted with toil, want of food and
+sleep, and also suffering very much from the blow I had received
+on my left side; it seemed as though a piece of bone or something
+was slowly piercing into my lung.  Poor Daylight, too, was pretty
+nearly finished, and no wonder.  But there was a smell of dawn
+in the air, and we might not stay; better that all three of us
+should die upon the road than that we should linger while there
+was life in us.  The air was thick and heavy, as it sometimes
+is before the dawn breaks, and -- another infallible sign in
+certain parts of Zu-Vendis that sunrise is at hand -- hundreds
+of little spiders pendant on the end of long tough webs were
+floating about in it.  These early-rising creatures, or rather
+their webs, caught upon the horse's and our own forms by scores,
+and, as we had neither the time nor the energy to brush them
+off, we rushed along covered with hundreds of long grey threads
+that streamed out a yard or more behind us -- and a very strange
+appearance they must have given us.
+
+And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wall
+of the Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me:
+What if they will not let us in?
+
+'_Open! open!_' I shout imperiously, at the same time giving
+the royal password.  '_Open! open!_ a messenger, a messenger
+with tidings of the war!'
+
+'What news?' cried the guard.  'And who art thou that ridest
+so madly, and who is that whose tongue lolls out' -- and it actually
+did -- 'and who runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?'
+
+'It is the Lord Macumazahn, and with him is his dog, his black dog.
+_Open! open!_ I bring tidings.'
+
+The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge
+fell with a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one
+and over the other.
+
+'What news, my lord, what news?' cried the guard.
+
+'Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,' I answered,
+and was gone.
+
+One more effort, gallant horse, and yet more gallant man!
+
+So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen
+short minutes more, old Zulu war-dog, and ye shall both live
+for ever in the annals of the land.
+
+On, clattering through the sleeping streets.  We are passing
+the Flower Temple now -- one mile more, only one little mile
+-- hold on, keep your life in thee, see the houses run past of
+themselves.  Up, good horse, up, there -- but fifty yards now.
+Ah! you see your stables and stagger on gallantly.
+
+'Thank God, the palace at last!' and see, the first arrows of
+the dawn are striking on the Temple's golden dome. {Endnote 21}
+ But shall I get in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?
+
+Once more I give the password and shout '_Open! open!_'
+
+No answer, and my heart grows very faint.
+
+Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my
+joy I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of
+Nyleptha's guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light
+-- indeed, the same whom Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on
+the day she fled to the temple.
+
+'Is it thou, Kara?' I cry; 'I am Macumazahn.  Bid the guard let
+down the bridge and throw wide the gate.  Quick, quick!'
+
+Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length
+the bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got into
+the courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneath
+me, as I thought, dead.  Except Kara, there was nobody to be
+seen, and his look was wild, and his garments were all torn.
+He had opened the gate and let down the bridge alone, and was
+now getting them up and shut again (as, owing to a very ingenious
+arrangement of cranks and levers, one man could easily do, and
+indeed generally did do).
+
+'Where are the guard?' I gasped, fearing his answer as I never
+feared anything before.
+
+'I know not,' he answered; 'two hours ago, as I slept, was I
+seized and bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very
+moment, have I freed myself with my teeth.  I fear, I greatly
+fear, that we are betrayed.
+
+His words gave me fresh energy.  Catching him by the arm, I staggered,
+followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man,
+through the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent as
+the grave, towards the Queen's sleeping-place.
+
+We reached the first ante-room -- no guards; the second, still
+no guards.  Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after
+all, too late!  The silence and solitude of those great chambers
+was dreadful, and weighed me down like an evil dream.  On, right
+into Nyleptha's chamber we rushed and staggered, sick at heart,
+fearing the very worst; we saw there was a light in it, ay, and
+a figure bearing the light.  Oh, thank God, it is the White Queen
+herself, the Queen unharmed!  There she stands in her night gear,
+roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the heaviness
+of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame mantling
+her lovely breast and cheek.
+
+'Who is it?' she cries.  'What means this?  Oh, Macumazahn, is
+it thou?  Why lookest thou so wildly?  Thou comest as one bearing
+evil tidings -- and my lord -- oh, tell me not my lord is dead
+-- not dead!' she wailed, wringing her white hands.
+
+'I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais
+last night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest.
+Sorais is beaten back all along her lines, and thy arms prevail.'
+
+'I knew it,' she cried in triumph.  'I knew that he would win;
+and they called him Outlander, and shook their wise heads when
+I gave him the command!  Last night at sundown, sayest thou,
+and it is not yet dawn?  Surely --'
+
+'Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,' I broke in, 'and give
+us wine to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst
+save thyself alive.  Nay, stay not.'
+
+Thus adjured she ran and called through the curtains towards
+some room beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick
+cloak, by which time a dozen or so of half-dressed women were
+pouring into the room.
+
+'Follow us and be silent,' I said to them as they gazed with
+wondering eyes, clinging one to another.  So we went into the
+first ante-room.
+
+'Now,' I said, 'give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it,
+for we are near to death.'
+
+The room was used as a mess-room for the officers of the guards,
+and from a cupboard some flagons of wine and some cold flesh
+were brought forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life
+flow back into our veins as the good red wine went down.
+
+'Hark to me, Nyleptha,' I said, as I put down the empty tankard.
+'Hast thou here among these thy waiting-ladies any two of discretion?'
+
+'Ay,' she said, 'surely.'
+
+'Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom
+thou canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them
+come armed, with all honest folk that they can gather, to rescue
+thee from death.  Nay, question not; do as I say, and quickly.
+Kara here will let out the maids.'
+
+She turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated
+the words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the names
+of the men to whom each should run.
+
+'Go swiftly and secretly; go for your very lives,' I added.
+
+In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin
+us at the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway
+as soon as he had made fast behind the girls.  Thither, too,
+Umslopogaas and I made our way, followed by the Queen and her
+women.  As we went we tore off mouthfuls of food, and between
+them I told her what I knew of the danger which encompassed her,
+and how we found Kara, and how all the guards and men-servants
+were gone, and she was alone with her women in that great place;
+and she told me, too, that a rumour had spread through the town
+that our army had been utterly destroyed, and that Sorais was
+marching in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereof
+all men had fallen away from her.
+
+Though all this takes some time to tell, we had not been but
+six or seven minutes in the palace; and notwithstanding that
+the golden roof of the temple being very lofty was ablaze with
+the rays of the rising sun, it was not yet dawn, nor would be
+for another ten minutes.  We were in the courtyard now, and here
+my wound pained me so that I had to take Nyleptha's arm, while
+Umslopogaas rolled along after us, eating as he went.
+
+Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow doorway through
+the palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair.
+
+I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might.  The door
+was gone, and so were the outer gates of bronze -- entirely gone.
+They had been taken from their hinges, and as we afterwards
+found, hurled from the stairway to the ground two hundred feet
+beneath.  There in front of us was the semicircular standing-space,
+about twice the size of a large oval dining-table, and the ten
+curved black marble steps leading on to the main stair --
+and that was all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR
+
+
+
+We looked at one another.
+
+'Thou seest,' I said, 'they have taken away the door.  Is there
+aught with which we may fill the place?  Speak quickly for they
+will be on us ere the daylight.'  I spoke thus, because I knew
+that we must hold this place or none, as there were no inner
+doors in the palace, the rooms being separated one from another
+by curtains.  I also knew that if we could by any means defend
+this doorway the murderers could get in nowhere else; for the
+palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since the secret door
+by which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of attempted
+murder had, by Nyleptha's order, been closed up with masonry.
+
+'I have it,' said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the
+emergency in a wonderful way.  'On the farther side of the courtyard
+are blocks of cut marble -- the workmen brought them there for
+the bed of the new statue of Incubu, my lord; let us block the
+door with them.'
+
+I jumped at the idea; and having despatched one of the remaining
+maidens down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance
+from the docks below, where her father, who was a great merchant
+employing many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another to
+watch through the doorway, we made our way back across the courtyard
+to where the hewn marble lay; and here we met Kara returning
+from despatching the first two messengers.  There were the marble
+blocks, sure enough, broad, massive lumps, some six inches thick,
+and weighing about eighty pounds each, and there, too, were a
+couple of implements like small stretchers, that the workmen
+used to carry them on.  Without delay we got some of the blocks
+on to the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to the
+doorway.
+
+'Listen, Macumazahn,' said Umslopogaas, 'if those low fellows
+come, it is I who will hold the stair against them till the door
+is built up.  Nay, nay, it will be a man's death: gainsay me
+not, old friend.  It has been a good day, let it now be good
+night.  See, I throw myself down to rest on the marble there;
+when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me, not before, for
+I need my strength,' and without a word he went outside and flung
+himself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep.
+
+At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down
+by the doorway, and content myself with directing operations.
+The girls brought the block, while Kara and Nyleptha built them
+up across the six-foot-wide doorway, a triple row of them, for
+less would be useless.  But the marble had to be brought forty
+yards and then there were forty yards to run back, and though
+the girls laboured gloriously, even staggering along alone, each
+with a block in her arms, it was slow work, dreadfully slow.
+
+The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we
+heard a commotion at the far-bottom of the stair, and the faint
+clinking of armed men.  As yet the wall was only two feet high,
+and we had been eight minutes at the building of it.  So they
+had come.  Alphonse had heard aright.
+
+The clanking sound came nearer, and in the ghostly grey of the
+dawning we could make out long files of men, some fifty or so
+in all, slowly creeping up the stair.  They were now at the half-way
+standing place that rested on the great flying arch; and here,
+perceiving that something was going on above, they, to our great
+gain, halted for three or four minutes and consulted, then slowly
+and cautiously advanced again.
+
+We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and
+it was almost three feet high.
+
+Then I woke Umslopogaas.  The great man rose, stretched himself,
+and swung Inkosi-kaas round his head.
+
+'It is well,' he said.  'I feel as a young man once more.  My
+strength has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before
+it dies.  Fear not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine and
+the sleep have put a new heart into me.'
+
+'Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream.  I dreamed that thou and
+I stood together on a star, and looked down on the world, and
+thou wast as a spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy
+flesh, but I could not see what was the fashion of mine own face.
+The hour has come for us, old hunter.  So be it: we have had
+our time, but I would that in it I had seen some more such fights
+as yesterday's.
+
+'Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn,
+and set my eyes towards Zululand;' and he took my hand and shook it,
+and then turned to face the advancing foe.
+
+Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered
+over our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way,
+and took his stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did
+so.
+
+'What, comest thou too?' laughed out the old warrior.  'Welcome
+-- a welcome to thee, brave heart!  Ow! for the man who can die
+like a man; ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel.
+Ow! we are ready.  We wet our beaks like eagles, our spears
+flash in the sun; we shake our assegais, and are hungry to fight.
+Who comes to give greeting to the Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]?
+ Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is death?  I, the
+Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted!  I, Umslopogaas,
+of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu, a
+captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the
+son of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze,
+I of the royal blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I the
+Ringed Man, I the Induna, I call to them as a buck calls, I challenge
+them, I await them.  Ow! it is thou, it is thou!'
+
+As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed
+men, among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta
+and Agon, came streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big
+fellow, armed with a heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircular
+steps ahead of his comrades and struck at the great Zulu with
+the spear.  Umslopogaas moved his body but not his legs, so that
+the blow missed him, and next instant Inkosi-kaas crashed through
+headpiece, hair and skull, and the man's corpse was rattling
+down the steps.  As he dropped, his round hippopotamus-hide shield
+fell from his hand on to the marble, and the Zulu stooped down
+and seized it, still chanting as he did so.
+
+In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then
+began a scene the like of which has not been known to me.
+
+Up rushed the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast
+as they came, the axe crashed and the sword swung, and down they
+rolled again, dead or dying.  And ever as the fight thickened,
+the old Zulu's eye seemed to get quicker and his arm stronger.
+He shouted out his war-cries and the names of chiefs whom he
+had slain, and the blows of his awful axe rained straight and
+true, shearing through everything they fell on.  There was none
+of the scientific method he was so fond of about this last immortal
+fight of his; he had no time for it, but struck with his full
+strength, and at every stroke a man sank in his tracks, and went
+rattling down the marble steps.
+
+They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding
+him in a dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the
+shield protected his head and the chain-shirt his vitals, and
+for minute after minute, aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he still
+held the stair.
+
+At last Kara's sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they
+rolled down together, and he was cut to pieces, dying like the
+brave man that he was.
+
+Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blenched or turned.
+Shouting out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he beat down a foe, ay,
+and another, and another, till at last they drew back from the
+slippery blood-stained steps, and stared at him with amazement,
+thinking that he was no mortal man.
+
+The wall of marble block was four feet six high now, and hope
+rose in my teeth as I leaned there against it a miserable helpless
+log, and ground my teeth, and watched that glorious struggle.
+I could do no more for I had lost my revolver in the battle.
+
+And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on his good axe, and, faint
+as he was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them 'women'
+-- the grand old warrior, standing there one against so many!
+ And for a breathing space none would come against him, notwithstanding
+Nasta's exhortations, till at last old Agon, who, to do him justice,
+was a brave man, made with baffled rage, and seeing that the
+wall would soon be built and his plans defeated, shook the great
+spear he held, and rushed up the dripping steps.
+
+'Ah, ah!' shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest's flowing
+white beard, 'it is thou, old "witch-finder"!  Come on!  I await
+thee, white "medicine man"; come on! come on!  I have sworn to
+slay thee, and I ever keep my faith.'
+
+On he came, taking him at his word, and drave the big spear with
+such force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough
+shield and pierced him in the neck.  The Zulu cast down the transfixed
+shield, and that moment was Agon's last, for before he could
+free his spear and strike again, with a shout of '_There's for
+thee, Rain-maker!_' Umslopogaas gripped Inkosi-kaas with both
+hands and whirled on high and drave her right on to his venerable
+head, so that Agon rolled down dead among the corpses of his
+fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him and his plots altogether.
+And even as he fell, a great cry rose from the foot of the stair,
+and looking out through the portion of the doorway that was yet
+unclosed, we saw armed men rushing up to the rescue, and called
+an answer to their shouts.  Then the would-be murderers who yet
+remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw several priests,
+turned to fly, but, having nowhere to go, were butchered as they
+fled.  Only one man stayed, and he was the great lord Nasta,
+Nyleptha's suitor, and the father of the plot.  For a moment
+the black-bearded Nasta stood with bowed face leaning on his
+long sword as though in despair, and then, with a dreadful shout,
+he too rushed up at the Zulu, and, swinging the glittering sword
+around his head, dealt him such a mighty blow beneath his guard,
+that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the
+chain armour and deep into Umslopogaas' side, for a moment
+paralysing him and causing him to drop his axe.
+
+Raising the sword again, Nasta sprang forward to make an end
+of him, but little he knew his foe.  With a shake and a yell
+of fury, the Zulu gathered himself together and sprang straight
+at Nasta's throat, as I have sometimes seen a wounded lion spring.
+He struck him full as his foot was on the topmost stair, and
+his long arms closing round him like iron bands, down they rolled
+together struggling furiously.  Nasta was a strong man and a
+desperate, but he could not match the strongest man in Zululand,
+sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as the strength
+of a bull.  In a minute the end came.  I saw old Umslopogaas
+stagger to his feet -- ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort
+swing up the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl
+him straight over the parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to
+powder on the rocks two hundred feet below.
+
+The succour which had been summoned by the girl who had passed
+down the stair before the assassins passed up was at hand, and
+the loud shouts which reached us from the outer gates told us
+that the town was also aroused, and the men awakened by the women
+were calling to be admitted.  Some of Nyleptha's brave ladies,
+who in their night-shifts and with their long hair streaming
+down their backs, just as they had been aroused from rest, went
+off to admit them at the side entrance, whilst others, assisted
+by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down the marble
+blocks they had placed there with so much labour.
+
+Soon the wall was down again, and through the doorway, followed
+by a crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and,
+in a way, a glorious figure.  The man was a mass of wounds, and
+a glance at his wild eye told me that he was dying.  The 'keshla'
+gum-ring upon his head was severed in two places by sword-cuts,
+one just over the curious hold in his skull, and the blood poured
+down his face from the gashes.  Also on the right side of his
+neck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by Agon; there was a
+deep cut on his left arm just below where the mail shirt-sleeve
+stopped, and on the right side of his body the armour was severed
+by a gash six inches long, where Nasta's mighty sword had bitten
+through it and deep into its wearer's vitals.
+
+On, axe in hand, he staggered, that dreadful-looking, splendid
+savage, and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood,
+and cheered him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded.
+With outstretched arms and tottering gait he pursued his way,
+followed by us all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ran
+through the courtyard, past the spot where the blocks of marble
+lay, through the round arched doorway and the thick curtains
+that hung within it, down the short passage and into the great
+hall, which was now filling with hastily-armed men, who poured
+through the side entrance.  Straight up the hall he went, leaving
+behind him a track of blood on the marble pavement, till at last
+he reached the sacred stone, which stood in the centre of it,
+and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped and
+leaned upon his axe.  Then suddenly he lifted up his voice and
+cried aloud --
+
+'I die, I die -- but it was a kingly fray.  Where are they who
+came up the great stair?  I see them not.  Art thou there, Macumazahn,
+or art thou gone before to wait for me in the dark whither I
+go?  The blood blinds me -- the place turns round -- I hear the
+voice of waters.'
+
+Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red
+axe and kissed the blade.
+
+'Farewell, Inkosi-kaas,' he cried.  'Nay, nay, we will go together;
+we cannot part, thou and I.  We have lived too long one with
+another, thou and I.
+
+'One more stroke, only one!  A good stroke! a straight stroke!
+a strong stroke!' and, drawing himself to his full height, with
+a wild heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl
+the axe round his head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel.
+Then, suddenly, with awful force he brought it down straight
+on to the crown of the mass of sacred stone.  A shower of sparks
+flew up, and such was the almost superhuman strength of the blow,
+that the massive marble split with a rending sound into a score
+of pieces, whilst of Inkosi-kaas there remained but some fragments
+of steel and a fibrous rope of shattered horn that had been the
+handle.  Down with a crash on to the pavement fell the fragments
+of the holy stone, and down with a crash on to them, still grasping
+the knob of Inkosi-kaas, fell the brave old Zulu -- _dead_.
+
+And thus the hero died.
+
+A gasp of wonder and astonishment rose from all those who witnessed
+the extraordinary sight, and then somebody cried, '_The prophecy!
+the prophecy!_  He has shattered the sacred stone!' and at once
+a murmuring arose.
+
+'Ay,' said Nyleptha, with that quick wit which distinguishes
+her.  'Ay, my people, he has shattered the stone, and behold
+the prophecy is fulfilled, for a stranger king rules in Zu-Vendis.
+Incubu, my lord, hath beat Sorais back, and I fear her no more,
+and to him who hath saved the Crown it shall surely be.  And
+this man,' she said, turning to me and laying her hand upon my
+shoulder, 'wot ye that, though wounded in the fight of yesterday,
+he rode with that old warrior who lies there, one hundred miles
+'twixt sun set and rise to save me from the plots of cruel men.
+Ay, and he has saved me, by a very little, and therefore because
+of the deeds that they have done -- deeds of glory such as our
+history cannot shot the like -- therefore I say that the name
+of Macumazahn and the name of dead Umslopogaas, ay, and the name
+of Kara, my servant, who aided him to hold the stair, shall be
+blazoned in letters of gold above my throne, and shall be glorious
+for ever while the land endures.  I, the Queen, have said it.'
+
+This spirited speech was met with loud cheering, and I said that
+after all we had only done our duty, as it is the fashion of
+both Englishmen and Zulus to do, and there was nothing to make
+an outcry about; at which they cheered still more, and then I
+was supported across the outer courtyard to my old quarters,
+in order that I might be put to bed.  As I went, my eyes lit
+upon the brave horse Daylight that lay there, his white head
+outstretched on the pavement, exactly as he had fallen on entering
+the yard; and I bade those who supported me take me near him,
+that I might look on the good beast once more before he was dragged
+away.  And as I looked, to my astonishment he opened his eyes
+and, lifting his head a little, whinnied faintly.  I could have
+shouted for joy to find that he was not dead, only unfortunately
+I had not a shout left in me; but as it was, grooms were sent
+for and he was lifted up and wine poured down his throat, and
+in a fortnight he was as well and strong as ever, and is the
+pride and joy of all the people of Milosis, who, whenever they
+see him, point him out to the little children as the 'horse which
+saved the White Queen's life'.
+
+Then I went on and got off to bed, and was washed and had my
+mail shirt removed.  They hurt me a great deal in getting it
+off, and no wonder, for on my left breast and side was a black
+bruise the size of a saucer.
+
+The next thing that I remember was the tramp of horsemen outside
+the palace wall, some ten hours later.  I raised myself and asked
+what was the news, and they told me that a large body of cavalry
+sent by Curtis to assist the Queen had arrived from the scene
+of the battle, which they had left two hours after sundown.
+When they left, the wreck of Sorais' army was in full retreat
+upon M'Arstuna, followed by all our effective cavalry.  Sir Henry
+was encamping the remains of his worn-out forces on the site
+(such is the fortune of war) that Sorais had occupied the night
+before, and proposed marching to M'Arstuna on the morrow.  Having
+heard this, I felt that I could die with a light heart, and then
+everything became a blank.
+
+
+When next I awoke the first thing I saw was the round disc of
+a sympathetic eyeglass, behind which was Good.
+
+'How are you getting on, old chap?' said a voice from the
+neighbourhood of the eyeglass.
+
+'What are you doing here?' I asked faintly.  'You ought to be
+at M'Arstuna -- have you run away, or what?'
+
+'M'Arstuna,' he replied cheerfully.  'Ah, M'Arstuna fell last
+week -- you've been unconscious for a fortnight, you see -- with
+all the honours of war, you know -- trumpets blowing, flags flying,
+just as though they had had the best of it; but for all that,
+weren't they glad to go.  Israel made for his tents, I can tell
+you -- never saw such a sight in my life.'
+
+'And Sorais?' I asked.
+
+'Sorais -- oh, Sorais is a prisoner; they gave her up, the scoundrels,'
+he added, with a change of tone -- 'sacrificed the Queen to save
+their skins, you see.  She is being brought up here, and I don't
+know what will happen to her, poor soul!' and he sighed.
+
+'Where is Curtis?' I asked.
+
+'He is with Nyleptha.  She rode out to meet us today, and there
+was a grand to-do, I can tell you.  He is coming to see you tomorrow;
+the doctors (for there is a medical "faculty" in Zu-Vendis as
+elsewhere) thought that he had better not come today.'
+
+I said nothing, but somehow I thought to myself that notwithstanding
+the doctors he might have given me a look; but there, when a
+man is newly married and has just gained a great victory, he
+is apt to listen to the advice of doctors, and quite right too.
+
+Just then I heard a familiar voice informing me that 'Monsieur
+must now couch himself,' and looking up perceived Alphonse's
+enormous black mustachios curling away in the distance.
+
+'So you are here?' I said.
+
+'Mais oui, Monsieur; the war is now finished, my military instincts
+are satisfied, and I return to nurse Monsieur.'
+
+I laughed, or rather tried to; but whatever may have been Alphonse's
+failings as a warrior (and I fear that he did not come up to
+the level of his heroic grandfather in this particular, showing
+thereby how true is the saying that it is a bad thing to be
+overshadowed by some great ancestral name), a better or kinder
+nurse never lived.  Poor Alphonse!  I hope he will always think
+of me as kindly as I think of him.
+
+On the morrow I saw Curtis and Nyleptha with him, and he told
+me the whole history of what had happened since Umslopogaas and
+I galloped wildly away from the battle to save the life of the
+Queen.  It seemed to me that he had managed the thing exceedingly
+well, and showed great ability as a general.  Of course, however,
+our loss had been dreadfully heavy -- indeed, I am afraid to
+say how many perished in the desperate battle I have described,
+but I know that the slaughter has appreciably affected the male
+population of the country.  He was very pleased to see me, dear
+fellow that he is, and thanked me with tears in his eyes for
+the little that I had been able to do.  I saw him, however, start
+violently when his eyes fell upon my face.
+
+As for Nyleptha, she was positively radiant now that 'her dear
+lord' had come back with no other injury than an ugly scar on
+his forehead.  I do not believe that she allowed all the fearful
+slaughter that had taken place to weigh ever so little in the
+balance against this one fact, or even to greatly diminish her
+joy; and I cannot blame her for it, seeing that it is the nature
+of loving woman to look at all things through the spectacles
+of her love, and little does she reck of the misery of the many
+if the happiness of the _one_ be assured.  That is human nature,
+which the Positivists tell us is just perfection; so no doubt
+it is all right.
+
+'And what art thou going to do with Sorais?' I asked her.
+
+Instantly her bright brow darkened to a frown.
+
+'Sorais,' she said, with a little stamp of the foot;
+'ah, but Sorais!'
+
+Sir Henry hastened to turn the subject.
+
+'You will soon be about and all right again now, old fellow,'
+he said.
+
+I shook my head and laughed.
+
+'Don't deceive yourselves,' I said.  'I may be about for a little,
+but I shall never be all right again.  I am a dying man, Curtis.
+I may die slow, but die I must.  Do you know I have been spitting
+blood all the morning?  I tell you there is something working
+away into my lung; I can feel it.  There, don't look distressed;
+I have had my day, and am ready to go.  Give me the mirror, will you?
+I want to look at myself.'
+
+He made some excuse, but I saw through it and insisted, and at
+last he handed me one of the discs of polished silver set n a
+wooden frame like a hand-screen, which serve as looking-glasses
+in Zu-Vendis.  I looked and put it down.
+
+'Ah,' I said quietly, 'I thought so; and you talk of my getting
+all right!'  I did not like to let them see how shocked I really
+was at my own appearance.  My grizzled stubby hair was turned
+snow-white, and my yellow face was shrunk like an aged woman's
+and had two deep purple rings painted beneath the eyes.
+
+Here Nyleptha began to cry, and Sir Henry again turned the subject,
+telling me that the artists had taken a cast of the dead body
+of old Umslopogaas, and that a great statue in black marble was
+to be erected of him in the act of splitting the sacred stone,
+which was to be matched by another statue in white marble of
+myself and the horse Daylight as he appeared when, at the termination
+of that wild ride, he sank beneath me in the courtyard of the
+palace.  I have since seen these statues, which at the time of
+writing this, six months after the battle, are nearly finished;
+and very beautiful they are, especially that of Umslopogaas,
+which is exactly like him.  As for that of myself, it is good,
+but they have idealized my ugly face a little, which is perhaps
+as well, seeing that thousands of people will probably look at
+it in the centuries to come, and it is not pleasant to look at
+ugly things.
+
+Then they told me that Umslopogaas' last wish had been carried
+out, and that, instead of being cremated, as I shall be, after
+the usual custom here, he had been tied up, Zulu fashion, with
+his knees beneath his chin, and, having been wrapped in a thin
+sheet of beaten gold, entombed in a hole hollowed out of the
+masonry of the semicircular space at the top of the stair he
+defended so splendidly, which faces, as far as we can judge,
+almost exactly towards Zululand.  There he sits, and will sit
+for ever, for they embalmed him with spices, and put him in an
+air-tight stone coffer, keeping his grim watch beneath the spot
+he held alone against a multitude; and the people say that at
+night his ghost rises and stands shaking the phantom of Inkosi-kaas
+at phantom foes.  Certainly they fear during the dark hours to
+pass the place where the hero is buried.
+
+Oddly enough, too, a new legend or prophecy has arisen in the
+land in that unaccountable way in which such things to arise
+among barbarous and semi-civilized people, blowing, like the
+wind, no man knows whence.  According to this saying, so long
+as the old Zulu sits there, looking down the stairway he defended
+when alive, so long will the New House of the Stairway, springing
+from the union of the Englishman and Nyleptha, endure and flourish;
+but when he is taken from thence, or when, ages after, his bones
+at last crumble into dust, the House will fall, and the Stairway
+shall fall, and the Nation of the Zu-Vendi shall cease to be
+a Nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+I HAVE SPOKEN
+
+
+
+It was a week after Nyleptha's visit, when I had begun to get
+about a little in the middle of the day, that a message came
+to me from Sir Henry to say that Sorais would be brought before
+them in the Queen's first antechamber at midday, and requesting
+my attendance if possible.  Accordingly, greatly drawn by curiosity
+to see this unhappy woman once more, I made shift, with the help
+of that kind little fellow Alphonse, who is a perfect treasure
+to me, and that of another waiting-man, to reach the antechamber.
+I got there, indeed, before anybody else, except a few of the
+great Court officials who had been bidden to be present, but
+I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in by
+a party of guards, looking as beautiful and defiant as ever,
+but with a worn expression on her proud face.  She was, as usual,
+dressed in her royal 'kaf', emblazoned with the emblem of the
+Sun, and in her right hand she still held the toy spear of silver.
+A pang of admiration and pity went through me as I looked at
+her, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply, at the same time
+expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my condition,
+to remain standing before her.
+
+She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly.  'Thou dost
+forget, Macumazahn,' she said, 'I am no more a Queen, save in
+blood; I am an outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should
+scorn, and none show deference to.'
+
+'At least,' I replied, 'thou art still a lady, and therefore
+one to whom deference is due.  Also, thou art in an evil case,
+and therefore it is doubly due.'
+
+'Ah!' she answered, with a little laugh, 'thou dost forget that
+I would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to
+the angel's trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.'
+
+'No,' I answered, 'I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed,
+I often thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of
+the Pass was turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and
+I am still here, though perchance not for long, so why talk of
+it now?'
+
+'Ah!' she went on, 'the battle! the battle!  Oh, would that I
+were once more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would
+take such a vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted
+me in my need; that it should only be spoken of in whispers;
+those woman, those pigeon-hearted half-breeds who suffered
+temselves to be overcome!' and she choked in her wrath.
+
+'Ay, and that little coward beside thee,' she went on, pointing
+at Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very
+uncomfortable; 'he escaped and betrayed my plans.  I tried to
+make a general of him, telling the soldiers it was Bougwan,
+and to scourge valour into him' (here Alphonse shivered at
+some unhappy recollection), 'but it was of no avail.  He hid
+beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans.
+I would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
+
+'And thou, Macumazahn, I have hard of what thou didst; thou art
+brave, and hast a loyal heart.  And the black one too, ah, he was
+a _man_.  I would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.'
+
+'Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,' I said; 'I pray thee now
+plead with the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy
+unto thee.'
+
+She laughed out loud.  'I plead for mercy!' she said and at
+that moment the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good,
+and took her seat with an impassive face.  As for poor Good,
+he looked intensely ill at ease.
+
+'Greeting, Sorais!' said Nyleptha, after a short pause.  'Thou
+hast rent the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of
+my people to the sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy
+my life by murder, thou hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions
+and to hurl me from the Stairway.  What hast thou to say why
+thou shouldst not die?  Speak, O Sorais!'
+
+'Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count
+of the indictment,' answered Sorais in her slow musical tones.
+'It runs thus: "Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord
+Incubu."  It is for this crime that my sister will slay me, not
+because I levied war.  It is perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha,
+that I fixed my mind upon his love too late.
+
+'Listen,' she went on, raising her voice.  'I have nought to
+say save that I would I had won instead of lost.  Do thou with
+me even as thou wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there'
+(pointing to Sir Henry) -- 'for now will he be King -- carry
+out the sentence, as it is meet he should, for as he is the beginning
+of the evil, let him also be the end.'  And she drew herself
+up and shot one angry glance at him from her deep fringed eyes,
+and then began to toy with her spear.
+
+Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that
+I could not catch, and then the Queen spoke.
+
+'Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee.  When our father
+died, and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou
+shouldst sit upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gave
+my voice for thee and said, "Nay, let her sit.  She is twin with
+me; we were born at a birth; wherefore should the one be preferred
+before the other?"  And so has it ever been 'twixt thee and me,
+my sister.  But now thou knowest in what sort thou hast repaid
+me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit, Sorais.  And
+yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we played
+together when we were little and loved each other much, and at
+night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the
+other's neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out to
+thee, Sorais.
+
+'But not for that would I spare thy life, for thy offence has
+been too heavy; it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy
+even to the ground.  Also, while thou dost live the land will
+never be at peace.
+
+'Yet shalt thou not die, Sorais, because my dear lord here hath
+begged thy life of me as a boon; therefore as a boon and as a
+marriage gift give I it to him, to do with even as he wills,
+knowing that, though thou dost love him, he loves thee not, Sorais,
+for all thy beauty.  Nay, though thou art lovely as the night
+in all her stars, O Lady of the Night, yet it is me his wife
+whom he loves, and not thee, and therefore do I give thy life
+to him.'
+
+Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing, and I do not
+think that I ever saw a man look more miserable than did Sir
+Henry at that moment.  Somehow, Nyleptha's way of putting the
+thing, though true and forcible enough, was not altogether pleasant.
+
+'I understand,' stammered Curtis, looking at Good, 'I understood
+that he were attached -- eh -- attached to -- to the Queen Sorais.
+I am -- eh -- not aware what the -- in short, the state of your
+feelings may be just now; but if they happened to be that way
+inclined, it has struck me that -- in short, it might put a satisfactory
+end to an unpleasant business.  The lady also has ample private
+estates, where I am sure she would be at liberty to live unmolested
+as far as we are concerned, eh, Nyleptha?  Of course, I only
+suggest.'
+
+'So far as I am concerned,' said Good, colouring up, 'I am quite
+willing to forget the past; and if the Lady of the Night thinks
+me worth the taking I will marry her tomorrow, or when she likes,
+and try to make her a good husband.'
+
+All eyes were now turned to Sorais, who stood with that same
+slow smile upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the first
+time that I ever saw her.  She paused a little while, and cleared
+her throat, and then thrice she curtseyed low, once to Nyleptha,
+once to Curtis, and once to Good, and began to speak in measured tones.
+
+'I thank thee, most gracious Queen and royal sister, for the
+loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up, and especially
+in that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate
+as a gift to the Lord Incubu -- the King that is to be.  May
+prosperity, peace and plenty deck the life-path of one so merciful
+and so tender, even as flowers do.  Long mayst thou reign, O
+great and glorious Queen, and hold thy husband's love in both
+thy hands, and many be the sons and daughters of thy beauty.
+And I thank thee, my Lord Incubu -- the King that is to be --
+I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleased
+to accept that gracious gift, and to pass it on to thy comrade
+in arms and in adventure, the Lord Bougwan.  Surely the act is
+worthy of thy greatness, my Lord Incubu.  And now, lastly, I
+thank thee also, my Lord Bougwan, who in thy turn hast deigned
+to accept me and my poor beauty.  I thank thee a thousand times,
+and I will add that thou art a good and honest man, and I put
+my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that I could say
+thee "yea".  And now that I have rendered thanks to all in turn'
+-- and again she smiled -- 'I will add one short word.
+
+'Little can you understand of me, Queen Nyleptha and my lords,
+if ye know not that for me there is no middle path; that I scorn
+your pity and hate you for it; that I cast off your forgiveness
+as though it were a serpent's sting; and that standing here,
+betrayed, deserted, insulted, and alone, I yet triumph over you,
+mock you, and defy you, one and all, and _thus_ I answer you.'
+ And then, of a sudden, before anybody guessed what she intended
+to do, she drove the little silver spear she carried in her hand
+into her side with such a strong and steady aim that the keen
+point projected through her back, and she fell prone upon the
+pavement.
+
+Nyleptha shrieked, and poor Good almost fainted at the sight,
+while the rest of us rushed towards her.  But Sorais of the Night
+lifted herself upon her hand, and for a moment fixed her glorious
+eyes intently on Curtis' face, as though there were some message
+in the glance, then dropped her head and sighed, and with a sob
+her dark but splendid spirit passed.
+
+Well, they gave her a royal funeral, and there was an end of her.
+
+
+It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that
+a great ceremony was held in the Flower Temple, and Curtis was
+formally declared King-Consort of Zu-Vendis.  I was too ill to
+go myself; and indeed, I hate all that sort of thing, with the
+crowds and the trumpet-blowing and banner-waving; but Good, who
+was there (in his full-dress uniform), came back much impressed,
+and told me that Nyleptha had looked lovely, and Curtis had borne
+himself in a right royal fashion, and had been received with
+acclamations that left no doubt as to his popularity.  Also he
+told me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the procession,
+the populace had shouted '_Macumazahn, Macumazahn!_' till they
+were hoarse, and would only be appeased when he, Good, rose in
+his chariot and told them that I was too ill to be present.
+
+Afterwards, too, Sir Henry, or rather the King, came to see me,
+looking very tired, and vowing that he had never been so bored
+in his life; but I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration.
+It is not in human nature that a man should be altogether bored
+on such an extraordinary occasion; and, indeed, as I pointed
+out to him, it was a marvellous thing that a man, who but little
+more than one short year before had entered a great country as
+an unknown wanderer, should today be married to its beautiful
+and beloved Queen, and lifted, amidst public rejoicings, to its
+throne.  I even went the length to exhort him in the future not
+to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute power, but
+always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian gentleman,
+and next a public servant, called by Providence to a great and
+almost unprecedented trust.  These remarks, which he might fairly
+have resented, he was so good as to receive with patience, and
+even to thank me for making them.
+
+It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to
+be moved to the house where I am now writing.  It is a very pleasant
+country seat, situated about two miles from the Frowning City,
+on to which it looks.  That was five months ago, during the whole
+of which time I have, being confined to a kind of couch, employed
+my leisure in compiling this history of our wanderings from my
+journal and from our joint memories.  It is probable that it
+will never be read, but it does not much matter whether it is
+or not; at any rate, it has served to while away many hours of
+suffering, for I have suffered a deal of pain lately.  Thank God,
+however, there will not be much more of it.
+
+
+It is a week since I wrote the above, and now I take up my pen
+for the last time, for I know that the end is at hand.  My brain
+is still clear and I can manage to write, though with difficulty.
+The pain in my lung, which has been very bad during the last
+week, has suddenly quite left me, and been succeeded by a feeling
+of numbness of which I cannot mistake the meaning.  And just
+as the pain has gone, so with it all fear of that end has departed,
+and I feel only as though I were going to sink into the arms
+of an unutterable rest.  Happily, contentedly, and with the same
+sense of security with which an infant lays itself to sleep in
+its mother's arms, do I lay myself down in the arms of the Angel
+Death.  All the tremors, all the heart-shaking fears which have
+haunted me through a life that seems long as I looked back upon
+it, have left me now; the storms have passed, and the Star of
+our Eternal Hope shines clear and steady on the horizon that
+seems so far from man, and yet is so very near to me tonight.
+
+And so this is the end of it -- a brief space of troubling,
+a few restless, fevered, anguished years, and then the arms of
+that great Angel Death.  Many times have I been near to them,
+and now it is my turn at last, and it is well.  Twenty-four hours
+more and the world will be gone from me, and with it all its
+hopes and all its fears.  The air will close in over the space
+that my form filled and my place know me no more; for the dull
+breath of the world's forgetfulness will first dim the brightness
+of my memory, and then blot it out for ever, and of a truth I
+shall be dead.  So is it with us all.  How many millions have
+lain as I lie, and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!
+-- thousands upon thousands of years ago they thought them, those
+dying men of the dim past; and thousands on thousands of years
+hence will their descendants think them and be in their turn
+forgotten.  'As the breath of the oxen in winter, as the quick
+star that runs along the sky, as a little shadow that loses itself
+at sunset,' as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi put it, such
+is the order of our life, the order that passeth away.
+
+Well, it is not a good world -- nobody can say that it is, save
+those who wilfully blind themselves to facts.  How can a world
+be good in which Money is the moving power, and Self-interest
+the guiding star?  The wonder is not that it is so bad, but that
+there should be any good left in it.
+
+Still, now that my life is over, I am glad to have lived, glad
+to have known the dear breath of woman's love, and that true
+friendship which can even surpass the love of woman, glad to
+have heard the laughter of little children, to have seen the
+sun and the moon and the stars, to have felt the kiss of the
+salt sea on my face, and watched the wild game trek down to the
+water in the moonlight.  But I should not wish to live again!
+
+Everything is changing to me.  The darkness draws near, and the
+light departs.  And yet it seems to me that through that darkness
+I can already see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face.
+Harry is there, and others; one above all, to my mind the sweetest
+and most perfect woman that ever gladdened this grey earth.
+But of her I have already written elsewhere, and at length, so
+why speak of her now?  Why speak of her after this long silence,
+now that she is again so near to me, now that I go where she
+has gone?
+
+The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple
+to a fiery flame, and my fingers tire.
+
+So to all who have known me, or known of me, to all who can think
+one kindly thought of the old hunter, I stretch out my hand from
+the far-off shore and bid a long farewell.
+
+And now into the hands of Almighty God, who sent it, do I commit
+my spirit.
+
+'_I have spoken,_' as the Zulus say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+BY ANOTHER HAND
+
+
+
+A year has elapsed since our most dear friend Allan Quatermain
+wrote the words '_I have spoken_' at the end of his record of
+our adventures.  Nor should I have ventured to make any additions
+to the record had it not happened that by a most strange accident
+a chance has arisen of its being conveyed to England.  The chance
+is but a faint one, it is true; but, as it is not probable that
+another will arise in our lifetimes, Good and myself think that
+we may as well avail ourselves of it, such as it is.  During the
+last six months several Frontier Commissions have been at work
+on the various boundaries of Zu-Vendis, with a view of discovering
+whether there exists any possible means of ingress or egress from
+the country, with the result that a channel of communication
+with the outer world hitherto overlooked has been discovered.
+This channel, apparently the only one (for I have discovered that
+it was by it that the native who ultimately reached Mr Mackenzie's
+mission station, and whose arrival in the country, together with
+the fact of his expulsion -- for he _did_ arrive about three
+years before ourselves -- was for reasons of their own kept a
+dead secret by the priests to whom he was brought), is about
+to be effectually closed.  But before this is done, a messenger
+is to be despatched bearing with him this manuscript, and also
+one or two letters from Good to his friends, and from myself
+to my brother George, whom it deeply grieves me to think I shall
+never see again, informing them, as our next heirs, that they
+are welcome to our effects in England, if the Court of Probate
+will allow them to take them {Endnote 22}, inasmuchas we have
+made up our minds never to return to Europe.  Indeed, it would
+be impossible for us to leave Zu-Vendis even if we wished to do so.
+
+The messenger who is to go -- and I wish him joy of his journey
+-- is Alphonse.  For a long while he has been wearied to death
+of Zu-Vendis and its inhabitants.  'Oh, oui, c'est beau,' he
+says, with an expressive shrug; 'mais je m'ennuie; ce n'est pas
+chic.'  Again, he complains dreadfully of the absence of cafes
+and theatres, and moans continually for his lost Annette, of
+whom he says he dreams three times a week.  But I fancy his secret
+cause of disgust at the country, putting aside the homesickness
+to which ever Frenchman is subject, is that the people here laugh
+at him so dreadfully about his conduct on the occasion of the
+great battle of the Pass about eighteen months ago, when he hid
+beneath a banner in Sorais's tent in order to avoid being sent
+forth to fight, which he says would have gone against his conscience.
+Even the little boys call out at him in the streets, thereby
+offending his pride and making his life unbearable.  At any rate,
+he has determined to brave the horrors of a journey of almost
+unprecedented difficulty and danger, and also to run the risk
+of falling into the hands of the French police to answer for
+a certain little indiscretion of his own some years old (though
+I do not consider that a very serious matter), rather than remain
+in ce triste pays.  Poor Alphonse! we shall be very sorry to
+part with him; but I sincerely trust, for his own sake and also
+for the sake of this history, which is, I think, worth giving
+to the world, that he may arrive in safety.  If he does, and
+can carry the treasure we have provided him with in the shape
+of bars of solid gold, he will be, comparatively speaking, a
+rich man for life, and well able to marry his Annette, if she
+is still in the land of the living and willing to marry her Alphonse.
+
+Anyhow, on the chance, I may as well add a word or two to
+dear old Quatermain's narrative.
+
+He died at dawn on the day following that on which he wrote the
+last words of the last chapter.  Nyleptha, Good and myself were
+present, and a most touching and yet in its way beautiful scene
+it was.  An hour before the daybreak it became apparent to us
+that he was sinking, and our distress was very keen.  Indeed,
+Good melted into tears at the idea -- a fact that called forth
+a last gentle flicker of humour from our dying friend, for even
+at that hour he could be humorous.  Good's emotion had, by loosening
+the muscles, naturally caused his eyeglass to fall from its accustomed
+place, and Quatermain, who always observed everything, observed
+this also.
+
+'At last,' he gasped, with an attempt at a smile, 'I have seen
+Good without his eyeglass.'
+
+After that he said no more till the day broke, when he asked
+to be lifted up to watch the rising of the sun for the last time.
+
+'In a very few minutes,' he said, after gazing earnestly at it,
+'I shall have passed through those golden gates.'
+
+Ten minutes afterwards he raised himself and looked us fixedly
+in the face.
+
+'I am going a stranger journey than any we have ever taken together.
+Think of me sometimes,' he murmured.  'God bless you all.
+I shall wait for you.'  And with a sigh he fell back dead.
+
+And so passed away a character that I consider went as near perfection
+as any it has ever been my lot to encounter.
+
+Tender, constant, humorous, and possessing of many of the qualities
+that go to make a poet, he was yet almost unrivalled as a man
+of action and a citizen of the world.  I never knew any one so
+competent to form an accurate judgment of men and their motives.
+'I have studied human nature all my life,' he would say, 'and
+I ought to know something about it,' and he certainly did.
+He had but two faults -- one was his excessive modesty, and the
+other a slight tendency which he had to be jealous of anybody
+on whom he concentrated his affections.  As regards the first
+of these points, anybody who reads what he has written will be
+able to form his own opinion; but I will add one last instance of it.
+
+As the reader will doubtless remember, it is a favourite trick
+of his to talk of himself as a timid man, whereas really, thought
+very cautious, he possessed a most intrepid spirit, and, what
+is more, never lost his head.  Well, in the great battle of the
+Pass, where he got the wound that finally killed him, one would
+imagine from the account which he gives of the occurrence that
+it was a chance blow that fell on him in the scrimmage.  As a
+matter of fact, however, he was wounded in a most gallant and
+successful attempt to save Good's life, at the risk and, as it
+ultimately turned out, at the cost of his own.  Good was down
+on the ground, and one of Nasta's highlanders was about to dispatch
+him, when Quatermain threw himself on to his prostrate form and
+received the blow on his own body, and then, rising, killed the
+soldier.
+
+As regards his jealousy, a single instance which I give in justice
+to myself and Nyleptha will suffice.  The reader will, perhaps,
+recollect that in one or two places he speaks as though Nyleptha
+monopolized me, and he was left by both of us rather out in the
+cold.  Now Nyleptha is not perfect, any more than any other woman
+is, and she may be a little exigeante at times, but as regards
+Quatermain the whole thing is pure imagination.  Thus when he
+complains about my not coming to see him when he is ill, the
+fact was that, in spite of my entreaties, the doctors positively
+forbade it.  Those little remarks of his pained me very much
+when I read them, for I loved Quatermain as dearly as though
+he were my own father, and should never have dreamed of allowing
+my marriage to interfere with that affection.  But let it pass;
+it is, after all, but one little weakness, which makes no great
+show among so many and such lovable virtues.
+
+Well, he died, and Good read the Burial Service over him in the
+presence of Nyleptha and myself; and then his remains were, in
+deference to the popular clamour, accorded a great public funeral,
+or rather cremation.  I could not help thinking, however, as
+I marched in that long and splendid procession up to the Temple,
+how he would have hated the whole thing could he have been there
+to see it, for he had a horror of ostentation.
+
+And so, a few minutes before sunset, on the third night after
+his death, they laid him on the brazen flooring before the altar,
+and waited for the last ray of the setting sun to fall upon his
+face.  Presently it came, and struck him like a golden arrow,
+crowning the pale brows with glory, and then the trumpets blew,
+and the flooring revolved, and all that remained of our beloved
+friend fell into the furnace below.
+
+We shall never see his like again if we live a hundred years.
+He was the ablest man, the truest gentleman, the firmest friend,
+the finest sportsman, and, I believe, the best shot in all Africa.
+
+And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of
+Hunter Quatermain.
+
+
+Since then things have gone very well with us.  Good has been,
+and still is, busily employed in the construction of a navy on
+Lake Milosis and another of the large lakes, by means of which
+we hope to be able to increase trade and commerce, and also to
+overcome some very troublesome and warlike sections of the population
+who live upon their borders.  Poor fellow! he is beginning to
+get over the sad death of that misguided but most attractive
+woman, Sorais, but it is a sad blow to him, for he was really
+deeply attached to her.  I hope, however, that he will in time
+make a suitable marriage and get that unhappy business out of
+his head.  Nyleptha has one or two young ladies in view, especially
+a daughter of Nasta's (who was a widower), a very fine imperial-looking
+girl, but with too much of her father's intriguing, and yet haughty,
+spirit to suit my taste.
+
+As for myself, I should scarcely know where to begin if I set
+to work to describe my doings, so I had best leave them undescribed,
+and content myself with saying that, on the whole, I am getting
+on very well in my curious position of King-Consort -- better,
+indeed, than I had any right to expect.  But, of course, it is
+not all plain sailing, and I find the responsibilities very heavy.
+Still, I hope to be able to do some good in my time, and I intend
+to devote myself to two great ends -- namely, to the consolidation
+of the various clans which together make up the Zu-Vendi people,
+under one strong central government, and to the sapping of the
+power of the priesthood.  The first of these reforms will, if
+it can be carried out, put an end to the disastrous civil wars
+that have for centuries devastated this country; and the second,
+besides removing a source of political danger, will pave the
+road for the introduction of true religion in the place of this
+senseless Sun worship.  I yet hope to see the shadow of the Cross
+of Christ lying on the golden dome of the Flower Temple; or,
+if I do not, that my successors may.
+
+There is one more thing that I intend to devote myself to, and
+that is the total exclusion of all foreigners from Zu-Vendis.
+Not, indeed, that any more are ever likely to get here, but
+if they do, I warn them fairly that they will be shown the shortest
+way out of the country.  I do not say this from any sense of
+inhospitality, but because I am convinced of the sacred duty
+that rests upon me of preserving to this, on the whole, upright
+and generous-hearted people the blessings of comparative barbarism.
+Where would all my brave army be if some enterprising rascal
+were to attack us with field-guns and Martini-Henrys?  I cannot
+see that gunpowder, telegraphs, steam, daily newspapers, universal
+suffrage, etc., etc., have made mankind one whit the happier
+than they used to be, and I am certain that they have brought
+many evils in their train.  I have no fancy for handing over
+this beautiful country to be torn and fought for by speculators,
+tourists, politicians and teachers, whose voice is as the voice
+of Babel, just as those horrible creatures in the valley of the
+underground river tore and fought for the body of the wild swan;
+nor will I endow it with the greed, drunkenness, new diseases,
+gunpowder, and general demoralization which chiefly mark the
+progress of civilization amongst unsophisticated peoples.  If
+in due course it pleases Providence to throw Zu-Vendis open to
+the world, that is another matter; but of myself I will not take
+the responsibility, and I may add that Good entirely approves
+of my decision.  Farewell.
+
+Henry Curtis
+
+
+December 15, 18--.
+
+PS -- I quite forgot to say that about nine months ago Nyleptha
+(who is very well and, in my eyes at any rate, more beautiful
+than ever) presented me with a son and heir.  He is a regular
+curly-haired, blue-eyed young Englishman in looks, and, though
+he is destined, if he lives, to inherit the throne of Zu-Vendis,
+I hope I may be able to bring him up to become what an English
+gentleman should be, and generally is -- which is to my mind
+even a prouder and a finer thing than being born heir apparent
+to the great House of the Stairway, and, indeed, the highest
+rank that a man can reach upon this earth.
+
+H. C.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE BY GEORGE CURTIS, Esq.
+
+
+
+The MS of this history, addressed to me in the handwriting of
+my dear brother Henry Curtis, whom we had given up for dead,
+and bearing the Aden postmark, reached me in safety on December
+20, 18--, or a little more than two years after it left his hands
+in the far centre of Africa, and I hasten to give the astonishing
+story it contains to the world.  Speaking for myself, I have
+read it with very mixed feelings; for though it is a great relief
+to know that he and Good are alive and strangely prosperous,
+I cannot but feel that for me and for all their friends they
+might as well be dead, since we can never hope to see them more.
+
+They have cut themselves off from old England and from their
+homes and their relations for ever, and perhaps, under the
+circumstances, they were right and wise to do so.
+
+How the MS came to be posted I have been quite unable to discover;
+but I presume, from the fact of its being posted at all, that
+the little Frenchman, Alphonse, accomplished his hazardous journey
+in safety.  I have, however, advertised for him and caused various
+inquiries to be made in Marseilles and elsewhere with a view
+of discovering his whereabouts, but so far without the slightest
+success.  Possibly he is dead, and the packet was posted by another
+hand; or possibly he is now happily wedded to his Annette, but
+still fears the vengeance of the law, and prefers to remain incognito.
+I cannot say, I have not yet abandoned my hopes of finding him,
+but I am bound to say that they grow fainter day by day, and
+one great obstacle to my search is that nowhere in the whole
+history does Mr Quatermain mention his surname.  He is always
+spoken of as 'Alphonse', and there are so many Alphonses.
+The letters which my brother Henry says he is sending with the
+packet of manuscript have never arrived, so I presume that they
+are lost or destroyed.
+
+George Curtis
+
+
+
+
+AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+A novelist is not usually asked, like a historian, for his 'Quellen'.
+As I have, however, judging from certain experiences in the
+past, some reason to anticipate such a demand, I wish to acknowledge
+my indebtedness to Mr Thomson's admirable history of travel 'Through
+Masai Land' for much information as to the habits and customs
+of the tribes inhabiting that portion of the East Coast, and
+the country where they live; also to my brother, John G. Haggard,
+RN, HBM's consul at Madagascar, and formerly consul at Lamu,
+for many details furnished by him of the mode of life and war
+of those engaging people the Masai; also to my sister-in-law,
+John Haggard, who kindly put the lines of p. 183 into rhyme for
+me; also to an extract in a review from some book of travel of
+which I cannot recollect the name, to which I owe the idea of
+the great crabs in the valley of the subterranean river. {Endnote 23}
+But if I remember right, the crabs in the book when irritated
+projected their eyes quite out of their heads. I regret that I
+was not able to 'plagiarize' this effect, but I felt that,
+although crabs may, and doubtless do, behave thus in real life,
+in romance they 'will not do so.'
+
+There is an underground river in 'Peter Wilkins', but at the
+time of writing the foregoing pages I had not read that quaint
+but entertaining work.
+
+It has been pointed out to me that there exists a similarity
+between the scene of Umslopogaas frightening Alphonse with his
+axe and a scene in Far from the Madding Crowd.  I regret this
+coincidence, and believe that the talented author of that work
+will not be inclined to accuse me of literary immorality on
+its account.
+
+Finally, I may say that Mr Quatermain's little Frenchman appears
+to belong to the same class of beings as those English ladies
+whose long yellow teeth and feet of enormous size excite our
+hearty amusement in the pages of the illustrated Gallic press.
+
+The Writer of 'Allan Quatermain'
+
+
+Endnote 1
+
+Among the Zulus a man assumes the ring, which is made of a species
+of black gum twisted in with the hair, and polished a brilliant
+black, when he has reached a certain dignity and age, or is the
+husband of a sufficient number of wives.  Till he is in a position
+to wear a ring he is looked on as a boy, though he may be thirty-five
+years of age, or even more.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 2
+
+One of the fleetest of the African antelopes.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 3
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom of opening the stomach of a dead
+foe.  They have a superstition that, if this is not done, as
+the body of their enemy swells up so will the bodies of those
+who killed him swell up.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 4
+
+No doubt this owl was a wingless bird.  I afterwards learnt that
+the hooting of an owl is a favourite signal among the Masai tribes.
+-- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 5
+
+Since I saw the above I have examined hundreds of these swords,
+but have never been able to discover how the gold plates were
+inlaid in the fretwork.  The armourers who make them in Zu-vendis
+bind themselves by oath not to reveal the secret.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 6
+
+The Masai Elmoran or young warriors can own no property, so all
+the booty they may win in battle belongs to their fathers
+alone.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 7
+
+As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas's Zulu names
+was the 'Woodpecker'.  I could never make out why he was called
+so until I saw him in action with Inkosi-kaas, when I at once
+recognized the resemblance.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 8
+
+By a sad coincidence, since the above was written by Mr Quatermain,
+the Masai have, in April 1886, massacred a missionary and his
+wife -- Mr and Mrs Houghton -- on this very Tana River, and at
+the spot described.  These are, I believe, the first white people
+who are known to have fallen victims to this cruel tribe.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 9
+
+Mr Allan Quatermain misquotes -- Pleasure sat at the helm.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 10
+
+Where Alph the sacred river ran
+Through caverns measureless to man
+Down to a sunless sea
+
+
+Endnote 11
+
+Mr Quatermain does not seem to have been aware that it is common
+for animal-worshipping people to annually sacrifice the beasts
+they adore.  See Herodotus, ii. 45.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 12
+
+There is another theory which might account for the origin of
+the Zu-Vendi which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr
+Quatermain and his companions, and that is, that they are descendants
+of the Phoenicians.  The cradle of the Phoenician race is supposed
+to have been have been on the western shore of the Persian Gulf.
+Thence, as there is good evidence to show, they emigrated in
+two streams, one of which took possession of the shores of Palestine,
+while the other is supposed by savants to have immigrated down
+the coast of Eastern Africa where, near Mozambique, signs and
+remains of their occupation are not wanting.  Indeed, it would
+have been very extraordinary if they did not, when leaving the
+Persian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that the
+north-east monsoon blows for six months in the year dead in that
+direction, while for the other six months it blows back again.
+And, by the way of illustrating the probability, I may add that
+to this day a very extensive trade is carried on between the
+Persian Gulf and Lamu and other East African ports as far south
+as Madagascar, which is of course the ancient Ebony Isle of the
+'Arabian Nights'.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 13
+
+There are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet
+(see Appendix, Maspero's Histoire ancienne des peuples de
+l'Orient, p. 746, etc.)  Unfortunately Mr Quatermain gives us
+no specimen of the Zu-Vendi writing, but what he here states
+seems to go a long way towards substantiating the theory advanced
+in the note on p. 149.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 14
+
+These are internal measurements.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 15
+
+Light was also admitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of
+the dome and in the roof.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 16
+
+This line is interesting as being one of the few allusions to
+be found in the Zu-Vendi ritual to a vague divine essence independent
+of the material splendour of the orb they worship.  'Taia',
+the word used here, has a very indeterminate meaning, and signifies
+essence, vital principle, spirit, or even God.
+
+
+Endnote 17
+
+Alluding to the Zulu custom.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 18
+
+In Zu-Vendis members of the Royal House can only be married by
+the High Priest or a formally appointed deputy.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 19
+
+Alluding to the Zu-Vendi custom of carrying dead officers on
+a framework of spears.
+
+
+Endnote 20
+
+The Zu-Vendi people do not use bows.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 21
+
+Of course, the roof of the Temple, being so high, caught the
+light some time before the breaking of the dawn.  -- A. Q.
+
+
+Endnote 22
+
+Of course the Court of Probate would allow nothing of the
+sort.  -- Editor.
+
+
+Endnote 23
+
+It is suggested to me that this book is The Cruise of the "Falcon",
+with which work I am personally unacquainted.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard
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