Maiwa’s Revenge

PREFACE

It may be well to state that the incident of the “Thing that bites”
recorded in this tale is not an effort of the imagination. On the contrary, it
is “plagiarized.” Mandara, a well-known chief on the east coast of
Africa, has such an article, and uses it. In the same way the wicked
conduct attributed to Wambe is not without a precedent. T’Chaka, the Zulu
Napoleon, never allowed a child of his to live. Indeed he went further, for on
discovering that his mother, Unandi, was bringing up one of his sons in secret,
like Nero he killed her, and with his own hand.

MAIWA’S REVENGE

CHAPTER I.

GOBO STRIKES

One day—it was about a week after Allan Quatermain told me his story of
the “Three Lions,” and of the moving death of Jim-Jim—he and
I were walking home together on the termination of a day’s shooting. He
owned about two thousand acres of shooting round the place he had bought in
Yorkshire, over a hundred of which were wood. It was the second year of his
occupation of the estate, and already he had reared a very fair head of
pheasants, for he was an all-round sportsman, and as fond of shooting with a
shot-gun as with an eight-bore rifle. We were three guns that day, Sir Henry
Curtis, Old Quatermain, and myself; but Sir Henry was obliged to leave in the
middle of the afternoon in order to meet his agent, and inspect an outlying
farm where a new shed was wanted. However, he was coming back to dinner, and
going to bring Captain Good with him, for Brayley Hall was not more than two
miles from the Grange.

We had met with very fair sport, considering that we were only going through
outlying cover for cocks. I think that we had killed twenty-seven, a woodcock
and a leash of partridges which we secured out of a driven covey. On our way
home there lay a long narrow spinney, which was a very favourite
“lie” for woodcocks, and generally held a pheasant or two as well.

“Well, what do you say?” said old Quatermain, “shall we beat
through this for a finish?”

I assented, and he called to the keeper who was following with a little knot of
beaters, and told him to beat the spinney.

“Very well, sir,” answered the man, “but it’s getting
wonderful dark, and the wind’s rising a gale. It will take you all your
time to hit a woodcock if the spinney holds one.”

“You show us the woodcocks, Jeffries,” answered Quatermain quickly,
for he never liked being crossed in anything to do with sport, “and we
will look after shooting them.”

The man turned and went rather sulkily. I heard him say to the under-keeper,
“He’s pretty good, the master is, I’m not saying he
isn’t, but if he kills a woodcock in this light and wind, I’m a
Dutchman.”

I think that Quatermain heard him too, though he said nothing. The wind was
rising every minute, and by the time the beat begun it blew big guns. I stood
at the right-hand corner of the spinney, which curved round somewhat, and
Quatermain stood at the left, about forty paces from me. Presently an old cock
pheasant came rocketing over me, looking as though the feathers were being
blown out of his tail. I missed him clean with the first barrel, and was never
more pleased with myself in my life than when I doubled him up with the second,
for the shot was not an easy one. In the faint light I could see Quatermain
nodding his head in approval, when through the groaning of the trees I heard
the shouts of the beaters, “Cock forward, cock to the right.” Then
came a whole volley of shouts, “Woodcock to the right,” “Cock
to the left,” “Cock over.”

I looked up, and presently caught sight of one of the woodcocks coming down the
wind upon me like a flash. In that dim light I could not follow all his
movements as he zigzagged through the naked tree-tops; indeed I could see him
when his wings flitted up. Now he was passing me—bang, and a flick
of the wing, I had missed him; bang again. Surely he was down; no, there
he went to my left.

“Cock to you,” I shouted, stepping forward so as to get Quatermain
between me and the faint angry light of the dying day, for I wanted to see if
he would “wipe my eye.” I knew him to be a wonderful shot, but I
thought that cock would puzzle him.

I saw him raise his gun ever so little and bend forward, and at that moment out
flashed two woodcocks into the open, the one I had missed to his right, and the
other to his left.

At the same time a fresh shout arose of, “Woodcock over,” and
looking down the spinney I saw a third bird high up in the air, being blown
along like a brown and whirling leaf straight over Quatermain’s head. And
then followed the prettiest little bit of shooting that I ever saw. The bird to
the right was flying low, not ten yards from the line of a hedgerow, and
Quatermain took him first because he would become invisible the soonest of any.
Indeed, nobody who had not his hawk’s eyes could have seen to shoot at
all. But he saw the bird well enough to kill it dead as a stone. Then turning
sharply, he pulled on the second bird at about forty-five yards, and over he
went. By this time the third woodcock was nearly over him, and flying very
high, straight down the wind, a hundred feet up or more, I should say. I saw
him glance at it as he opened his gun, threw out the right cartridge and
slipped in another, turning round as he did so. By this time the cock was
nearly fifty yards away from him, and travelling like a flash. Lifting his gun
he fired after it, and, wonderful as the shot was, killed it dead. A tearing
gust of wind caught the dead bird, and blew it away like a leaf torn from an
oak, so that it fell a hundred and thirty yards off or more.

“I say, Quatermain,” I said to him when the beaters were up,
“do you often do this sort of thing?”

“Well,” he answered, with a dry smile, “the last time I had
to load three shots as quickly as that was at rather larger game. It was at
elephants. I killed them all three as dead as I killed those woodcocks; but it
very nearly went the other way, I can tell you; I mean that they very nearly
killed me.”

Just at that moment the keeper came up, “Did you happen to get one of
them there cocks, sir?” he said, with the air of a man who did not in the
least expect an answer in the affirmative.

“Well, yes, Jeffries,” answered Quatermain; “you will find
one of them by the hedge, and another about fifty yards out by the plough there
to the left——”

The keeper had turned to go, looking a little astonished, when Quatermain
called him back.

“Stop a bit, Jeffries,” he said. “You see that pollard about
one hundred and forty yards off? Well, there should be another woodcock down in
a line with it, about sixty paces out in the field.”

“Well, if that bean’t the very smartest bit of shooting,”
murmured Jeffries, and departed.

After that we went home, and in due course Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good
arrived for dinner, the latter arrayed in the tightest and most ornamental
dress-suit I ever saw. I remember that the waistcoat was adorned with five pink
coral buttons.

It was a very pleasant dinner. Old Quatermain was in an excellent humour;
induced, I think, by the recollection of his triumph over the doubting
Jeffries. Good, too, was full of anecdotes. He told us a most miraculous story
of how he once went shooting ibex in Kashmir. These ibex, according to Good, he
stalked early and late for four entire days. At last on the morning of the
fifth day he succeeded in getting within range of the flock, which consisted of
a magnificent old ram with horns so long that I am afraid to mention their
measure, and five or six females. Good crawled upon his stomach, painfully
taking shelter behind rocks, till he was within two hundred yards; then he drew
a fine bead upon the old ram. At this moment, however, a diversion occurred.
Some wandering native of the hills appeared upon a distant mountain top. The
females turned, and rushing over a rock vanished from Good’s ken. But the
old ram took a bolder course. In front of him stretched a mighty crevasse at
least thirty feet in width. He went at it with a bound. Whilst he was in
mid-air Good fired, and killed him dead. The ram turned a complete somersault
in space, and fell in such fashion that his horns hooked themselves upon a big
projection of the opposite cliffs. There he hung, till Good, after a long and
painful détour, gracefully dropped a lasso over him and fished him up.

This moving tale of wild adventure was received with undeserved incredulity.

“Well,” said Good, “if you fellows won’t believe my
story when I tell it—a perfectly true story mind—perhaps one of you
will give us a better; I’m not particular if it is true or not.”
And he lapsed into a dignified silence.

“Now, Quatermain,” I said, “don’t let Good beat you,
let us hear how you killed those elephants you were talking about this evening
just after you shot the woodcocks.”

“Well,” said Quatermain, dryly, and with something like a twinkle
in his brown eyes, “it is very hard fortune for a man to have to follow
on Good’s ‘spoor.’ Indeed if it were not for that running
giraffe which, as you will remember, Curtis, we saw Good bowl over with a
Martini rifle at three hundred yards, I should almost have said that this was
an impossible tale.”

Here Good looked up with an air of indignant innocence.

“However,” he went on, rising and lighting his pipe, “if you
fellows like, I will spin you a yarn. I was telling one of you the other night
about those three lions and how the lioness finished my unfortunate
‘voorlooper,’ Jim-Jim, the boy whom we buried in the bread-bag.

“Well, after this little experience I thought that I would settle down a
bit, so I entered upon a venture with a man who, being of a speculative mind,
had conceived the idea of running a store at Pretoria upon strictly cash
principles. The arrangement was that I should find the capital and he the
experience. Our partnership was not of a long duration. The Boers refused to
pay cash, and at the end of four months my partner had the capital and I had
the experience. After this I came to the conclusion that store-keeping was not
in my line, and having four hundred pounds left, I sent my boy Harry to a
school in Natal, and buying an outfit with what remained of the money, started
upon a big trip.

“This time I determined to go further afield than I had ever been before;
so I took a passage for a few pounds in a trading brig that ran between Durban
and Delagoa Bay. From Delagoa Bay I marched inland accompanied by twenty
porters, with the idea of striking up north, towards the Limpopo, and keeping
parallel to the coast, but at a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles
from it. For the first twenty days of our journey we suffered a good deal from
fever, that is, my men did, for I think that I am fever proof. Also I was hard
put to it to keep the camp in meat, for although the country proved to be very
sparsely populated, there was but little game about. Indeed, during all that
time I hardly killed anything larger than a waterbuck, and, as you know,
waterbuck’s flesh is not very appetising food. On the twentieth day,
however, we came to the banks of a largish river, the Gonooroo it was called.
This I crossed, and then struck inland towards a great range of mountains, the
blue crests of which we could see lying on the distant heavens like a shadow, a
continuation, as I believe, of the Drakensberg range that skirts the coast of
Natal. From this main range a great spur shoots out some fifty miles or so
towards the coast, ending abruptly in one tremendous peak. This spur I
discovered separated the territories of two chiefs named Nala and Wambe,
Wambe’s territory being to the north, and Nala’s to the south. Nala
ruled a tribe of bastard Zulus called the Butiana, and Wambe a much larger
tribe, called the Matuku, which presents marked Bantu characteristics. For
instance, they have doors and verandahs to their huts, work skins perfectly,
and wear a waistcloth and not a moocha. At this time the Butiana were more or
less subject to the Matuku, having been surprised by them some twenty years
before and mercilessly slaughtered down. The tribe was now recovering itself,
however, and as you may imagine, it did not love the Matuku.

“Well, I heard as I went along that elephants were very plentiful in the
dense forests which lie upon the slopes and at the foot of the mountains that
border Wambe’s territory. Also I heard a very ill report of that worthy
himself, who lived in a kraal upon the side of the mountain, which was so
strongly fortified as to be practically impregnable. It was said that he was
the most cruel chief in this part of Africa, and that he had murdered in cold
blood an entire party of English gentlemen, who, some seven years before, had
gone into his country to hunt elephants. They took an old friend of mine with
them as guide, John Every by name, and often had I mourned over his untimely
death. All the same, Wambe or no Wambe, I determined to hunt elephants in his
country. I never was afraid of natives, and I was not going to show the white
feather now. I am a bit of a fatalist, as you fellows know, so I came to the
conclusion that if it was fated that Wambe should send me to join my old friend
John Every, I should have to go, and there was an end of it. Meanwhile, I meant
to hunt elephants with a peaceful heart.

“On the third day from the date of our sighting the great peak, we found
ourselves beneath its shadow. Still following the course of the river which
wound through the forests at the base of the peak, we entered the territory of
the redoubtable Wambe. This, however, was not accomplished without a certain
difference of opinion between my bearers and myself, for when we reached the
spot where Wambe’s boundary was supposed to run, the bearers sat down and
emphatically refused to go a step further. I sat down too, and argued with
them, putting my fatalistic views before them as well as I was able. But I
could not persuade them to look at the matter in the same light. ‘At
present,’ they said, ‘their skins were whole; if they went into
Wambe’s country without his leave they would soon be like a water-eaten
leaf. It was very well for me to say that this would be Fate. Fate no doubt
might be walking about in Wambe’s country, but while they stopped outside
they would not meet him.’

“‘Well,’ I said to Gobo, my head man, ‘and what do you
mean to do?’

“‘We mean to go back to the coast, Macumazahn,’ he answered
insolently.

“‘Do you?’ I replied, for my bile was stirred. ‘At any
rate, Mr. Gobo, you and one or two others will never get there; see here, my
friend,’ and I took a repeating rifle and sat myself comfortably down,
resting my back against a tree—‘I have just breakfasted, and I had
as soon spend the day here as anywhere else. Now if you or any of those men
walk one step back from here, and towards the coast, I shall fire at you; and
you know that I don’t miss.’

“The man fingered the spear he was carrying—luckily all my guns
were stacked against the tree—and then turned as though to walk away, the
others keeping their eyes fixed upon him all the while. I rose and covered him
with the rifle, and though he kept up a brave appearance of unconcern, I saw
that he was glancing nervously at me all the time. When he had gone about
twenty yards I spoke very quietly—

“‘Now, Gobo,’ I said, ‘come back, or I shall
fire.’

“Of course this was taking a very high hand; I had no real right to kill
Gobo or anybody else because they objected to run the risk of death by entering
the territory of a hostile chief. But I felt that if I wished to keep up any
authority it was absolutely necessary that I should push matters to the last
extremity short of actually shooting him. So I sat there, looking fierce as a
lion, and keeping the sight of my rifle in a dead line for Gobo’s ribs.
Then Gobo, feeling that the situation was getting strained, gave in.

“‘Don’t shoot, Boss,’ he shouted, throwing up his hand,
‘I will come with you.’

“‘I thought you would,’ I answered quietly; ‘you see
Fate walks about outside Wambe’s country as well as in it.’

“After that I had no more trouble, for Gobo was the ringleader, and when
he collapsed the others collapsed also. Harmony being thus restored, we crossed
the line, and on the following morning I began shooting in good earnest.”

CHAPTER II.

A MORNING’S SPORT

“Moving some five or six miles round the base of the great peak of which
I have spoken, we came the same day to one of the fairest bits of African
country that I have seen outside of Kukuanaland. At this spot the mountain spur
that runs out at right angles to the great range, which stretches its
cloud-clad length north and south as far as the eye can reach, sweeps inwards
with a vast and splendid curve. This curve measures some five-and-thirty miles
from point to point, and across its moon-like segment the river flashed, a
silver line of light. On the further side of the river is a measureless sea of
swelling ground, a natural park covered with great patches of bush—some
of them being many square miles in extent. These are separated one from another
by glades of grass land, broken here and there with clumps of timber trees; and
in some instances by curious isolated koppies, and even by single crags of
granite that start up into the air as though they were monuments carved by man,
and not tombstones set by nature over the grave of ages gone. On the west this
beautiful plain is bordered by the lonely mountain, from the edge of which it
rolls down toward the fever coast; but how far it runs to the north I cannot
say—eight days’ journey, according to the natives, when it is lost
in an untravelled morass.

“On the hither side of the river the scenery is different. Along the edge
of its banks, where the land is flat, are green patches of swamp. Then comes a
wide belt of beautiful grass land covered thickly with game, and sloping up
very gently to the borders of the forest, which, beginning at about a thousand
feet above the level of the plain, clothes the mountain-side almost to its
crest. In this forest grow great trees, most of them of the yellow-wood
species. Some of these trees are so lofty, that a bird in their top branches
would be out of range of an ordinary shot gun. Another peculiar thing about
them is, that they are for the most part covered with a dense growth of the
Orchilla moss; and from this moss the natives manufacture a most excellent deep
purple dye, with which they stain tanned hides and also cloth, when they happen
to get any of the latter. I do not think that I ever saw anything more
remarkable than the appearance of one of these mighty trees festooned from top
to bottom with trailing wreaths of this sad-hued moss, in which the wind
whispers gently as it stirs them. At a distance it looks like the gray locks of
a Titan crowned with bright green leaves, and here and there starred with the
rich bloom of orchids.

“The night of that day on which I had my little difference of opinion
with Gobo, we camped by the edge of this great forest, and on the following
morning at daylight I started out shooting. As we were short of meat I
determined to kill a buffalo, of which there were plenty about, before looking
for traces of elephants. Not more than half a mile from camp we came across a
trail broad as a cart-road, evidently made by a great herd of buffaloes which
had passed up at dawn from their feeding ground in the marshes, to spend the
day in the cool air of the uplands. This trail I followed boldly; for such wind
as there was blew straight down the mountain-side, that is, from the direction
in which the buffaloes had gone, to me. About a mile further on the forest
began to be dense, and the nature of the trail showed me that I must be close
to my game. Another two hundred yards and the bush was so thick that, had it
not been for the trail, we could scarcely have passed through it. As it was,
Gobo, who carried my eight-bore rifle (for I had the .570-express in my hand),
and the other two men whom I had taken with me, showed the very strongest
dislike to going any further, pointing out that there was ‘no room to run
away.’ I told them that they need not come unless they liked, but that I
was certainly going on; and then, growing ashamed, they came.

“Another fifty yards, and the trail opened into a little glade. I knelt
down and peeped and peered, but no buffalo could I see. Evidently the herd had
broken up here—I knew that from the spoor—and penetrated the
opposite bush in little troops. I crossed the glade, and choosing one line of
spoor, followed it for some sixty yards, when it became clear to me that I was
surrounded by buffaloes; and yet so dense was the cover that I could not see
any. A few yards to my left I could hear one rubbing its horns against a tree,
while from my right came an occasional low and throaty grunt which told me that
I was uncomfortably near an old bull. I crept on towards him with my heart in
my mouth, as gently as though I were walking upon eggs for a bet, lifting every
little bit of wood in my path, and placing it behind me lest it should crack
and warn the game. After me in single file came my three retainers, and I
don’t know which of them looked the most frightened. Presently Gobo
touched my leg; I glanced round, and saw him pointing slantwise towards the
left. I lifted my head a little and peeped over a mass of creepers; beyond the
creepers was a dense bush of sharp-pointed aloes, of that kind of which the
leaves project laterally, and on the other side of the aloes, not fifteen paces
from us, I made out the horns, neck, and the ridge of the back of a tremendous
old bull. I took my eight-bore, and getting on to my knee prepared to shoot him
through the neck, taking my chance of cutting his spine. I had already covered
him as well as the aloe leaves would allow, when he gave a kind of sigh and lay
down.

“I looked round in dismay. What was to be done now? I could not see to
shoot him lying down, even if my bullet would have pierced the intervening
aloes—which was doubtful—and if I stood up he would either run away
or charge me. I reflected, and came to the conclusion that the only thing to do
was to lie down also; for I did not fancy wandering after other buffaloes in
that dense bush. If a buffalo lies down, it is clear that he must get up again
some time, so it was only a case of patience—‘fighting the fight of
sit down,’ as the Zulus say.

“Accordingly I sat down and lighted a pipe, thinking that the smell of it
might reach the buffalo and make him get up. But the wind was the wrong way,
and it did not; so when it was done I lit another. Afterwards I had cause to
regret that pipe.

“Well, we squatted like this for between half and three quarters of an
hour, till at length I began to grow heartily sick of the performance. It was
about as dull a business as the last hour of a comic opera. I could hear
buffaloes snorting and moving all round, and see the red-beaked tic birds
flying up off their backs, making a kind of hiss as they did so, something like
that of the English missel-thrush, but I could not see a single buffalo. As for
my old bull, I think he must have slept the sleep of the just, for he never
even stirred.

“Just as I was making up my mind that something must be done to save the
situation, my attention was attracted by a curious grinding noise. At first I
thought that it must be a buffalo chewing the cud, but was obliged to abandon
the idea because the noise was too loud. I shifted myself round and stared
through the cracks in the bush, in the direction whence the sound seemed to
come, and once I thought that I saw something gray moving about fifty yards
off, but could not make certain. Although the grinding noise still continued I
could see nothing more, so I gave up thinking about it, and once again turned
my attention to the buffalo. Presently, however, something happened. Suddenly
from about forty yards away there came a tremendous snorting sound, more like
that made by an engine getting a heavy train under weigh than anything else in
the world.

“‘By Jove,’ I thought, turning round in the direction from
which the grinding sound had come, ‘that must be a rhinoceros, and he has
got our wind.’ For, as you fellows know, there is no mistaking the sound
made by a rhinoceros when he gets wind of you.

“Another second, and I heard a most tremendous crashing noise. Before I
could think what to do, before I could even get up, the bush behind me seemed
to burst asunder, and there appeared not eight yards from us, the great horn
and wicked twinkling eye of a charging rhinoceros. He had winded us or my pipe,
I do not know which, and, after the fashion of these brutes, had charged up the
scent. I could not rise, I could not even get the gun up, I had no time. All
that I was able to do was to roll over as far out of the monster’s path
as the bush would allow. Another second and he was over me, his great bulk
towering above me like a mountain, and, upon my word, I could not get his smell
out of my nostrils for a week. Circumstances impressed it on my memory, at
least I suppose so. His hot breath blew upon my face, one of his front feet
just missed my head, and his hind one actually trod upon the loose part of my
trousers and pinched a little bit of my skin. I saw him pass over me lying as I
was upon my back, and next second I saw something else. My men were a little
behind me, and therefore straight in the path of the rhinoceros. One of them
flung himself backwards into the bush, and thus avoided him. The second with a
wild yell sprung to his feet, and bounded like an india-rubber ball right into
the aloe bush, landing well among the spikes. But the third, it was my friend
Gobo, could not by any means get away. He managed to gain his feet, and that
was all. The rhinoceros was charging with his head low; his horn passed between
Gobo’s legs, and feeling something on his nose, he jerked it up. Away
went Gobo, high into the air. He turned a complete somersault at the apex of
the curve, and as he did so, I caught sight of his face. It was gray with
terror, and his mouth was wide open. Down he came, right on to the great
brute’s back, and that broke his fall. Luckily for him the rhinoceros
never turned, but crashed straight through the aloe bush, only missing the man
who had jumped into it by about a yard.

“Then followed a complication. The sleeping buffalo on the further side
of the bush, hearing the noise, sprang to his feet, and for a second, not
knowing what to do, stood still. At that instant the huge rhinoceros blundered
right on to him, and getting his horn beneath his stomach gave him such a
fearful dig that the buffalo was turned over on to his back, while his
assailant went a most amazing cropper over his carcase. In another moment,
however, the rhinoceros was up, and wheeling round to the left, crashed through
the bush down-hill and towards the open country.

“Instantly the whole place became alive with alarming sounds. In every
direction troops of snorting buffaloes charged through the forest, wild with
fright, while the injured bull on the further side of the bush began to bellow
like a mad thing. I lay quite still for a moment, devoutly praying that none of
the flying buffaloes would come my way. Then when the danger lessened I got on
to my feet, shook myself, and looked round. One of my boys, he who had thrown
himself backward into the bush, was already half way up a tree—if heaven
had been at the top of it he could not have climbed quicker. Gobo was lying
close to me, groaning vigorously, but, as I suspected, quite unhurt; while from
the aloe bush into which No. 3 had bounded like a tennis ball, issued a
succession of the most piercing yells.

“I looked, and saw that this unfortunate fellow was in a very tight
place. A great spike of aloe had run through the back of his skin waist-belt,
though without piercing his flesh, in such a fashion that it was impossible for
him to move, while within six feet of him the injured buffalo bull, thinking,
no doubt, that he was the aggressor, bellowed and ramped to get at him, tearing
the thick aloes with his great horns. That no time was to be lost, if I wished
to save the man’s life, was very clear. So seizing my eight-bore, which
was fortunately uninjured, I took a pace to the left, for the rhinoceros had
enlarged the hole in the bush, and aimed at the point of the buffalo’s
shoulder, since on account of my position I could not get a fair side shot for
the heart. As I did so I saw that the rhinoceros had given the bull a
tremendous wound in the stomach, and that the shock of the encounter had put
his left hind-leg out of joint at the hip. I fired, and the bullet striking the
shoulder broke it, and knocked the buffalo down. I knew that he could not get
up any more, because he was now injured fore and aft, so notwithstanding his
terrific bellows I scrambled round to where he was. There he lay glaring
furiously and tearing up the soil with his horns. Stepping up to within two
yards of him I aimed at the vertebra of his neck and fired. The bullet struck
true, and with a thud he dropped his head upon the ground, groaned, and died.

“This little matter having been attended to with the assistance of Gobo,
who had now found his feet, I went on to extricate our unfortunate companion
from the aloe bush. This we found a thorny task, but at last he was dragged
forth uninjured, though in a very pious and prayerful frame of mind. His
‘spirit had certainly looked that way,’ he said, or he would now
have been dead. As I never like to interfere with true piety, I did not venture
to suggest that his spirit had deigned to make use of my eight-bore in his
interest.

“Having despatched this boy back to the camp to tell the bearers to come
and cut the buffalo up, I bethought me that I owed that rhinoceros a grudge
which I should love to repay. So without saying a word of what was in my mind
to Gobo, who was now more than ever convinced that Fate walked about loose in
Wambe’s country, I just followed on the brute’s spoor. He had
crashed through the bush till he reached the little glade. Then moderating his
pace somewhat, he had followed the glade down its entire length, and once more
turned to the right through the forest, shaping his course for the open land
that lies between the edge of the bush and the river. Having followed him for a
mile or so further, I found myself quite on the open. I took out my glasses and
searched the plain. About a mile ahead was something brown—as I thought,
the rhinoceros. I advanced another quarter of a mile, and looked once
more—it was not the rhinoceros, but a big ant-heap. This was puzzling,
but I did not like to give it up, because I knew from his spoor that he must be
somewhere ahead. But as the wind was blowing straight from me towards the line
that he had followed, and as a rhinoceros can smell you for about a mile, it
would not, I felt, be safe to follow his trail any further; so I made a détour
of a mile and more, till I was nearly opposite the ant-heap, and then once more
searched the plain. It was no good, I could see nothing of him, and was about
to give it up and start after some oryx I saw on the skyline, when suddenly at
a distance of about three hundred yards from the ant-heap, and on its further
side, I saw my rhino stand up in a patch of grass.

“‘Heavens!’ I thought to myself, ‘he’s off
again;’ but no, after standing staring for a minute or two he once more
lay down.

“Now I found myself in a quandary. As you know, a rhinoceros is a very
short-sighted brute, indeed his sight is as bad as his scent is good. Of this
fact he is perfectly aware, but he always makes the most of his natural gifts.
For instance, when he lies down he invariably does so with his head down wind.
Thus, if any enemy crosses his wind he will still be able to escape, or attack
him; and if, on the other hand, the danger approaches up wind he will at least
have a chance of seeing it. Otherwise, by walking delicately, one might
actually kick him up like a partridge, if only the advance was made up wind.

“Well, the point was, how on earth should I get within shot of this
rhinoceros? After much deliberation I determined to try a side approach,
thinking that in this way I might get a shoulder shot. Accordingly we started
in a crouching attitude, I first, Gobo holding on to my coat tails, and the
other boy on to Gobo’s moocha. I always adopt this plan when stalking big
game, for if you follow any other system the bearers will get out of line. We
arrived within three hundred yards safely enough, and then the real
difficulties began. The grass had been so closely eaten off by game that there
was scarcely any cover. Consequently it was necessary to go on to our hands and
knees, which in my case involved laying down the eight-bore at every step and
then lifting it up again. However, I wriggled along somehow, and if it had not
been for Gobo and his friend no doubt everything would have gone well. But as
you have, I dare say, observed, a native out stalking is always of that mind
which is supposed to actuate an ostrich—so long as his head is hidden he
seems to think that nothing else can be seen. So it was in this instance, Gobo
and the other boy crept along on their hands and toes with their heads well
down, but, though unfortunately I did not notice it till too late, bearing the
fundamental portions of their frames high in the air. Now all animals are quite
as suspicious of this end of mankind as they are of his face, and of that fact
I soon had a proof. Just when we had got within about two hundred yards, and I
was congratulating myself that I had not had this long crawl with the sun
beating on the back of my neck like a furnace for nothing, I heard the hissing
note of the rhinoceros birds, and up flew four or five of them from the
brute’s back, where they had been comfortably employed in catching tics.
Now this performance on the part of the birds is to a rhinoceros what the word
‘cave’ is to a schoolboy—it puts him on the qui vive
at once. Before the birds were well in the air I saw the grass stir.

“‘Down you go,’ I whispered to the boys, and as I did so the
rhinoceros got up and glared suspiciously around. But he could see nothing,
indeed if we had been standing up I doubt if he would have seen us at that
distance; so he merely gave two or three sniffs and then lay down, his head
still down wind, the birds once more settling on his back.

“But it was clear to me that he was sleeping with one eye open, being
generally in a suspicious and unchristian frame of mind, and that it was
useless to proceed further on this stalk, so we quietly withdrew to consider
the position and study the ground. The results were not satisfactory. There was
absolutely no cover about except the ant-heap, which was some three hundred
yards from the rhinoceros upon his up-wind side. I knew that if I tried to
stalk him in front I should fail, and so I should if I attempted to do so from
the further side—he or the birds would see me; so I came to a conclusion:
I would go to the ant-heap, which would give him my wind, and instead of
stalking him I would let him stalk me. It was a bold step, and one which I
should never advise a hunter to take, but somehow I felt as though rhino and I
must play the hand out.

“I explained my intentions to the men, who both held up their arms in
horror. Their fears for my safety were a little mitigated, however, when I told
them that I did not expect them to come with me.

“Gobo breathed a prayer that I might not meet Fate walking about, and the
other one sincerely trusted that my spirit might look my way when the
rhinoceros charged, and then they both departed to a place of safety.

“Taking my eight-bore, and half-a-dozen spare cartridges in my pocket, I
made a détour, and reaching the ant-heap in safety lay down. For a moment the
wind had dropped, but presently a gentle puff of air passed over me, and blew
on towards the rhinoceros. By the way, I wonder what it is that smells so
strong about a man? Is it his body or his breath? I have never been able to
make out, but I saw it stated the other day, that in the duck decoys the man
who is working the ducks holds a little piece of burning turf before his mouth,
and that if he does this they cannot smell him, which looks as though it were
the breath. Well, whatever it was about me that attracted his attention, the
rhinoceros soon smelt me, for within half a minute after the puff of wind had
passed me he was on his legs, and turning round to get his head up wind. There
he stood for a few seconds and sniffed, and then he began to move, first of all
at a trot, then, as the scent grew stronger, at a furious gallop. On he came,
snorting like a runaway engine, with his tail stuck straight up in the air; if
he had seen me lie down there he could not have made a better line. It was
rather nervous work, I can tell you, lying there waiting for his onslaught, for
he looked like a mountain of flesh. I determined, however, not to fire till I
could plainly see his eye, for I think that rule always gives one the right
distance for big game; so I rested my rifle on the ant-heap and waited for him,
kneeling. At last, when he was about forty yards away, I saw that the time had
come, and aiming straight for the middle of the chest I pulled.

“Thud went the heavy bullet, and with a tremendous snort over
rolled the rhinoceros beneath its shock, just like a shot rabbit. But if I had
thought that he was done for I was mistaken, for in another second he was up
again, and coming at me as hard as ever, only with his head held low. I waited
till he was within ten yards, in the hope that he would expose his chest, but
he would do nothing of the sort; so I just had to fire at his head with the
left barrel, and take my chance. Well, as luck would have it, of course the
animal put its horn in the way of the bullet, which cut clean through it about
three inches above the root and then glanced off into space.

“After that things got rather serious. My gun was empty and the
rhinoceros was rapidly arriving, so rapidly indeed that I came to the
conclusion that I had better make way for him. Accordingly I jumped to my feet
and ran to the right as hard as I could go. As I did so he arrived full tilt,
knocked my friendly ant-heap flat, and for the third time that day went a most
magnificent cropper. This gave me a few seconds’ start, and I ran down
wind—my word, I did run! Unfortunately, however, my modest retreat was
observed, and the rhinoceros, as soon as he had found his legs again, set to
work to run after me. Now no man on earth can run so fast as an irritated
rhinoceros can gallop, and I knew that he must soon catch me up. But having
some slight experience of this sort of thing, luckily for myself, I kept my
head, and as I fled I managed to open my rifle, get the old cartridges out, and
put in two fresh ones. To do this I was obliged to steady my pace a little, and
by the time that I had snapped the rifle to I heard the beast snorting and
thundering away within a few paces of my back. I stopped, and as I did so
rapidly cocked the rifle and slued round upon my heel. By this time the brute
was within six or seven yards of me, but luckily his head was up. I lifted the
rifle and fired at him. It was a snap shot, but the bullet struck him in the
chest within three inches of the first, and found its way into his lungs. It
did not stop him, however, so all I could do was to bound to one side, which I
did with surprising activity, and as he brushed past me to fire the other
barrel into his side. That did for him. The ball passed in behind the shoulder
and right through his heart. He fell over on to his side, gave one more awful
squeal—a dozen pigs could not have made such a noise—and promptly
died, keeping his wicked eyes wide open all the time.

“As for me, I blew my nose, and going up to the rhinoceros sat on his
head, and reflected that I had done a capital morning’s shooting.”

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST ROUND

“After this, as it was now midday, and I had killed enough meat, we
marched back triumphantly to camp, where I proceeded to concoct a stew of
buffalo beef and compressed vegetables. When this was ready we ate the stew,
and then I took a nap. About four o’clock, however, Gobo woke me up, and
told me that the head man of one of Wambe’s kraals had arrived to see me.
I ordered him to be brought up, and presently he came, a little, wizened,
talkative old man, with a waistcloth round his middle, and a greasy, frayed
kaross made of the skins of rock rabbits over his shoulders.

“I told him to sit down, and then abused him roundly. ‘What did he
mean,’ I asked, ‘by disturbing me in this rude way? How did he dare
to cause a person of my quality and evident importance to be awakened in order
to interview his entirely contemptible self?’

“I spoke thus because I knew that it would produce an impression on him.
Nobody, except a really great man, he would argue, would dare to speak to him
in that fashion. Most savages are desperate bullies at heart, and look on
insolence as a sign of power.

“The old man instantly collapsed. He was utterly overcome, he said; his
heart was split in two, and well realized the extent of his misbehaviour. But
the occasion was very urgent. He heard that a mighty hunter was in the
neighbourhood, a beautiful white man, how beautiful he could not have imagined
had he not seen (this to me!), and he came to beg his assistance. The truth
was, that three bull elephants such as no man ever saw had for years been the
terror of their kraal, which was but a small place—a cattle kraal of the
great chief Wambe’s, where they lived to keep the cattle. And now of late
these elephants had done them much damage; but last night they had destroyed a
whole patch of mealie land, and he feared that if they came back they would all
starve next season for want of food. Would the mighty white man then be pleased
to come and kill the elephants? It would be easy for him to do—oh, most
easy! It was only necessary that he should hide himself in a tree, for there
was a full moon, and then when the elephants appeared he would speak to them
with the gun, and they would fall down dead, and there would be an end of their
troubling.

“Of course I hummed and hawed, and made a great favour of consenting to
his proposal, though really I was delighted to have such a chance. One of the
conditions that I made was that a messenger should at once be despatched to
Wambe, whose kraal was two days’ journey from where I was, telling him
that I proposed to come and pay my respects to him in a few days, and to ask
his formal permission to shoot in his country. Also I intimated that I was
prepared to present him with ‘hongo,’ that is, blackmail, and that
I hoped to do a little trade with him in ivory, of which I heard he had a great
quantity.

“This message the old gentleman promised to despatch at once, though
there was something about his manner which showed me that he was doubtful as to
how it would be received. After that we struck our camp and moved on to the
kraal, which we reached about an hour before sunset. This kraal was a
collection of huts surrounded by a slight thorn-fence, perhaps there were ten
of them in all. It was situated in a kloof of the mountain down which a rivulet
flowed. The kloof was densely wooded, but for some distance above the kraal it
was free from bush, and here on the rich deep ground brought down by the
rivulet were the cultivated lands, in extent somewhere about twenty or
twenty-five acres. On the kraal side of these lands stood a single hut, that
served for a mealie store, which at the moment was used as a dwelling-place by
an old woman, the first wife of our friend the head man.

“It appears that this lady, having had some difference of opinion with
her husband about the extent of authority allowed to a younger and more amiable
wife, had refused to dwell in the kraal any more, and, by way of marking her
displeasure, had taken up her abode among the mealies. As the issue will show,
she was, it happened, cutting off her nose to spite her face.

“Close by this hut grew a large baobab tree. A glance at the mealie
grounds showed me that the old head man had not exaggerated the mischief done
by the elephants to his crops, which were now getting ripe. Nearly half of the
entire patch was destroyed. The great brutes had eaten all they could, and the
rest they had trampled down. I went up to their spoor and started back in
amazement—never had I seen such a spoor before. It was simply enormous,
more especially that of one old bull, that carried, so said the natives, but a
single tusk. One might have used any of the footprints for a hip-bath.

“Having taken stock of the position, my next step was to make
arrangements for the fray. The three bulls, according to the natives, had been
spoored into the dense patch of bush above the kloof. Now it seemed to me very
probable that they would return to-night to feed on the remainder of the
ripening mealies. If so, there was a bright moon, and it struck me that by the
exercise of a little ingenuity I might bag one or more of them without exposing
myself to any risk, which, having the highest respect for the aggressive powers
of bull elephants, was a great consideration to me.

“This then was my plan. To the right of the huts as you look up the
kloof, and commanding the mealie lands, stands the baobab tree that I have
mentioned. Into that baobab tree I made up my mind to go. Then if the elephants
appeared I should get a shot at them. I announced my intentions to the head man
of the kraal, who was delighted. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘his people
might sleep in peace, for while the mighty white hunter sat aloft like a spirit
watching over the welfare of his kraal what was there to fear?’

“I told him that he was an ungrateful brute to think of sleeping in peace
while, perched like a wounded vulture on a tree, I watched for his welfare in
wakeful sorrow; and once more he collapsed, and owned that my words were
‘sharp but just.’

“However, as I have said, confidence was completely restored; and that
evening everybody in the kraal, including the superannuated victim of jealousy
in the little hut where the mealie cobs were stored, went to bed with a sense
of sweet security from elephants and all other animals that prowl by night.

“For my part, I pitched my camp below the kraal; and then, having
procured a beam of wood from the head man—rather a rotten one, by the
way—I set it across two boughs that ran out laterally from the baobab
tree, at a height of about twenty-five feet from the ground, in such fashion
that I and another man could sit upon it with our legs hanging down, and rest
our backs against the bole of the tree. This done I went back to the camp and
ate my supper. About nine o’clock, half-an-hour before the moon-rise, I
summoned Gobo, who, thinking that he had seen about enough of the delights of
big game hunting for that day, did not altogether relish the job; and, despite
his remonstrances, gave him my eight-bore to carry, I having the .570-express.
Then we set out for the tree. It was very dark, but we found it without
difficulty, though climbing it was a more complicated matter. However, at last
we got up and sat down, like two little boys on a form that is too high for
them, and waited. I did not dare to smoke, because I remembered the rhinoceros,
and feared that the elephants might wind the tobacco if they should come my
way, and this made the business more wearisome, so I fell to thinking and
wondering at the completeness of the silence.

“At last the moon came up, and with it a moaning wind, at the breath of
which the silence began to whisper mysteriously. Lonely enough in the newborn
light looked the wide expanse of mountain, plain, and forest, more like some
vision of a dream, some reflection from a fair world of peace beyond our ken,
than the mere face of garish earth made soft with sleep. Indeed, had it not
been for the fact that I was beginning to find the log on which I sat very
hard, I should have grown quite sentimental over the beautiful sight; but I
will defy anybody to become sentimental when seated in the damp, on a very
rough beam of wood, and half-way up a tree. So I merely made a mental note that
it was a particularly lovely night, and turned my attention to the prospect of
elephants. But no elephants came, and after waiting for another hour or so, I
think that what between weariness and disgust, I must have dropped into a
gentle doze. Presently I awoke with a start. Gobo, who was perched close to me,
but as far off as the beam would allow—for neither white man nor black
like the aroma which each vows is the peculiar and disagreeable property of the
other—was faintly, very faintly clicking his forefinger against his
thumb. I knew by this signal, a very favourite one among native hunters and
gun-bearers, that he must have seen or heard something. I looked at his face,
and saw that he was staring excitedly towards the dim edge of the bush beyond
the deep green line of mealies. I stared too, and listened. Presently I heard a
soft large sound as though a giant were gently stretching out his hands and
pressing back the ears of standing corn. Then came a pause, and then, out into
the open majestically stalked the largest elephant I ever saw or ever shall
see. Heavens! what a monster he was; and how the moonlight gleamed upon his one
splendid tusk—for the other was missing—as he stood among the
mealies gently moving his enormous ears to and fro, and testing the wind with
his trunk. While I was still marvelling at his girth, and speculating upon the
weight of that huge tusk, which I swore should be my tusk before very long, out
stepped a second bull and stood beside him. He was not quite so tall, but he
seemed to me to be almost thicker-set than the first; and even in that light I
could see that both his tusks were perfect. Another pause, and the third
emerged. He was shorter than either of the others, but higher in the shoulder
than No. 2; and when I tell you, as I afterwards learnt from actual
measurement, that the smallest of these mighty bulls measured twelve feet one
and a half inches at the shoulder, it will give you some idea of their size.
The three formed into line and stood still for a minute, the one-tusked bull
gently caressing the elephant on the left with his trunk.

“Then they began to feed, walking forward and slightly to the right as
they gathered great bunches of the sweet mealies and thrust them into their
mouths. All this time they were more than a hundred and twenty yards away from
me (this I knew, because I had paced the distances from the tree to various
points), much too far to allow of my attempting a shot at them in that
uncertain light. They fed in a semicircle, gradually drawing round towards the
hut near my tree, in which the corn was stored and the old woman slept.

“This went on for between an hour and an hour and a half, till, what
between excitement and hope, that maketh the heart sick, I grew so weary that I
was actually contemplating a descent from the tree and a moonlight stalk. Such
an act in ground so open would have been that of a stark staring lunatic, and
that I should even have been contemplating it will show you the condition of my
mind. But everything comes to him who knows how to wait, and sometimes too to
him who doesn’t, and so at last those elephants, or rather one of them,
came to me.

“After they had fed their fill, which was a very large one, the noble
three stood once more in line some seventy yards to the left of the hut, and on
the edge of the cultivated lands, or in all about eighty-five yards from where
I was perched. Then at last the one with a single tusk made a peculiar rattling
noise in his trunk, just as though he were blowing his nose, and without more
ado began to walk deliberately toward the hut where the old woman slept. I made
my rifle ready and glanced up at the moon, only to discover that a new
complication was looming in the immediate future. I have said that a wind rose
with the moon. Well, the wind brought rain-clouds along its track. Several
light ones had already lessened the light for a little while, though without
obscuring it, and now two more were coming up rapidly, both of them very black
and dense. The first cloud was small and long, and the one behind big and
broad. I remember noticing that the pair of them bore a most comical
resemblance to a dray drawn by a very long raw-boned horse. As luck would have
it, just as the elephant arrived within twenty-five yards or so of me, the head
of the horse-cloud floated over the face of the moon, rendering it impossible
for me to fire. In the faint twilight which remained, however, I could just
make out the gray mass of the great brute still advancing towards the hut. Then
the light went altogether and I had to trust to my ears. I heard him fumbling
with his trunk, apparently at the roof of the hut; next came a sound as of
straw being drawn out, and then for a little while there was complete silence.

“The cloud began to pass; I could see the outline of the elephant; he was
standing with his head quite over the top of the hut. But I could not see his
trunk, and no wonder, for it was inside the hut. He had thrust it
through the roof, and, attracted no doubt by the smell of the mealies, was
groping about with it inside. It was growing light now, and I got my rifle
ready, when suddenly there was a most awful yell, and I saw the trunk reappear,
and in its mighty fold the old woman who had been sleeping in the hut. Out she
came through the hole like a periwinkle on the point of a pin, still wrapped up
in her blanket, and with her skinny arms and legs stretched to the four points
of the compass, and as she did so, gave that most alarming screech. I really
don’t know who was the most frightened, she, or I, or the elephant. At
any rate the last was considerably startled; he had been fishing for
mealies—the old woman was a mere accident, and one that greatly
discomposed his nerves. He gave a sort of trumpet, and threw her away from him
right into the crown of a low mimosa tree, where she stuck shrieking like a
metropolitan engine. The old bull lifted his tail, and flapping his great ears
prepared for flight. I put up my eight-bore, and aiming hastily at the point of
his shoulder (for he was broadside on), I fired. The report rang out like
thunder, making a thousand echoes in the quiet hills. I saw him go down all of
a heap as though he were stone dead. Then, alas! whether it was the kick of the
heavy rifle, or the excited bump of that idiot Gobo, or both together, or
merely an unhappy coincidence, I do not know, but the rotten beam broke and I
went down too, landing flat at the foot of the tree upon a certain humble
portion of the human frame. The shock was so severe that I felt as though all
my teeth were flying through the roof of my mouth, but although I sat slightly
stunned for a few seconds, luckily for me I fell light, and was not in any way
injured.

“Meanwhile the elephant began to scream with fear and fury, and,
attracted by his cries, the other two charged up. I felt for my rifle; it was
not there. Then I remembered that I had rested it on a fork of the bough in
order to fire, and doubtless there it remained. My position was now very
unpleasant. I did not dare to try and climb the tree again, which, shaken as I
was, would have been a task of some difficulty, because the elephants would
certainly see me, and Gobo, who had clung to a bough, was still aloft with the
other rifle. I could not run because there was no shelter near. Under these
circumstances I did the only thing feasible, clambered round the trunk as
softly as possible, and keeping one eye on the elephants, whispered to Gobo to
bring down the rifle, and awaited the development of the situation. I knew that
if the elephants did not see me—which, luckily, they were too enraged to
do—they would not smell me, for I was up-wind. Gobo, however, either did
not, or, preferring the safety of the tree, would not hear me. He said the
former, but I believed the latter, for I knew that he was not enough of a
sportsman to really enjoy shooting elephants by moonlight in the open. So there
I was behind my tree, dismayed, unarmed, but highly interested, for I was
witnessing a remarkable performance.

“When the two other bulls arrived the wounded elephant on the ground
ceased to scream, but began to make a low moaning noise, and to gently touch
the wound near his shoulder, from which the blood was literally spouting. The
other two seemed to understand; at any rate, they did this. Kneeling down on
either side, they placed their trunks and tusks underneath him, and, aided by
his own efforts, with one great lift got him on to his feet. Then leaning
against him on either side to support him, they marched off at a walk in the
direction of the village.[*] It was a pitiful sight, and even then it made me
feel a brute.

[*] The Editor would have been inclined to think that in relating this incident
Mr. Quatermain was making himself interesting at the expense of the exact
truth, did it not happen that a similar incident has come within his
knowledge.—Editor.

“Presently, from a walk, as the wounded elephant gathered himself
together a little, they broke into a trot, and after that I could follow them
no longer with my eyes, for the second black cloud came up over the moon and
put her out, as an extinguisher puts out a dip. I say with my eyes, but my ears
gave me a very fair notion of what was going on. When the cloud came up the
three terrified animals were heading directly for the kraal, probably because
the way was open and the path easy. I fancy that they grew confused in the
darkness, for when they came to the kraal fence they did not turn aside, but
crashed straight through it. Then there were ‘times,’ as the Irish
servant-girl says in the American book. Having taken the fence, they thought
that they might as well take the kraal also, so they just ran over it. One
hive-shaped hut was turned quite over on to its top, and when I arrived upon
the scene the people who had been sleeping there were bumbling about inside
like bees disturbed at night, while two more were crushed flat, and a third had
all its side torn out. Oddly enough, however, nobody was hurt, though several
people had a narrow escape of being trodden to death.

“On arrival I found the old head man in a state painfully like that
favoured by Greek art, dancing about in front of his ruined abodes as
vigorously as though he had just been stung by a scorpion.

“I asked him what ailed him, and he burst out into a flood of abuse. He
called me a Wizard, a Sham, a Fraud, a Bringer of bad luck! I had promised to
kill the elephants, and I had so arranged things that the elephants had nearly
killed him, etc.

“This, still smarting, or rather aching, as I was from that most terrific
bump, was too much for my feelings, so I just made a rush at my friend, and
getting him by the ear, I banged his head against the doorway of his own hut,
which was all that was left of it.

“‘You wicked old scoundrel,’ I said, ‘you dare to
complain about your own trifling inconveniences, when you gave me a rotten beam
to sit on, and thereby delivered me to the fury of the elephant’
(bump! bump! bump!), ‘when your own wife’ (bump!)
‘has just been dragged out of her hut’ (bump!) ‘like a
snail from its shell, and thrown by the Earth-shaker into a tree’
(bump! bump!).

“‘Mercy, my father, mercy!’ gasped the old fellow.
‘Truly I have done amiss—my heart tells me so.’

“‘I should hope it did, you old villain’ (bump!).

“‘Mercy, great white man! I thought the log was sound. But what
says the unequalled chief—is the old woman, my wife, indeed dead? Ah, if
she is dead all may yet prove to have been for the very best;’ and he
clasped his hands and looked up piously to heaven, in which the moon was once
more shining brightly.

“I let go his ear and burst out laughing, the whole scene and his devout
aspirations for the decease of the partner of his joys, or rather woes, were so
intensely ridiculous.

“‘No, you old iniquity,’ I answered; ‘I left her in the
top of a thorn-tree, screaming like a thousand bluejays. The elephant put her
there.’

“‘Alas! alas!’ he said, ‘surely the back of the ox is
shaped to the burden. Doubtless, my father, she will come down when she is
tired;’ and without troubling himself further about the matter, he began
to blow at the smouldering embers of the fire.

“And, as a matter of fact, she did appear a few minutes later,
considerably scratched and startled, but none the worse.

“After that I made my way to my little camp, which, fortunately, the
elephants had not walked over, and wrapping myself up in a blanket, was soon
fast asleep.

“And so ended my first round with those three elephants.”

CHAPTER IV.

THE LAST ROUND

“On the morrow I woke up full of painful recollections, and not without a
certain feeling of gratitude to the Powers above that I was there to wake up.
Yesterday had been a tempestuous day; indeed, what between buffalo, rhinoceros,
and elephant, it had been very tempestuous. Having realized this fact, I next
bethought me of those magnificent tusks, and instantly, early as it was, broke
the tenth commandment. I coveted my neighbour’s tusks, if an elephant
could be said to be my neighbour de jure, as certainly, so recently as
the previous night, he had been de facto—a much closer neighbour
than I cared for, indeed. Now when you covet your neighbour’s goods, the
best thing, if not the most moral thing, to do is to enter his house as a
strong man armed, and take them. I was not a strong man, but having recovered
my eight-bore I was armed, and so was the other strong man—the elephant
with the tusks. Consequently I prepared for a struggle to the death. In other
words, I summoned my faithful retainers, and told them that I was now going to
follow those elephants to the edge of the world, if necessary. They showed a
certain bashfulness about the business, but they did not gainsay me, because
they dared not. Ever since I had prepared with all due solemnity to execute the
rebellious Gobo they had conceived a great respect for me.

“So I went up to bid adieu to the old head man, whom I found alternately
contemplating the ruins of his kraal and, with the able assistance of his last
wife, thrashing the jealous lady who had slept in the mealie hut, because she
was, as he declared, the fount of all his sorrows.

“Leaving them to work a way through their domestic differences, I levied
a supply of vegetable food from the kraal in consideration of services
rendered, and left them with my blessing. I do not know how they settled
matters, because I have not seen them since.

“Then I started on the spoor of the three bulls. For a couple of miles or
so below the kraal—as far, indeed, as the belt of swamp that borders the
river—the ground is at this spot rather stony, and clothed with scattered
bushes. Rain had fallen towards the daybreak, and this fact, together with the
nature of the soil, made spooring a very difficult business. The wounded bull
had indeed bled freely, but the rain had washed the blood off the leaves and
grass, and the ground being so rough and hard did not take the footmarks so
clearly as was convenient. However, we got along, though slowly, partly by the
spoor, and partly by carefully lifting leaves and blades of grass, and finding
blood underneath them, for the blood gushing from a wounded animal often falls
upon their inner surfaces, and then, of course, unless the rain is very heavy,
it is not washed away. It took us something over an hour and a half to reach
the edge of the marsh, but once there our task became much easier, for the soft
soil showed plentiful evidences of the great brutes’ passage. Threading
our way through the swampy land, we came at last to a ford of the river, and
here we could see where the poor wounded animal had lain down in the mud and
water in the hope of easing himself of his pain, and could see also how his two
faithful companions had assisted him to rise again. We crossed the ford, and
took up the spoor on the further side, and followed it into the marsh-like land
beyond. No rain had fallen on this side of the river, and the blood-marks were
consequently much more frequent.

“All that day we followed the three bulls, now across open plains, and
now through patches of bush. They seemed to have travelled on almost without
stopping, and I noticed that as they went the wounded bull recovered his
strength a little. This I could see from his spoor, which had become firmer,
and also from the fact that the other two had ceased to support him. At last
evening closed in, and having travelled some eighteen miles, we camped,
thoroughly tired out.

“Before dawn on the following day we were up, and the first break of
light found us once more on the spoor. About half-past five o’clock we
reached the place where the elephants had fed and slept. The two unwounded
bulls had taken their fill, as the condition of the neighbouring bushes showed,
but the wounded one had eaten nothing. He had spent the night leaning against a
good-sized tree, which his weight had pushed out of the perpendicular. They had
not long left this place, and could not be very far ahead, especially as the
wounded bull was now again so stiff after his night’s rest that for the
first few miles the other two had been obliged to support him. But elephants go
very quick, even when they seem to be travelling slowly, for shrub and creepers
that almost stop a man’s progress are no hindrance to them. The three had
now turned to the left, and were travelling back again in a semicircular line
toward the mountains, probably with the idea of working round to their old
feeding grounds on the further side of the river.

“There was nothing for it but to follow their lead, and accordingly we
followed with industry. Through all that long hot day did we tramp, passing
quantities of every sort of game, and even coming across the spoor of other
elephants. But, in spite of my men’s entreaties, I would not turn aside
after these. I would have those mighty tusks or none.

“By evening we were quite close to our game, probably within a quarter of
a mile, but the bush was dense, and we could see nothing of them, so once more
we must camp, thoroughly disgusted with our luck. That night, just after the
moon rose, while I was sitting smoking my pipe with my back against a tree, I
heard an elephant trumpet, as though something had startled it, and not three
hundred yards away. I was very tired, but my curiosity overcame my weariness,
so, without saying a word to any of the men, all of whom were asleep, I took my
eight-bore and a few spare cartridges, and steered toward the sound. The game
path which we had been following all day ran straight on in the direction from
which the elephant had trumpeted. It was narrow, but well trodden, and the
light struck down upon it in a straight white line. I crept along it cautiously
for some two hundred yards, when it opened suddenly into a most beautiful glade
some hundred yards or more in width, wherein tall grass grew and flat-topped
trees stood singly. With the caution born of long experience I watched for a
few moments before I entered the glade, and then I saw why the elephant had
trumpeted. There in the middle of the glade stood a large maned lion. He stood
quite still, making a soft purring noise, and waving his tail to and fro.
Presently the grass about forty yards on the hither side of him gave a wide
ripple, and a lioness sprang out of it like a flash, and bounded noiselessly up
to the lion. Reaching him, the great cat halted suddenly, and rubbed her head
against his shoulder. Then they both began to purr loudly, so loudly that I
believe that in the stillness one might have heard them two hundred yards or
more away.

“After a time, while I was still hesitating what to do, either they got a
whiff of my wind, or they wearied of standing still, and determined to start in
search of game. At any rate, as though moved by a common impulse, they bounded
suddenly away, leap by leap, and vanished in the depths of the forest to the
left. I waited for a little while longer to see if there were any more yellow
skins about, and seeing none, came to the conclusion that the lions must have
frightened the elephants away, and that I had taken my stroll for nothing. But
just as I was turning back I thought that I heard a bough break upon the
further side of the glade, and, rash as the act was, I followed the sound. I
crossed the glade as silently as my own shadow. On its further side the path
went on. Albeit with many fears, I went on too. The jungle growth was so thick
here that it almost met overhead, leaving so small a passage for the light that
I could scarcely see to grope my way along. Presently, however, it widened, and
then opened into a second glade slightly smaller than the first, and there, on
the further side of it, about eighty yards from me, stood the three enormous
elephants.

“They stood thus:—Immediately opposite and facing me was the
wounded one-tusked bull. He was leaning his bulk against a dead thorn-tree, the
only one in the place, and looked very sick indeed. Near him stood the second
bull as though keeping a watch over him. The third elephant was a good deal
nearer to me and broadside on. While I was still staring at them, this elephant
suddenly walked off and vanished down a path in the bush to the right.

“There are now two things to be done—either I could go back to the
camp and advance upon the elephants at dawn, or I could attack them at once.
The first was, of course, by far the wiser and safer course. To engage one
elephant by moonlight and single-handed is a sufficiently rash proceeding; to
tackle three was little short of lunacy. But, on the other hand, I knew that
they would be on the march again before daylight, and there might come another
day of weary trudging before I could catch them up, or they might escape me
altogether.

“‘No,’ I thought to myself, ‘faint heart never won fair
tusk. I’ll risk it, and have a slap at them. But how?’ I could not
advance across the open, for they would see me; clearly the only thing to do
was to creep round in the shadow of the bush and try to come upon them so. So I
started. Seven or eight minutes of careful stalking brought me to the mouth of
the path down which the third elephant had walked. The other two were now about
fifty yards from me, and the nature of the wall of bush was such that I could
not see how to get nearer to them without being discovered. I hesitated, and
peeped down the path which the elephant had followed. About five yards in, it
took a turn round a shrub. I thought that I would just have a look behind it,
and advanced, expecting that I should be able to catch a sight of the
elephant’s tail. As it happened, however, I met his trunk coming round
the corner. It is very disconcerting to see an elephant’s trunk when you
expect to see his tail, and for a moment I stood paralyzed almost under the
vast brute’s head, for he was not five yards from me. He too halted,
threw up his trunk and trumpeted preparatory to a charge. I was in for it now,
for I could not escape either to the right or left, on account of the bush, and
I did not dare turn my back. So I did the only thing that I could
do—raised the rifle and fired at the black mass of his chest. It was too
dark for me to pick a shot; I could only brown him, as it were.

“The shot rung out like thunder on the quiet air, and the elephant
answered it with a scream, then dropped his trunk and stood for a second or two
as still as though he had been cut in stone. I confess that I lost my head; I
ought to have fired my second barrel, but I did not. Instead of doing so, I
rapidly opened my rifle, pulled out the old cartridge from the right barrel and
replaced it. But before I could snap the breech to, the bull was at me. I saw
his great trunk fly up like a brown beam, and I waited no longer. Turning, I
fled for dear life, and after me thundered the elephant. Right into the open
glade I ran, and then, thank Heaven, just as he was coming up with me the
bullet took effect on him. He had been shot right through the heart, or lungs,
and down he fell with a crash, stone dead.

“But in escaping from Scylla I had run into the jaws of Charybdis. I
heard the elephant fall, and glanced round. Straight in front of me, and not
fifteen paces away, were the other two bulls. They were staring about, and at
that moment they caught sight of me. Then they came, the pair of
them—came like thunderbolts, and from different angles. I had only time
to snap my rifle to, lift it, and fire, almost at haphazard, at the head of the
nearest, the unwounded bull.

“Now, as you know, in the case of the African elephant, whose skull is
convex, and not concave like that of the Indian, this is always a most risky
and very frequently a perfectly useless shot. The bullet loses itself in the
masses of bone, that is all. But there is one little vital place, and should
the bullet happen to strike there, it will follow the channel of the
nostrils—at least I suppose it is that of the nostrils—and reach
the brain. And this was what happened in the present case—the ball struck
the fatal spot in the region of the eye and travelled to the brain. Down came
the great bull all of a heap, and rolled on to his side as dead as a stone. I
swung round at that instant to face the third, the monster bull with one tusk
that I had wounded two days before. He was already almost over me, and in the
dim moonlight seemed to tower above me like a house. I lifted the rifle and
pulled at his neck. It would not go off! Then, in a flash, as it were, I
remembered that it was on the half-cock. The lock of this barrel was a little
weak, and a few days before, in firing at a cow eland, the left barrel had
jarred off at the shock of the discharge of the right, knocking me backwards
with the recoil; so after that I had kept it on the half-cock till I actually
wanted to fire it.

“I gave one desperate bound to the right, and, my lame leg
notwithstanding, I believe that few men could have made a better jump. At any
rate, it was none too soon, for as I jumped I felt the wind made by the
tremendous downward stroke of the monster’s trunk. Then I ran for it.

“I ran like a buck, still keeping hold of my gun, however. My idea, so
far as I could be said to have any fixed idea, was to bolt down the pathway up
which I had come, like a rabbit down a burrow, trusting that he would lose
sight of me in the uncertain light. I sped across the glade. Fortunately the
bull, being wounded, could not go full speed; but wounded or no, he could go
quite as fast as I could. I was unable to gain an inch, and away we went, with
just about three feet between our separate extremities. We were at the other
side now, and a glance served to show me that I had miscalculated and overshot
the opening. To reach it now was hopeless; I should have blundered straight
into the elephant. So I did the only thing I could do: I swerved like a course
hare, and started off round the edge of the glade, seeking for some opening
into which I could plunge. This gave me a moment’s start, for the bull
could not turn as quickly as I could, and I made the most of it. But no opening
could I see; the bush was like a wall. We were speeding round the edge of the
glade, and the elephant was coming up again. Now he was within about six feet,
and now, as he trumpeted or rather screamed, I could feel the fierce hot blast
of his breath strike upon my head. Heavens! how it frightened me!

“We were three parts round the glade now, and about fifty yards ahead was
the single large dead thorn-tree against which the bull had been leaning. I
spurted for it; it was my last chance of safety. But spurt as I would, it
seemed hours before I got there. Putting out my right hand, I swung round the
tree, thus bringing myself face to face with the elephant. I had not time to
lift the rifle to fire, I had barely time to cock it, and run sideways and
backward, when he was on to me. Crash! he came, striking the tree full with his
forehead. It snapped like a carrot about forty inches from the ground.
Fortunately I was clear of the trunk, but one of the dead branches struck me on
the chest as it went down and swept me to the ground. I fell upon my back, and
the elephant blundered past me as I lay. More by instinct than anything else I
lifted the rifle with one hand and pulled the trigger. It exploded, and, as I
discovered afterwards, the bullet struck him in the ribs. But the recoil of the
heavy rifle held thus was very severe; it bent my arm up, and sent the butt
with a thud against the top of my shoulder and the side of my neck, for the
moment quite paralyzing me, and causing the weapon to jump from my grasp.
Meanwhile the bull was rushing on. He travelled for some twenty paces, and then
suddenly he stopped. Faintly I reflected that he was coming back to finish me,
but even the prospect of imminent and dreadful death could not rouse me into
action. I was utterly spent; I could not move.

“Idly, almost indifferently, I watched his movements. For a moment he
stood still, next he trumpeted till the welkin rang, and then very slowly, and
with great dignity, he knelt down. At this point I swooned away.

“When I came to myself again I saw from the moon that I must have been
insensible for quite two hours. I was drenched with dew, and shivering all
over. At first I could not think where I was, when, on lifting my head, I saw
the outline of the one-tusked bull still kneeling some five-and-twenty paces
from me. Then I remembered. Slowly I raised myself, and was instantly taken
with a violent sickness, the result of over-exertion, after which I very nearly
fainted a second time. Presently I grew better, and considered the position.
Two of the elephants were, as I knew, dead; but how about No. 3? There he knelt
in majesty in the lonely moonlight. The question was, was he resting, or dead?
I rose on my hands and knees, loaded my rifle, and painfully crept a few paces
nearer. I could see his eye now, for the moonlight fell full upon it—it
was open, and rather prominent. I crouched and watched; the eyelid did not
move, nor did the great brown body, or the trunk, or the ear, or the
tail—nothing moved. Then I knew that he must be dead.

“I crept up to him, still keeping the rifle well forward, and gave him a
thump, reflecting as I did so how very near I had been to being thumped instead
of thumping. He never stirred; certainly he was dead, though to this day I do
not know if it was my random shot that killed him, or if he died from
concussion of the brain consequent upon the tremendous shock of his contact
with the tree. Anyhow, there he was. Cold and beautiful he lay, or rather
knelt, as the poet neatly puts it. Indeed, I do not think that I have ever seen
a sight more imposing in its way than that of the mighty beast crouched in
majestic death, and shone upon by the lonely moon.

“While I stood admiring the scene, and heartily congratulating myself
upon my escape, once more I began to feel sick. Accordingly, without waiting to
examine the other two bulls, I staggered back to the camp, which in due course
I reached in safety. Everybody in it was asleep. I did not wake them, but
having swallowed a mouthful of brandy I threw off my coat and shoes, rolled
myself up in a blanket, and was soon fast asleep.

“When I woke it was already light, and at first I thought that, like
Joseph, I had dreamed a dream. At that moment, however, I turned my head, and
quickly knew that it was no dream, for my neck and face were so stiff from the
blow of the butt-end of the rifle that it was agony to move them. I collapsed
for a minute or two. Gobo and another man, wrapped up like a couple of monks in
their blankets, thinking that I was still asleep, were crouched over a little
fire they had made, for the morning was damp and chilly, and holding sweet
converse.

“Gobo said that he was getting tired of running after elephants which
they never caught. Macumazahn (that is, myself) was without doubt a man of
parts, and of some skill in shooting, but also he was a fool. None but a fool
would run so fast and far after elephants which it was impossible to catch,
when they kept cutting the spoor of fresh ones. He certainly was a fool, but he
must not be allowed to continue in his folly; and he, Gobo, had determined to
put a stop to it. He should refuse to accompany him any further on so mad a
hunt.

“‘Yes,’ the other answered, ‘the poor man certainly was
sick in his head, and it was quite time that they checked his folly while they
still had a patch of skin left upon their feet. Moreover, he for his part
certainly did not like this country of Wambe’s, which really was full of
ghosts. Only the last night he had heard the spooks at work—they were out
shooting, at least it sounded as though they were. It was very queer, but
perhaps their lunatic of a master——’

“‘Gobo, you scoundrel!’ I shouted out at this juncture,
sitting bolt upright on the blankets, ‘stop idling there and make me some
coffee.’

“Up sprang Gobo and his friend, and in half a moment were respectfully
skipping about in a manner that contrasted well with the lordly contempt of
their previous conversation. But all the time they were in earnest in what they
said about hunting the elephants any further, for before I had finished my
coffee they came to me in a body, and said that if I wanted to follow those
elephants I must follow them myself, for they would not go.

“I argued with them, and affected to be much put out. The elephants were
close at hand, I said; I was sure of it; I had heard them trumpet in the night.

“‘Yes,’ answered the men mysteriously, ‘they too had
heard things in the night, things not nice to hear; they had heard the spooks
out shooting, and no longer would they remain in a country so vilely
haunted.’

“‘It was nonsense,’ I replied. ‘If ghosts went out
shooting, surely they would use air-guns and not black powder, and one would
not hear an air-gun. Well, if they were cowards, and would not come, of course
I could not force them to, but I would make a bargain with them. They should
follow those elephants for one half-hour more, then if we failed to come upon
them I would abandon the pursuit, and we would go straight to Wambe, chief of
the Matuku, and give him hongo.’

“To this compromise the men agreed readily. Accordingly about
half-an-hour later we struck our camp and started, and notwithstanding my aches
and bruises, I do not think that I ever felt in better spirits in my life. It
is something to wake up in the morning and remember that in the dead of the
night, single-handed, one has given battle to and overthrown three of the
largest elephants in Africa, slaying them with three bullets. Such a feat to my
knowledge had never been done before, and on that particular morning I felt a
very ‘tall man of my hands’ indeed. The only thing I feared was,
that should I ever come to tell the story nobody would believe it, for when a
strange tale is told by a hunter, people are apt to think it is necessarily a
lie, instead of being only probably so.[*]

[*] For the satisfaction of any who may be so disbelieving as to take this view
of Mr. Quatermain’s story, the Editor may state that a gentleman with
whom he is acquainted, and whose veracity he believes to be beyond doubt, not
long ago described to him how he chanced to kill four African elephants
with four consecutive bullets. Two of these elephants were charging him
simultaneously, and out of the four three were killed with the head shot, a
very uncommon thing in the case of the African elephant.—Editor.

“Well, we passed on till, having crossed the first glade where I had seen
the lions, we reached the neck of bush that separated it from the second glade,
where the dead elephants were. And here I began to take elaborate precautions,
amongst others ordering Gobo to keep some yards ahead and look out sharp, as I
thought that the elephants might be about. He obeyed my instructions with a
superior smile, and pushed ahead. Presently I saw him pull up as though he had
been shot, and begin to snap his fingers faintly.

“‘What is it?’ I whispered.

“‘The elephant, the great elephant with one tusk kneeling
down.’

“I crept up beside him. There knelt the bull as I had left him last
night, and there too lay the other bulls.

“‘Do these elephants sleep?’ I whispered to the astonished
Gobo.

“‘Yes, Macumazahn, they sleep.’

“‘Nay, Gobo, they are dead.’

“‘Dead? How can they be dead? Who killed them?’

“‘What do people call me, Gobo?’

“‘They call you Macumazahn.’

“‘And what does Macumazahn mean?’

“‘It means the man who keeps his eyes open, the man who gets up in
the night.’

“‘Yes, Gobo, and I am that man. Look, you idle, lazy cowards; while
you slept last night I rose, and alone I hunted those great elephants, and slew
them by the moonlight. To each of them I gave one bullet and only one, and it
fell dead. Look,’ and I advanced into the glade, ‘here is my spoor,
and here is the spoor of the great bull charging after me, and there is the
tree that I took refuge behind; see, the elephant shattered it in his charge.
Oh, you cowards, you who would give up the chase while the blood spoor steamed
beneath your nostrils, see what I did single-handed while you slept, and be
ashamed.’

“‘Ou!’ said the men, ‘ou! Koos! Koos y
umcool!’ (Chief, great Chief!) And then they held their tongues, and
going up to the three dead beasts, gazed upon them in silence.

“But after that those men looked upon me with awe as being almost more
than mortal. No mere man, they said, could have slain those three elephants
alone in the night-time. I never had any further trouble with them. I believe
that if I had told them to jump over a precipice and that they would take no
harm, they would have believed me.

“Well, I went up and examined the bulls. Such tusks as they had I never
saw and never shall see again. It took us all day to cut them out; and when
they reached Delagoa Bay, as they did ultimately, though not in my keeping, the
single tusk of the big bull scaled one hundred and sixty pounds, and the four
other tusks averaged ninety-nine and a half pounds—a most wonderful,
indeed an almost unprecedented, lot of ivory.[*] Unfortunately I was forced to
saw the big tusk in two, otherwise we could not have carried it.”

[*] The largest elephant tusk of which the Editor has any certain knowledge
scaled one hundred and fifty pounds.

“Oh, Quatermain, you barbarian!” I broke in here, “the idea
of spoiling such a tusk! Why, I would have kept it whole if I had been obliged
to drag it myself.”

“Oh yes, young man,” he answered, “it is all very well for
you to talk like that, but if you had found yourself in the position which it
was my privilege to occupy a few hours afterwards, it is my belief that you
would have thrown the tusks away altogether and taken to your heels.”

“Oh,” said Good, “so that isn’t the end of the yarn? A
very good yarn, Quatermain, by the way—I couldn’t have made up a
better one myself.”

The old gentleman looked at Good severely, for it irritated him to be chaffed
about his stories.

“I don’t know what you mean, Good. I don’t see that there is
any comparison between a true story of adventure and the preposterous tales
which you invent about ibex hanging by their horns. No, it is not the end of
the story; the most exciting part is to come. But I have talked enough for
to-night; and if you go on in that way, Good, it will be some time before I
begin again.”

“Sorry I spoke, I’m sure,” said Good, humbly.
“Let’s have a split to show that there is no ill-feeling.”
And they did.

CHAPTER V.

THE MESSAGE OF MAIWA

On the following evening we once more dined together, and Quatermain, after
some pressure, was persuaded to continue his story—for Good’s
remark still rankled in his breast.

“At last,” he went on, “a few minutes before sunset, the task
was finished. We had laboured at it all day, stopping only once for dinner, for
it is no easy matter to hew out five such tusks as those which now lay before
me in a white and gleaming line. It was a dinner worth eating, too, I can tell
you, for we dined off the heart of the great one-tusked bull, which was so big
that the man whom I sent inside the elephant to look for his heart was forced
to remove it in two pieces. We cut it into slices and fried it with fat, and I
never tasted heart to equal it, for the meat seemed to melt in one’s
mouth. By the way, I examined the jaw of the elephant; it never grew but one
tusk; the other had not been broken off, nor was it present in a rudimentary
form.

“Well, there lay the five beauties, or rather four of them, for Gobo and
another man were engaged in sawing the grand one in two. At last with many
sighs I ordered them to do this, but not until by practical experiment I had
proved that it was impossible to carry it in any other way. One hundred and
sixty pounds of solid ivory, or rather more in its green state, is too great a
weight for two men to bear for long across a broken country. I sat watching the
job and smoking the pipe of contentment, when suddenly the bush opened, and a
very handsome and dignified native girl, apparently about twenty years of age,
stood before me, carrying a basket of green mealies upon her head.

“Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild
spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way from any kraal, the matter did not
attract my particular notice; I merely called to one of the men, and told him
to bargain with the woman for the mealies, and ask her if there were any more
to be bought in the neighbourhood. Then I turned my head and continued to
superintend the cutting of the tusk. Presently a shadow fell upon me. I looked
up, and saw that the girl was standing before me, the basket of mealies still
on her head.

“‘Marême, Marême,’ she said, gently clapping her hands
together. The word Marême among these Matuku (though she was no Matuku) answers
to the Zulu ‘Koos,’ and the clapping of hands is a form of
salutation very common among the tribes of the Basutu race.

“‘What is it, girl?’ I asked her in Sisutu. ‘Are those
mealies for sale?’

“‘No, great white hunter,’ she answered in Zulu, ‘I
bring them as a gift.’

“‘Good,’ I replied; ‘set them down.’

“‘A gift for a gift, white man.’

“‘Ah,’ I grumbled, ‘the old story—nothing for
nothing in this wicked world. What do you want—beads?’

“She nodded, and I was about to tell one of the men to go and fetch some
from one of the packs, when she checked me.

“‘A gift from the giver’s own hand is twice a gift,’
she said, and I thought that she spoke meaningly.

“‘You mean that you want me to give them to you myself?’

“‘Surely.’

“I rose to go with her. ‘How is it that, being of the Matuku, you
speak in the Zulu tongue?’ I asked suspiciously.

“‘I am not of the Matuku,’ she answered as soon as we were
out of hearing of the men. ‘I am of the people of Nala, whose tribe is
the Butiana tribe, and who lives there,’ and she pointed over the
mountain. ‘Also I am one of the wives of Wambe,’ and her eyes
flashed as she said the name.

“‘And how did you come here?’

“‘On my feet,’ she answered laconically.

“We reached the packs, and undoing one of them, I extracted a handful of
beads. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘a gift for a gift. Hand over the
mealies.’

“She took the beads without even looking at them, which struck me as
curious, and setting the basket of mealies on the ground, emptied it.

“At the bottom of the basket were some curiously-shaped green leaves,
rather like the leaves of the gutta-percha tree in shape, only somewhat thicker
and of a more fleshy substance. As though by hazard, the girl picked one of
these leaves out of the basket and smelt it. Then she handed it to me. I took
the leaf, and supposing that she wished me to smell it also, was about to
oblige her by doing so, when my eye fell upon some curious red scratches on the
green surface of the leaf.

“‘Ah,’ said the girl (whose name, by the way, was Maiwa),
speaking beneath her breath, ‘read the signs, white man.’

“Without answering her I continued to stare at the leaf. It had been
scratched or rather written upon with a sharp tool, such as a nail, and
wherever this instrument had touched it, the acid juice oozing through the
outer skin had turned a rusty blood colour. Presently I found the beginning of
the scrawl, and read this in English, and covering the surface of the leaf and
of two others that were in the basket.

“‘I hear that a white man is hunting in the Matuku country. This is
to warn him to fly over the mountain to Nala. Wambe sends an impi at daybreak
to eat him up, because he has hunted before bringing hongo. For God’s
sake, whoever you are, try to help me. I have been the slave of this devil
Wambe for nearly seven years, and am beaten and tortured continually. He
murdered all the rest of us, but kept me because I could work iron. Maiwa, his
wife, takes this; she is flying to Nala her father because Wambe killed her
child. Try to get Nala to attack Wambe; Maiwa can guide them over the mountain.
You won’t come for nothing, for the stockade of Wambe’s private
kraal is made of elephants’ tusks. For God’s sake, don’t
desert me, or I shall kill myself. I can bear this no longer.

“‘John Every.’

“‘Great heavens!’ I gasped. ‘Every!—why, it must
be my old friend.’ The girl, or rather the woman Maiwa, pointed to the
other side of the leaf, where there was more writing. It ran
thus—‘I have just heard that the white man is called Macumazahn. If
so, it must be my friend Quatermain. Pray Heaven it is, for I know he
won’t desert an old chum in such a fix as I am. It isn’t that
I’m afraid of dying, I don’t care if I die, but I want to get a
chance at Wambe first.’

“‘No, old boy,’ thought I to myself, ‘it isn’t
likely that I am going to leave you there while there is a chance of getting
you out. I have played fox before now—there’s still a double or two
left in me. I must make a plan, that’s all. And then there’s that
stockade of tusks. I am not going to leave that either.’ Then I spoke to
the woman.

“‘You are called Maiwa?’

“‘It is so.’

“‘You are the daughter of Nala and the wife of Wambe?’

“‘It is so.’

“‘You fly from Wambe to Nala?’

“‘I do.’

“‘Why do you fly? Stay, I would give an order,’—and
calling to Gobo, I ordered him to get the men ready for instant departure. The
woman, who, as I have said, was quite young and very handsome, put her hand
into a little pouch made of antelope hide which she wore fastened round the
waist, and to my horror drew from it the withered hand of a child, which
evidently had been carefully dried in the smoke.

“‘I fly for this cause,’ she answered, holding the poor
little hand towards me. ‘See now, I bore a child. Wambe was its father,
and for eighteen months the child lived and I loved it. But Wambe loves not his
children; he kills them all. He fears lest they should grow up to slay one so
wicked, and he would have killed this child also, but I begged its life. One
day, some soldiers passing the hut saw the child and saluted him, calling him
the “chief who soon shall be.” Wambe heard, and was mad. He smote
the babe, and it wept. Then he said that it should weep for good cause. Among
the things that he had stolen from the white men whom he slew is a trap that
will hold lions. So strong is the trap that four men must stand on it, two on
either side, before it can be opened.’”

Here old Quatermain broke off suddenly.

“Look here, you fellows,” he said, “I can’t bear to go
on with this part of the story, because I never could stand either seeing or
talking of the sufferings of children. You can guess what that devil did, and
what the poor mother was forced to witness. Would you believe it, she told me
the tale without a tremor, in the most matter-of-fact way. Only I noticed that
her eyelid quivered all the time.

“‘Well,’ I said, as unconcernedly as though I had been
talking of the death of a lamb, though inwardly I was sick with horror and
boiling with rage, ‘and what do you mean to do about the matter, Maiwa,
wife of Wambe?’

“‘I mean to do this, white man,’ she answered, drawing
herself up to her full height, and speaking in tones as hard as steel and cold
as ice—‘I mean to work, and work, and work, to bring this to pass,
and to bring that to pass, until at length it comes to pass that with these
living eyes I behold Wambe dying the death that he gave to his child and my
child.’

“‘Well said,’ I answered.

“‘Ay, well said, Macumazahn, well said, and not easily forgotten.
Who could forget, oh, who could forget? See where this dead hand rests against
my side; so once it rested when alive. And now, though it is dead, now every
night it creeps from its nest and strokes my hair and clasps my fingers in its
tiny palm. Every night it does this, fearing lest I should forget. Oh, my
child! my child! ten days ago I held thee to my breast, and now this alone
remains of thee,’ and she kissed the dead hand and shivered, but never a
tear did she weep.

“‘See now,’ she went on, ‘the white man, the prisoner
at Wambe’s kraal, he was kind to me. He loved the child that is dead,
yes, he wept when its father slew it, and at the risk of his life told Wambe,
my husband—ah, yes, my husband!—that which he is! He too it was who
made a plan. He said to me, “Go, Maiwa, after the custom of thy people,
go purify thyself in the bush alone, having touched a dead one. Say to Wambe
thou goest to purify thyself alone for fifteen days, according to the custom of
thy people. Then fly to thy father, Nala, and stir him up to war against Wambe
for the sake of the child that is dead.” This then he said, and his words
seemed good to me, and that same night ere I left to purify myself came news
that a white man hunted in the country, and Wambe, being mad with drink, grew
very wrath, and gave orders that an impi should be gathered to slay the white
man and his people and seize his goods. Then did the “Smiter of
Iron” (Every) write the message on the green leaves, and bid me seek thee
out, and show forth the matter, that thou mightest save thyself by flight; and
behold, this thing have I done, Macumazahn, the hunter, the Slayer of
Elephants.’

“‘Ah,’ I said, ‘I thank you. And how many men be there
in the impi of Wambe?’

“‘A hundred of men and half a hundred.’

“‘And where is the impi?’

“‘There to the north. It follows on thy spoor. I saw it pass
yesterday, but myself I guessed that thou wouldst be nigher to the mountain,
and came this way, and found thee. To-morrow at the daybreak the slayers will
be here.’

“‘Very possibly,’ I thought to myself; ‘but they
won’t find Macumazahn. I have half a mind to put some strychnine into the
carcases of those elephants for their especial benefit though.’ I knew
that they would stop to eat the elephants, as indeed they did, to our great
gain, but I abandoned the idea of poisoning them, because I was rather short of
strychnine.”

“Or because you did not like to play the trick, Quatermain?” I
suggested with a laugh.

“I said because I had not enough strychnine. It would take a great deal
of strychnine to poison three elephants effectually,” answered the old
gentleman testily.

I said nothing further, but I smiled, knowing that old Allan could never have
resorted to such an artifice, however severe his strait. But that was his way;
he always made himself out to be a most unmerciful person.

“Well,” he went on, “at that moment Gobo came up and
announced that we were ready to march. ‘I am glad that you are
ready,’ I said, ‘because if you don’t march, and march quick,
you will never march again, that is all. Wambe has an impi out to kill us, and
it will be here presently.’

“Gobo turned positively green, and his knees knocked together. ‘Ah,
what did I say?’ he exclaimed. ‘Fate walks about loose in
Wambe’s country.’

“‘Very good; now all you have to do is to walk a little quicker
than he does. No, no, you don’t leave those elephant tusks behind—I
am not going to part with them I can tell you.’

“Gobo said no more, but hastily directed the men to take up their loads,
and then asked which way we were to run.

“‘Ah,’ I said to Maiwa, ‘which way?’

“‘There,’ she answered, pointing towards the great mountain
spur which towered up into the sky some forty miles away, separating the
territories of Nala and Wambe—‘there, below that small peak, is one
place where men may pass, and one only. Also it can easily be blocked from
above. If men pass not there, then they must go round the great peak of the
mountain, two days’ journey and half a day.’

“‘And how far is the peak from us?’

“‘All to-night shall you walk and all to-morrow, and if you walk
fast, at sunset you shall stand on the peak.’

“I whistled, for that meant a five-and-forty miles trudge without sleep.
Then I called to the men to take each of them as much cooked elephant’s
meat as he could carry conveniently. I did the same myself, and forced the
woman Maiwa to eat some as we went. This I did with difficulty, for at that
time she seemed neither to sleep nor eat nor rest, so fiercely was she set on
vengeance.

“Then we started, Maiwa guiding us. After going for a half-hour over
gradually rising ground, we found ourselves on the further edge of a great
bush-clad depression something like the bottom of a lake. This depression,
through which we had been travelling, was covered with bush to a very great
extent, indeed almost altogether so, except where it was pitted with glades
such as that wherein I had shot the elephants.

“At the top of this slope Maiwa halted, and putting her hand over her
eyes looked back. Presently she touched me on the arm and pointed across the
sea of forest towards a comparatively vacant space of country some six or seven
miles away. I looked, and suddenly I saw something flash in the red rays of the
setting sun. A pause, and then another quick flash.

“‘What is it?’ I asked.

“‘It is the spears of Wambe’s impi, and they travel
fast,’ she answered coolly.

“I suppose that my face showed how little I liked the news, for she went
on—

“‘Fear not; they will stay to feast upon the elephants, and while
they feast we shall journey. We may yet escape.’

“After that we turned and pushed on again, till at length it grew so dark
that we had to wait for the rising of the moon, which lost us time, though it
gave us rest. Fortunately none of the men had seen that ominous flashing of the
spears; if they had, I doubt if even I could have kept control of them. As it
was, they travelled faster than I had ever known loaded natives to go before,
so thorough-paced was their desire to see the last of Wambe’s country. I,
however, took the precaution to march last of all, fearing lest they should
throw away their loads to lighten themselves, or, worse still, the tusks; for
these kind of fellows would be capable of throwing anything away if their own
skins were at stake. If the pious Æneas, whose story you were reading to me the
other night, had been a mongrel Delagoa Bay native, Anchises would have had a
poor chance of getting out of Troy, that is, if he was known to have made a
satisfactory will.

“At moonrise we set out again, and with short occasional halts travelled
till dawn, when we were forced to rest and eat. Starting once more, about
half-past five, we crossed the river at noon. Then began the long toilsome
ascent through thick bush, the same in which I shot the bull buffalo, only some
twenty miles to the west of that spot, and not more than twenty-five miles on
the hither side of Wambe’s kraal. There were six or seven miles of this
dense bush, and hard work it was to get through it. Next came a belt of
scattered forest which was easier to pass, though, in revenge, the ground was
steeper. This was about two miles wide, and we passed it by about four in the
afternoon. Above this scattered bush lay a long steep slope of boulder-strewn
ground, which ran up to the foot of the little peak some three miles away. As
we emerged, footsore and weary, on to this inhospitable plain, some of the men
looking round caught sight of the spears of Wambe’s impi advancing
rapidly not more than a mile behind us.

“At first there was a panic, and the bearers tried to throw off their
loads and run, but I harangued them, calling out to them that certainly I would
shoot the first man who did so and that if they would but trust in me I would
bring them through the mess. Now, ever since I had killed those three elephants
single-handed, I had gained great influence over these men, and they listened
to me. So off we went as hard as ever we could go—the members of the
Alpine Club would not have been in it with us. We made the boulders burn, as a
Frenchman would say.

“When we had done about a mile the spears began to emerge from the belt
of scattered bush, and the whoop of their bearers as they viewed us broke upon
our ears. Quick as our pace had been before, it grew much quicker now, for
terror lent wings to my gallant crew. But they were sorely tired, and the loads
were heavy, so that run, or rather climb, as we would, Wambe’s soldiers,
a scrubby-looking lot of men armed with big spears and small shields, but
without plumes, climbed considerably faster. The last mile of that pleasing
chase was like a fox hunt, we being the fox, and always in view. What
astonished me was the extraordinary endurance and activity shown by Maiwa. She
never even flagged. I think that girl’s muscles must have been made of
iron, or perhaps it was the strength of her will that supported her. At any
rate she reached the foot of the peak second, poor Gobo, who was an excellent
hand at running away, being first.

“Presently I came up panting, and glanced at the ascent. Before us was a
wall of rock about one hundred and fifty feet in height, upon which the strata
were laid so as to form a series of projections sufficiently resembling steps
to make the ascent easy, comparatively speaking, except at one spot, where it
was necessary to climb over a projecting angle of cliff and bear a little to
the left. It was not a really difficult place, but what made it awkward was,
that immediately beneath this projection gaped a deep fissure or donga, on the
brink of which we now stood, originally dug out, no doubt, by the rush of water
from the peak and cliff. This gulf beneath would be trying to the nerves of a
weak-headed climber at the critical point, and so it proved in the result. The
projecting angle once passed, the remainder of the ascent was very simple. At
the summit, however, the brow of the cliff hung over and was pierced by a
single narrow path cut through it by water, in such fashion that a single
boulder rolled into it at the top would make the cliff quite impassable to men
without ropes.

“At this moment Wambe’s soldiers were about a thousand yards from
us, so it was evident that we had no time to lose. I at once ordered the men to
commence the ascent, the girl Maiwa, who was familiar with the pass, going
first to show them the way. Accordingly they began to mount with alacrity,
pushing and lifting their loads in front of them. When the first of them, led
by Maiwa, reached the projecting angle, they put down their loads upon a ledge
of rock and clambered over. Once there, by lying on their stomachs upon a
boulder, they could reach the loads which were held to them by the men beneath,
and in this way drag them over the awkward place, whence they were carried
easily to the top.

“But all of this took time, and meanwhile the soldiers were coming up
fast, screaming and brandishing their big spears. They were now within about
four hundred yards, and several loads, together with all the tusks, had yet to
be got over the rock. I was still standing at the bottom of the cliff, shouting
directions to the men above, but it occurred to me that it would soon be time
to move. Before doing so, however, I thought that it might be well to try and
produce a moral effect upon the advancing enemy. In my hand I held a Winchester
repeating carbine, but the distance was too great for me to use it with effect,
so I turned to Gobo, who was shivering with terror at my side, and handing him
the carbine, took my express from him.

“The enemy was now about three hundred and fifty yards away, and the
express was only sighted to three hundred. Still I knew that it could be
trusted for the extra fifty yards. Running in front of Wambe’s soldiers
were two men—captains, I suppose—one of them very tall. I put up
the three hundred yard flap, and sitting down with my back against the rock, I
drew a long breath to steady myself, and covered the tall man, giving him a
full sight. Feeling that I was on him, I pulled, and before the sound of the
striking bullet could reach my ears, I saw the man throw up his arms and pitch
forward on to his head. His companion stopped dead, giving me a fair chance. I
rapidly covered him, and fired the left barrel. He turned round once, and then
sank down in a heap. This caused the enemy to hesitate—they had never
seen men killed at such a distance before, and thought that there was something
uncanny about the performance. Taking advantage of the lull, I gave the express
back to Gobo, and slinging the Winchester repeater over my back I began to
climb the cliff.

“When we reached the projecting angle all the loads were over, but the
tusks still had to be passed up, and owing to their weight and the smoothness
of their surface, this was a very difficult task. Of course I ought to have
abandoned the tusks; often and often have I since reproached myself for not
doing so. Indeed, I think that my obstinacy about them was downright sinful,
but I was always obstinate about such things, and I could not bear the idea of
leaving those splendid tusks which had cost me so much pains and danger to come
by. Well, it nearly cost me my life also, and did cost poor Gobo his, as will
be seen shortly, to say nothing of the loss inflicted by my rifle on the enemy.
When I reached the projection I found that the men, with their usual stupidity,
were trying to hand up the tusks point first. Now the result of this was that
those above had nothing to grip except the round polished surface of the ivory,
and in the position in which they were, this did not give them sufficient hold
to enable them to lift the weight. I told them to reverse the tusks and push
them up, so that the rough and hollow ends came to the hands of the men above.
This they did, and the first two were dragged up in safety.

“At this point, looking behind me, I saw the Matukus streaming up the
slope in a rough extended order, and not more than a hundred yards away.
Cocking the Winchester I turned and opened fire on them. I don’t quite
know how many I missed, but I do know that I never shot better in my life. I
had to keep shifting myself from one enemy to the other, firing almost without
getting a sight, that is, by the eye alone, after the fashion of the experts
who break glass balls. But quick as the work was, men fell thick, and by the
time that I had emptied the carbine of its twelve cartridges, for the moment
the advance was checked. I rapidly pushed in some more cartridges, and hardly
had I done so when the enemy, seeing that we were about to escape them
altogether, came on once more with a tremendous yell. By this time the two
halves of the single tusk of the great bull alone remained to be passed up. I
fired and fired as effectively as before, but notwithstanding all that I could
do, some men escaped my hail of bullets and began to ascend the cliff.
Presently my rifle was again empty. I slung it over my back, and, drawing my
revolver, turned to run for it, the attackers being now quite close. As I did
so, a spear struck the cliff close to my head.

“The last half of the tusk was now vanishing over the rock, and I sung
out to Gobo and the other man who had been pushing it up to vanish after it.
Gobo, poor fellow, required no second invitation; indeed, his haste was his
undoing. He went at the projecting rock with a bound. The end of the tusk was
still hanging over, and instead of grasping the rock he caught at it. It
twisted in his hand—he slipped—he fell; with one wild shriek he
vanished into the abyss beneath, his falling body brushing me as it passed. For
a moment we stood aghast, and presently the dull thud of his fall smote heavily
upon our ears. Poor fellow, he had met the Fate which, as he declared, walked
about loose in Wambe’s country. Then with an oath the remaining man
sprung at the rock and clambered over it in safety. Aghast at the awfulness of
what had happened, I stood still, till I saw the great blade of a Matuku spear
pass up between my feet. That brought me to my senses, and I began to clamber
up the rock like a cat. I was half way round it. Already I had clasped the hand
of that brave girl Maiwa, who came down to help me, the men having scrambled
forward with the ivory, when I felt some one seize my ankle.

“‘Pull, Maiwa, pull,’ I gasped, and she certainly did pull.
Maiwa was a very muscular woman, and never before did I appreciate the
advantages of the physical development of females so keenly. She tugged at my
left arm, the savage below tugged at my right leg, till I began to realize that
something must give way ere long. Luckily I retained my presence of mind, like
the man who threw his mother-in-law out of the window, and carried the mattress
down-stairs, when a fire broke out in his house. My right hand was still free,
and in it I held my revolver, which was secured to my wrist by a leather thong.
The pistol was cocked, and I simply pointed it downwards and fired. The result
was instantaneous—and so far as I am concerned, most satisfactory. The
bullet hit the man beneath me somewhere, I am sure I don’t know where; at
any rate, he let go of my leg and plunged headlong into the gulf beneath to
join Gobo. In another moment I was on the top of the rock, and going up the
remaining steps like a lamplighter. A single other soldier appeared in pursuit,
but one of my boys at the top fired my elephant gun at him. I don’t know
if he hit him or only frightened him; at any rate, he vanished whence he came.
I do know, however, that he very nearly hit me, for I felt the wind of
the bullet.

“Another thirty seconds, and I and the woman Maiwa were at the top of the
cliff panting, but safe.

“My men, being directed thereto by Maiwa, had most fortunately rolled up
some big boulders which lay about, and with these we soon managed to block the
passage through the overhanging ridge of rock in such fashion that the soldiers
below could not possibly climb over it. Indeed, so far as I could see, they did
not even try to do so—their heart was turned to fat, as the Zulus say.

“Then having rested a few moments we took up the loads, including the
tusks of ivory that had cost us so dear, and in silence marched on for a couple
of miles or more, till we reached a patch of dense bush. And here, being
utterly exhausted, we camped for the night, taking the precaution, however, of
setting a guard to watch against any attempt at surprise.”

CHAPTER VI.

THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN

“Notwithstanding all that we had gone through, perhaps indeed on account
of it, for I was thoroughly worn out, I slept that night as soundly as poor
Gobo, round whose crushed body the hyænas would now be prowling. Rising
refreshed at dawn we went on our way towards Nala’s kraal, which we
reached at nightfall. It is built on open ground after the Zulu fashion, in a
ring fence and with beehive huts. The cattle kraal is behind and a little to
the left. Indeed, both from their habits and their talk it was easy to see that
these Butiana belong to that section of the Bantu people which, since
T’Chaka’s time, has been known as the Zulu race. We did not see the
chief Nala that night. His daughter Maiwa went on to his private huts as soon
as we arrived, and very shortly afterwards one of his head men came to us
bringing a sheep and some mealies and milk with him. ‘The chief sent us
greeting,’ he said, ‘and would see us on the morrow.’
Meanwhile he was ordered to bring us to a place of resting, where we and our
goods should be safe and undisturbed. Accordingly he led the way to some very
good huts just outside Nala’s private enclosure, and here we slept
comfortably.

“On the morrow about eight o’clock the head man came again, and
said that Nala requested that I would visit him. I followed him into the
private enclosure and was introduced to the chief, a fine-looking man of about
fifty, with very delicately-shaped hands and feet, and a rather nervous mouth.
The chief was seated on a tanned ox-hide outside his hut. By his side stood his
daughter Maiwa, and squatted on their haunches round him were some twenty head
men or Indunas, whose number was continually added to by fresh arrivals. These
men saluted me as I entered, and the chief rose and took my hand, ordering a
stool to be brought for me to sit on. When this was done, with much eloquence
and native courtesy he thanked me for protecting his daughter in the painful
and dangerous circumstances in which she found herself placed, and also
complimented me very highly upon what he was pleased to call the bravery with
which I had defended the pass in the rocks. I answered in appropriate terms,
saying that it was to Maiwa herself that thanks were due, for had it not been
for her warning and knowledge of the country we should not have been here
to-day; while as to the defence of the pass, I was fighting for my life, and
that put heart into me.

“These courtesies concluded, Nala called upon his daughter Maiwa to tell
her tale to the head men, and this she did most simply and effectively. She
reminded them that she had gone as an unwilling bride to Wambe—that no
cattle had been paid for her, because Wambe had threatened war if she was not
sent as a free gift. Since she had entered the kraal of Wambe her days had been
days of heaviness and her nights nights of weeping. She had been beaten, she
had been neglected and made to do the work of a low-born wife—she, a
chief’s daughter. She had borne a child, and this was the story of the
child. Then amidst a dead silence she told them the awful tale which she had
already narrated to me. When she had finished, her hearers gave a loud
ejaculation. ‘Ou!’ they said, ‘ou! Maiwa,
daughter of Nala!’

“‘Ay,’ she went on with flashing eyes, ‘ay, it is true;
my mouth is as full of truth as a flower of honey, and for tears my eyes are
like the dew upon the grass at dawn. It is true I saw the child die—here
is the proof of it, councillors,’ and she drew forth the little dead hand
and held it before them.

“‘Ou!’ they said again, ‘ou! it is the
dead hand!’

“‘Yes,’ she continued, ‘it is the dead hand of my dead
child, and I bear it with me that I may never forget, never for one short hour,
that I live that I may see Wambe die, and be avenged. Will you bear it, my
father, that your daughter and your daughter’s child should be so treated
by a Matuku? Will ye bear it, men of my own people?’

“‘No,’ said an old Induna, rising, ‘it is not to be
borne. Enough have we suffered at the hands of these Matuku dogs and their
loud-tongued chief; let us put it to the issue.’

“‘It is not to be borne indeed,’ said Nala; ‘but how
can we make head against so great a people?’

“‘Ask of him—ask of Macumazahn, the wise white man,’
said Maiwa, pointing at me.

“‘How can we overcome Wambe, Macumazahn the hunter?’

“‘How does the jackal overreach the lion, Nala?’

“‘By cleverness, Macumazahn.’

“‘So shall you overcome Wambe, Nala.’

“At this moment an interruption occurred. A man entered and said that
messengers had arrived from Wambe.

“‘What is their message?’ asked Nala.

“‘They come to ask that thy daughter Maiwa be sent back, and with
her the white hunter.’

“‘How shall I make answer to this, Macumazahn?’ said Nala,
when the man had withdrawn.

“‘Thus shalt thou answer,’ I said after reflection;
‘say that the woman shall be sent and I with her, and then bid the
messengers be gone. Stay, I will hide myself here in the hut that the men may
not see me,’ and I did.

“Shortly afterwards, through a crack in the hut, I saw the messengers
arrive, and they were great truculent-looking fellows. There were four of them,
and evidently they had travelled night and day. They entered with a swagger and
squatted down before Nala.

“‘Your business?’ said Nala, frowning.

“‘We come from Wambe, bearing the orders of Wambe to Nala his
servant,’ answered the spokesman of the party.

“‘Speak,’ said Nala, with a curious twitch of his
nervous-looking mouth.

“‘These are the words of Wambe: “Send back the woman, my
wife, who has run away from my kraal, and send with her the white man who has
dared to hunt in my country without my leave, and to slay my soldiers.”
These are the words of Wambe.’

“‘And if I say I will not send them?’ asked Nala.

“‘Then on behalf of Wambe we declare war upon you. Wambe will eat
you up. He will wipe you out; your kraals shall be stamped
flat—so,’ and with an expressive gesture he drew his hand across
his mouth to show how complete would be the annihilation of that chief who
dared to defy Wambe.

“‘These are heavy words,’ said Nala. ‘Let me take
counsel before I answer.’

“Then followed a little piece of acting that was really very creditable
to the untutored savage mind. The heralds withdrew, but not out of sight, and
Nala went through the show of earnestly consulting his Indunas. The girl Maiwa
too flung herself at his feet, and appeared to weep and implore his protection,
while he wrung his hands as though in doubt and tribulation of mind. At length
he summoned the messengers to draw near, and addressed them, while Maiwa sobbed
very realistically at his side.

“‘Wambe is a great chief,’ said Nala, ‘and this woman
is his wife, whom he has a right to claim. She must return to him, but her feet
are sore with walking, she cannot come now. In eight days from this day she
shall be delivered at the kraal of Wambe; I will send her with a party of my
men. As for the white hunter and his men, I have nought to do with them, and
cannot answer for their misdeeds. They have wandered hither unbidden by me, and
I will deliver them back whence they came, that Wambe may judge them according
to his law; they shall be sent with the girl. For you, go your ways. Food shall
be given you without the kraal, and a present for Wambe in atonement of the
ill-doing of my daughter. I have spoken.’

“At first the heralds seemed inclined to insist upon Maiwa’s
accompanying them then and there, but on being shown the swollen condition of
her feet, ultimately they gave up the point and departed.

“When they were well out of the way I emerged from the hut, and we went
on to discuss the situation and make our plans. First of all, as I was careful
to explain to Nala, I was not going to give him my experience and services for
nothing. I heard that Wambe had a stockade round his kraal made of elephant
tusks. These tusks, in the event of our succeeding in the enterprise, I should
claim as my perquisite, with the proviso that Nala should furnish me with men
to carry them down to the coast.

“To this modest request Nala and the head men gave an unqualified and
hearty assent, the more hearty perhaps because they never expected to get the
ivory.

“The next thing I stipulated was, that if we conquered, the white man
John Every should be handed over to me, together with any goods which he might
claim. His cruel captivity was, I need hardly say, the only reason that induced
me to join in so hair-brained an expedition, but I was careful from motives of
policy to keep this fact in the background. Nala accepted this condition. My
third stipulation was that no women or children should be killed. This being
also agreed to, we went on to consider ways and means. Wambe, it appeared, was
a very powerful petty chief, that is, he could put at least six thousand
fighting men into the field, and always had from three to four thousand
collected about his kraal, which was supposed to be impregnable. Nala, on the
contrary, at such short notice could not collect more than from twelve to
thirteen hundred men, though, being of the Zulu stock, they were of much better
stuff for fighting purposes than Wambe’s Matukus.

“These odds, though large, under the circumstances were not overwhelming.
The real obstacle to our chance of success was the difficulty of delivering a
crushing assault against Wambe’s strong place. This was, it appeared,
fortified all round with schanses or stone walls, and contained numerous caves
and koppies in the hill-side and at the foot of the mountain which no force had
ever been able to capture. It is said that in the time of the Zulu monarch
Dingaan, a great impi of that king’s having penetrated to this district,
had delivered an assault upon the kraal then owned by a forefather of
Wambe’s, and been beaten back with the loss of more than a thousand men.

“Having thought the question over, I interrogated Maiwa closely as to the
fortifications and the topographical peculiarities of the spot, and not without
results. I discovered that the kraal was indeed impregnable to a front attack,
but that it was very slightly defended to the rear, which ran up a slope of the
mountain, indeed only by two lines of stone walls. The reason of this was that
the mountain is quite impassable except by one secret path supposed to be known
only to the chief and his councillors, and this being so, it had not been
considered necessary to fortify it.

“‘Well,’ I said, when she had done, ‘and now as to this
secret path of thine—knowest thou aught of it?’

“‘Ay,’ she answered, ‘I am no fool, Macumazahn.
Knowledge learned is power earned. I won the secret of that path.’

“‘And canst thou guide an impi thereon so that it shall fall upon
the town from behind?’

“‘Yes, I can do this, if only Wambe’s people know not that
the impi comes, for if they know, then they can block the way.’

“‘So then here is my plan. Listen, Nala, and say if it be good, or
if thou hast a better, show it forth. Let messengers go out and summon all thy
impi, that it be gathered here on the third day from now. This being done, let
the impi, led by Maiwa, march on the morrow of the fourth day, and crossing the
mountains let it travel along on the other side of the mountains till it come
to the place on the further side of which is the kraal of Wambe; that shall be
some three days’ journey in all.[*] Then on the night of the third
day’s journey, let Maiwa lead the impi in silence up the secret path, so
that it comes to the crest of the mountain that is above the strong place, and
here let it hide among the rocks.

[*] About one hundred and twenty miles.—Editor.

“‘Meanwhile on the sixth day from now let one of thy Indunas, Nala,
bring with him two hundred men that have guns, and lead me and my men as
prisoners, and take also a girl from among the Butiana people, who by form and
face is like unto Maiwa, and bind her hands, and pass by the road on which we
came and through the cutting in the cliff on to the kraal of Wambe. But the men
shall take no shields or plumes with them, only their guns and one short spear,
and when they meet the people of Wambe they shall say that they come to give up
the woman and the white man and his party to Wambe, and to make atonement to
Wambe. So shall they pass in peace. And travelling thus, on the evening of the
seventh day we shall come to the gates of the place of Wambe, and nigh the
gates there is, so says Maiwa, a koppie very strong and full of rocks and
caves, but having no soldiers on it except in time of war, or at the worst but
a few such as can easily be overpowered.

“‘This being done, at the dawn of day the impi on the mountain
behind the town must light a fire and put wet grass on it, so that the smoke
goes up. Then at the sight of the smoke we in the koppie will begin to shoot
into the town of Wambe, and all the soldiers will run to kill us. But we will
hold our own, and while we fight the impi shall charge down the mountain side
and climb the schanses, and put those who defend them to the assegai, and then
falling upon the town shall surprise it, and drive the soldiers of Wambe as a
wind blows the dead husks of corn. This is my plan. I have spoken.’

“‘Ou!’ said Nala, ‘it is good, it is very good.
The white man is cleverer than a jackal. Yes, so shall it be; and may the snake
of the Butiana people stand up upon its tail and prosper the war, for so shall
we be rid of Wambe and the tyrannies of Wambe.’

“After that the girl Maiwa stood up, and once more producing the dreadful
little dried hand, made her father and several of his head councillors swear by
it and upon it that they would carry out the war of vengeance to the bitter
end. It was a very curious sight to see. And by the way, the fight that ensued
was thereafter known among the tribes of that district as the War of the Little
Hand.

“The next two days were busy ones for us. Messengers were sent out, and
every available man of the Butiana tribe was ordered up to ‘a great
dance.’ The country was small, and by the evening of the second day, some
twelve hundred and fifty men were assembled with their assegais and shields,
and a fine hardy troop they were. At dawn of the following day, the fourth from
the departure of the heralds, the main impi, having been doctored in the usual
fashion, started under the command of Nala himself, who, knowing that his life
and chieftainship hung upon the issue of the struggle, wisely determined to be
present to direct it. With them went Maiwa, who was to guide them up the secret
path. Of course we were obliged to give them two days’ start, as they had
more than a hundred miles of rough country to pass, including the crossing of
the great mountain range which ran north and south, for it was necessary that
the impi should make a wide détour in order to escape detection.

“At length, however, at dawn on the sixth day, I took the road,
accompanied by my most unwilling bearers, who did not at all like the idea of
thus putting their heads into the lion’s mouth. Indeed, it was only the
fear of Nala’s spears, together with a vague confidence in myself, that
induced them to accept the adventure. With me also were about two hundred
Butianas, all armed with guns of various kinds, for many of these people had
guns, though they were not very proficient in the use of them. But they carried
no shields and wore no head-dress or armlets; indeed, every warlike appearance
was carefully avoided. With our party went also a sister of Maiwa’s,
though by a different mother, who strongly resembled her in face and form, and
whose mission it was to impersonate the runaway wife.

“That evening we camped upon the top of the cliff up which we had so
barely escaped, and next morning at the first breaking of the light we rolled
away the stones with which we had blocked the passage some days before, and
descended to the hill-side beneath. Here the bodies, or rather the skeletons of
the men who had fallen before my rifle, still lay about. The Matuku soldiers
had left their comrades to be buried by the vultures. I descended the gully
into which poor Gobo had fallen, and searched for his body, but in vain,
although I found the spot where he and the other man had struck, together with
the bones of the latter, which I recognized by the waist-cloth. Either some
beast of prey had carried Gobo off, or the Matuku people had disposed of his
remains, and also of my express rifle which he carried. At any rate, I never
saw or heard any more of him.

“Once in Wambe’s country, we adopted a very circumspect method of
proceeding. About fifty men marched ahead in loose order to guard against
surprise, while as many more followed behind. The remaining hundred were
gathered in a bunch between, and in the centre of these men I marched, together
with the girl who was personating Maiwa, and all my bearers. We were disarmed,
and some of my men were tied together to show that we were prisoners, while the
girl had a blanket thrown over her head, and moved along with an air of great
dejection. We headed straight for Wambe’s place, which was at a distance
of about twenty-five miles from the mountain-pass.

“When we had gone some five miles we met a party of about fifty of
Wambe’s soldiers, who were evidently on the look-out for us. They stopped
us, and their captain asked where we were going. The head man of our party
answered that he was conveying Maiwa, Wambe’s runaway wife, together with
the white hunter and his men, to be given up to Wambe in accordance with his
command. The captain then wanted to know why we were so many, to which our
spokesman replied that I and my men were very desperate fellows, and that it
was feared that if we were sent with a smaller escort we should escape, and
bring disgrace and the wrath of Wambe upon their tribe. Thereon this gentleman,
the Matuku captain, began to amuse himself at my expense, and mock me, saying
that Wambe would make me pay for the soldiers whom I had killed. He would put
me into the ‘Thing that bites,’ in other words, the lion trap, and
leave me there to die like a jackal caught by the leg. I made no answer to
this, though my wrath was great, but pretended to look frightened. Indeed there
was not much pretence about it, I was frightened. I could not conceal from
myself that ours was a most hazardous enterprise, and that it was very possible
that I might make acquaintance with that lion trap before I was many days
older. However, it seemed quite impossible to desert poor Every in his
misfortune, so I had to go on, and trust to Providence, as I have so often been
obliged to do before and since.

“And now a fresh difficulty arose. Wambe’s soldiers insisted upon
accompanying us, and what is more, did all they could to urge us forward, as
they were naturally anxious to get to the chief’s place before evening.
But we, on the other hand, had excellent reasons for not arriving till night
was closing in, since we relied upon the gloom to cover our advance upon the
koppie which commanded the town. Finally, they became so importunate that we
were obliged to refuse flatly to move faster, alleging as a reason that the
girl was tired. They did not accept this excuse in good part, and at one time I
thought that we should have come to blows, for there is no love lost between
Butianas and Matukus. At last, however, either from motives of policy, or
because they were so evidently outnumbered, they gave in and suffered us to go
our own pace. I earnestly wished that they would have added to the obligation
by going theirs, but this they declined absolutely to do. On the contrary, they
accompanied us every foot of the way, keeping up a running fire of allusions to
the ‘Thing that bites’ that jarred upon my nerves and discomposed
my temper.

“About half-past four in the afternoon we came to a neck or ridge of
stony ground, whence we could see Wambe’s town plainly lying some six or
seven miles away, and three thousand feet beneath us. The town is built in a
valley, with the exception of Wambe’s own kraal, that is situated at the
mouth of some caves upon the slope of the opposing mountains, over which I
hoped to see our impi’s spears flashing in the morrow’s light. Even
from where we stood, it was easy to see how strongly the place was fortified
with schanses and stone walls, and how difficult of approach. Indeed, unless
taken by surprise, it seemed to me quite impregnable to a force operating
without cannon, and even cannon would not make much impression on rocks and
stony koppies filled with caves.

“Then came the descent of the pass, and an arduous business it was, for
the path—if it may be called a path—is almost entirely composed of
huge water-worn boulders, from the one to the other of which we must jump like
so many grasshoppers. It took us two hours to climb down, and, travelling
through that burning sun, when at last we did reach the bottom, I for one was
nearly played out. Shortly afterwards, just as it was growing dark, we came to
the first line of fortifications, which consisted of a triple stone wall
pierced by a gateway, so narrow that a man could hardly squeeze through it. We
passed this without question, being accompanied by Wambe’s soldiers.
Then came a belt of land three hundred paces or more in width, very rocky and
broken, and having no huts upon it. Here in hollows in this belt the cattle
were kraaled in case of danger. On the further side were more fortifications
and another small gateway shaped like a V, and just beyond and through it I saw
the koppie we had planned to seize looming up against the line of mountains
behind.

“As we went I whispered my suggestions to our captain, with the result
that at the second gateway he halted the cavalcade, and addressing the captain
of Wambe’s soldiers, said that we would wait here till we received
Wambe’s word to enter the town. The other man said that this was well,
only he must hand over the prisoners to be taken up to the chief’s kraal,
for Wambe, was ‘hungry to begin upon them,’ and his ‘heart
desired to see the white man at rest before he closed his eyes in sleep,’
and as for his wife, ‘surely he would welcome her.’ Our leader
replied that he could not do this thing, because his orders were to deliver the
prisoners to Wambe at Wambe’s own kraal, and they might not be broken.
How could he be responsible for the safety of the prisoners if he let them out
of his hand? No, they would wait there till Wambe’s word was brought.

“To this, after some demur, the other man consented, and went away,
remarking that he would soon be back. As he passed me he called out with a
sneer, pointing as he did so to the fading red in the western
sky—‘Look your last upon the light, White Man, for the “Thing
that bites” lives in the dark.’

“Next day it so happened that I shot this man, and, do you know, I think
that he is about the only human being who has come to harm at my hands for whom
I do not feel sincere sorrow and, in a degree, remorse.”

CHAPTER VII.

THE ATTACK

“Just where we halted ran a little stream of water. I looked at it, and
an idea struck me: probably there would be no water on the koppie. I suggested
this to our captain, and, acting on the hint, he directed all the men to drink
what they could, and also to fill the seven or eight cooking pots which we
carried with us with water. Then came the crucial moment. How were we to get
possession of the koppie? When the captain asked me, I said that I thought that
we had better march up and take it, and this accordingly we went on to do. When
we came to the narrow gateway we were, as I expected, stopped by two soldiers
who stood on guard there and asked our business. The captain answered that we
had changed our minds, and would follow on to Wambe’s kraal. The soldiers
said no, we must now wait.

“To this we replied by pushing them to one side and marching in single
file through the gateway, which was not distant more than a hundred yards from
the koppie. While we were getting through, the men we had pushed away ran
towards the town calling for assistance, a call that was promptly responded to,
for in another minute we saw scores of armed men running hard in our direction.
So we ran too, for the koppie. As soon as they understood what we were after,
which they did not at first, owing to the dimness of the light, they did their
best to get there before us. But we had the start of them, and with the
exception of one unfortunate man who stumbled and fell, we were well on to the
koppie before they arrived. This man they captured, and when fighting began on
the following morning, and he refused to give any information, they killed him.
Luckily they had no time to torture him, or they would certainly have done so,
for these Matuku people are very fond of torturing their enemies.

“When we reached the koppie, the base of which covers about half an acre
of ground, the soldiers who had been trying to cut us off halted, for they knew
the strength of the position. This gave us a few minutes before the light had
quite vanished to reconnoitre the place. We found that it was unoccupied,
fortified with a regular labyrinth of stone walls, and contained three large
caves and some smaller ones. The next business was to post the soldiers to such
advantage as time would allow. My own men I was careful to place quite at the
top. They were perfectly useless from terror, and I feared that they might try
to escape and give information of our plans to Wambe. So I watched them like
the apple of my eye, telling them that should they dare to stir they would be
shot.

“Then it grew quite dark, and presently out of the darkness I heard a
voice—it was that of the leader of the soldiers who had escorted
us—calling us to come down. We replied that it was too dark to move, we
should hit our feet against the stones. He insisted upon our descending, and we
flatly refused, saying that if any attempt was made to dislodge us we would
fire. After that, as they had no real intention of attacking us in the dark,
the men withdrew, but we saw from the fires which were lit around that they
were keeping a strict watch upon our position.

“That night was a wearing one, for we never quite knew how the situation
was going to develop. Fortunately we had some cooked food with us, so we did
not starve. It was lucky, however, that we drunk our fill before coming up,
for, as I had anticipated, there was not a drop of water on the koppie.

“At length the night wore away, and with the first tinge of light I began
to go my rounds, and stumbling along the stony paths, to make things as ready
as I could for the attack, which I felt sure would be delivered before we were
two hours older. The men were cramped and cold, and consequently low-spirited,
but I exhorted them to the best of my ability, bidding them remember the race
from which they sprang, and not to show the white feather before a crowd of
Matuku dogs. At length it began to grow light, and presently I saw long columns
of men advancing towards the koppie. They halted under cover at a distance of
about a hundred and fifty yards, and just as the dawn broke a herald came
forward and called to us. Our captain stood up upon a rock and answered him.

“‘These are the words of Wambe,’ the herald said. ‘Come
forth from the koppie, and give over the evil-doers, and go in peace, or stay
in the koppie and be slain.’

“‘It is too early to come out as yet,’ answered our man in
fine diplomatic style. ‘When the sun sucks up the mist then we will come
out. Our limbs are stiff with cold.’

“‘Come forth even now,’ said the herald.

“‘Not if I know it, my boy,’ said I to myself; but the
captain replied that he would come out when he thought proper, and not before.

“‘Then make ready to die,’ said the herald, for all the world
like the villain of a transpontine piece, and majestically stalked back to the
soldiers.

“I made my final arrangements, and looked anxiously at the mountain crest
a couple of miles or so away, from which the mist was now beginning to lift,
but no column of smoke could I see. I whistled, for if the attacking force had
been delayed or made any mistake, our position was likely to grow rather warm.
We had barely enough water to wet the mouths of the men, and when once it was
finished we could not hold the place for long in that burning heat.

“At length, just as the sun rose in glory over the heights behind us, the
Matuku soldiers, of whom about fifteen hundred were now assembled, set up a
queer whistling noise, which ended in a chant. Then some shots were fired, for
the Matuku had a few guns, but without effect, though one bullet passed just by
a man’s head.

“‘Now they are going to begin,’ I thought to myself, and I
was not far wrong, for in another minute the body of men divided into three
companies, each about five hundred strong, and, heralded by a running fire,
charged at us on three sides. Our men were now all well under cover, and the
fire did us no harm. I mounted on a rock so as to command a view of as much of
the koppie and plain as possible, and yelled to our men to reserve their fire
till I gave the word, and then to shoot low and load as quickly as possible. I
knew that, like all natives, they were sure to be execrable shots, and that
they were armed with weapons made out of old gas-pipes, so the only chance of
doing execution was to let the enemy get right on to us.

“On they came with a rush; they were within eighty yards now, and as they
drew near the point of attack, I observed that they closed their ranks, which
was so much the better for us.

“‘Shall we not fire, my father?’ sung out the captain.

“‘No, confound you!’ I answered.

“‘Sixty yards—fifty—forty—thirty. Fire, you
scoundrels!’ I yelled, setting the example by letting off both barrels of
my elephant gun into the thickest part of the company opposite to me.

“Instantly the place rang out with the discharge of two hundred and odd
guns, while the air was torn by the passage of every sort of missile, from iron
pot legs down to slugs and pebbles coated with lead. The result was very
prompt. The Matukus were so near that we could not miss them, and at thirty
yards a lead-coated stone out of a gas-pipe is as effective as a Martini rifle,
or more so. Over rolled the attacking soldiers by the dozen, while the
survivors, fairly frightened, took to their heels. We plied them with shot till
they were out of range—I made it very warm for them with the elephant
gun, by the way—and then we loaded up in quite a cheerful frame of mind,
for we had not lost a man, whereas I could count more than fifty dead and
wounded Matukus. The only thing that damped my ardour was that, stare as I
would, I could see no column of smoke upon the mountain crest.

“Half an hour elapsed before any further steps were taken against us.
Then the attacking force adopted different tactics. Seeing that it was very
risky to try to rush us in dense masses, they opened out into skirmishing order
and ran across the open space in lots of five and six. As it happened, right at
the foot of the koppie the ground broke away a little in such fashion that it
was almost impossible for us to search it effectually with our fire. On the
hither side of this dip Wambe’s soldiers were now congregating in
considerable numbers. Of course we did them as much damage as we could while
they were running across, but this sort of work requires good shots, and that
was just what we had not got. Another thing was, that so many of our men would
insist upon letting off the things they called guns at every little knot of the
enemy that ran across. Thus, the first few lots were indeed practically swept
away, but after that, as it took a long while to load the gas-pipes and old
flint muskets, those who followed got across in comparative safety. For my own
part, I fired away with the elephant gun and repeating carbine till they grew
almost too hot to hold, but my individual efforts could do nothing to stop such
a rush, or perceptibly to lessen the number of our enemies.

“At length there were at least a thousand men crowded into the dip of
ground within a few yards of us, whence those of them who had guns kept up a
continued fusillade upon the koppie. They killed two of my bearers in this way,
and wounded a third, for being at the top of the koppie these men were most
exposed to the fire from the dip at its base. Seeing that the situation was
growing most serious, at length, by the dint of threats and entreaties, I
persuaded the majority of our people to cease firing useless shots, to reload,
and prepare for the rush. Scarcely had I done so when the enemy came for us
with a roar. I am bound to say that I should never have believed that Matukus
had it in them to make such a determined charge. A large party rushed round the
base of the koppie, and attacked us in flank, while the others swarmed wherever
they could get a foothold, so that we were taken on every side.

“‘Fire!’ I cried, and we did with terrible effect.
Many of their men fell, but though we checked we could not stop them. They
closed up and rushed the first fortification, killing a good number of its
defenders. It was almost all cold steel work now, for we had no time to reload,
and that suited the Butiana habits of fighting well enough, for the stabbing
assegai is a weapon which they understand. Those of our people who escaped from
the first line of walls took refuge in the second, where I stood myself,
encouraging them, and there the fight raged fiercely. Occasionally parties of
the enemy would force a passage, only to perish on the hither side beneath the
Butiana spears. But still they kept it up, and I saw that, fight as we would,
we were doomed. We were altogether outnumbered, and to make matters worse,
fresh bodies of soldiers were pouring across the plain to the assistance of our
assailants. So I made up my mind to direct a retreat into the caves, and there
expire in a manner as heroic as circumstances would allow; and while mentally
lamenting my hard fate and reflecting on my sins I fought away like a fiend. It
was then, I remember, that I shot my friend the captain of our escort of the
previous day. He had caught sight of me, and making a vicious dig at my stomach
with a spear (which I successfully dodged), shouted out, or rather began to
shout out, one of his unpleasant allusions to the ‘Thing
that——’ He never got as far as ‘bites,’ because I
shot him after ‘that.’

“Well, the game was about up. Already I saw one man throw down his spear
in token of surrender—which act of cowardice cost him his life, by the
way—when suddenly a shout arose.

“‘Look at the mountain,’ they cried; ‘there is an impi
on the mountain side.’

“I glanced up, and there sure enough, about half-way down the mountain,
nearing the first fortification, the long-plumed double line of Nala’s
warriors was rushing down to battle, the bright light of the morning glancing
on their spears. Afterwards we discovered that the reason of their delay was
that they had been stopped by a river in flood, and could not reach the
mountain crest by dawn. When they did reach it, however, they saw instantly
that the fight was already going on, was ‘in flower,’ as they put
it, and so advanced at once without waiting to light signal-fires.

“Meanwhile they had been observed from the town, and parties of soldiers
were charging up the steep side of the hill, to occupy the schanses, and the
second line of fortifications behind them. The first line they did not now
attempt to reach or defend; Nala pressed them too close. But they got to the
schanses or pits protected with stone walls, and constructed to hold from a
dozen to twenty men, and soon began to open fire from them, and from isolated
rocks. I turned my eyes to the gates of the town, which were placed to the
north and south. Already they were crowded with hundreds of fugitive women and
children flying to the rocks and caves for shelter from the foe.

“As for ourselves, the appearance of Nala’s impi produced a
wonderful change for the better in our position. The soldiers attacking us
turned, realizing that the town was being assailed from the rear, and
clambering down the koppie streamed off to protect their homes against this new
enemy. In five minutes there was not a man left except those who would move no
more, or were too sorely wounded to escape. I felt inclined to ejaculate
‘Saved!’ like the gentleman in the play, but did not because
the occasion was too serious. What I did do was to muster all the men and
reckon up our losses. They amounted to fifty-one killed and wounded, sixteen
men having been killed outright. Then I sent men with the cooking-pots to the
stream of water, and we drank. This done I set my bearers, being the most
useless part of the community, from a fighting point of view, to the task of
attending the injured, and turned to watch the fray.

“By this time Nala’s impi had climbed the first line of
fortifications without opposition, and was advancing in a long line upon the
schanses or pits which were scattered about between it and the second line,
singing a war chant as it came. Presently puffs of smoke began to start from
the schanses, and with my glasses I could see several of our men falling over.
Then as they came opposite a schanse that portion of the long line of warriors
would thicken up and charge it with a wild rush. I could see them leap on to
the walls and vanish into the depths beneath, some of their number falling
backward on each occasion, shot or stabbed to death.

“Next would come another act in the tragedy. Out from the hither side of
the schanse would pour such of its defenders as were left alive, perhaps three
or four and perhaps a dozen, running for dear life, with the war dogs on their
tracks. One by one they would be caught, then up flashed the great spear and
down fell the pursued—dead. I saw ten of our men leap into one large
schanse, but though I watched for some time nobody came out. Afterwards we
inspected the place and found these men all dead, together with twenty-three
Matukus. Neither side would give in, and they had fought it out to the bitter
end.

“At last they neared the second line of fortifications, behind which the
whole remaining Matuku force, numbering some two thousand men, was rapidly
assembling. One little pause to get their breath, and Nala’s men came at
it with a rush and a long wild shout of ‘Bulala Matuku’
(kill the Matuku) that went right through me, thrilling every nerve. Then came
an answering shout, and the sounds of heavy firing, and presently I saw our men
retreating, somewhat fewer in numbers than they had advanced. Their welcome had
been a warm one for the Matuku fight splendidly behind walls. This decided me
that it was necessary to create a diversion; if we did not do so it seemed very
probable that we should be worsted after all. I called to the captain of our
little force, and rapidly put the position before him.

“Seeing the urgency of the occasion, he agreed with me that we must risk
it, and in two minutes more, with the exception of my own men, whom I left to
guard the wounded, we were trotting across the open space and through the
deserted town towards the spot where the struggle was taking place, some seven
hundred yards away. In six or eight minutes we reached a group of huts—it
was a head man’s kraal, that was situated about a hundred and twenty
yards behind the fortified wall, and took possession of it unobserved. The
enemy was too much engaged with the foe in front of him to notice us, and
besides, the broken ground rose in a hog-back shape between. There we waited a
minute or two and recovered our breath, while I gave my directions. So soon as
we heard the Butiana impi begin to charge again, we were to run out in a line
to the brow of the hogback and pour our fire into the mass of defenders behind
the wall. Then the guns were to be thrown down and we must charge with the
assegai. We had no shields, but that could not be helped; there would be no
time to reload the guns, and it was absolutely necessary that the enemy should
be disconcerted at the moment when the main attack was delivered.

“The men, who were as plucky a set of fellows as ever I saw, and whose
blood was now thoroughly up, consented to this scheme, though I could see that
they thought it rather a large order, as indeed I did myself. But I knew that
if the impi was driven back a second time the game would be played, and for me
at any rate it would be a case of the ‘Thing that bites,’ and this
sure and certain knowledge filled my breast with valour.

“We had not long to wait. Presently we heard the Butiana war-song
swelling loud and long; they had commenced their attack. I made a sign, and the
hundred and fifty men, headed by myself, poured out of the kraal, and getting
into a rough line ran up the fifty or sixty yards of slope that intervened
between ourselves and the crest of the hog-backed ridge. In thirty seconds we
were there, and immediately beyond us was the main body of the Matuku host
waiting the onslaught of the enemy with guns and spears. Even now they did not
see us, so intent were they upon the coming attack. I signed to my men to take
careful aim, and suddenly called out to them to fire, which they did with a
will, dropping thirty or forty Matukus.

“‘Charge!’ I shouted, again throwing down my smoking
rifle and drawing my revolver, an example which they followed, snatching up
their spears from the ground where they had placed them while they fired. The
men set up a savage whoop, and we started. I saw the Matuku soldiers wheel
around in hundreds, utterly taken aback at this new development of the
situation. And looking over them, before we had gone twenty yards I saw
something else. For of a sudden, as though they had risen from the earth, there
appeared above the wall hundreds of great spears, followed by hundreds of
savage faces shadowed with drooping plumes. With a yell they sprang upon the
wall shaking their broad shields, and with a yell they bounded from it straight
into our astonished foes.

“Crash! we were in them now, and fighting like demons.
Crash! from the other side. Nala’s impi was at its work, and still
the spears and plumes appeared for a moment against the brown background of the
mountain, and then sprang down and rushed like a storm upon the foe. The great
mob of men turned this way and turned that way, astonished, bewildered,
overborne by doubt and terror.

“Meanwhile the slayers stayed not their hands, and on every side spears
flashed, and the fierce shout of triumph went up to heaven. There too on the
wall stood Maiwa, a white garment streaming from her shoulders, an assegai in
her hand, her breast heaving, her eyes flashing. Above all the din of battle I
could catch the tones of her clear voice as she urged the soldiers on to
victory. But victory was not yet. Wambe’s soldiers gathered themselves
together, and bore our men back by the sheer weight of numbers. They began to
give, then once more they rallied, and the fight hung doubtfully.

“‘Slay, you war-whelps,’ cried Maiwa from the wall.
‘Are you afraid, you women, you chicken-hearted women! Strike home, or
die like dogs! What—you give way! Follow me, children of Nala.’ And
with one long cry she leapt from the wall as leaps a stricken antelope, and
holding the spear poised rushed right into the thickest of the fray. The
warriors saw her, and raised such a shout that it echoed like thunder against
the mountains. They massed together, and following the flutter of her white
robe crashed into the dense heart of the foe. Down went the Matuku before them
like trees before a whirlwind. Nothing could stand in the face of such a rush
as that. It was as the rush of a torrent bursting its banks. All along their
line swept the wild desperate charge; and there, straight in the forefront of
the battle, still waved the white robe of Maiwa.

“Then they broke, and, stricken with utter panic, Wambe’s soldiers
streamed away a scattered crowd of fugitives, while after them thundered the
footfall of the victors.

“The fight was over, we had won the day; and for my part I sat down upon
a stone and wiped my forehead, thanking Providence that I had lived to see the
end of it. Twenty minutes later Nala’s warriors began to return panting.
‘Wambe’s soldiers had taken to the bush and the caves,’ they
said, ‘where they had not thought it safe to follow them,’ adding
significantly, that many had stopped on the way.

“I was utterly dazed, and now that the fight was over my energy seemed to
have left me, and I did not pay much attention, till presently I was aroused by
somebody calling me by my name. I looked up, and saw that it was the chief Nala
himself, who was bleeding from a flesh wound in his arm. By his side stood
Maiwa panting, but unhurt, and wearing on her face a proud and terrifying air.

“‘They are gone, Macumazahn,’ said the chief; ‘there is
little to fear from them, their heart is broken. But where is Wambe the
chief?—and where is the white man thou camest to save?’

“‘I know not,’ I answered.

“Close to where we stood lay a Matuku, a young man who had been shot
through the fleshy part of the calf. It was a trifling wound, but it prevented
him from running away.

“‘Say, thou dog,’ said Nala, stalking up to him and shaking
his red spear in his face, ‘say, where is Wambe? Speak, or I slay thee.
Was he with the soldiers?’

“‘Nay, lord, I know not,’ groaned the terrified man,
‘he fought not with us; Wambe has no stomach for fighting. Perchance he
is in his kraal yonder, or in the cave behind the kraal,’ and he pointed
to a small enclosure on the hillside, about four hundred yards to the right of
where we were.

“‘Let us go and see,’ said Nala, summoning his
soldiers.”

CHAPTER VIII.

MAIWA IS AVENGED

“The impi formed up; alas, an hour before it had been stronger by a third
than it was now. Then Nala detached two hundred men to collect and attend to
the injured, and at my suggestion issued a stringent order that none of the
enemy’s wounded, and above all no women or children, were to be killed,
as is the savage custom among African natives. On the contrary, they were to be
allowed to send word to their women that they might come in to nurse them and
fear nothing, for Nala made war upon Wambe the tyrant, and not on the Matuku
tribe.

“Then we started with some four hundred men for the chief’s kraal.
Very soon we were there. It was, as I have said, placed against the mountain
side, but within the fortified lines, and did not at all cover more than an
acre and a half of ground. Outside was a tiny reed fence, within which, neatly
arranged in a semi-circular line, stood the huts of the chief’s principal
wives. Maiwa of course knew every inch of the kraal, for she had lived in it,
and led us straight to the entrance. We peeped through the gateway—not a
soul was to be seen. There were the huts and there was the clear open space
floored with a concrete of lime, on which the sun beat fiercely, but nobody
could we see or hear.

“‘The jackal has gone to earth,’ said Maiwa; ‘he will
be in the cave behind his hut,’ and she pointed with her spear towards
another small and semi-circular enclosure, over which a large hut was visible,
that had the cliff itself for a background. I stared at this fence; by George!
it was true, it was entirely made of tusks of ivory planted in the ground with
their points bending outwards. The smallest ones, though none were small, were
placed nearest to the cliff on either side, but they gradually increased in
size till they culminated in two enormous tusks, which, set up so that their
points met, something in the shape of an inverted V, formed the gateway to the
hut. I was dumbfoundered with delight; and indeed, where is the elephant-hunter
who would not be, if he suddenly saw five or six hundred picked tusks set up in
a row, and only waiting for him to take them away? Of course the stuff was what
is known as ‘black’ ivory; that is, the exterior of the tusks had
become black from years or perhaps centuries of exposure to wind and weather,
but I was certain that it would be none the worse for that. Forgetting the
danger of the deed, in my excitement I actually ran right across the open
space, and drawing my knife scratched vigorously at one of the great tusks to
see how deep the damage might be. As I thought, it was nothing; there beneath
the black covering gleamed the pure white ivory. I could have capered for joy,
for I fear that I am very mercenary at heart, when suddenly I heard the faint
echo of a cry for assistance. ‘Help!’ screamed a voice in the
Sisutu dialect from somewhere behind the hut; ‘help! they are murdering
me.’

“I knew the voice; it was John Every’s. Oh, what a selfish
brute was I! For the moment that miserable ivory had driven the recollection of
him out of my head, and now—perhaps it was too late.

“Nala, Maiwa, and the soldiers had now come up. They too heard the voice
and interpreted its tone, though they had not caught the words.

“‘This way,’ cried Maiwa, and we started at a run, passing
round the hut of Wambe. Behind was the narrow entrance to a cave. We rushed
through it heedless of the danger of the ambush, and this is what we saw,
though very confusedly at first, owing to the gloom.

“In the centre of the cave, and with either end secured to the floor by
strong stakes, stood a huge double-springed lion trap edged with sharp and
grinning teeth. It was set, and beyond the trap, indeed almost over it, a
terrible struggle was in progress. A naked or almost naked white man, with a
great beard hanging down over his breast, in spite of his furious struggles,
was being slowly forced and dragged towards the trap by six or eight women.
Only one man was present, a fat, cruel-looking man with small eyes and a
hanging lip. It was the chief Wambe, and he stood by the trap ready to force
the victim down upon it so soon as the women had dragged him into the necessary
position.

“At this instant they caught sight of us, and there came a moment’s
pause, and then, before I knew what she was going to do, Maiwa lifted the
assegai she still held, and whirled it at Wambe’s head. I saw the flash
of light speed towards him, and so did he, for he stepped backward to avoid
it—stepped backward right into the trap. He yelled with pain as the iron
teeth of the ‘Thing that bites’ sprang up with a rattling sound
like living fangs and fastened into him—such a yell I have not often
heard. Now at last he tasted of the torture which he had inflicted upon so
many, and though I trust I am a Christian, I cannot say that I felt sorry for
him.

“The assegai sped on and struck one of the women who had hold of the
unfortunate Every, piercing through her arm. This made her leave go, an example
that the other women quickly followed, so that Every fell to the ground, where
he lay gasping.

“‘Kill the witches,’ roared Nala, in a voice of thunder,
pointing to the group of women.

“‘Nay,’ gasped Every, ‘spare them. He made them do
it,’ and he pointed to the human fiend in the trap. Then Maiwa waved her
hand to us to fall back, for the moment of her vengeance was come. We did so,
and she strode up to her lord, and flinging the white robe from her stood
before him, her fierce beautiful face fixed like stone.

“‘Who am I?’ she cried in so terrible a voice that he ceased
his yells. ‘Am I that woman who was given to thee for wife, and whose
child thou slewest? Or am I an avenging spirit come to see thee die?

“‘What is this?’ she went on, drawing the withered baby-hand
from the pouch at her side.

“‘Is it the hand of a babe? and how came that hand to be thus
alone? What cut it off from the babe? and where is the babe? Is it a hand? or
is it the vision of a hand that shall presently tear thy throat?

“‘Where are thy soldiers, Wambe? Do they sleep and eat and go forth
to do thy bidding? or are they perchance dead and scattered like the winter
leaves?’

“He groaned and rolled his eyes while the fierce-faced woman went on.

“‘Art thou still a chief, Wambe? or does another take thy place and
power, and say, Lord, what doest thou there? and what is that slave’s
leglet upon thy knee?

“‘Is it a dream, Wambe, great lord and chief? or’—and
she lifted her clenched hands and shook them in his face—‘hath a
woman’s vengeance found thee out and a woman’s wit
o’ermatched thy tyrannous strength? and art thou about to slowly die in
torments horrible to think on, oh, thou accursed murderer of little
children?’

“And with one wild scream she dashed the dead hand of the child straight
into his face, and then fell senseless on the floor. As for the demon in the
trap, he shrank back so far as its iron bounds would allow, his yellow eyes
starting out of his head with pain and terror, and then once more began to
yell.

“The scene was more than I could bear.

“‘Nala,’ I said, ‘this must stop. That man is a fiend,
but he must not be left to die there. See thou to it.’

“‘Nay,” answered Nala, ‘let him taste of the food
wherewith he hath fed so many; leave him till death shall find him.’

“‘That I will not,’ I answered. ‘Let his end be swift;
see thou to it.’

“‘As thou wilt, Macumazahn,’ answered the chief, with a shrug
of the shoulders; ‘first let the white man and Maiwa be brought
forth.’

“So the soldiers came forward and carried Every and the woman into the
open air. As the former was borne past his tormentor, the fallen chief, so
cowardly was his wicked heart, actually prayed him to intercede for him, and
save him from a fate which, but for our providential appearance, would have
been Every’s own.

“So we went away, and in another moment one of the biggest villains on
the earth troubled it no more. Once in the fresh air Every recovered quickly. I
looked at him, and horror and sorrow pierced me through to see such a sight.
His face was the face of a man of sixty, though he was not yet forty, and his
poor body was cut to pieces with stripes and scars, and other marks of the
torments which Wambe had for years amused himself with inflicting on him.

“As soon as he recovered himself a little he struggled on to his knees,
burst into a paroxysm of weeping, and clasping my legs with his emaciated arms,
would have actually kissed my feet.

“‘What are you about, old fellow?’ I said, for I am not
accustomed to that sort of thing, and it made me feel uncomfortable.

“‘Oh, God bless you?’ he moaned, ‘God bless you! If
only you knew what I have gone through; and to think that you should have come
to help me, and at the risk of your own life! Well, you were always a true
friend—yes, yes, a true friend.’

“‘Bosh,’ I answered testily; ‘I’m a trader, and I
came after that ivory,’ and I pointed to the stockade of tusks.
‘Did you ever hear of an elephant-hunter who would not have risked his
immortal soul for them, and much more his carcase?’

“But he took no notice of my explanations, and went on God blessing me as
hard as ever, till at last I bethought me that a nip of brandy, of which I had
a flask full, might steady his nerves a bit. I gave it him, and was not
disappointed in the result, for he brisked up wonderfully. Then I hunted about
in Wambe’s hut, and found a kaross to put over his poor bruised
shoulders, and he was quite a man again.

“‘Now,’ I said, ‘why did the late lamented Wambe want
to put you in that trap?’

“‘Because as soon as they heard that the fight was going against
them, and that Maiwa was charging at the head of Nala’s impi, one of the
women told Wambe that she had seen me write something on some leaves and give
them to Maiwa before she went away to purify herself. Then of course he guessed
that I had to do with your seizing the koppie and holding it while the impi
rushed the place from the mountain, so he determined to torture me to death
before help could come. Oh, heavens! what a mercy it is to hear English
again.’

“‘How long have you been a prisoner here, Every?’ I asked.

“‘Six years and a bit, Quatermain; I have lost count of the odd
months lately. I came up here with Major Aldey and three other gentlemen and
forty bearers. That devil Wambe ambushed us, and murdered the lot to get their
guns. They weren’t much use to him when he got them, being
breech-loaders, for the fools fired away all the ammunition in a month or two.
However, they are all in good order, and hanging up in the hut there. They
didn’t kill me because one of them saw me mending a gun just before they
attacked us, so they kept me as a kind of armourer. Twice I tried to make a
bolt of it, but was caught each time. Last time Wambe had me flogged very
nearly to death—you can see the scars upon my back. Indeed I should have
died if it hadn’t been for the girl Maiwa, who nursed me by stealth. He
got that accursed lion trap among our things also, and I suppose he has
tortured between one and two hundred people to death in it. It was his
favourite amusement, and he would go every day and sit and watch his victim
till he died. Sometimes he would give him food and water to keep him alive
longer, telling him or her that he would let him go if he lived till a certain
day. But he never did let them go. They all died there, and I could show you
their bones behind that rock.’

“‘The devil!’ I said, grinding my teeth. ‘I wish I
hadn’t interfered; I wish I had left him to the same fate.’

“‘Well, he got a taste of it any way,’ said Every;
‘I’m glad he got a taste. There’s justice in it, and now
he’s gone to hell, and I hope there is another one ready for him there.
By Jove! I should like to have the setting of it.’

“And so he talked on, and I sat and listened to him, wondering how he had
kept his reason for so many years. But he didn’t talk as I have told it,
in plain English. He spoke very slowly, and as though he had got something in
his mouth, continually using native words because the English ones had slipped
his memory.

“At last Nala came up and told us that food was made ready, and thankful
enough we were to get it, I can tell you. After we had eaten we held a
consultation. Quite a thousand of Wambe’s soldiers were put hors de
combat, but at least two thousand remained hidden in the bush and rocks,
and these men, together with those in the outlying kraals, were a source of
possible danger. The question arose, therefore, what was to be done—were
they to be followed or left alone? I waited till everybody had spoken, some
giving one opinion and some another, and then being appealed to I gave mine. It
was to the effect that Nala should take a leaf out of the great Zulu
T’Chaka’s book, and incorporate the tribe, not destroy it. We had a
good many women among the prisoners. Let them, I suggested, be sent to the
hiding-places of the soldiers and make an offer. If the men would come and lay
down their arms and declare allegiance to Nala, they and their town and cattle
should be spared. Wambe’s cattle alone would be seized as the prize of
war. Moreover, Wambe having left no children, his wife Maiwa should be declared
chieftainess of the tribe, under Nala. If they did not accept this offer by the
morning of the second day it should be taken as a declaration that they wished
to continue the war. Their town should be burned, their cattle, which our men
were already collecting and driving in in great numbers, would be taken, and
they should be hunted down.

“This advice was at once declared to be wise, and acted on. The women
were despatched, and I saw from their faces that they never expected to get
such terms, and did not think that their mission would be in vain.
Nevertheless, we spent that afternoon in preparations against possible
surprise, and also in collecting all the wounded of both parties into a
hospital, which we extemporized out of some huts, and there attending to them
as best we could.

“That evening Every had the first pipe of tobacco that he had tasted for
six years. Poor fellow, he nearly cried with joy over it. The night passed
without any sign of attack, and on the following morning we began to see the
effect of our message, for women, children, and a few men came in in little
knots, and took possession of their huts. It was of course rather difficult to
prevent our men from looting, and generally going on as natives, and for the
matter of that white men too, are in the habit of doing after a victory. But
one man who after warning was caught maltreating a woman was brought out and
killed by Nala’s order, and though there was a little grumbling, that put
a stop to further trouble.

“On the second morning the head men and numbers of their followers came
in in groups, and about midday a deputation of the former presented themselves
before us without their weapons. They were conquered, they said, and Wambe was
dead, so they came to hear the words of the great lion who had eaten them up,
and of the crafty white man, the jackal, who had dug a hole for them to fall
in, and of Maiwa, Lady of War, who had led the charge and turned the fate of
the battle.

“So we let them hear the words, and when we had done an old man rose and
said, that in the name of the people he accepted the yoke that was laid upon
their shoulders, and that the more gladly because even the rule of a woman
could not be worse than the rule of Wambe. Moreover, they knew Maiwa, the Lady
of War, and feared her not, though she was a witch and terrible to see in
battle.

“Then Nala asked his daughter if she was willing to become chieftainess
of the tribe under him.

“Maiwa, who had been very silent since her revenge was accomplished,
answered yes, that she was, and that her rule should be good and gentle to
those who were good and gentle to her, but the froward and rebellious she would
smite with a rod of iron; which from my knowledge of her character I thought
exceedingly probable.

“The head man replied that that was a good saying, and they did not
complain at it, and so the meeting ended.

“Next day we spent in preparations for departure. Mine consisted chiefly
in superintending the digging up of the stockade of ivory tusks, which I did
with the greatest satisfaction. There were some five hundred of them
altogether. I made inquiries about it from Every, who told me that the stockade
had been there so long that nobody seemed to know exactly who had collected the
tusks originally. There was, however, a kind of superstitious feeling about
them which had always prevented the chiefs from trying to sell this great mass
of ivory. Every and I examined it carefully, and found that although it was so
old its quality was really as good as ever, and there was very little soft
ivory in the lot. At first I was rather afraid lest, now that my services had
been rendered, Nala should hesitate to part with so much valuable property, but
this was not the case. When I spoke to him on the subject he merely said,
‘Take it, Macumazahn, take it; you have earned it well,’ and, to
speak the truth, though I say it who shouldn’t, I think I had. So we
pressed several hundred Matuku bearers into our service, and next day marched
off with the lot.

“Before we went I took a formal farewell of Maiwa, whom we left with a
bodyguard of three hundred men to assist her in settling the country. She gave
me her hand to kiss in a queenly sort of way, and then said,

“‘Macumazahn, you are a brave man, and have been a friend to me in
my need. If ever you want help or shelter, remember that Maiwa has a good
memory for friend and foe. All I have is yours.

“And so I thanked her and went. She was certainly a very remarkable
woman. A year or two ago I heard that her father Nala was dead, and that she
had succeeded to the chieftainship of both tribes, which she ruled with great
justice and firmness.

“I can assure you that we ascended the pass leading to Wambe’s town
with feelings very different from those with which we had descended it a few
days before. But if I was grateful for the issue of events, you can easily
imagine what poor Every’s feelings were. When we got to the top of the
pass, before the whole impi he actually flopped down upon his knees and thanked
Heaven for his escape, the tears running down his face. But then, as I have
said, his nerves were shaken—though now that his beard was trimmed and he
had some sort of clothes on his back, and hope in his heart, he looked a very
different man from the poor wretch whom we had rescued from death by torture.

“Well, we separated from Nala at the little stairway or pass over the
mountain—Every and I and the ivory going down the river which I had come
up a few weeks before, and the chief returning to his own kraal on the further
side of the mountain. He gave us an escort of a hundred and fifty men, however,
with instructions to accompany us for six days’ journey, and to keep the
Matuku bearers in order and then return. I knew that in six days we should be
able to reach a district where porters were plentiful, and whence we could
easily get the ivory conveyed to Delagoa Bay.”

“And did you land it up safe?” I asked.

“Well no,” said Quatermain, “we lost about a third of it in
crossing a river. A flood came down suddenly just as the men were crossing and
many of them had to throw down their tusks to save their lives. We had no means
of dragging it up, and so we were obliged to leave it, which was very sad.
However, we sold what remained for nearly seven thousand pounds, so we did not
do so badly. I don’t mean that I got seven thousand pounds out of it,
because, you see, I insisted upon Every taking a half share. Poor fellow, he
had earned it, if ever a man did. He set up a store in the old colony on the
proceeds and did uncommonly well.”

“And what did you do with the lion trap?” asked Sir Henry.

“Oh, I brought that away with me also, and when I reached Durban I put it
in my house. But really I could not bear to sit opposite to it at nights as I
smoked. Visions of that poor woman and the hand of her dead child would rise up
in my mind, and also of all the horrors of which it had been the instrument. I
began to dream at last that it held me by the leg. This was too much for my
nerves, so I just packed it up and shipped it to its maker in England, whose
name was stamped upon the steel, sending him a letter at the same time to tell
him to what purpose the infernal machine had been put. I believe that he gave
it to some museum or other.”

“And what became of the tusks of the three bulls which you shot! You must
have left them at Nala’s kraal, I suppose.”

The old gentleman’s face fell at this question.

“Ah,” he said, “that is a very sad story. Nala promised to
send them with my goods to my agent at Delagoa, and so he did. But the men who
brought them were unarmed, and, as it happened, they fell in with a slave
caravan under the command of a half-bred Portuguese, who seized the tusks, and
what is worse, swore that he had shot them. I paid him out afterwards,
however,” he added with a smile of satisfaction, “but it did not
give me back my tusks, which no doubt have been turned into hair brushes long
ago;” and he sighed.

“Well,” said Good, “that is a capital yarn of yours,
Quatermain, but——”

“But what?” he asked sharply, foreseeing a draw.

“But I don’t think that it was so good as mine about the
ibex—it hasn’t the same finish.”

Mr. Quatermain made no reply. Good was beneath it.

“Do you know, gentlemen,” he said, “it is half-past two in
the morning, and if we are going to shoot the big wood to-morrow we ought to
leave here at nine-thirty sharp.”

“Oh, if you shoot for a hundred years you will never beat the record of
those three woodcocks,” I said.

“Or of those three elephants,” added Sir Henry.

And then we all went to bed, and I dreamed that I had married Maiwa, and was
much afraid of that attractive but determined lady.