Part 19 (1/2)
”No I will not give hirew Angry voices were raised in hubbub and spears waved
It looked as if a sudden ie, which would have overwhelmed all before it, was about to be made But somehow those two double-barrels--for Wyvern had taken his cue froot his piece well upon the confrontingThey ressive move
”This is our meat you have taken, Ujo,” called out one, who see the excited Usutus ”Meat for the teeth of our spears Now, give it up, for ill have it”
”You will not have it, Jolwana, not from here, at any rate,” answered Fleetwood, who knew the speaker ”_Au_! and how didst thou win thy head-ring? Was it not in company with a son of Majendwa? And what of hiahle_!
Yes--go carefully, for the sons of Majendwa are many”
He thus addressed as Jolwana seee He addressed a few furious words to the others in a ferocious undertone Aroar went up fro out sharp Jolwana's shi+eld, then flourished over his head, was pierced, and Jolwana's fingers ached with the concussion
”I was but playing with thee, Jolwana,” went on Fleetwood, slipping a fresh cartridge into his rifle barrel with lightning-like rapidity
”Stop now, or next tioest into the Great Unknown Then--what of thy two young wives--thy new, pleasant young wives? Whose will they then become?”
At these words, another roar went up, but it was a roar of laughter
Fleetwood not only knew the other, but knew his circued, and one whoa_ near the close of the war, and that for a special and secret service perfor intensely jealous With this knowledge used with rare tact, Fleetwood had succeeded in turning the angry crowd into a laughing crowd, and it is a truiserous This cro roared with laughter again and again, for the Zulu has a keen sense of humour So these heated combatants, themselves and their weapons bespattered with the blood of fleeing fugitives, forgot their blood-lust, and roared with genuine ain But Jolwana, their leader, the only one head-ringed a them, did not seem to enter into the joke at all However, he stopped, which was all Fleetwood--and, incidentally, Wyvern--wanted of him
”A son of Majendwa!” he scoffed ”_Au_! but a son of Majendwa ceases to be such when he is found on that side He has becou_”
”Who art thou?” asked Fleetwood of the fugitive, who had now recovered from his exhaustion ”I recall thy face but thy name escapes ht what he has said”
”Ka-Majendwa? Yes?” rejoined Fleetwood, half questioningly ”Majendwa has many sons Yet they--and all the Abaqulusi are on the side of the Abesutu?”
”As to that,of a tale to tell Yet I have not done with these”--with a wave of the hand towards Jolwana and his followers ”Ah--ah--I have not done with these, but one ainst threescore Still, my time will co's party, eyed hih, of course, as one who had thrown hi man's safety was absolutely inviolable in so far as he was able to assure it All of which Mtezani read
”So of a tale to tell, my father,” he repeated ”Wait till you have heard it And rest assured that in keeping nating Wyvern--”have not done the worst thing for yourselves you have ever done in your lives”
Now a great shout arose fro snuff
”_Hlalani gahle Abelungu_! We return to the Branch--the Branch of the Royal Tree! _Hlala gahle_, Mtezani-ka-Majendwa! _Wou_!
Mtezani-ka-Majendwa!”
It was the sareeted theDabulaee scowled savagely after the retreating warriors--those ould have taken his life--and hted to see their backs, and returned the fareith great cordiality The Natal boys breathed freely oncesnuff all this while as though no heated--and critical--difference of opinion were taking place within a thousand miles of him
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NEARING THE GOAL
After this they held on their ithout molestation, neither did they come across any further active indications as to the state of the country Yet, though not active, the volcano was by no ressed slowly--this partly on account of the ruggedness of the ground, over which nothing but South African built waggons could have travelled without co in halves, partly because Fleetas careful to keep up appearances, and hide the real objective of their _trek_
Wherefore for days they would outspan near a group of kraals, although of trade there was next to nothing done At this course of action Wyvern in no wise chafed He was one of those rare units who recognise that in a given line the other man is an authority while he hied free hand For another thing he was vividly interested He had fought against the Zulus, and of course except in battles and skirreat deal of the he enjoyed sothe hot hours of the day, with three or four fine warriors, who possibly had been fore the comparatively recent hile they told their stories of this or that battle in which he himself had taken part He was astonished, too, at the readiness hich he followed such narratives, considering that he was as yet very far froesture, expression, went a long way, and when he was in doubt there was always Fleetwood to help But he was absorbing the language more and more every day; and the friendly ways of the people, frankly friendly but not servile, independent but always courteous, had long since brought him round to the opinion arrived at by others before hientlely attracted to him His fine stature and presence in the first place appealed powerfully, as it always does to a fine race of warlike savages, in the next, his thoroughbred look, and well-bred ways told too; and the latter, no people arethan these As for the part he had taken against thee or resentainst him for it; on the contrary, they looked upon hith of it; even as he himself had predicted to Lalante would be the case A , was their way of looking at it They and the whites had ot the best of it, and sometimes the other There was no roo so plain and obvious So Wyvern greatly enjoyed those hours spent in the company of dusky warriors, with a cool bowl of freshly-brewed _tywala_ before hi in the thatch of the hut overhead, while they vividly recapitulated the stirring ti past, or mapped out with small stones on the floor--and onderful accuracy--the scene of more than one pitched battle from the point of view of their own position and tactics And itshould stand him in some stead in the hour of his sore peril and need
And the incidents of the _trek_, and this in itself, was no mere picnic