Part 2 (1/2)

'Nay, ill coasped the aas, in simulated fury, which a very little provocation would have ?'

'Nay, ill go with the great chief'

'So!' said Uaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released his hold, so that the ht you would'

'That aas seems to have a curious moral ascendency over his cohtfully

CHAPTER II THE BLACK HAND

In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found ourselves at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having gone through st other things we visited a ruined city, of which there are e from their extent and the numerous remains of mosques and stone houses, have been very populous places These ruined cities are i, I believe, been places of wealth and importance as far back as the Old Testament times, when they were centres of trade with India and elsewhere But their glory has departed now--the slave trade has finished them--and where wealthy merchants froained in the crowded ht, and instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager voices of the bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined corridors At this particular place we discovered on a rowth and rubbish, two of the most beautiful stone doorways that it is possible to conceive The carving on theret that we had nothem away No doubt they had once been the entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were now to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising o Like the nobles and the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities have had their day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh, and as London and Paris will one day be Nothing may endure That is the inexorable law Men and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomed seas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their day, and all otten place the moralist may behold a symbol of the universal destiny For this syste can loiter on the road and check the progress of things upwards towards Life, or the rush of things doards towards Death The stern policeman Fate moves us and them on, on, uphill and downhill and across the level; there is no resting-place for the weary feet, till at last the abyss ss us, and from the shores of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the Eternal

At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the heado as far as this, and who noished to extort large extra payment from us In the result he threatened to set the Masai--about whoht he, with all our hired bearers, ran away, stealing oods which had been entrusted to them to carry Luckily, however, they had not happened to steal our rifles, ammunition, and personal effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling on their part, but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the charge of the five Wakwafis After that, it was clear to us that we had had enough of caravans and of bearers Indeed, we had not et on?

It was Good who solved the question 'Here is water,' he said, pointing to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of natives hunting hippopotami in canoes I understand that Mr Mackenzie's et into canoes and paddle up to it?'

This brilliant suggestion was, needless to say, received with acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes fro natives I succeeded after a delay of three days in obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single log of soe For these two canoes we had to pay nearly all our re cloth, and alsoour purchase of the two canoes we effected a start In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three of our Wakwafi followers; in the second aas, and the other two Wakwafis As our course lay upstream, we had to keep four paddles at work in each canoe, which meant that the whole lot of us, except Good, had to roay like galley-slaves; and very exhausting work it was I say, except Good, for, of course, the ot into a boat his foot was on his native heath, and he took command of the party And certainly he worked us On shore Good is a gentle, iven to jocosity; but, as we found to our cost, Good in a boat was a perfect dein with, he knew all about it, and we didn't On all nautical subjects, fros of athe paddle of an African canoe, he was a perfect mine of information, which, to say the least of it, ere not

Also his ideas of discipline were of the sternest, and, in short, he came the royal naval officer over us pretty considerably, and paid us out amply for all the chaff ont to treat him to on land; but, on the other hand, I aed the boats admirably

After the first day Good succeeded, with the help of so up a sail in each canoe, which lightened our labours not a little But the current ran very strong against us, and at the best ere not able to make more than twentytill about half-past ten, by which tiot too hot to allow of further exertion Then we al meal; after which we ate or otherwise aain started, and rowed till within an hour of sundoe called a halt for the night On landing in the evening, Good would at once set to work, with the help of the Askari, to build a little 'scherht a fire I, with Sir Henry and U for the pot

Generally this was an easy task, for all sorts of gaht Sir Henry shot a young cow-giraffe, of which the ot a couple of waterbuck right and left; and once, to his own intense satisfaction, Uaas (who, like ed to kill a fine fat eland with a Martini I had lent hiuinea-fowl, or bush-bustard (paau)--both of which were nu a supply of beautiful yellow fish, hich the waters of the Tana swarmed, and which form, I believe, one of the chief food-supplies of the crocodiles

Three days after our start an o in to the bank to ht of a figure standing on a little knoll not forty yards away, and intensely watching our approach One glance was sufficient--although I was personally unacquainted with the tribe--to tellwarrior Indeed, had I had any doubts, they would have quickly been dispelled by the terrified ejaculation of '_Masai_!' that burst simultaneously from the lips of our Wakwafi followers, who are, as I think I have said, theure he presented as he stood there in his savage war-gear!

Accustoes allquite so ferocious or awe-inspiring To begin with, the aas, I should say, and beautifully, though sohtly, shaped; but with the face of a devil In his right hand he held a spear about five and a half feet long, the blade being two and a half feet in length, by nearly three inches in width, and having an iron spike at the end of the handle that e and well-made elliptical shi+eld of buffalo hide, on which were painted strange heraldic-looking devices On his shoulders was a huge cape of hawk's feathers, and round his neck was a 'naibere', or strip of cotton, about seventeen feet long, by one and a half broad, with a stripe of colour running down the oatskin robe, which forhtly round his waist, so as to serve the purposes of a belt, and through it were stuck, on the right and left sides respectively, his short pear-shaped sile piece of steel, and carried in a wooden sheath, and an enormous knobkerrie But perhaps the most remarkable feature of his attire consisted of a headdress of ostrich-feathers, which was fixed on the chin, and passed in front of the ears to the forehead, and, being shaped like an ellipse, completely framed the face, so that the diabolical countenance appeared to project from a sort of feather fire-screen Round the ankles he wore black fringes of hair, and, projecting from the upper portion of the calves, to which they were attached, were long spurs like spikes, fro hair of the Colobus monkey Such was the elaborate array of the Masai El the approach of our two canoes, but it is one which, to be appreciated, must be seen; only those who see it do not often live to describe it Of course I could not make out all these details of his full dress on the occasion of this , indeed, aeneral effect, but I had plenty of subsequent opportunities of beco acquainted with the ite what to do, the Masai warrior drew hie spear at us, and, turning, vanished on the further side of the slope

'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry froood as his word, and set the Masai after us

Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'

I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand, we had nothat we could eat raw, so it was difficult to knohat to do At last Uo and reconnoitre, which he did, creeping off into the bush like a snake, while we hung off in the strea for him In half an hour he returned, and told us that there was not a Masai to be seen anywhere about, but that he had discovered a spot where they had recently been encaed that they , no doubt, been left to report upon ourposted a sentry, proceeded to cook and eat our evening meal This done, we took the situation into our serious consideration Of course, it was possible that the apparition of the Masai warrior had nothing to do with us, that he wasexpedition against another tribe But e recalled the threat of the caravan leader, and reflected on the ominous way in which the warrior had shaken his spear at us, this did not appear very probable On the contrary, what did see a favourable opportunity to attack us This being so, there were two things that we could do--one of which was to go on, and the other to go back The latter idea was, however, rejected at once, it being obvious that we should encounter as ers in retreat as in advance; and, besides, we had made up our minds to journey onwards at any price Under these circumstances, however, we did not consider it safe to sleep ashore, so we got into our canoes, and, paddling out into the ed to anchor the stones fastened to ropes made of coconut-fibre, of which there were several fathoms in each canoe

Here the mosquitoes nearly ate us up alive, and this, combined with anxiety as to our position, effectually preventedthe attacks of the aforesaid Tanaonof a practical turn of ive those Masai villains the slip It was a beautifulthefro that I had the cra in a constrained position in the canoe, and that the Wakas sleeping beside an to enjoywater that speeded unceasingly past us towards the sea, like littered like a wide sheet of silver, that is in the open where the trees threw no shadows Near the banks, however, it was very dark, and the night wind sighed sadly in the reeds To our left, on the further side of the river, was a little sandy bay which was clear of trees, and here I couldto the water, till suddenly there came an ominous roar, whereupon they all ht of thedown to drink his fill afterof the reeds about fifty yards above us, and a few e black mass rose out of the water, about twenty yards from me, and snorted It was the head of a hippopotaain within five yards of where I sat This was decidedly too near to be comfortable, more especially as the hippopotamus was evidently animated by intense curiosity to knohat on earth our canoes were He opened his great ave me an excellent view of his ivories; and I could not help reflecting how easily he could crunch up our frail canoe with a single bite Indeed, I had half a ht-bore, but on reflection detered the boat Presently he sank again as noiselessly as before, and I saw no ht, I fancied that I caught sight of a dark figure flitting between the tree trunks I have very keen sight, and I was al, but whether it was bird, beast, or man I could not say At the moment, however, a dark cloud passed over the h all the other sounds of the forest had ceased, a species of horned ohich I ell acquainted began to hoot with great persistency After that, save for the rustling of trees and reeds when the wind caught them, there was complete silence

But somehow, in the most unaccountable way, I had suddenly become nervous There was no particular reason why I should be, beyond the ordinary reasons which surround the Central African traveller, and yet I undoubtedly was If there is one thing more than another of which I have the most complete and entire scorn and disbelief, it is of presentiments, and yet here I was all of a sudden filled with and possessed by a ive way to it, however, although I felt the cold perspiration stand out upon my forehead I would not arouse the others Worse and worse I grew,man's, my nerves thrilled with the horrible sense of ihtmare will be familiar with, but still my will triu, half lying, in the bow of the canoe), only turning aas and the two Wakere sleeping alongside of and beyond me

In the distance I heard a hippopotaain in a kind of unnatural screaan tomusic Above was the black bosom of the cloud, and beneath h I and Death were utterly alone between them It was very desolate

Suddenly my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, and ? I turned side of us I could not see it, but instead I saw a lean and clutching black hand lifting itself above the gunwale of the little boat Surely it was a night face appeared to rise out of the water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife, and an awful yell fro bywarm spurted into my face In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that it was no night Masai snatching at the first weapon that caaas'