Part 21 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVII

THE AMBUSCADE

A thin crescent moon hung low in the western sky when they slipped out into the sleeping village, and shadowy huts and encircling forest were dimly distinguishable. The place was very silent, and though the negro as a rule sleeps lightly no one appeared in a doorway, and no voice was raised to challenge them. In fact, Nares, who walked beside his comrade with his heart beating a good deal faster than usual, felt the silence almost oppressive, for he was conscious that it might at any moment be rudely broken. He had very little confidence in the dusky Headman, and knew that if treachery was intended they were affording him the opportunity he probably desired.

Now and then there was a faint clatter and jingle of arms, and at times the soft patter of naked feet in the trampled dust was flung back with what appeared to be a startling distinctness by the huts they pa.s.sed, but there was no other sound, and the boys flitted steadily on, a line of vague, shadowy figures, in front of him. Then he drew a deep breath of relief as they left the village behind them and plunged into the gloom of the forest. He looked back a moment towards the cl.u.s.tering huts which rose faintly black against the dim bush, and wondered how the Headman would explain matters to his Suzerain on the morrow. That, however, was the Headman's affair, and Nares fancied he would be equal to the occasion, since the negro is usually a very shrewd diplomatist.

By and by the darkness beneath the trees grew a little less intense, and they came out on the brink of a mora.s.s. It stretched away before them smeared with drifting wisps of sour white steam, and it was not astonis.h.i.+ng that they halted and looked at it apprehensively. An African swamp is not, as a rule, considered impa.s.sable so long as one does not sink beyond the hips in it, and there are places where British forest officers flounder through them more or less cheerfully for days together, but it is, for all that, a thing the average white man has a natural shrinking from. Ormsgill significantly tapped the rifle he now carried before he exchanged a few words with their guide.

”He says we can get through, but I'll take the precaution of walking close beside him,” he said to Nares. ”It's an excellent rule in this country not to let your guide get too far in front of you.”

They went in, and the tall gra.s.s near the verge crackled about them as they sank in the plastic mire out of which they could scarcely drag their feet. It was a little easier where there was only foul slime and water, and in places there were signs of a path, that is, they could see where somebody else had floundered through the quaggy waste of corruption. The smell was a thing to shudder at, but they were all of them more or less used to that, and the emanations of such places do not invariably prostrate the white man who is accustomed to the country. In some cases, at least, the results of inhaling them only appear some time afterwards, but there are very few white men who escape them altogether.

In due time they came out, bemired from head to foot, with sc.u.m and slimy water draining from them, and they diffused sour odors as they once more plunged into the forest which just there was permeated with the sickly scent of lilies. Still, it was a consolation to Ormsgill that they had, at least, left n.o.body behind, and he acquired a certain confidence in their guide. They pushed on for most of the night, smas.h.i.+ng and hacking a way through creepers, and stumbling in loose white sand, and at last came out upon a well beaten trail. The negro who crawled up and down it said that Domingo had not reached that spot yet, but Ormsgill did not content himself with his a.s.surance. With difficulty, he made a little fire and while it flickered feebly stooped over the loose sand. Then he stamped it out before he turned to Nares.

”I almost think he is right, and as the Headman doesn't expect us to compromise him we'll let him go,” he said.

The man, it was evident, had no desire to stay, and when he went away content with his load of cotton cloth Ormsgill made the most of his forces. Two men with Sniders whom he fancied he could to some extent depend upon were sent back to crouch beside the trail; a few more took up their stations a little distance ahead; and the white men lay down with the carriers between the two parties, and a few yards back from the path. It was now a trifle cooler, for the night was wearing through, and the mysterious voices of the forest had died away and left a deep silence intensified by the splash of moisture on the leaves. Nares s.h.i.+vered a little as the all pervading damp crept through his thin garments, though the lower half of them was still foul with the mire of the swamp.

”I suppose we shall meet Domingo if we wait long enough?” he said.

”After all, we have only the Headman's word to warrant us believing it.”

Ormsgill laughed. ”It depends a good deal upon the kind of bargains Domingo has made with him lately. The thing will probably work out just as we would like it if he hasn't been quite satisfied with them.

It's an arrangement that would commend itself to the average African.

Still, as I said already, I'm a trifle sorry that you are mixed up in it.”

Nares sat silent a moment or two. He had borne a good deal, perhaps rather more than could have been expected of him, from those whom he considered with some reason as workers of iniquity, and, after all, excessive meekness has seldom been a characteristic of the Puritan.

”Well,” he said slowly, ”I'm not sure that I am. It is very probable that I have been proscribed already, and, perhaps, it was not patience but cowardice that made me submit so long. After all, patience accomplishes very little in Africa.”

”I'm afraid it was never one of my strong points,” and Ormsgill smiled. ”In fact, if Domingo made any kind of fight it would be a certain relief to me, although because one can't always afford to be guided by his personal likes I've taken every precaution against it.

Now, suppose we get the boys back, what do you propose to do?”

”Go back to my station,” said Nares quietly.

”And if you hear that Dom Luiz is there with several files of infantry to arrest you?”

”In that case I will go down to the coast with you.”

Ormsgill dropped a hand on his comrade's shoulder. ”I shall be glad to have you wherever I go, though I'm not sure that you wouldn't be safer if you pushed on alone. You don't mention what it has cost you to warn me, but I think I can understand.”

Nares slowly shook his head. ”I don't think I have much to regret,” he said without a trace of bitterness. ”I was sent here to save men's souls, and it seems that I have failed. Still, I think I should have stayed and healed their bodies--had it been permitted--but there is, perhaps, work I can do elsewhere since that is not the case.” He stopped a moment with the faintest sigh. ”We will not mention this again.”

Ormsgill said nothing, probably because he was more than a trifle stirred. He knew that it requires self-restraint and courage to face the fact that one's efforts have been thrown away, but there are men like him who now and then shrink from expressing their sympathy.

Leaning forward a little with the rifle across his knees he set himself to listen.

It was almost an hour before he heard anything at all, and in the meanwhile the faint coolness increased, and the tops of the trees above him became dimly visible. They cut with a growing sharpness against the eastern sky, and here and there a ma.s.sy trunk grew out of the obscurity. Then there was a faint pearly flush beyond them, and in the cold of the sudden dawn he heard the men he was waiting for. A soft patter of footsteps and a murmur of voices came up the winding trail. He knew the boys had also heard, for the undergrowth behind him crackled and then was still again.