Part 21 (1/2)

Yes, decidedly in this case familiarity had bred contempt. The ex-police sergeant had ”got behind” the mysterious cult, through his close a.s.sociation with one of its most influential exponents. s.h.i.+minya, for his part, was aware of this, and viewed the situation with some concern. Now he only said--

”Talk not so loudly, my son, lest ears grow on yonder bushes as well as thorns. Now we will go home.”

A look of relief came into Nidia's face as she knew, by the rising of the two, that their conference was at an end. Then Nanzicele said--

”You go with we.”

”Can we get there to-night?” she asked eagerly.

”We try. Where you from?”

Then she told him, and about the murder of the Hollingworths; and her voice shook and her eyes filled. To her listener it was all a huge joke. He knew she was tinder the impression that she was talking to a loyal policeman. Then she began asking questions about John Ames. Was he at home? and so forth. But Nanzicele suddenly became afflicted by a strange density, an almost total ignorance of English.

For upwards of an hour they journeyed on, leaving the cultivated lands, and striking into wilder country. Once a great snake rose in their path, and went gliding away, hissing in wrath, and bright-plumaged birds darted overhead. Vast thickets of ”wacht-een-bietje” thorns lined the river-bank, and these they skirted.

Nidia was becoming exhausted. So far excitement and nervous tension had kept her up. Now she felt she could hold out no longer. Just then they halted.

In front was the vast thicket. s.h.i.+minya, bending down, crawled into what was nothing more nor less than a tunnel piercing the dense thorns and just wide enough to admit the body of a man. There was something sinister in its very aspect. Nidia drew back.

”Go after him. Go after that man,” ordered Nanzicele, roughly.

”No. I don't like it. I can't get through there,” she answered. ”This can't be the way to Sik.u.mbutana.”

Nanzicele s.n.a.t.c.hed out the short-handled heavy k.n.o.b kerrie stuck through his belt.

”Go after that man,” he roared, flouris.h.i.+ng it over her head.

The aspect of the great savage was so terrific, the sudden change so startling, that Nidia put her hands over her eyes and shrank back with a faint cry, expecting every moment to feel the hard wood crash down upon her head. Trembling now in every limb, she obeyed without hesitation the command so startlingly emphasised, and crawled as best she could in the wake of s.h.i.+minya, Nanzicele bringing up the rear.

The tunnel did not last long, and soon they were able to proceed upright, but still between high walls of the same impenetrable thorn.

Lateral pa.s.sages branched out on either side in such labyrinthine tortuosity of confusion that Nidia's first thought was how it would be possible for any one to find his way through here a second time.

Soon a low whining sound was heard in front; then the thorns seemed to meet in an arch overhead. Pa.s.sing beneath this, the trio stood in a circular open s.p.a.ce, at the upper end of which were three huts, ”What place is this?” exclaimed Nidia, striving not to allow her alarm to show in her voice, for in her heart was a terrible sinking. There was that about this retreat which suggested the den of a wild beast rather than an abode of human beings, even though barbarians. How helpless, how completely at the mercy of these two she felt.

”You stay here,” replied Nanzicele. ”Sik.u.mbutana too far. Go there to-morrow. Plenty Matabele about make trouble. You stay here.”

There was plausibility about the explanation which went far to satisfy her. The situation was a nervous one for a solitary unprotected woman; but she had been through so much within the last twenty-four hours that her sensibilities were becoming blunted. They offered her some boiled corn, but she was too tired to eat. She asked for water, and they brought her some, greasy, uninviting, in a clay bowl, but her thirst was intense.

”You go in there--go to sleep,” said Nanzicele, opening one of the huts.

”But I would rather sleep outside.”

”You go in there,” he repeated, more threateningly. And Nidia, recollecting the k.n.o.bstick argument, obeyed.

The hut was stuffy and close; suggestive, too, of creeping things both small and great; but, fortunately, she was too completely exhausted to allow room for nervous fears, and sleep overwhelmed her. Sleep! The ghosts of former victims done to death amid every circ.u.mstance of horror within that den arose not to appal her. She slept on in blissful ignorance; slept--within the scarce-known retreat of one of the most atrocious monsters of cruelty that ever flourished amid even a barbarous race--slept--within the web of the crafty blood-sucking human spider.

Nanzicele departed, and the sorcerer, having secured the entrances to his den with thick thorn branches, sat crouching over a small red fire, his plotting brain ever at work. He was in high good humour, for here was a new victim for him to practise some of his favourite barbarities upon. In this case they must be refined forms of barbarity, such as would torture the mind rather more acutely than the red-hot iron would the body, and a better subject for such he thought he had never seen.

So he squatted there, and gleefully chuckled. Beside him crouched the wolf. ”Ah, ah, Lupiswana!” he exclaimed, addressing his familiar spirit. ”It may be that thou shalt sink thy fangs into white flesh-- dainty delicate flesh, Lupiswana. White blood, too--white red blood-- richer, more rare than that of Nompiza, and such. It is sleeping now.

Come, Lupiswana; we will go forth and see.”

Taking one of the red f.a.ggots from the fire, he blew it into flame; then, rising, he went to the door of the hut wherein Nidia was asleep.

Softly undoing the fastenings, he entered. The light flickered fitfully on the horrible trophies disposed around. The evil beast at his side was emitting a low, throaty growl; but neither that nor the proximity of this demon availed to awaken the sleeping girl. Calm, peaceful, she slumbered on amid her hideous surroundings. The wizard went forth again, ”Ah, ah, Lupiswana! She knows not what is before her. To-morrow I think thou must have one taste of this white flesh--perhaps two.”