Part 22 (1/2)
Utterly beside herself now with the horror of this dreadful thought, she dashed from the hut--one idea in her mind--to get away from this awful place at whatever cost. But there was another who entertained different ideas concerning the disposal of her movements, and that was the wolf.
For as she approached the gap in the circular fence which const.i.tuted the exit, the brute lay and snarled. She talked soothingly, then scoldingly, as to a dog. All to no purpose. It lifted its hideous head, and snarled louder and more threateningly. But it would not budge an inch, and she could only pa.s.s through that gap over its body.
Perfectly frantic with desperation, Nidia tore a thorn bough from the fence; and, advanced upon the beast. It crouched, snarling shrilly; then, as she thrust the spiky end sharply against its face, it sprang at her open-mouthed, uttering a fiendish yell. But for the bough she would have had her throat torn out; as it was the sharp spines served as a s.h.i.+eld between her and the infuriated brute, which, with ears thrown back and fangs bared, squirmed hither and thither to get round this th.o.r.n.y buckler--its eyes flas.h.i.+ng flame, its jaws spitting foam. The struggle could not last for ever. Her strength was fast leaving her, and in her extremity a wild shriek of the most awful terror and despair pealed forth from the lips of the unhappy girl. Then another and another.
What was this? Unheard by the combatants because drowned by the savage yells and snarls of the one and the terrified screams of the other, there was a tearing, cras.h.i.+ng sound at the upper end of the enclosure.
A man dashed through the th.o.r.n.y fence--a white man--hatless and with clothes well-nigh in tatters--pale as death, his right hand grasping a sword-bayonet. Without a moment's hesitation he made straight at the infuriated beast, darting such a stab with his weapon that had it gone home the wizard's ”familiar spirit” would have needed a successor. The quick movements of the animal, however, turned the blade aside--result a deep ugly gash along the ribs. But seeing it had no longer to deal with a badly frightened woman, but a strong, determined man, the skulking nature of the beast came uppermost even in the midst of its fury. With a shrill yelp of pain and fear, it fell off, and, turning, fled through the entrance like a streak of lightning.
The girl dropped the th.o.r.n.y bough and faced her rescuer, with a burst of half hysterical laughter. One exclamation escaped her--
”John Ames!”
Wonder, delight, relief--all entered into the tone. In the extremity of her fear and exhaustion conventionality was lost sight of--formality forgotten. The name by which she had been accustomed to designate him alone with her friend, to think of him alone with herself would out.
Not another, word, though, could she utter. She stood there breathless, panting, a mist before her eyes, after the violence of her exertions, the extremity of her fear.
”Don't try and talk,” he said--”simply rest.”
She looked at him--still panting violently--shook her head, and smiled.
She was physically incapable of speaking after her exertion. But even then a contrast rose vividly before her--this man now, and when she had last seen him. They had bidden him good-bye, she and her relative, in the front door of the hotel at Wynberg, cordially--and conventionally-- mutually expressing the wish to meet again soon up-country. Now, here he stood, having dropped, as it were, from the clouds, to come to her aid in her moment of sore need. And his appearance--haggard, unshaven, hatless, his clothes in tatters; yet it seemed to her sufficient at this moment that he was here at all. For some little while they sat in silence. Then he said--
”If you are sufficiently rested, tell me how it is you are here--in this place.”
”Oh yes; I can talk now. But--oh, what would I have done with that horrible fiend of an animal but for you? I should have been torn to pieces.”
”Strange, too, how it got here. I know the sort of beast. It in a kind of mongrel hyaena--Lupiswana, the natives call it. Ah! Now I begin to see.”
This as if a sudden idea had struck him. But again he repeated his request that she should tell him her experiences. And this she did-- from the murder of the Hollingworths right on.
”And so you were coming to me for refuge?” he said, for she had made no secret of that part of it either. ”It was well indeed you did not, for I only escaped through the fidelity of my own servant. I will tell you all about it another time. I must take care of you until we fall in with a patrol. We shall have to keep closely in hiding, you know. I am only a fugitive like yourself. The whole country is up in arms, but it is only a question of time and--”
A bullet hummed over the speaker's head, very near, simultaneously with the crash of a firearm, discharged from the entrance of the enclosure, where a small lean native stood already inserting another cartridge in the breach of his smoking rifle. But John Ames was upon him with a tiger spring, just in time to strike up the barrel and send the bullet humming into s.p.a.ce.
”No, no! You don't go like that,” he said in Sindabele, gripping the other's wrists. The savage, small and thin, was no match for the tall muscular white man; yet even he was less puny than he appeared and was striving for an opportunity to slide, eel-like, from that grasp, and make good his escape. ”_Gahle, gahle_! or I will break your wrists.”
Then the native gave in, whining that Jonemi was his father, and he shot at him in mistake, seeing him in his kraal. He had retired there in peace, in order to keep out of all the trouble that was being made.
”Yes; thou knowest me, and I know thee, s.h.i.+minya,” was the answer. ”In the mean time I will take thy rifle--which belongs to the Government-- and cartridges. That's it. Now, go and sit over there, and if thou movest I will shoot thee dead, for I can shoot better than thou.”
The discomfited sorcerer, now the odds were against him, did as he was told, turning the while to Nidia and adjuring her to speak for him. His was the kraal that had taken her in. He had housed and fed her. This very day he had intended to take her to Sik.u.mbutana. He had gone forth to see that the way was clear so that he might do so in safety, and, returning, had found Jonemi, whom, mistaking for some plunderer, he had fired at.
Nidia, of course, understood not a word of this, but John Ames had let the rascal's tongue run on. He more than suspected s.h.i.+minya to be an instigator of the murder of the Inglefields, and was sure that he was aware of it. For the rest, it certainly seemed as he had said. Nidia's own tale was in keeping. They had been somewhat rough in their manner to her, but had given her food and shelter, and had done her no serious harm. As for her ghastly find within the hut, John Ames had speedily quieted her fears on that head. This s.h.i.+minya was a wizard of note, and portions of the human anatomy were occasionally used by such in their disgusting and superst.i.tious rites.
”We have need of many things which thou hast in thy huts, s.h.i.+minya,” he said, ”for we are going to leave thee, and return to Sik.u.mbutana”--this with design. ”I, for instance, have no hat, and my clothes are torn. I need further thy rifle, or rather the rifle of Government, and all the cartridges thou hast. Rise, therefore, and show us where such may be found. But first I will bind thy hands.”
The countenance of the sorcerer, which had brightened up, fell at this.
Nidia, at a word from John Ames, having searched in the huts for the necessary thongs, the binding was effected in the most masterly manner.
Then, forcing the prisoner into the hut where Nidia had made her startling discovery, John Ames set to work to ransack the place.
Luckily, it was a very store-house of European goods, which s.h.i.+minya, being of an avaricious turn, had exacted from his clients and dupes and kept h.o.a.rded up here. Most of the articles of wear, though of coa.r.s.e and shoddy make, were new; and, best of all, there were four packets of Martini-Henry cartridges stowed away in the thatch; for here was one who knew where to look for that kind of contraband goods.