Part 4 (1/2)

”I was asleep,” stuttered Hans indignantly

”Those who serve should never sleep,” replied Uaas sternly Then he turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at a little distance, e cloaks of hyena skins, who salutedtheir axes

”Set a watch and skin aas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away

”Who are these?” I asked

”A few picked warriors whoht with ot lost on the way”

Then ent to the waggon and spoke no aas of the visit I had received fro ished me to come to the royal kraal He nodded and said, ”As it chances certain thieves attacked me on my journey, which is why one or two of ood play with those thieves; not one of therimly, ”and their bodies we threw into a river where are ht away and I think that they are such as the King's guard use If so, his search for theht took place where no s Oho! he will think that the ghosts have taken thei for these ”thieves” should strike and follow our spoor Luckily the ox that the lion had killed was one of so with aas told me that he had duly appointed Lousta and his wife Monazi to rule the tribe during his absence, an office which they accepted doubtfully, Monazi acting as Chieftainess and Lousta as her head Induna or Councillor

I asked hiht this wise under all the circu that it had occurred toto surrender power on his return, also that other doht ensue

”It reat shoulders, ”for of this I am sure, that I have playedthem would have meant my death, who am a man betrayed What do I care who love none and now have no children? Still, it is true that I ht have fled to Natal with the cattle and there have led a fat and easy life But ease and plenty I do not desire ould live and fall as a warrior should

”Never again, mayhap, shall I see the Ghost-Mountain where the wolves ravened and the old Witch sits in stone waiting for the world to die, or sleep in the town of the People of the Axe What do I ives and oxen while I have Inkosikaas the Groan- the ancient axe above his head so that the sun gleae or point at the back beyond the shaft socket ”Where the Axe goes, there go the strength and virtue of the Axe, O Macue weapon,” I said

”Aye, a strange and an old, forged far away, says Zikali, by a warrior-wizard hundreds of years ago, a great fighter as also the first of s for it to return to his hand when its work is finished beneath the sun That will be soon, Macumazahn, since Zikali told me that I am the last Holder of the Axe”

”Did you then see the Opener-of-Roads?” I asked

”Aye, I saw hio to escape frohed when he heard how the flooded rivers brought you to e in which he said that the spirit of a snake had told him that you tried to throw the Great Medicine into a pool, but were stopped by that snake, whilst it was still alive This, he said, you must do no more, lest he should send another snake to stop you”

”Did he?” I replied indignantly, for Zikali's power of seeing or learning about things that happened at a distance puzzled and annoyed rinned and said, ”I told you so, Baas”

On we travelled froers as are corass was good and there was plenty of game, of which we shot anted for ions of what is known as Portuguese South East Africa, every sort of wild animal was so numerous that personally I wished we could turn our journey into a shooting expedition

But of this U bored, would not hear In fact, he was inal purpose When I asked hi Zikali had told him What this was he would not say, except that in the country whither andered he would fight a great fight and winman, one who took a positive joy in battle, and like an old Norseman, seemed to think that thus only could a man decorously die This amazed ave way, partly to please hi of interest, and stillonce undertaken an enterprise, h

Nohile he was preparing to draw his et which, Zikali had told reat river we should coe of bush-veld that ran down to the river, where a whitefroht this white man was a ”trek-Boer” This, I should explain, means a Dutchman who has travelled away from wherever he lived andspirit and the desire to be free of authority often prompt these people to do Also, after another inspection of his enchanted knuckle-bones, he had declared that so remarkable would happen to thishim Lastly in that map he drew in the ashes, the details of which were impressed so indelibly uponof this white h the many spies who seemed to be at the service of all witch-doctors, andthe by the sun and the compress I had trekked steadily in the exact direction which he indicated, to find that in this useful particular he ell named the ”Opener-of-Roads,” since always before ht or to the left there would have been none Thus e came to mountains, it was at a spot where we discovered a pass; e caround ran between, and so forth Also such tribes as we met upon our journey always proved of a friendly character, although perhaps the aspect of Uaas and his fierce band whom, rather irreverently, I na this peaceful attitude

So sress and so well marked by water at certain intervals, that at last I ca sootten period of history, had run from south to north, or vice versa Or rather, to be honest, it was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications which had escaped my notice I need not stop to detail them, but one of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high, rather barren land had been dug out, and in one or more instances, lined with stones after the fashi+on of an ancient well Evidently ere following an old trade route es when Africa wasover certain high,the third week of our trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the afternoon, and where tere held up for thole days by dense fog, we came across a queer norass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed sheep

These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did thes ofor caterpillar which they seereat ue, or a ues, in which he could make himself understood to some of them

They told hih their fathers' fathers (an expression by which they meant their remote ancestors) had known many of them They added, however, that if ent on steadily towards the north for another seven days' journey, we should come to a place where a whitebeard and killed anience we pushed forward, now travelling down hill out of the enial country Indeed, the veld here was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East African plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as we could see where the rains had washed out dongas The cliether it was a pity to see such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless herds of game, for there were not any native inhabitants, or at least we htly down hill, till at lengthfar away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed correctly, reat Zambesi River Moreover we, or rather Hans, whose eyes were those of a hawk, saw sos of atrees by the side of a streareat belt of bush

”Look, Baas,” said Hans, ”those wanderers did not lie; there is the house of the white er than water,” he added with a sigh and a kind of reminiscent contraction of his yellow throat

As it happened, he did

CHAPTER V

INEZ

We had sighted the house from far away shortly after sunrise and by midday ere there As we approached I saw that it stood alreat baobab trees, babyan trees we call them in South Africa, perhaps because monkeys eat their fruit It was a thatched house ashed walls and a stoep or veranda round it, apparently of the ordinary Dutch type Moreover, beyond it, at a little distance were other houses or rather shanties aggon sheds, etc, and beyond and mixed up with these a nureen with springing corn; alsoherds of cattle grazing on the slopes Evidently our white aas surveyed the place with a soldier's eye and said to me, ”This must be a peaceful country, Macumazahn, where no attack is feared, since of defences I see none”

”Yes,” I answered, ”why not, with a wilderness behind it and bush-veld and a great river in front?”

”Men can cross rivers and travel through bush-veld,” he answered, and was silent

Up to this tiht have been presu towards the house was a sufficiently unusual sight to have attracted attention

”Where can they be?” I asked

”Asleep, Baas, I think,” said Hans, and as a ht The whole population of the place was indulging in a noonday siesta

At last we caon and descended froate At this ht of who young woood features, a rather pale complexion, and I think the saddest face that I ever saw Evidently she had heard the noise of the waggon and had co on her head, which was covered with thick hair of a raven blackness Catching sight of the great U bodyguard, she uttered an exclaht,” I sang out, eh before the words had left htest reason to suppose that she would understand theh by solish

To ue, spoken, it is true, with a peculiar accent which I could not place, as it was neither Scotch nor Irish

”Thank you,” she said ”I, sir, was frightened Your friends look--” Here she stuhed at this composite adjective and answered, ”Well, so they are in a way, though they will not har lady, tell me, can we outspan here? Perhaps your husband--”

”I have no husband, I have only a father, sir,” and she sighed

”Well, then, could I speak to your father? My na a journey of exploration, to find out about the country beyond, you know”

”Yes, I will go to wake him He is asleep Everyone sleeps here at h

”Why do you not follow their exa woman puzzled me and I wanted to find out about her

”Because I sleep little, sir, who think too much There will be plenty of time to sleep soon for all of us, will there not?”

I stared at her and inquired her name, because I did not knohat else to say