Part 5 (1/2)
”No I cannot tell how unhappy others are, who have met none, but sometimes I think that I must be the most miserable woman in the world”
”Oh! no,” I replied cheerfully, ”plenty are worse off”
”Then, Mr Quatermain, it must be because they cannot feel Did you ever have a father whom you loved?”
”Yes, Miss Inez He is dead, but he was a very good man, a kind of saint Ask my servant, the little Hottentot Hans; he will tell you about hiuessed, ood in hi brain But the drink and those wo her hands
”Why don't you go away?” I blurted out
”Because it is h of it I know little except through books, who have seen no priest for years except one as a missionary, a Baptist, I think, who told me that my faith was false and would leadhow I lived, he said that, who did not know that hell is here No, I cannot go, who hopes always that still God and the Saints will show h it be with my blood And now I have said too er Yet, I do not knohy, I feel that you will not betray me, and what is more, that you will help me if you can, since you are not one of those who drink, or--” and she waved her hand towards the huts
”I have my faults, Miss Inez,” I answered
”Yes, no doubt, else you would be a saint, not a man, and even the saints had their faults, or so I see them Still, I am sure that you will help me if you can”
Then with a sudden flash of her dark eyes that said more than all her words, she turned and left ht I to s were going on there, and how to get the live fish out of the kettle before they boil or spoil isht thus a voice in irl's words-because it is your duty-and to add others to thelects his duty I was appointed to try to hook a few fish out of the vast kettle of hu Meanwhile this particular problem seemed beyond me Perhaps Fate would help, I reflected As a ht word to use in this connection
CHAPTER VI
THE SEA-COW HUNT
Now it had been my intention to push forward across the river at once, but here luck, or our old friend, Fate, was against aas'no doubt fro they had eaten This, however, was not their view, or that of Uaas himself It happened that one of these men, Goroko by nahter moments, naturally suspected that a spell had been cast upon the
Therefore he organised a ”saas, as as superstitious as the rest, assisted So did Hans, although he called himself a Christian, partly out of curiosity, for he was as curious as a pie, and partly froainst hi on froht it well to keep an eye upon the proceedings in case anything untoward should occur This I did with Miss Inez, who had never witnessed anything of the sort, as a companion
The circle, a sed up in the best witch-doctor's costume that he could improvise, duly came under the influence of his ”Spirit” and skipped about, waving a wildebeeste's tail, and so forth
Finally to roup of spectators fro them with a lordly and conte out that he was the wizard who had poisoned the bowels of the sick h he could be insolent, likethe stir that this announce develop to follow hi was over and that the tiaas, pointing out that ards Thomaso, whom I knew that he and his people hated, Goroko went back to the circle and was seized with a new burst of inspiration
Throwing down his whisk, he lifted his aran to shout out so in a loud voice which I was too far off to catch Whatever it htened his hearers, as I could see froaas was alarh to speak, then sat down again and covered his eyes with his hands
In a minute it was over; Goroko seeuessed, after the usual fashi+on of these doctors, began to ask what he had been saying while the ”Spirit” possessed hiotten The circle, too, broke up and its an to talk to each other in a subdued hile U, and Hans slipped away in his snake-like fashi+on, doubtless in search of me
”What was it all about, Mr Quatermain?” asked Inez
”Oh! a lot of nonsense,” I said ”I fancy that witch-doctor declared that your friend Tho into those men's food to make them sick”
”I daresay that he did; it would be just like him, Mr Quateraas, of whohtwhich he had found so speech which I could not understand”
The idea of U flowers to a young lady, was so absurd that I broke out laughing and even the sad-faced Inez s and I went to speak to Hans and asked hi rather queer, I think, Baas,” he answered vacuously, ”though I did not quite understand the last part The doctor, Goroko, sh they will not kill hiry with Thoet a chance But that is only the s half, then?” I asked with irritation
”Baas, the Spirit in Goroko--”
”The jackass in Goroko, you mean,” I interrupted ”How can you, who are a Christian, talk such rubbish about spirits? I only wish that my father could hear you”
”Oh! Baas, your reverend father, the Predikant, is noise enough to know all about Spirits and that there are soh they turn up their noses at white men and leave theot hold of hi of it afterwards, that soon this place would be red with blood-that there would be a great killing here, Baas That is all”
”Red with blood! Whose blood? What did the fool mean?”
”I don't know, Baas, but what you call the jackass in Goroko, declared that those who are 'with the Great Medicine'- what you wear, Baas-will be quite safe So I hope that it will not be our blood; also that you will get out of this place as soon as you can”
Well, I scolded Hans because he believed in what this doctor said, for I could see that he did believe it, then went to question U quite pleased, which annoyedand why do you s much, Macuone bad, put so in our food which made us sick, for which I would kill hihten the lady his daughter Also he said that soon there will be fighting, which is why I sht, did we not?”
”Certainly not,” I answered ”We cae lands, which is what I e lands one ree, and then Inkosikaas begins to talk,” and he whirled the great axe round his head, e at its back
I could get noextracted a pro should happen to Thomaso who, I pointed out, was probably quite unjustly accused, I went away
Still, the whole incident left a disagreeable ian to wish that ere safe across the Zambesi without more trouble But we could not start at once because two of the Zulus were still not well enough to travel and there were many preparations to be on must be left behind Also, and this was another co from the prick of a poisonous thorn, and it was desirable that this should be quite healed before we lad when Captain Robertson suggested that we should go down to a certain swaathered, by some small tributary of the Zambesi to take part in a kind of hippopotareat animals always frequented the place in nuh which they gained it, they, or a proportion of them, could be cut off and killed
This had been done once or twice in the past, though not of late, perhaps because Captain Robertson had lacked the energy to organise such a hunt Noished to do so again, taking advantage of my presence, both because of the value of the hides of the sea-cohich were cut up to be sent to the coast and sold as sja Also I think he desired to show ether sunk in sloth and drink
I fell in with the idea readily enough, since in allof the sort, especially as I was told that the expedition would not take more than a week and I reckoned that the sick reat preparations were made The riverside natives, whose share of the spoil was to be the carcases of the slain sea-coere summoned by hundreds and sent off to their appointed stations to beat the swareat pile of reeds Also s were done upon which I need not enter
Then came the time for us to depart to the appointed spot over twenty miles away, on Captain Robertson, who for the tiin, was as active about the affair as though he were onceescaped his attention; indeed, in the care which he gave to details he re port, and from it I learned how able a hter accoht before we started
”Oh! no,” he answered, ”she would only be in the way She will be quite safe here, especially as Thoe of the place with some of the older natives to look after the women and children”
Later I saw Inez herself, who said that she would have liked to coreat beasts killed, but that her father was against it because he thought she ht catch fever So she supposed that she had better reh in my heart I was doubtful, and said that I would leave Hans, whose foot was not as yet quite well, and hoaas, to look after her Also there would be with hi from their attack of sto to fear She answered with her slow s, still, she would have liked to co tiaas, ”in the nae of his two followers, bidding thean to suspect he feared so which he did not choose to mention My mind went back indeed to the prophecy of the witch-doctor Goroko, of which it was possible that he , but as while he spoke he kept his fierce eyes fixed upon the fat and pompous quarter-breed, Thomaso, I concluded that here was the object of his doubts
It ht have occurred to him that this Thomaso would take the opportunity of her father's absence to annoy Inez If so I was sure that he was mistaken for various reasons, of which I need only quote one, namely, that even if such an idea had ever entered his head, Thoreat a coward to translate it into action Still, suspecting soave Hans instructions to keep a sharp eye on Inez and generally to watch the place, and if he saw anything suspicious, to communicate with us at once