Part 6 (1/2)
THE OATH
We spent three more days at that place First it was necessary to allow tireat bodies caused those of the sea-cohich had been killed in the water, to float Then they must be skinned and their thick hides cut into strips and pieces to be traded for sjamboks or to make small native shi+elds for which some of the East Coast tribes will pay heavily
All this took a long while, during which I a those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts The lean, what there was of it, they dried and sreat deal of the fat they ate at once I had the curiosity to weigh a lu fellow It scaled quite twenty pounds Within four hours he had eaten it to the last ounce and lay there, a distended and torpid log What would not hite people give for such a digestion!
At last all was over and we started ho carried in a kind of litter On the edge of the bush-veld we found the waggon quite safe, also one of Captain Robertson's that had followed us from Strathmuir in order to carry the expected load of hippopota had happened during our absence He answered nothing, but on the previous evening after dark, he had seen a glow in the direction of Strathround about twenty hted there It struck him so much, he added, that he climbed a tree to observe it better He did not think, however, that any building had been burned there, as the gloas not strong enough for that
I suggested that it was caused by so, to which he replied indifferently that he did not think so as the line of the gloas not sufficiently continuous
There the h I confess that the story made aas also, who had listened to it, for our talk was in Zulu, looked grave, butexperience he had been singularly silent, of this I thought little
We had trekked at a ti us to Strath for a short halt half way As on after this outspan, I was the first away, followed at a little distance by Uaas, who preferred to ith his Zulus The truth was that I could not get that story about the glow of fires out of my mind and was anxious to push on, which had caused
Perhaps we had covered a couple of miles of the ten or twelve which still lay between us and Strathmuir, when far off on the crest of one of the waves of the veld whichsea frozen while inus at a rapid trot Soested Hans to lasses to exah the at a great pace
Filled with uneasiness, I ordered the driver to flog up the oxen, with the result that in a little over five on-box and calling to U trot, went to Hans, hen he saw y for a hat in his hand, as was his fashi+on when ashamed or perplexed
”What is thedistance
”Oh! Baas, everything,” he answered, and I noticed that he kept his eyes fixed upon the ground and that his lips twitched
”Speak, you fool, and in Zulu,” I said, for by now Uaas had joined ue, ”a terrible thing has come about at the farm of Red-Beard yonder Yesterday afternoon at the ti there till the sun grows less hot, a body of greatspears-perhaps there were fifty of therowing crops, and attacked it”
”Did you see the at a little distance as you bade lare of it, so that I did not see them until they had passed me and heard the noise”
”You o on”
”Baas, I do not know,” he answered shamefacedly, ”but after that I climbed a tall tree with a kind of bush at the top of it” (I ascertained afterwards that this was a sort of leafy-crowned pal seen”
”What did you see, Hans?” I asked hi e Then they shouted, and the people in the village came out to see as the ht of them first and ran away fast into the hillside at the back where the trees grow, before the circle was co men killed them with their spears-all, all!”
”Good God!” I exclaimed ”And what happened at the house and to the lady?”
”Baas, some of the men had surrounded that also and when she heard the noise the lady Sad-Eyes came out on to the stoep and with her came the two Zulus of the Axe who had been left sick but were now quite recovered A nuh to take her, but the two Zulus ht in front of the little steps to the stoep, having their backs protected by the stoep, and killed six of them before they themselves were killed Also Sad-Eyes shot one with a pistol she carried, and wounded another so that the spear fell out of his hand
”Then the rest fell on her and tied her up, setting her in a chair on the stoep where two remained to watch her They did her no hurt, Baas; indeed, they seeently as they could Also they went into the house and there they caught that tall fat yellow girl who always smiles and is called Janee, she aits upon the Lady Sad-Eyes, and brought her out to her I think they told her, Baas, that she must look after her mistress and that if she tried to run away she would be killed, for afterwards I saw Janee bring her food and other things”
”And then, Hans?”
”Then, Baas, h sos as they liked, blankets, knives and iron cooking-pots, but they set fire to nothing, nor did they try to catch the cattle Also they took dry wood froht or nine of thean to feast”
”What did they feast on, Hans, if they took no cattle?” I asked with a shi+ver, for I was afraid of I knew not what
”Baas,” answered Hans, turning his head away and looking at the ground, ”they feasted on the children who women These tall soldiers are ence I turned faint and felt as though I was going to fall, but recovering o on with his story
”They feasted quite nicely, Baas,” he continued, ” no noise Then some of theht As soon as it was dark, but before the moon rose, I slid down the tree and crept round to the back of the house without being seen or heard, as I can, Baas I got into the house by the back door and crawled to theof the sitting-rooh I saw Sad-Eyes still tied to the seat on the stoep not irl Janee crouched on the floor at her feet-I think she was asleep or fainting
”I , and kept onit, till at last Sad-Eyes turned her head Then I spoke in a very lohisper, for fear lest I should wake the two guards ere dozing on either side of her wrapped in their blankets, saying, 'It is I, Hans, co very low 'Get to your master and tell hier and live far away across the river They are going to take me to their home, as I understand, to rule them, because they want a white woman to be a queen over theainst whom they have rebelled I do not think they mean to do me any harm, unless perhaps they want to marry me to their chief, but of this I ao, before they catch you'
”'I think you et away,' I whispered back 'I will cut your bonds When you are free, slip through theand I will guide you'
”'Very well, try it,' she said
”So I drew my knife and stretched out my arm But then, Baas, I showed ht have known better I forgot the starlight which shone upon the blade of the knife That girl Janee came out of her sleep or swoon, lifted her head and saw the knife She screamed once, then at a word froh, for it woke up the guards who glared about thereat spears, also they went to sleep no h what they said I could not hear, for I was hiding on the floor of the rooht do haret myself killed, I crept out of the house as I had crept in, and crawled back to my tree”
”Why did you not coht be able to help Sad-Eyes, Baas Also I wanted to see what happened, and I knew that I could not bring you here in tih I did not know the road”
”Perhaps you were right”
”At the first dawn,” continued Hans, ”the great er rose and ate as left over froether and went to the house Here they found a large chair, that seated with rimpis in which the Baas Red-Beard sits, and lashed two poles to the chair Beneath the chair they tied the gars of the Lady Sad-Eyes which they ently they sat Sad-Eyes herself in the chair, bohile they ht of them set the poles upon their shoulders, and they all went away at a trot, heading for the bush-veld, driving with theoats which they had stolen fro Janee run by the chair I saw everything, Baas, for they passed just beneaththe outward spoor of the waggons which I could not have done well at night That is all, Baas”
”Hans,” I said, ”you have been drinking and because of it the lady Sad-Eyes is taken a prisoner by cannibals; for had you been awake and watching, youand saved her and the rest Still, afterwards you did well, and for the rest you must answer to Heaven”
”I must tell your reverend father, the Predikant, Baas, that the white ave reat white master does, and drink it up I am sure he will understand, Baas,” said Hans abjectly
I thought to myself that it was true and that the spear which Robertson cast had fallen upon his own head, as the Zulus say, but I u for the first time, ”that my servants killed only six of these men-eaters?”
Hans nodded and answered, ”Yes, six I counted the bodies”
”It was ill done, they should have killed six each,” said Uaas moodily ”Well, they have left the reat axe
Just then Captain Robertson arrived in his waggon, calling out anxiously to knoas the matter, for some premonition of evil seeht of him, for hoas I to tell such a story to the father of the irl?
In the end I felt that I could not Yes, I turned coward and saying that I on, bolted into it, bidding Hans go forward and repeat his tale He obeyed unwillingly enough and looking out between the curtains of the waggon tent I saw all that happened, though I could not hear the words that passed
Robertson had halted the oxen and juan to speak with hiressed, I saw the Captain's face freeze into a ue and deny, then to weep-oh! it was a terrible sight to see that greatover those whom he had lost, and in such a fashi+on