Part 6 (2/2)

After this a kind of blind rage seized hi to kill Hans, as of the sa his fists, cursing and shouting, till presently he fell of a heap and lay face doards, beating his head against the ground and groaning

Noent to him and sat up

”That's a pretty story, Quater at me Man, do you understand what he says? He says that all those half-blood children of es from over the Zambesi, yes, and eaten, too, with their mothers Do you take the point? Eaten like laht were the fires on which they were cooked, my little so-and-so and so-and-so,” and he mentioned half a dozen different names ”Yes, cooked, Quatermain And that isn't all of it, they have taken Inez too They didn't eat her, but they have dragged her off a captive for God knohat reason I couldn't understand The whole shi+p's crew is gone, except the captain absent on leave and the first officer, Thomaso, who deserted with some Lascar stokers, and left the wooingto drink”

”All right,” I said, ”I will Sit here and wait a on and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into which I put an a doze of bromide from a little medicine chest I always carry with me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it All this compound I mixed up with a little water and took it to him in a tin cup so that he could not see the colour

He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the veld, groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance, for Hans had joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in drought-parched grass

In a few an to take effect upon Robertson's tortured nerves, for he rose and said quietly, ”What now?”

”Vengeance, or rather justice,” I answered

”Yes,” he exclaied, or die-or both”

Again I saw my opportunity and said, ”You must swear reat things, for drink destroys the judged for the dead and to rescue the living, you must be sober, or I for one will not help you”

”Will you help ood or ill, Quatermain?” he added

I nodded

”That's as much as another's oath,” he ht in words I swear by God, by hter born in honestdrink, until I have avenged those poor women and their little children, and rescued Inez froh ht,” I said in an offhand fashi+on, though inwardly I gloith pride at the success of reat, and went on, ”Now let us get to business The first thing to do is to trek to Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail Couns and aes don't see, except a few blankets and a herd of goats”

He did as I asked, telling , but now I recall that about two years ago a great savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like Inez, I understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and said he wanted to trade I asked him what in, and he answered that he would like to buy some children I told him that I was not a slave-dealer Then he looked at Inez, asabout, and said that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his Chief, and offered soold, which he said should be paid before she was taken away I snatched his big spear froave hi with its shaft that he had ever heard of Then I kicked him off the place He limped away but when he was out of reach, turned and called out that one day he would co Inez, without leaving the price in ivory and gold I ran for ht of the ain from that day to this”

”Well, he kept his promise,” I said, but Robertsondose of bromide and laudanum had taken effect on hiht that this sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for a while

We reached Strath the pursuit that day Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter out carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be useless We must rest andthese brutes who already had a clear twelve hours' start, by a sudden spurt Theytheir spoor, if indeed they could be run down at all before they vanished into the vast recesses of unknown Africa The et ready

Captain Robertson was still sleeping e passed the village and of this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not pleasant to behold, especially when they are--! Indeed, of these I deteron with Hans and some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile the such huht of which the voorlooper had seen upon the sky, and on to therave and in it to place the other bodies and generally to remove the traces of murder

Then I went on to the house, and not too soon Seeing the waggons arrive and having one, Tho-places and returned Unfortunately for the foran to revile the fat half-breed in no , coward, and other opprobrious names, such as deserter of women and children, and so forth-all of which someone translated

Thoer the et assistance Infuriated at this lie, Uh he was a stronghiround, then as he strove to rise and run, caught hiain and as it seemed to me, was about to break his back across his knee Just at this juncture I arrived

”Let the h death here already?”

”Yes,” answered Uaas, ”I think there is Best that this jackal should live to eat his own sha

Robertson, as still asleep in the waggon, woke up at the noise, and descended fro so made my way past, or rather between the bodies of the two Zulus and of the six men whom they had killed, also of hiht for they were covered ounds, all of the ood look at the slain Anificent men, all of them; tall, spare and shapely with very clear-cut features and rather frizzled hair Frohtness of their colour, I concluded that they were of a Semitic or Arab type, and that the adht, if indeed there were any at all Their spears, of which one had been cut through by a blow of a Zulu's axe, were long and broad, not unlike to those used by the Masai, but of finer work and thoroughly tired by all that I had gone through, I went into the house to get so told Hans to find food and prepare a meal As I sat down Robertson joined o to the cupboard and fetch the spirit bottle; indeed, he rose to do so

”Hans is ly

”Thank you,” he answered, ”I forgot Force of habit, you know”

Here I may state that never from that moment did I see him touch another drop of liquor, not even when I drank my modest tot in front of him His triumph over temptation was splendid and complete, especially as the absence of his accustomed potations made him ill for some time and of course depressed his spirits, with painful results that were apparent in due course

In fact, the loomy but resourceful, also full of patience Only one idea obsessed hie the ht of and found interest in nothing else Moreover, his iron constitution cast off all the effects of his past debauchery and he grew so strong that although I was pretty tough in those days, he could out-tire ed him in conversation and with his help made a list of e should require on our vendetta journey, all of which served to occupy histhat I would call hi first put a little more bromide into his third cup of coffee After this I turned in and notwithstanding the sight of those ree of the dead men who lay outside my , I slept like a top

Indeed, it was the Captain akened ht was on the break and we had better be stirring So ent down to the Store, where I was thankful to find that everything had been tidied up in accordance with my directions

On our way Robertson asked me what had beco ashes of one of the great fires He went to it and kneeling down, said a prayer in broad Scotch, doubtless one that he had learned at his e of the pyre-for such it was-and threw the embers where, as he knew, lay all that was left of those who had sprung froh what he meant by this I did not understand and never asked Probably it was soe, or both, which he had learned fro

After this ent into the Store and with the help of some of the natives, or half-breeds, who had accooods anted, which we sent to the house

As we returned thither I saw Ued, with the usual Zulu cere their two companions in a hole they had made in the hillside I noted, however, that they did not inter their war-axes or their throwing-spears with theht be needed In place of thehly shaped of bits of wood, whichtheered to watch the funeral and heard Goroko, the witch-doctor, make a little speech

”O Father and Chief of the Axe,” he said, addressing U on his weapon and watching all, a portentous figure in themist, ”O Father, O Son of the Heavens” (this was an allusion to the royal blood of Uh it would never have been spoken aloud in Zululand), ”O Slaughterer (Bulalio), O Woodpecker who picks at the hearts of -Slayer; O Conqueror of the Halakazi; O Victor in a hundred fights; O Gatherer of the Lily-bloom that faded in the hand; O Wolf-man, Captain of the Wolves that ravened; O Slayer of Faku; O Great One whom it pleases to seem small, because he must follow his blood to the end appointed--”

This was the opening of the speech, the ”bonga-ing” or giving of titles of Praise to the person addressed, of which I have quoted but a saotten Then the speaker went on, ”It was told to , that when o I prophesied that this place would floith blood, and lo! the blood has flowed, and with it that of these our brothers,” and he gave the names of the two dead Zulus, also those of their forefathers for several generations

”It seems, Father, that they died well, as you would have wished them to die, and as doubtless they desired to die theh it is true that theymore of the men-eaters, as it is certain they would have done, had they not been sick inside They are finished; they have gone beyond to await us in the Under-world ahosts Their story is told and soon to their children they will be but nah of them who have showed us how to die as our fathers did before the of his hands, ”My Spirit coain and I know that these our brothers shall not pass unavenged Chief of the Axe, great glory awaits the Axe, for it shall feed full I have spoken”

”Good words!” grunted U Inkosikaas and came to me to consult about our journey

CHAPTER VIII

PURSUIT

After all we did not get away reat deal to be done To begin with the loads had to be arranged These consisted largely of a cut down to an irreducible minimum To carry them we took two donkeys there were on the place, also half a dozen pack oxen, all of which animals were supposed to be ”salted”-that is, to have suffered and recovered fro the bite of the deadly tsetse fly I suspected, it is true, that they would not be proof against further attacks, still, I hoped that they would last for some time, as indeed proved to be the case

In the event of the beasts failing us, we took also ten of the best of those Strathmuir men who had accompanied us on the sea-cow trip, to serve as bearers when it became necessary It cannot be said that these snuff-and-butter fellows-for most, if not all of them had so volunteers Indeed, if a choice had been left to them, they would, I think, have declined this adventure

But there was no choice Their lance at the Zulus they concluded that the command was one which would be enforced and that if they stopped behind, it would not be as living hter, which, if they were not very brave, filled thee Lastly, they could all shoot after a fashi+on and had good rifles; moreover if I may say so, I think that they put confidence in my leadershi+p So they ot thee on of the faron and oxen, were put in the charge of Thomaso, since there was no one else who could be trusted at all-a very battered and crestfallen Thomaso, by the way When he heard of it he was much relieved, since I think he feared lest he also should be expected to take part in the hunt of the Aer man-eaters Also it may have occurred to him that in all probability none of us would ever come back at all, in which case by a process of natural devolution, he ht find himself the owner of the business and much valuable property However, he swore by sundry saints-for Thomaso was no as though it were his own, as no doubt he hoped it aas, Hans obligingly translating so that there ht be no mistake, ”if I come back, and come back I shall who travel with the Great Medicine-and find even one of the cattle of the white lord, Macu, or one article stolen froon, or the fields of your oods wasted, I swear by the Axe that I will hew you into pieces with the axe; yes, if to do it I have to hunt you froth of the night between Do you understand, fat pig, deserter of women and children, who to save yourself could run faster than a buck?”

Thomaso replied that he understood very clearly indeed, and that, Heaven helping him, all should be kept safe and sound Still, I was sure that in his ifts to the saints if they would so arrange aas and his axe were never seen at Strather had their uses However, as I did not trust hiainst their will, I left s