Part 13 (1/2)
”Yes,” I answered, ”he has gone and nothing can be done at present,” though to one far and would be found when the
Still I waswhile, was losing his balance hter of his half-breed children and of the abduction of Inez by these grian the business, and I think that it was increased and accentuated by his sudden conversion to co
When I persuaded hi that I had done a clever thing, but noas not so sure Perhaps it would have been better if he had continued to drink so, at any rate for a while, but the trouble is that in such cases there is generally no half-way house A iven to this frailty either turns aggressively sober or remains very drunken At any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted for the best and could not blame myself
For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious associations of his youth had re-asserted theathered that he had been brought up almost as a Calvinist, and in the rush of their return, had overset his equilibriuht and day without any of those reserves which ious exercises, and when he talked of enerally revolved round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to say the truth, did not make him a cheerful companion Indeed in this respect I liked hi, I fear, myself a someorldly soul
Well, the suiven us the slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness was ihter, I do not think that it would have been safe ahtbirds whom I did not trust Certainly I could not have asked Hans to undertake the task, and if I had, I do not think he would have gone since he was afraid of the A to be done except wait and hope for the best
So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had promised Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded by Billali, followed by wouard of tall spear, when suddenly she arrived from the shadows and stood before aas, Goroko and the other Zulus iththat is afraid of being kicked
After a swift glance at theuessed by the aze upon my pipe that evidently excited her curiosity, and askedon the char
”So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and one that is filthy also,” she said, sniffing at the s her hand before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into ht, it burnt a hole incoat
I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she ho, to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be astonished at a habit hich she h I believe that it was unknown in the ancient world
”You are troubled,” she went on, swiftly changing the subject, ”I read it in your face One of your co Who is it? Ah! I see, the white one?”
”That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha,” I said
”How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which to look for things that pass afar Still, lether hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a one over the mountain lip towards the worshi+ppers of Rezu I think that he iselse which I do not understand have turned his brain; so that has to do with the Heavens I think also that we shall recover hih of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to me to read the future, but only the past, and soh they be far away”
”Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?” I asked anxiously
”Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant Moreover those ent ht be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to your co in his madness Do you knohat he went to seek?”
”More or less,” I answered and translated to her the letter that Robertson had left for me
”It may be as the man writes,” she coh these are not sent by a God as he is, O Allan, although it see, and when the breath of vision or the fury of a soul distraught bloay the veils or burns through the gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns, since, whatever fools may think, often madness is true wisdom Now folloith the little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe Stay, let me look upon that axe”
I interpreted her wish to Uaas who held it out to her but refused to loose it fro
”Does the Black One think that I shall cut hientle?” she asked, laughing
”Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives, which he nas to closer by day and night than a man does to his wife”
”There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captainis ancient,” she addedits every detail, ”and who knows? ItRezu to the dust Now ask this fierce-eyed Slayer whether, are to face the est, one who is a wizard also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this can he be rimly and answered, ”Say to the White Witch that there is noupon the earth whom I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight, though once a chance blow brought reat hole in his forehead ”Say to her also that I have no fear of defeat, I froh the Opener-of-Roads has told e people I shall die in war at last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in war”
”He speaks well,” she answered with a note of admiration in her voice ”By Isis, were he but white I would set hier under me Tell hireat reward”
”And tell the White Witch, Macuaas replied when I had translated, ”that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the sight of one who is lost to me but hoth to break the wall of blackness that is built between e,” reflected Ayesha when she understood, ”that this grim Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for one whorave has taken Learn from it, Allan, that all hus and your longings are his also, though the three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon and the earth, and as different in every other quality Yet it is true that sun and moon and earth are born of the sa they were identical, as doubtless they will be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light space with a fla Gods that made them may warm their hands Well, so it is with ulf of Spirit by Nature's hand, and, cast upon the cold air of this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each different to the other and yet, be sure, the same Now talk no more, but follow uards lead on to the cah the silent ruins Ayesha walked, or rather glided a pace or two ahead, then caaas and I side by side, while at our heels followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish to be out of reach of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally of the protection of axe and rifle
Thus webetween a quarter and half a hty wall that once had encoht saw beneath us a vast hollohich clearly at some unknown time had been the bed of an enormous moat and filled ater
Noever, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted nu, also so food At a little distance too, upon the further edge of the moat-like depression were a nuathered in a circle about a large stone upon which so was stretched that resereat number of spectators
”The priests of Lulala who ht, save when she is dead,” said Ayesha, turning back towards h in answer to the query which I had conceived but left unuttered
What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation and briskness All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved about quickly and with the saht ani of the sun It was as though they had just got up full of vigour to cohtly round, which in truth was the case, since as Hans discovered, by habitude these A prevented theht It only rereat nu the round of the drydown the cru pathe caed, then seeing horeat spears, which had iron spikes on their shafts like to those of the Masai, sticking in the ground beside them
We passed on between soh handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom these were surrounded Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different world to ours, one alien to the kindly race of er, who see under some ancient ancestral curse of which they could never shake off the memory Even the women rarely smiled; their clear-cut, stately countenances relowered at us incuriously Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated theh the its further slope and here suddenly caathered in a hollow square, apparently in order to receive us They stood in ranks of five or six deep and their spear-points gli bands of level steel As we entered the open side of the square all these spears were lifted Thrice they were lifted and at each uplifting there rose a deep-throated cry of Hiya, which is the Arabic for She, and I suppose was a salutation to Ayesha
She swept on taking no heed, till we caathered who prostrated the to theht within two hours we ainst Rezu and the sun-worshi+ppers, since otherwise as ainst us She-who-coeneration to generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her servants, can be destroyed, and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of Life, out-numbers you by three to one and prepares a queen to set up in my place over his own people and such of you as reh, ”any woman of a day could take my place”
She paused and the spokesman of the captains said, ”We hear, O Hiya, and we understand What wouldst thou have us do, O Lulala-coinning he has hated thee and us, also his th of days How then can ho are few, three thousand ainst Rezu, Son of the Sun? Would it not be better that we should accept the ter?”
As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath her robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the h, namely that rather than risk a battle with Rezu, these people were conte surrender and her own deposition, if indeed she could be deposed Still she answered in a quiet voice, ”It seeently with you and with your fathers, Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that because you only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sithin and that it can shi+ne forth and smite Well, why should I be wrath because the brutish will follow the law of brutes, though it be true that I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I lesshands of Rezu, ould drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your hearts to his God of fire and devour your bodies with his heat But I bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you fro pot
”Take counsel together now and say-Will you fight against Rezu, or will you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to- these with me,” and she pointed to us, ”whoone, and when you are stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry, ”'Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and save us from this hell?'
”Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she will have departed to her own habitations in the ether and ansiftly, since I weary of you and your ways”
The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the situation
It was obvious to ainst their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral nature, one that e what she seeht it worth while to exercise it at all Then I remembered her statement that here and nowhere else she entleman with a Greek name came to fetch her away from this appointed rendezvous Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or rather, suffering as she did from hallucinations, believed herself to have no choice and was obliged to put up with a crowd of disagreeable savages in quarters which were sadly out of repair
Presently the spokeso up to fight against Rezu, ill lead us in the battle, O Hiya?”
”My wisdouide,” she answered, ”this white man shall be your General and there stands the warrior who shallhi upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile