Part 16 (1/2)
Well, he made it and thereby conquered, and this was the end, but as he said, it had left him, ”weak as a snake when it crawls out of its hole into the sun after the long winter sleep”
Of one thing, Uaas added, he was thankful, na his arms round him, since he was quite certain that if he had he would have broken hith, not even his, could have resisted the iron reed with hi ht of the blows that he struck with the steel-hafted axe (which, by the hen I sought for it, was er)
Whence did that strength come, I wondered, in one who from his face appeared to be old? Was there perchance, after all, soantic beard and those long locks of his? It was impossible to say and probably theas Hercules all the stories that I heard afterwards of his feats, left little roo only was I certain in connection with him, namely, that the tales of his supernatural abilities were theHe was simarvellous feats all over the earth
For the rest, he was dead and broken up by those Aer blood-hounds before I could examine him, or his body-armour either, and there was an end of him and his story But when I looked at the corpse of poor Robertson, which I did as we buried it where he fell, and saw that though so large and thick-set, it was cleft alle blow of Rezu's axe, I cae e, but I aht description of Rezu Evidently he had a religion of a sort, also iination, as was shown by the theft of the white wo of her to resemble Ayesha whouard of women sworn to her service who slew the priest that tried to kill her, and afterwards committed suicide when they had failed in their office, and by other things All this indicated sootten civilisation, or perhaps native ability on the part of an individual ruler I do not know and it
Rezu is dead and the world is well rid of hio to study such as remain of them in their own habitat, which forour journey to Kor poor Inez never stirred Whenever I went to look at her in the litter, I found her lying there with her eyes open and a fixed stare upon her face which frightened an to fear lest she should die However I could do nothing to help her, except urge the bearers to top speed So swiftly did we travel down the hill and across the plain that we reached Kor just as the sun was setting As we crossed thetoan anxious eye upon the litter which he had learned contained Uer towards the two of us, and even Hans, thenceforward became almost abject, since after our victory over Rezu and his death beneath the axe, they looked upon us as half divine and treated us accordingly
”O hty General,” he said, ”She-who-commands bids me conduct the lady who is sick to the place that has been made ready for her, which is near your own so that you may watch over her if you will”
I wondered how Ayesha knew that Inez was sick, but being too tired to ask questions,us to another ruined house next to our own quarters which had been swept, cleaned and furnished after a fashi+on, and moreover cleverly roofed in with mats, so that it was really quite coed women of a very superior type, who, Billali infor seen her laid upon her bed, I coe, since the case was not one that I dared to try to doctorof the few I possessed should be administered to her Moreover Billali comforted me with the information that soon She-who-coain,” as she could do
I answered that I hoped so and went to our quarters where I found an excellent on, of the contents of which Billali said ere all three to drink by the command of Ayesha, who declared that it would take away our weariness
I tried the stuff, which was pale yellow in colour like sherry and, for aught I knew, h it did not see to the taste Certainly, too, its effects onderful, since presently all reat weariness fell from me like a discarded cloak, and I foundbetter and stronger than I had done for years In short that drink was a ”cocktail” of the best, one of which I only wish I possessed the recipe, though Ayesha told me afterwards that it was distilled from quite har discovered this, I gave soaas, ith the wounded Zulus, e found, were progressing well towards complete recovery, and lastly to Goroko who also orn out On all of these the effect of thatwashed, I ate a splendid dinner, though in this respect Hans, as seated on the ground nearby, far outpassed one very ith us when they one very ill The Baas Red-Beard is dead, which is a good thing, since a madman would have been difficult to look after, and a brain full of moonshi+ne is a bad companion for any one Oh! without doubt he is better dead, though your reverend father the Predikant will have a hard job looking after him there in the Place of Fires”
”Perhaps,” I said with a sigh, ”since it is better to be dead than to live a lunatic But what I fear is that the lady his daughter will follow hih I daresay that she will always be a little mad also, because you see it is in her blood and doubtless she has looked on dreadful things But the Great Medicine will see to it that she does not die after we have taken so ers to save her That Great Medicine is very wonderful, Baas First of all it er ithout you would never have fought, as the Witch who ties up her head in a cloth kneell enough Then it brings us safe through the battle and gives strength to Uiant”
”Why did it not give th to kill him, Hans? I let him have two Express bullets on his chest, which hurt hi stick would hurt a bull-buffalo”
”Oh! Baas, perhaps you s so waited to see if I would rise to this piece of insolence, which of course I did not, he went on by way of letting ood arer who pulled his hair off and cut hio ahat looked like little bits of brass Also the Great Medicine aas and not by you, since otherwise Uaas would have been sad for the rest of his life, whereas noalk about the world as proud as a cock with two tails and crow all night as well as all day Then, Baas, when Rezu broke the square and the Aan to run, without doubt it was the Great Medicine which changed their hearts and htforward on your breast, and instead of being eaten up, ate up the cannibals”
”Indeed! I thought that the Lady ells yonder had so to do with that business Did you see her, Hans?”
”Oh, yes! I saw her, Baas, and I think that without doubt she lifted the cloth froly was the face beneath, it did frighten theht into her also, for, Baas, what could a silly woman do in such a case? Did you ever know of a wo else except to nurse babies, and this one does not even do that, no doubt because being so hideous under that sheet, no man can be found to ht of the la in the rooh the open doorithin six feet of Hans' back indeed
”Be sure Baas,” he went on, ”that this bundle of rags is nothing but a co to be a spook, as, if she dared to say that it was she who e, and not the Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads, I would tell her to her face”
Noas too paralysed to speak, and while I was reflecting that it was fortunate Ayesha did not understand Dutch, she moved a little so that one of the lamps behind her caused her shadow to fall on to the back of the squatting Hans and over it on to the floor beyond He saw it and stared at the distorted shape of the hooded head, then slowly screwed his neck round and looked upwards behind hih he were frozen, then uttering a wild yell, he scrambled to his feet, bolted out of the house and vanished into the night
”It seems, Allan,” said Ayesha slowly, ”that yonder yellow ape of yours is very bold at throwing sticks when the leopardess is not beneath the tree But when she comes it is otherith hi ill things ofcurious, as apes are, he burns to learn what is behindsimple, believes that no woman would hide her face unless its fashi+on were not pleasing to the nice taste of hed a little, softly, which showed me that she had a sense of huood ape and courageous in his fashi+on, as he shohen he went out to spy upon the host of Rezu, and stabbed the murderer-priest by the stone of sacrifice”
”How can you know the words of Hans, Ayesha,” I asked, ”seeing that he spoke in a tongue which you have never learned?”
”Perchance I read faces, Allan”
”Or backs,” I suggested, re that his was turned to her
”Or backs, or voices, or hearts It matters little which, since read I do But have done with such childish talk and lead me to this maiden who has been snatched from the claws of Rezu and a fate that is worse than death Do you understand, Allan, that ere the demon Rezu took her to wife, the plan was to sacrifice her own father to her and then eat him as the woman with her was eaten, and before her eyes? Now the father is dead, which is well, as I think the little yellow man said to you-nay, start not, I read it from his back [Ha!-JB]-since had he lived whose brain was rotted, he would have raved till his death's day Better, therefore, that he should die like a ainst a foe unconquerable by all save one But she still lives”
”Aye, but reat trouble such as she has passed, is a blessed state, O Allan Bethink you, have there not been days, aye and months, in your own life when you would have rejoiced to sleep in mindlessness? And should we not, perchance, be happier, all of us, if like the beasts we could not remember, foreknow and understand? Oh! men talk of Heaven, but believe me, the real Heaven is one of dreah their scale and on whatever star,so oft mistaken, must breed sorrow-or remorse that spoils all Come now”
So I preceded her to the next ruined house where we found Inez lying on the bed still clothed in her barbaric trappings, although the veil had been drawn off her face There she lay, wide-eyed and still, while the women watched her Ayesha looked at her a while, then said to e, and in time accepted by those barbarians as my very self, and even set the seals of royalty on her,” and she pointed to the gold discs stamped with the likeness of the sun ”Well, she is a fair ently bred, the first such that I have seen for e Nor did she wish this trickery Moreover she has taken no hurt; her soul has sunk deep into a sea of horror and that is all, whence doubtless it can be drawn again Yet I think it best that for a while she should reht, lest her brain break, as did her father's, and therefore no net of ently in future days, and then of it not too much, for so shall all this terror become to her a void in which sad shapes one, nosense Stand aside, Allan, and you women, leave us for a while”
I obeyed, and the women bowed and went Then Ayesha drew up her veil, and knelt down by the bed of Inez, but in such a fashi+on that I could not see her face although I admit that I tried to do so I could see, however, that she set her lips against those of Inez and as I gathered by her motions, seemed to breathe into her lips Also she lifted her hands and placing one of them upon the heart of Inez, for a minute or more swayed the other fro at tier-tips
Presently Inez stirred and sat up, whereon Ayesha took a vessel of milk which stood upon the floor and held it to her lips Inez drank to the last drop, then sank on to the bed again For a while longer Ayesha continued the motions of her hands, then let fall her veil and rose
”Look, I have laid a spell upon her,” she said, beckoning to me to draw near
I did so and perceived that now the eyes of Inez were shut and that she seeed in a deep and natural sleep
”So she will reht and that day which follows,” said Ayesha, ”and when she wakes it will be, I think, to believe herself once ain will she find her wootten by her Of her father you must tell her that he died when you went out to hunt the river-beasts together, and if she seeks for certain others, that they have gone away But I think that she will ask little more when she learns that he is dead, since I have laid that coht I to myself, ”and I only hope to heaven that it ork”
Ayesha seeh my mind, for she nodded and said, ”Have no fear, Allan, for I am what the black axe-bearer and the little yellow man called a 'witch' which e of s and who holds a key to some of the gested, ”of how to transport yourself into a battle at the right htfroer curs were about to flee and that I was needed there to hearten them and to put fear into the army of Rezu So I cahed as she answered, ”Perhaps I did not coht I ca”
As I still looked unconvinced she went on, ”Oh! foolish h for you Yet listen You in your ignorance suppose that the soul dwells within the body, do you not?”
I answered that I had always been under this impression
”Yet, Allan, it is otherwise, for the body dwells within the soul”
”Like the pearl in an oyster,” I suggested
”Aye, in a sense, since the pearl which to you is beautiful, is to the oyster a sickness and a poison, and so is the body to the soul whose temple it troubles and defiles Yet round it is the white and holy soul that ever seeks to bring the vile body to its own purity and colour, yet oft-times fails Learn, Allan, that flesh and spirit are the deadliest foes joined together by a high decree that they , be separate to all eternity, the spirit going to its own place and the flesh to its corruption”