Part 29 (2/2)

Now they stood before a hill, measuring, perhaps, three thousand paces round its base. It was of no great height, and yet unclimbable, for, after a man had gone up a little way, the sides of it were sheer, offering no foothold except to the rock-rabbits and the lizards. No one was to be seen without this hill, nor in the great kraal of the Halakazi that lay to the east of it, and yet the ground about was trampled with the hoofs of oxen and the feet of men, and from within the mountain came a sound of lowing cattle.

”Here is the nest of Halakazi,” quoth Galazi the Wolf.

”Here is the nest indeed,” said Umslopogaas; ”but how shall we come at the eggs to suck them? There are no branches on this tree.”

”But there is a hole in the trunk,” answered the Wolf.

Now he led them a little way till they came to a place where the soil was trampled as it is at the entrance to a cattle kraal, and they saw that there was a low cave which led into the cliff, like an archway such as you white men build. But this archway was filled up with great blocks of stone placed upon each other in such a fas.h.i.+on that it could not be forced from without. After the cattle were driven in it had been filled up.

”We cannot enter here,” said Galazi. ”Follow me.”

So they followed him, and came to the north side of the mountain, and there, two spear-casts away, a soldier was standing. But when he saw them he vanished suddenly.

”There is the place,” said Galazi, ”and the fox has gone to earth in it.”

Now they ran to the spot and saw a little hole in the rock, scarcely bigger than an ant-bear's burrow, and through the hole came sounds and some light.

”Now where is the hyena who will try a new burrow?” cried Umslopogaas.

”A hundred head of cattle to the man who wins through and clears the way!”

Then two young men sprang forward who were flushed with victory and desired nothing more than to make a great name and win cattle, crying:--

”Here are hyenas, Bulalio.”

”To earth, then!” said Umslopogaas, ”and let him who wins through hold the path awhile till others follow.”

The two young men sprang at the hole, and he who reached it first went down upon his hands and knees and crawled in, lying on his s.h.i.+eld and holding his spear before him. For a little while the light in the burrow vanished, and they heard the sound of his crawling. Then came the noise of blows, and once more light crept through the hole. The man was dead.

”This one had a bad snake,” said the second soldier; ”his snake deserted him. Let me see if mine is better.”

So down he went on his hands and knees, and crawled as the first had done, only he put his s.h.i.+eld over his head. For awhile they heard him crawling, then once more came the sound of blows echoing on the ox-hide s.h.i.+eld, and after the blows groans. He was dead also, yet it seemed that they had left his body in the hole, for now no light came through. This was the cause, my father: when they struck the man he had wriggled back a little way and died there, and none had entered from the farther side to drag him out.

Now the soldiers stared at the mouth of the pa.s.sage and none seemed to love the look of it, for this was but a poor way to die. Umslopogaas and Galazi also looked at it, thinking.

”Now I am named Wolf,” said Galazi, ”and a wolf should not fear the dark; also, these are my people, and I must be the first to visit them,” and he went down on his hands and knees without more ado. But Umslopogaas, having peered once more down the burrow, said: ”Hold, Galazi; I will go first! I have a plan. Do you follow me. And you, my children, shout loudly, so that none may hear us move; and, if we win through, follow swiftly, for we cannot hold the mouth of that place for long. Hearken, also! this is my counsel to you: if I fall choose another chief--Galazi the Wolf, if he is still living.”

”Nay, Slaughterer, do not name me,” said the Wolf, ”for together we live or die.”

”So let it be, Galazi. Then choose you some other man and try this road no more, for if we cannot pa.s.s it none can, but seek food and sit down here till those jackals bolt; then be ready. Farewell, my children!”

”Farewell, father,” they answered, ”go warily, lest we be left like cattle without a herdsman, wandering and desolate.”

Then Umslopogaas crept into the hole, taking no s.h.i.+eld, but holding Groan-Maker before him, and at his heels crept Galazi. When he had covered the length of six spears he stretched out his hand, and, as he trusted to do, he found the feet of that man who had gone before and died in the place. Then Umslopogaas the wary did this: he put his head beneath the dead man's legs and thrust himself onward till all the body was on his back, and there he held it with one hand, gripping its two wrists in his hand. Then he crawled forward a little s.p.a.ce and saw that he was coming to the inner mouth of the burrow, but that the shadow was deep there because of a great ma.s.s of rock which lay before the burrow shutting out the light. ”This is well for me,” thought Umslopogaas, ”for now they will not know the dead from the living. I may yet look upon the sun again.” Now he heard the Halakazi soldiers talking without.

”The Zulu rats do not love this run,” said one, ”they fear the rat-catcher's stick. This is good sport,” and a man laughed.

Then Umslopogaas pushed himself forward as swiftly as he could, holding the dead man on his back, and suddenly came out of the hole into the open place in the dark shadow of the great rock.

”By the Lily,” cried a soldier, ”here's a third! Take this, Zulu rat!”

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