Part 17 (1/2)
Forty or fifty generations ago, which is not long, our ancestors set great store by the behaviour of lightning and thunder, and doubtless the instinct is still in our blood, in the sa superstitions about the moon come down to us from the time when our forefathers worshi+pped her They did this for tens of hundreds or thousands of years, and can we expect a few coatings of the veneer that we politely call civilization, which after all is only one of our conventions that vanish in any human stress such as war, to kill out the huh I havepeople never reasoned the matter out They just acted on an intuition as ancient as that which had attracted the fates by oht that as his experience with the penny had proved so successful, he would give Providence another ”chance” If so it took it and no ht; I only dwell on the reat results which followed this consultation of the Sybilline books of heaven
As it happened ed in any at that ti of the storm It was of the usual character, short but very violent Of a sudden the sky becas and the atmosphere with the roar of winds One flash struck a tree quite near the kraal, and I saw that tree seem to melt in its fiery embrace, while about where it had been, rose a coluhtened that luckily they stood quite quiet, as I have often known animals to do in such circumstances Then ca the horses, became painfully aware It thinned after a while, however, as the storm rolled away
Suddenly in a silence between the treht that I heard voices somewhere on the brow of the slope, and as the horses were now quite calh the trees to that part of the enclosure which I judged to be nearest to theh, and of the Basutos ere pursuing us What wasdown the slope The top of the old wall reached al off my hat I thrust ht hear the better
The ether in Sisutu One, whom I took to be their captain, said to the others-
”That white-headed old jackal, Macuain He doubled on his tracks and drove the horses down the hillside to the lower path in the valley I could feel where the wheels went over the edge”
”It is so, Father,” answered another voice, ”but we shall catch hiet there before the moon rises, since they cannot have uide you who know every tree and stone upon this slope where I used to herd cattle when I was a child”
”Do so,” said the captain ”I can see nothing now the lightning has gone, and were it not that I have sworn to dip ain, I would give up the hunt”
”I think it would be better to give it up in any case,” said a third voice, ”since it is known throughout the land that no luck has ever coht Oh! he is a leopard who springs and is gone again How s have met Leave him alone, I say, lest our fate should be that of the white doctor in the Yelloood Swaon and his cattle; let us be satisfied”
”I will leave him alone when he sleeps for the last time, and not before,” answered the captain, ”he who shot my brother in the drift the other day What would Sekukuni say if we let hi the Swazis on us? Moreover, ant that white ain Come, you who know the road, and lead us”
There was some disturbance as this man passed to the front Then I heard the lineby the ithin a foot or two of me Indeed by ill-luck just as ere opposite to each other the captain stuainst the wall
”There is an old cattle kraal here,” he said ”What if those white rats have hidden in it?”
I treh or make any noise that could be heard above the hiss of the rain! I did not dare to move for fear lest I should betray myself There I stood so close to the Kaffirs that I could s on their bodies Only very stealthily I drew htning, which I thought had quite gone by, flashed again for the last ti the fat face of the Basuto captain within a foot of my own, for he was turned towards the wall on which one of his hands rested Moreover, the blue and ghastly light revealed laring at him
”The head of a dead host of-”
He got no further, for as the last word passed his lips I drove the knife at hith deep into his throat He fell back into the arms of his followers, and next instant I heard the sound ofin terror down the hill What becarees with his tribeshost ”is a leopard who springs and kills and is gone again”; also, that those who try to trap hihost-because I aht that I was a spirit of the dead; doubtless I must have looked like one withthere between the stones and
Well, they had gone, the whole band of them, not less than thirty or forty men, so I went also, back to the cart where I found the others very co of what had happened, of which they were as innocent as babes, I took a stiff tot of brandy, for I was chilled through by the wet, and while waiting for thethe bits back into the horses' th it appeared in a clear sky, for the storm had quite departed and the rain ceased As soon as there was light enough I took the near leader by the bridle and led the cart to the brow of the hill, which was not easy under the conditions,Kaatje folloith ns of any Basutos, we started on again, I riding about a hundred yards ahead, keeping a sharp look-out for a possible ambush Fortunately, however, the veld was bare and open, consisting of long waves of ground One start I did get, thinking that I saw men's heads just on the crest of a wave, which turned out to be only a herd of springbuck feeding alad to see the had recently passed that way
All night long we trekked, following the Kaffir path for as long as I could see it, and after that going by my compass I knehereabouts the drift of the Crocodile River should be, as I had crossed it twice before in my life, and kept my eyes open for a certain tall koppie which stood within half a mile it on the Swazi side of the river Ultiht of this hill faintly outlined against the sky and headed for it Half ainto Swazi-Land to trade or shoot Then I knew that the drift was straight ahead of us, and called to Ansob to flog up the weary horses
We reached the river just before the dawn To erous, for it had been swollen by the thunder-rain of the previous night Indeed so Swazis on the further bank shouted to us that we should be drowned if we tried to cross
”Whichto do is to stay until the water runs down,” I said to Ansob, for the tomen, tired out, were asleep
”I suppose so,” he answered, ”unless those Basutos-”
I looked back up the long slope dohich we had come and saw no one Then I raisedanother track that joined the road just here, leading froh-veld The sun was rising now, dispersing thethese withupon what I knewabove the level of the ground vapour
”Those devils are after us by the lower road,” I said to Ansob, adding, ”I heard theht They followed our spoor over the edge of the hill, but in the dark lost it a the stones”
He whistled and asked as to be done
”That is for you to decide,” I answered ”For my part I'd rather risk the river than the Basutos,” and I looked at the slu Heda