Part 30 (1/2)
I crawled into the hut and put the board over the bee-hole-like entrance behind an to hunt for the er with the point of Chaka's historical assegai While I was sucking it toon the further side of the hut At first I thought of calling the guard, but on reflection found the matches and lit the candle, which stood by the blankets that served me as a bed As soon as it burned up I looked towards the sound, and to htened me so much that I nearly dropped the candle
To tell the truth, so obsessed was I with Zikali and his ghosts that for a few ht be the Shape hich I had talked an hour or two before I -dead lady Mameena, or rather the person made up to her likeness, come here to continue our conversation At any rate I was sure, and rightly, that here was more of the handiwork of Zikali ished to put me in so ether I advanced upon the lady, only to find myself no wiser, since she was totally covered by a kaross Noas to be done? To escape, of which of course I had thought at once, was iai in uard for help seeht say? To kick or shake her would undoubtedly be rude and, if it chanced to be the person who had played Mameena, would certainly provoke remarks that I should not care to face There seemed to be only one resource, to sit down and wait till she woke up
This I did for quite a long time, till at last the absurdity of the position and, I will admit, my own curiosity overcao to sleep So advancing erly, I turned down the kaross fro whom I should see, for what man is there that a veiled woman does not interest? Indeed, does not half the interest of woman lie in the fact that her nature is veiled fro to solve at his peril, and I ?
Well, I turned down that kaross and next instant stepped back amazed and, to tell the truth, somewhat disappointed, for there, with her mouth open, lay no wondrous and spiritual Mameena, but the stout, earthly and ht I tohere?”
Then I reive way to a sense of roh as a matter of fact it is always in a moment of crisis or of strained nerves that we are most open to the insidious advances of romance Also that there was no one on earth, or beyond it, whoreatly to have rejoiced to see I had left Kaatje with Ansob and Heda; therefore Kaatje could tell ht my heart sank-as she here in thisthat these were questions which must be answered at once, I prodded Kaatje in the ribs with , she awoke, sat up and yawned, revealing an excellent set of teeth in her cavernous, quarter-casta ht with the idea of screa for help But here I was first with her, for before a sound could issue I had filled it full with the corner of the kaross, exclai in Dutch as I did so-
”Idiot of a woman, do you not know the Heer Quatermain when you see hiht you were some wicked Zulu come to do me a mischief” Then she burst into tears and sobs which I could not stop for at least three minutes
”Be quiet, you fat fool!” I cried exasperated, ”and tell me, where are your mistress and the Heer Ansob?”
”I don't know, Baas, but I hope in heaven” (Kaatje was some kind of a Christian), she replied between her sobs
”In heaven! What do you mean?” I asked, horrified
”I mean, Baas, that I hope they are in heaven, because when last I saw them they were both dead, and dead people must be either in heaven or hell, and heaven, they say, is better than hell”
”Dead! Where did you see them dead?”
”In that Black Kloof, Baas, some days after you left us and went away The old baboon irl, Noo also So the Baas Ansob set to work to inspan the horses, the Missie Heda helping his When I had nearly finished Noht two mice, and beckoned to me to follow her I went and saw the cart inspanned with the four horses all looking as though they were asleep, for their heads hung down Then after she had stared atwhile No cliff There I sawside by side quite dead”
”How do you know that they were dead?” I gasped ”What had killed them?”
”I know that they were dead because they were dead, Baas Their mouths and eyes were open and they lay upon their backs with their arirl, Noone away again, or so I understood who cannot speak Zulu so very well Who the Kaffirs were or why they came she did not say”
”Then what did you do?” I asked
I ran back to the hut, Baas, fearing lest I should be strangled also, and wept there till I grew hungry When I caone Nombe showed me a place under a tree where the earth was disturbed She said that they were buried there by order of her master, Zikali I don't knohat became of the horses or the cart”
”And what happened to you afterwards?”
”Baas, I was kept for several days, I cannot remember how many, and only allowed out within the fence round the huts No this,” and she produced a package sewn up in a skin ”She said that I was to give it to you with a e that those whoreater than any in the land, and therefore that you rieve for thehts after this that four Zulus caht to kill me But they did not kill h when I spoke to the journey, travelling for thewhen the sun set they brought h a Kaffir town and thrustto any one Here, being very tired, I went to sleep, and that is all”
And quite enough too, thought I to h a cross-exaood and faithful servant, and all her terrible experiences had not sharpened her intelligence Indeed, when I pressed her she grew utterly confused, began to cry, thereby taking refuge in the last inable female fortification, and snivelled out that she could not bear to talk of her dear ave it up, and twovery tired, poor thing
Now I tried to think matters out as well as this disturbance would allow, for nothing hinders thought so ? There was her story to take or to leave, and evidently the honest creature believed what she said Further, how could she be deceived on such a point? She swore that she had seen Ansob and Heda dead and afterwards had seen their graves
Moreover, there was confire which could not well have been invented, that spoke of their being well in the charge of a ”Great One,” a ternate God, with all their troubles finished The reason and ht have ht have killed the's order that no white people in the land were to be allowed to live Or perhaps the Basutos from Sekukuni's country, ho, had followed and done the sounded led