Part 4 (1/2)

”And yet,” I said, after reflection, ”it's curious, but I never re plans at the last moment, that is, unless one was driven to it”

”I vote we toss up,” said Soives Providence a chance Now then, heads for the Golden Cyp, and tails for the elephants”

He spun a half-crown into the air It fell and rolled under a great, yelloood chest full of curiosities that I had collected, which it took all our united strength to ed it aside and not without so upon the chance, I lit a match and peered into the shadow There in the dust lay the coin

”What is it?” I asked of Somers, as stretched on his stomach on the chest

”Orchid-I mean head,” he answered ”Well, that's settled, so we needn't bother any ht was a busy time for me As it happened there was a schooner in the bay of about one hundred tons burden which belonged to a Portuguese trader naoods that he carried to the various East African ports and Madagascar He was a villainous-looking person whos with the slave traders, ere very nureat power in those days, if indeed he were not one hi to Kilhence we proposed to start inland, I arranged to ain was not altogether easy to strike for two reasons First, he did not appear to be anxious that we should hunt in the districts at the back of Kilhere he assured ame, and secondly, he said that he wanted to sail at once However, I overcaureed to postpone his departure for fourteen days

Then I set about collecting our men, of whom I had made up my mind there ers su to Durban from Zululand and the upper districts of Natal various hunters who had accompanied me on other expeditions To the number of a dozen or so they arrived in due course I have always had the good fortune to be on the best of tero without asking any questions The man whom I had selected to be their captain under me was a Zulu of the nae, with an enorth was proverbial; indeed, it was said that he could throw an ox by the horns, and myself I have seen him hold down the head of a wounded buffalo that had fallen, until I could come up and shoot it

When I first knew Mavovo he was a petty chief and witch doctor in Zululand Like reat battle of the Tugela, a criave hi that he had been s to be killed He fled with two of his wives and a child The slayers overtook them before he could reach the Natal border, and stabbed the elder wife and the child of the second wife They were four ht, Mavovo turned on the wife, cut to pieces as he was, he crept to the river and through it to Natal Not long after this wife died also; it was said froain, perhaps because he was now a man without means, for Cetewayo had taken all his cattle; also he was ht nostril Shortly after the death of his second wife he sought me out and told me he was a chief without a kraal and wished to become my hunter So I took hiret, since although iven to the practice of uncanny arts, he was a most faithful servant and brave as a lion, or rather as a buffalo, for a lion is not always brave

Another man whom I did not send for, but who came, was an old Hottentot named Hans, hom I had been more or less mixed up all my life When I was a boy he was my father's servant in the Cape Colony and my companion in some of those early wars Also he shared some very terrible adventures with me which I have detailed in the history I have written of my first wife, Marie Marais For instance, he and I were the only persons who escaped fro, Dingaan In the subsequence caht at ood share of captured cattle After this he retired and set up a native store at a place called Pinetown, about fifteen ot into bad ways and took to drinkAt any rate, he lost most of his property, so much of it indeed that he scarcely knehich way to turn Thus it happened that one evening when I went out of the house where I had beenup my accounts, I saw a yellow-faced white-haired old fellow squatted on the verandah s a pipe made out of a corn-cob

”Good day, Baas,” he said, ”here am I, Hans”

”So I see,” I answered, rather coldly ”And what are you doing here, Hans? How can you spare ti at Pinetown to visit me here, Hans, after I have not seen you for three years?”

”Baas, the gais done too, because but one bottle of Cape S So now I only take water and as little of that as I can, water and solad to hear it, Hans If my father, the Predikant who baptised you, were alive now, he would have much to say about your conduct as indeed I have no doubt he will presently when you have gone into a hole (ie, a grave) For there in the hole he will be waiting for you, Hans”

”I know, I know, Baas I have been thinking of that and it troubles me Your reverend father, the Predikant, will be very cross indeed with me when I join hiwell, and in your service, Baas I hear that the Baas is going on an expedition I have come to accompany the Baas”

”To accompany s a month and your scoff (food) You are a shrunken old brandy cask that will not even hold water”

Hans grinned right across his ugly face

”Oh! Baas, I a wisdom I am as full of it as a bee's nest is with honey when the summer is done And, Baas, I can stop those leaks in the cask”

”Hans, it is no good, I don't want you I aer I must have those about me whom I can trust”

”Well, Baas, and who can be better trusted than Hans? Who warned you of the attack of the Quabies on Maraisfontein, and so saved the life of--”

”Hush!+” I said

”I understand I will not speak the name It is holy not to be els before God; not to be mentioned by poor drunken Hans Still, who stood at your side in that great fight? Ah! it ain to think of it, when the roof burned; when the door was broken doe met the Quabies on the spears; when you held the pistol to the head of the Holy One whose name must not be mentioned, the Great One who kne to die Oh! Baas, our lives are twisted up together like the creeper and the tree, and where you go, there I es, only a bit of food and a handful of tobacco, and the light of your face and a word now and again of theI can shoot ell, Baas, as it that put it into your hter yonder in Zululand, and so saved the lives of all the Boer people, and of her whose holy name must not be mentioned? Baas, you will not turn me away?”

”No,” I answered, ”you can come But you will swear by the spirit of my father, the Predikant, to touch no liquor on this journey”

”I swear by his spirit and by that of the Holy One,” and he flung himself forward on to his knees, took my hand and kissed it Then he rose and said in a ive s to buy souns? Ithat the Baas will take with him that little rifle which is named Intombi (Maiden), the one hich he shot the vultures on the Hill of Slaughter, the one that killed the geese in the Goose Kloof when I loaded for hiaan called Two-faces”

”Good,” I said ”Here are the five shi+llings You shall have the blankets and a new gun and all things needful You will find the guns in the little back room and with them those of the Baas, my companion, who also is your th all was ready, the cases of guns, ammunition, medicines, presents and food were on board the Maria So were four donkeys that I had bought in the hope that they would prove useful, either to ride or as pack beasts The donkey, be it remembered, and man are the only animals which are said to be immune from the poisonous effects of the bite of tsetse fly, except, of course, the wild gaht of full ado had announced his intention of sailing on the following afternoon Stephen Sos over

”It is a strange thing,” I said, ”that Brother John should never have turned up I know that he was set uponthis expedition, not only for the sake of the orchid, but also for some other reason of which he would not speak I think that the old fellow must be dead”

”Very likely,” answered Stephen (we had beco savages ain Hark! What's that?” and he pointed to soardenia bushes in the shadow of the house near by, whence ca, I expect, or perhaps it is Hans He curls up in all sorts of places near to where I ardenia bushes

”Ja, I a, Hans?”

”I a my master”

”Good,” I answered Then an idea struckbeard whoeetah?”

”I have heard of hih Pinetown A Kaffir with hi to hunt for things that crawl and fly, being quite mad, Baas”

”Well, where is he now, Hans? He should have been here to travel with us”

”Am I a spirit that I can tell the Baas whither a white man has wandered Yet, stay Mavovo h distance, and even now, this very night his Snake of divination has entered into hi into the future, yonder, behind the house I saw him form the circle”

I translated what Hans said to Stephen, for he had been talking in Dutch, then asked hiic

”Of course,” he answered, ”but it's all bosh, isn't it?”

”Oh, yes, all bosh, or so most people say,” I answered evasively ”Still, sos”

Then, led by Hans, we crept round the house to where there was a five-foot stone wall at the back of the stable Beyond this wall, within the circle of some huts where my Kaffirs lived, was an open space with an ant-heap floor where they did their cooking Here, facing us, sat Mavovo, while in a ring around him were all the hunters ere to accompany us; also Jack, the lame Griqua, and the two house-boys In front of Mavovo burned a number of little wood fires I counted them and found that there were fourteen, which, I reflected, was the exact number of our hunters, plus ourselves One of the hunters was engaged in feeding these fires with little bits of stick and handfuls of dried grass so as to keep thehtly The others sat round perfectly silent and watched with rapt attention Mavovo himself looked like a man who is asleep He was crouched on his haunches with his big head resting almost upon his knees About his middle was a snake-skin, and round his neck an ornaht side lay a pile of feathers fros of vultures, and on his left a little heap of silver money-I suppose the fees paid by the hunters for who

After we had watched him for some while from our shelter behind the wall he appeared to wake out of his sleep First he muttered; then he looked up to the moon and seemed to say a prayer of which I could not catch the words Next he shuddered three times convulsively and exclaimed in a clear voice: ”My Snake has come It is within me Now I can hear, now I can see”

Three of the little fires, those ier than the others He took up his bundle of vultures' feathers, selected one with care, held it towards the sky, then passed it through the fla as he did so,it froes of the feather very carefully, a proceeding that caused a cold shi+ver to go downof his ”Spirit” ould be my fate upon this expedition How it answered, I cannot tell, for he laid the feather down and took another, hich he went through the same process This time, however, the name he called out azela, which in its shortened foriven to Stephen Somers It means a Smile, and no doubt was selected for hi passed it through the right-hand fire of the three, he examined it and laid it down

So it went on One after another he called out the na with his own as captain; passed the feather which represented each of theh the particular fire of his destiny, exaain for a few minutes, then woke up as a man does from a natural slumber, yawned and stretched hireat anxiety ”Have you seen? Have you heard? What does your Snake tell you of me? Of me? Of me? Of me?”

”I have seen, I have heard,” he answered ”My Snake tells o on it six will die by the bullet, by the spear or by sickness, and others will be hurt”

”Ow?” said one of them, ”but which will die and which will come out safe? Does not your Snake tell you that, O Doctor?”

”Yes, of course my Snake tells ue on the matter, lest some of us should be turned to cowards It tells me further that the first who should ask me more, will be one of those who must die Now do you ask? Or you? Or you? Or you? Ask if you will”