Part 11 (1/2)
”White lord,” he said, ”the Elephant wishes to know if you are ready, as presently the light will be very bad for shooting?”
”No,” I answered with decision, ”not till half an hour after sundown as was agreed”
Babe and returned to ain, and he will keep to his word Only youis bad, since of course he did not know that the night would be so cloudy, which is not usual at this tith weThe dense masses of the people looked like banks, and the archers, flitting to and fro as they ht have been shadows in Hades Once or twice lightning flashed and was followed after a pause by the distant growling of thunder The air, too, grew very oppressive Dense silence reigned In all those multitudes no one spoke or stirred; even Sa, I suppose because he had become exhausted and fainted away, as people often do just before they are hanged It was aherself to the hty pall
At length I heard the sound of arrows being drawn fro: ”Wait a little, the cloud will lift There is light behind it, and it will be nicer if they can see the arrows coin to lift, very slowly, and froht like that in a cat's eye
”Shall we shoot, Imbozwi?” asked the voice of the captain of the archers
”Not yet, not yet Not till the people can watch thereen light turned to a fiery red thrown by the sunk sun and reflected back upon the earth froh all the landscape had burst into flaain the lightning flashed, showing the faces and staring eyes of the thousands atched, and even the white teeth of a great bat that flittered past That flash seerew stronger and stronger, and redder and redder
I twang, and alan to see all sorts of queer things that I had forgotten for years and years My brain swah the intense silence I thought I heard the sound of so heavily, much as a fat bull eland does when it is suddenly disturbed Someone uttered a startled excla I saas the squad of savage archers lifting their bows-evidently that first arrow had been a kind of trial shot The next, looking absolutely unearthly in that terrible and o rapidly towards us along the open roadway that ran froate of the market-place
Of course, I knew that I dreaure exactly rese, snowy beard There in his hand was his butterfly net, with the handle of which he see the ox Only he ound about reaths of flowers as were the great horns of the ox, and on either side of hiirls, also wreathed with flowers It was a vision, nothing else, and I shutthe fatal arrow
”Shoot!” screaeetah is co which I heard arrows falling to the ground; then from all those thousands of throats a roar that shaped itself to the words: ”Dogeetah! Dogeetah is come to save the white lords”
I enerally pretty good, gave out to such an extent that I think I fainted for a fewon a conversation with Mavovo, though whether it ever took place or I only iot to ask hiht he said, to me: ”And now, Macumazana, my father, what have you to say? Does my Snake stand upon its tail or does it not? Answer, I a”
To which I replied, or seeh your Snake does stand upon its tail Still, I hold that all this is a phantasy; that we live in a land of dreas which we cannot see or touch or hear That there is nobut a Power in which we hs e think them real”
Whereon Mavovo said, or seemed to say: ”Ah! at last you touch the truth, O Macus are a shadow and we are shadows in a shadow But what throws the shadow, O Macueetah appear to co on a white ox and why do all these thousands think that ed if I know,” I replied and woke up
There, without doubt, was old Brother John with a wreath of flowers-I noted in disgust that they were orchids-hanging in a bacchanalian fashi+on from his dinted sun-hel Bausi, who literally crouched before hi him What I said I do not renation while he threatened Bausi with the handle of the butterfly net: ”You dog! You savage, who to these white men who are in truth my brothers, and to their followers? Were you about to kill theet the bond that binds us and--”
”Don't, pray don't,” said Bausi ”It is all a horrible mistake; I am not to be blamed at all It is that witch-doctor, Imbozhom by the ancient law of the land I must obey in such matters He consulted his Spirit and declared that you were dead; also that these white lords were the most wicked of men, slave-traders with spotted hearts, who came hither to spy out the Mazitu people and to destroy theic and bullets”
”Then he lied,” thundered Brother John, ”and he knew that he lied”
”Yes, yes, it is evident that he lied,” answered Bausi ”Bring him here, and with hiht of the htly in the heavens, for the thunder-clouds had departed with the last glow of sunset, soldiers began an active search for Iht or ten, all wicked-looking fellows hideously painted and adorned like their an to think that in the confusion he had given us the slip, when presently from the far end of the line, for ere still all tied to our stakes, I heard the voice of Sa: ”Mr Quatermain, in the interests of justice, will you inform his Majesty that the treacherous wizard for who at the botto to receive my mortal remains”
I did inform his Majesty, and in double-quick tirave by the strong ared into the presence of the irate Bausi
”Loose the white lords and their followers,” said Bausi, ”and let them come here”
So our bonds were undone and alked to where the king and Brother John stood, the miserable Imbozwi and his attendant doctors huddled in a heap before the at Brother John ”Is it not he whom you voas dead?”
Imbozwi did not seem to think that the question required an answer, so Bausi continued: ”What was the song that you sang in our ears just now-that if Dogeetah came you would be ready to be shot to death with arrows in the place of these white lords whose lives you swore aas it not?”
Again Ih Babeorous kick Then Bausi shouted: ”By your own mouth are you condemned, O liar, and that shall be done to you which you have yourself decreed,” adding almost in the words of Elijah after he had triumphed over the priests of Baal, ”Take away these false prophets Let none of them escape Say you not so, O people?”
”Aye,” roared the multitude fiercely, ”take them away”
”Not a popular character, Imbozwi,” Stephen re to be served hot on his own toast now, and serve the brute right”
”Who is the false doctor now?” mocked Mavovo in the silence that followed ”Who is about to sup on arrow-heads, O Painter-of-white-spots?” and he pointed to the leefully chalked over his heart as a guide to the arrows of the archers
Now, seeing that all was lost, the little hus and began to plead foralready softened by the fact of our wonderful escape froraves,to spare his life, though with little hope that the prayer would be granted, for I saw that Bausi feared and hated the lad of the opportunity to be rid of him Imbozwi, however, interpretedof the back always e and despair, the venom of his wicked heart boiled over He leapt to his feet, and drawing a big, carved knife fro at : ”At least you shall co hi which declares that ”Wizard is Wizard's fate” With one bound he was on him Just as the knife touchedblood, which was fortunate as probably it was poisoned-he gripped Iround as though he were but a child
After this of course all was over
”Come away,” I said to Stephen and Brother John; ”this is no place for us”
So ent and gained our huts without molestation and indeed quite unobserved, for the attention of everyone in Beza Toas fully occupied elsewhere From the market-place behind us rose so hideous a clamour that we rushed into my hut and shut the door to escape or lessen the sound It was dark in the hut, for which I was really thankful, for the darkness seemed to soothe my nerves Especially was this so when Brother John said: ”Friend, Allan Quaterentleman, whose name I don't knoill tell you what I think I nevera doctor, I ayyman, I will ask your leave to return thanks for your very remarkable deliverance from a cruel death”
”By all means,” I muttered for both of us, and he did so in a most earnest and beautiful prayer Brother John may or may not have been a little touched in the head at this tioodhad now died down to a confused murmur ofeaves of the hut, where I introduced Stephen Somers to Brother John
”And now,” I said, ”in the naoodness, where do you come from tied up in flowers like a Ro on a bull like the lady called Europa? And what on earth do youus such a scurvy trick down there in Durban, leaving us without a word after you had agreed to guide us to this hellish hole?”
Brother John stroked his long beard and looked at uess, Allan,” he said in his American fashi+on, ”there is a mistake somewhere To answer the last part of your question first, I did not leave you without a word; I gave a letter to that laardener of yours, Jack, to be handed to you when you arrived”
”Then the idiot either lost it and lied to ot all about it”
”That is likely I ought to have thought of that, Allan, but I didn't Well, in that letter I said that I wouldyou Also I sent ain case I should be delayed, but I suppose that so happened to it on the road”
”Why did you not wait and come with us like a sensible ht out, I will tell you, although the subject is one of which I do not care to speak I knew that you were going to journey by Kilwa; indeed it was your only route with a lot of people and so e, and I did not wish to visit Kilwa” He paused, then went on: ”A long while ago, nearly twenty-three years to be accurate, I went to live at Kilwa as awife I built a mission station and a church there, and ere happy and fairly successful in our work Then on one evil day the Swahili and other Arabs ca station I resisted them, and the end of it was that they attacked us, killed most of my people and enslaved the rest In that attack I received a cut from a sword on the head-look, here is thehis white hair apart he showed us a long scar that was plainly visible in the ht
”The blow knockedWhen I caone, except one old worief because her husband and two sons had been killed, and another son, a boy, and a daughter had been taken away I asked her whereas She answered that she, too, had been taken away eight or ten hours before, because the Arabs had seen the lights of a shi+p out at sea, and thought they ht be those of a Britishon the coast On seeing these they had fled inland in a hurry, leavingthe wounded before they went The old wo soone had crept back to the house and found me still alive
”I asked her where my wife had been taken She said she did not know, but some others of our people told her that they had heard the Arabs say they were going to some place a hundred miles inland, to join their leader, a half-bred villain na my wife as a present