Part 16 (1/2)
”Soer of our High Lord, the Kalubi The Kalubi, having heard that a white man skilled in medicine who could cut off limbs with knives, was in the country of the Mazitu and careat lake, took a canoe and rowed to where the white eetah, and who stands before you I followed hi, also to see a white man I hid my canoe and those ith h the shalloater and concealed myself in some thick reeds quite near to the white man's linen house I saw the white er and I heard the Kalubi pray the white man to come to our country with the iron tubes that smoke, and to kill the God of whoreat gasp, and the Kalubi fell down upon his face again, and lay still Only the Motombo seemed to show no surprise, perhaps because he already knew the story
”Is that all?” he asked
”No, O Mouth of the God Last night, after the council of which you have heard, the Kalubi wrapped himself up like a corpse and visited the white ht that he would do so, and had made ready With a sharp spear I bored a hole in the wall of the hut, working froh froe between the fence and the wall, and through the hole in the hut, and setting my ear to the end of the reed, I listened”
”Oh! clever, clever!” muttered Hans in involuntary admiration, ”and to think that I looked and looked too low, beneath the reed Oh! Hans, though you are old, you havemuch else I heard this,” went on Komba in sentences so clear and cold that they re ice, ”which I think is enough, though I can tell you the rest if you wish, O Mouth I heard,” he said, in the midst of a silence that was positively awful, ”our lord, the Kalubi, whose naree with the white men that they should kill the God-how I do not know, for it was not said-and that in return they should receive the persons of the Mother of the Holy Flower and of her daughter, the Mother-that-is-to-be, and should dig up the Holy Flower itself by the roots and take it away across the water, together with the Mother and the Mother-that-is-to-be That is all, O Motombo”
Still in the lared at the prostrate figure of the Kalubi For a long while he glared Then the silence was broken, for the wretched Kalubi sprang from the floor, seized a spear and tried to kill himself Before the blade touched him it was snatched fro, but weaponless
Again there was silence and again it was broken, this time by the Motoe, bloated object, and roared aloud in his rage Yes, he roared like a wounded buffalo Never would I have believed that such a vast volued s echoed down that great cave, while all the Pongo soldiers, rising from their recumbent position, pointed their hands, in some of which torches still burned, at the miserable Kalubi on whom their wrath seemed to be concentrated, rather than on us, and hissed like snakes
Really itthe part of Satan Indeed, his swollen, diabolical figure supported on the thin, toad-like legs, the great fires burning on either side, the lurid lights of evening reflected fro the tree tops of the , every one of the like so ested soht conceive theht, till at length the Motombo picked up his fantastically shaped horn and blew Thereon the wo that they were not wanted, checked the so, in the very attitude of runners about to start upon a race As the blast of the horn died away the turmoil was suddenly succeeded by an utter stillness, broken only by the crackling of the fires whose flas in that place, alone see played
”All up now, old fellohispered Stephen to h as heaven, where I hope we are going Now back to back, and let's ot the spears”
While ere closing in the Motoan to speak
”So you plotted to kill the God, Kalubi-as,” he screamed, ”with these white ones whouards it Good! You shall go, all of you, and talk with the God And I, watching here, will learn who dies-you or the God Aith them!”
CHAPTER XVI
THE GodS
With a roar the Pongo soldiers leapt on us I think that Mavovo et his spear up and kill a man, for I saw one of them fall backwards and lie still But they were too quick for the rest of us In half a minute ere seized, the spears renched fro into the canoe, all six of us, or rather seven including the Kalubi A nu Ko into the canoe that was instantly pushed out froe or platform on which the Motombo sat and down the little creek into the still water of the canal or estuary, or whatever it may be, that separates the wall of rock which the cave pierces from the base of the mountain
As we floated out of the mouth of the cave the toad-like Motombo, who had wheeled round upon his stool, shouted an order to Komba
”O Kalubi,” he said, ”set the Kalubi-as and the three white men and their three servants on the borders of the forest that is named House-of-the-God and leave them there Then return and depart, for here I would watch alone When all is finished I will sun two of the ot out paddles, for entle strokes rowed us across the water The first thing I noted about this water at the ti, I suppose, to its depth and the shadows of the towering cliff on one side and of the tall trees on the other Also I observed-for in this eed to keep my wits about reat nus I saw, further, that a little lower dohere the water seehs projected froreat trees had fallen, or been thrown into it I recalled in a numb sort of way that old Babemba had told us that when he was a boy he had escaped in a canoe down this estuary, and reflected that it would not be possible for his Unless, indeed, he had floated over thereat flood
A couple of ht us to the further shore which, as I think I have said, was only about two hundred yards frorated on the bank, disturbing a huge crocodile that vanished into the depths with an angry plunge
”Land, white lords, land,” said Koo, visit the God who doubtless is waiting for you And now, as we shall meet no more-farewell You are wise and I am foolish, yet hearken to ain, be advised byto your own God if you have one, and do not ain farewell”
The advice was excellent, but at that moment I felt a hate for Komba which was really superhuht as compared with him If wishes could have killed, our fareould indeed have been coo, we landed in the slimy mud Brother John went first with a sht idiotic under the circuht to sreat was his shrinking from that ominous shore, that I believe he was ultimately propelled from the boat by his successor in power, Komba Once he had trodden it, however, a spark of spirit returned to him, for he wheeled round and said to Komba, ”Remember, O Kalubi, that my fate to-day will be yours also in a day to come The God wearies of his priests This year, next year, or the year after; he alearies of his priests”
”Then, O Kalubi-that-was,” answered Ko voice as the canoe was pushed off, ”pray to the God for me, that it may be the year after; pray it as your bones break in his embrace”
While atched that craft depart there came into my mind the memory of a picture in an old Latin book ofpaddled by a person named Charon across a river called the Styx The scene before us bore a great rese on the dreadful Styx Yonder glowed the lights of the world, here was the gloomy, unknown shore And ere the souls of the dead awaiting the last destruction at the teeth and claws of some unknown yptian hell Oh! the parallel was painfully exact And yet, what do you think was the re man Stephen?
”Here we are at last, Allan, my boy,” he said, ”and after all without any trouble on our own part I call it downright providential Oh! isn't it jolly! Hip, hip, hooray!”
Yes, he danced about in that filthy mud, threw up his cap and cheered!
I withered, or rather tried to wither hile word: ”Lunatic”
Providential! Jolly! Well, it's fortunate that some people's madness takes a cheerful turn Then I asked the Kalubi where the God was
”Everywhere,” he replied, waving his tre hand at the illimitable forest ”Perhaps behind this tree, perhaps behind that, perhaps a long way off Beforeto do?” I inquired savagely
”Die,” he answered
”Look here, fool,” I exclai him, ”you can die if you like, but we don't mean to Take us to some place where we shall be safe from this God”
”One is never safe from the God, lord, especially in his own House,” and he shook his silly head and went on, ”How can we be safe when there is nowhere to go and even the trees are too big to clie and ran up for fifty or sixty feet without a bough Moreover, it was probable that the God clian to move inland in an indeter
”To the burying-place,” he answered ”There are spears yonder with the bones”
I pricked upbut some clasp knives, spears are not to be despised-and ordered hih the ahere the gloo
Three or four hundred paces brought us to a kind of clearing, where I suppose some of the monster trees had fallen down in past years and never been allowed to grow up again Here, placed upon the ground, were a number of boxes made of imperishable ironwood, and on the top of each box sat, or rather lay, aand broken skull
”Kalubi-that-were!” uide in explanation ”Look, Komba has made my box ready,” and he pointed to a new case with the lid off
”How thoughtful of hiets quite dark” He went to one of the newer coffins and intimated that we should lift off the lid as he was afraid to do so
I shoved it aside There within lay the bones, each of the, except of course the skull With these were soside of the pots two good spears that, being made of copper, had not rusted much We went on to other coffins and extracted from them more of these weapons that were laid there for the dead h the Shades, until we had enough The shafts of most of them were somewhat rotten from the damp, but luckily they were furnished with copper sockets fro, into which the wood of the shaft fitted, so that they were still serviceable
”Poor things these to fight a devil with,” I said
”Yes, Baas,” said Hans in a cheerful voice, ”very poor It is lucky that I have got a better”
I stared at him; we all stared at him
”What do you mean, Spotted Snake?” asked Mavovo
”What do you mean, child of a hundred idiots? Is this a ti us?” I asked, and looked at Stephen
”Mean, Baas? Don't you know that I have the little rifle with me, that which is called Intoaan's kraal? I never told you because I was sure you knew; also because if you didn't knoas better that you should not know, for if you had known, those Pongo skelluht have come to know also And if they had known--”