Part 16 (2/2)
”Mad!” interrupted Brother John, tapping his forehead, ”quitecircuain, for I agreed with John Yet he did not lookthan usual
”Hans,” I said, ”tell us where this rifle is, or I will knock you down and Mavovo shall flog you”
”Where, Baas! Why, cannot you see it when it is before your eyes?”
”You are right, John,” I said, ”he's off it”; but Stephen sprang at Hans and began to shake hio, Baas,” he said, ”or you may hurt the rifle”
Stephen obeyed in sheer astonishreat baently upside down and out of it slid the barrel of a rifle neatly tied round with greased cloth and stoppered at the muzzle with a piece of tow!
I could have kissed him Yes, such was my joy that I could have kissed that hideous, smelly old Hottentot
”The stock?” I panted ”The barrel isn't any use without the stock, Hans”
”Oh! Baas,” he answered, grinning, ”do you think that I have shot with you all these years without knowing that a rifle must have a stock to hold it by?”
Then he slipped off the bundle fro the great yellow head of tobacco that had excited my own and Komba's interest on the shores of the lake This head he tore apart and produced the stock of the rifle nicely cleaned, a cap set ready on the nipple, on to which the hammer was let doith a little piece of wad between to prevent the cap fro fired by any sudden jar
”Hans,” I exclaiold!”
”Yes, Baas, though you never told o to sleep in the face of the Old Man (death) Oh! which of you ought to sleep now upon that bed that Bausi sent reat stupid Mavovo You never brought a gun If you were a wizard worth the name you would have sent the rifles on and had theh at me any more, you thick-head of a Zulu?”
”No,” answered Mavovo candidly ”I will give you sibonga Yes, I will make for you titles of Praise, O clever Spotted Snake”
”And yet,” went on Hans, ”I aold For, Baas, although I have plenty of powder and bullets in my pocket, I lost the caps out of a hole in my waistcoat You remember, Baas, I told you it was charms I lost But three remain; no, four, for there is one on the nipple There, Baas, there is Intombi all ready and loaded And nohen the white devil comes you can shoot him in the eye, as you how to do up to a hundred yards, and send him to the other devils down in hell Oh! won't your holy father the Predikant be glad to see him there”
Then with a self-satisfied smirk he half-cocked the rifle and handed it to me ready for action
”I thank God!” said Brother John soleht this poor Hottentot how to save us”
”No, Baas John, God never taught rows dark Had we not better light a fire,” and forgetting the rifle he began to look about for wood
”Hans,” called Stephen after hiive you 500, or at least ”
”Thank you, Baas, thank you, though just now I'd rather have a drop of brandy and-I don't see any wood”
He was right Outside of the graveyard clearing lay, it is true, so for us to move or cut Moreover, they were so soaked with da in this forest, that it would be impossible to fire them
The darkness closed in It was not absolute blackness, because presently the moon rose, but the sky was rainy and obscured it; e trees all about seeht there was We crouched ourselves upon the ground back to back as near as possible to the centre of the place, unrolled such blankets as we had to protect us froame flesh and parched corn, of which fortunately the boy Jerry carried a bagful that had remained upon his shoulders when he was thrown into the canoe Luckily I had thought of bringing this food with us; also a flask of spirits
Then it was that the first thing happened Far away in the forest resounded anoise, such a roar as none of us had ever heard before, for it was quite unlike that of a lion or any other beast
”What is that?” I asked
”The God,” groaned the Kalubi, ”the God praying to the , for I was reflecting that four shots, which was all we had, was notshould tempt me to waste one of them Oh! why had Hans put on that rotten old waistcoat instead of the new one I gave him in Durban?
Since we heard no an to question the Kalubi as to where the Mother of the Flower lived
”Lord,” answered the man in a distracted way, ”there, towards the East You walk for a quarter of the sun's journey up the hill, following a path that is arden of the God at the top of thean island There on the banks of the water a canoe is hidden in the bushes, by which the water may be crossed to the island, where dwells the Mother of the Holy Flower”
Brother John did not seem to be quite satisfied with the information, and remarked that he, the Kalubi, would be able to show us the road on the morrow
”I do not think that I shall ever show you the road,” groaned the shi+vering wretch
At that ain ether, and quickened by soan to question Brother John, whom he had learned was a priest of an unknown sort, as to the possibility of another life after death
Brother John, who, be it re, proceeded to adious consolations, when, quite near to us, the God began to beat upon soe and deep drum He didn't roar this time, he only worked away at a massed-band military drum At least that is what it sounded like, and very unpleasant it was to hear in that awful forest with skulls arranged on boxes all round us, I can assure you, ether, Brother John continued his pious demonstrations Also just at that time a thick rain-cloud quite obscured theto the Kalubi that he was not really a Kalubi, but an immortal soul (I wonder whether he understood him) Then I became aware of a horrible shadow-I cannot describe it in any other way-that was blacker than the blackness, which advanced towards us at extraordinary speed fro
Next second there was a kind of scuffle a few feet from me, followed by a stifled yell, and I saw the shadow retreating in the direction from which it had come
”What's the matter?” I asked
”Strike ahas happened”
I struck a match, which burnt up very well, for the air was quite still In the light of it I saw first the anxious faces of our party-how ghastly they looked!-and next the Kalubi who had risen and aving his right arht arm that was bloody and lacked the hand
”The God has visitedvoice
I don't think anybody spoke; the thing was beyond words, but we tried to bind the poor fellow's arain and watched
The darkness grew still denser as the thick of the cloud passed over the moon, and for a while the silence, that utter silence of the tropical forest at night, was broken only by the sound of our breathing, the buzz of a fewcrocodile and the stifled groans of the ht I saw-this may have been half an hour later-that black shadow dart towards us, as a pike darts at a fish in a pond There was another scuffle, just to le prolonged wail
”The king-h a wind had blown hi but a hole”
Of a sudden the ht about half-way between us and the edge of the clearing, say thirty yards off, I saw-oh! what did I see! The devil destroying a lost soul At least, that is what it looked like A huge, grey-black creature, grotesquely hurip The Kalubi's head had vanished in itshih his feet, that were lifted off the ground, stillup and covered the beast with the rifle which was cocked, getting full on to its head which showed the clearest, though this was rather guesswork, since I could not see distinctly the fore-sight I pulled, but either the cap or the powder had got a little da fire for the fraction of a second In that infinitesi-sawon the barrel At any rate it dropped the Kalubi, and as though soence warned it what to expect, threw up itsthe lih-in such a fashi+on as to cover its head
Then the rifle exploded and I heard the bullet strike By the light of the flash I saw the great arm tumble down in a dead, helpless kind of way, and next instant the whole forest began to echo with peal upon peal of those awful roarings that I have described, each of which ended with a dog-like yowp of pain