Part 19 (2/2)

Through that long night we pushed on as fast e could travel, only stopping now and again for a few minutes to rest the bearers of the Holy Flower Indeed at times Mrs Eversley relieved her husband at this task, but Stephen, being very strong, carried his end of the stretcher throughout the whole journey

Hans, of course, was orilla skin, which, although it had shrunk a good deal, reh old fellow, and on the whole got on better than h by the tied to follow the example of the God itself and help hiorilla generally does

We reached the broad, long street of Rica about half an hour before dawn, and proceeded down it till ere past the Feast-house still quite unobserved, for as yet none were stirring on that wetIndeed it was not until ithin a hundred yards of the harbour that a wo, who had coarden, saw us and raised an awful, piercing screa the land and taking the white men with them”

Instantly there arose a hubbub in the houses Heads were thrust out of the doors and people ran into the gardens, every one of whoht that a ress But as yet no one came near us, for they were afraid

”Push on,” I cried, ”or all is lost”

They answered nobly Hans struggled forward on all fours, for he was nearly done and his hideous gar hih they ith the weight of the great plant, actually broke into a feeble trot We came to the harbour and there, tied to the wharf, was the sa into it and cut the fastenings withno time to untie them, and pushed off fro them many soldiers were hard upon and indeed around us, but still they see So far the inspiration of Hans' disguise had saved us In the nised Koreat spear in his hand, and for a moment halted amazed

Then it was that the catastrophe happened which nearly cost us all our lives

Hans, as in the stern of the canoe, began to faint from exhaustion, and in his efforts to obtain air, for the heat and stench of the skin were overpowering his of the hide beneath the reed-stuffed uidly upon his shoulder Koain

”It is a trick!” he roared ”These white devils have killed the God and stolen the Holy Flower and its priestess The yellow man is wrapped in the skin of the God To the boats! To the boats!”

”Paddle,” I shouted to Brother John and Stephen, ”paddle for your lives! Mavovo, help et up the sail”

As it chanced on that storly towards the mainland

We laboured at the mast, shi+pped it and hauled up the mat sail, but slowly for ere aard at the business By the tian to draw the paddles had propelled us about four hundred yards from the wharf, whencein pursuit Standing in the prow of the first of these, and roaring curses and vengeance at us, was Koreat spear above his head

An idea occurred towere done weMavovo to attend to the sail, I scra Hans, knelt down in the stern of the canoe There was still one charge, or rather one cap, left, and I ht, lifted the little rifle and covered Kohted for or reat distance, and only by thisfor the drop of the bullet, could I hope to hit thewell now and steadied the boat, also, being still under the shelter of the land, the water was s platforh I was, row rigid as a statue Lastly, the light was good, for the sun rose behindfull on to e exploded sweetly and almost at the instant; as the smoke drifted to one side, I saw Komba throw up his ar while afterwards, or so it seeht the faint sound of the thud of that fateful bullet to our ears

Though perhaps I ought not to say so, it was really a wonderful shot in all the circumstances, for, as I learned afterwards, the ball struck just where I hoped that itthe heart Indeed, taking everything into consideration, I think that those four shots which I fired in Pongo-land are the real record of ht broke the arorilla God and would have killed hiiven him time to protect his head The second did kill hi The third, fired by the glare of lightning after a long swireat distance fro boat, was the bane of that cold-blooded and treacherous o-land to be murdered and eaten as a sacrifice Lastly there was always the consciousness that no mistake must be made, since with but four percussion caps it could not be retrieved

I am sure that I could not have done so ith any other rifle, however ht be But to this little Purdey weapon I had been accustomed froreat deal I sees on h of course I never use it now in our breech-loading era Unfortunately, however, a local gunsmith to whom I sent it to have the lock cleaned, re-browned it and scraped and varnished the stock, etc, without authority, ain I preferred it in its worn and scratched condition

To return: the sound of the shot, like that of John Peel's horn, aroused Hans fros and saw Komba fall

”Oh! beautiful, Baas, beautiful!” he said faintly ”I ahost of your reverend father cannot kill his ene the Fires Beautiful!” and the silly old fellow fell to kissing ave hiht hiain, especially when he was free from that filthy skin and had washed his head and hands

The effect of the death of Koe All the other canoes clustered round that in which he lay Then, after a hurried consultation, they hauled down their sails and paddled back to the wharf Why they did this I cannot tell Perhaps they thought that he was bewitched, or only wounded and required the attentions of a medicine-man Perhaps it was not lawful for theuidance of some reserve Kalubi who had ”passed the God” and as on shore Perhaps it was necessary, according to their rites, that the body of their chief should be landed with certain ceremonies I do not know It is impossible to be sure as to the mysterious motives that actuate many of these remote African tribes

At any rate the result was that it gave us a great start and a chance of life, who must otherwise have died upon the spot Outside the bay the breeze blewpace, until about an to fall Fortunately, however, it did not altogether drop till three o'clock by which time the coast of Mazitu-land was coainst the skyline which we kneas the Union Jack that Stephen had set upon the crest of a little hill

During those hours of peace we ate the food that rehly as we could and rested Well was it, in viehat followed, that we had this ti I looked aft and there, co the wind, was the whole fleet of Pongo canoes, thirty or forty of thee of about twenty ress was but slow, it was quicker than e could haveAlso it was necessary that we should save our strength for the last trial

I remember that hour very well, for in the nervous excite impressed itself upon my mind I remember even the shape of the clouds that floated over us, reht One was like a castle with a broken-down turret showing a staircase within; another had a fantastic resemblance to a wrecked shi+p with a hole in her starboard boo of herfroeneral aspect of the great lake, especially at a spot where two currents ht with each other and fall backwards in curious curves Also there were shoals of s like chub in shape, with round mouths and very white sto at invisible flies These attracted a nuht build They had coal-black heads, white backs, greyish wings, and slightly webbed feet, pink as coral, hich they seized the s as they did so, a peculiar and plaintive cry that ended in a long-drawn e-e-e The father of the flock, whose head see above the to fish hi one of the coht, which he retrieved before it reached the water Such are soh there were others too numerous and trivial to mention

When the breeze failed us at last ere perhaps so over three reat bed of reeds which at this spot grow in the shallows off the Mazitu coast to a breadth of seven or eight hundred yards, where the water becoos were then about a mile and a half behind But as the wind favoured the plenty of hands, they could help the, when at last it died to a complete calm, the distance between us was not more than one mile This meant that they must cover fourdown our now useless sail and throwing it and the hten the canoe, since the sky showed us that there was no an to paddle as hard as we could Fortunately the two ladies were able to take their share in this exercise, since they had learned it upon the Lake of the Flohere it seemed they kept a private canoe upon the other side of the island which was used for fishi+ng Hans, as still weak, we set to steer with a paddle aft, which he did in a somewhat erratic fashi+on

A stern chase is proverbially a long chase, but still the enemy with their skilled rowers came up fast When ere a mile from the reeds they ithin half a mile of us, and as we tired the proportion of distance lessened When ere two hundred yards from the reeds they were not gle began

It was short but terrible We threw everything we could overboard, including the ballast stones at the bottoorilla This, as it proved, was fortunate, since the thing sank but slowly and the foreo boats halted athe others behind them, a circumstance that helped us by twenty or thirty yards

”Over with the plant!” I said

But Stephen, looking quite old fro froasped: ”For Heaven's sake, no, after all we have gone through to get it”

So I didn't insist; indeed there was neither tiu which guided us, we had struck the big hippopota like demons, were about thirty yards behind Thankful was I that those interesting people had never learned the use of bows and arrows, and that their spears were too heavy to throw By now, or rather some time before, old Babemba and the Mazitu had seen us, as had our Zulu hunters Crowds of the encouragements as they came The Zulus, too, opened a rather wild fire, with the result that one of the bullets struck our canoe and another touched the brio, which caused some confusion in the ranks of Tusculum

But ere done and they ca boat was not more than ten yards from us and ere perhaps two hundred fro that the water was less than four feet deep, shouted: ”Overboard, all, and wade It's our last chance!”

We scrambled out of that canoe the prohich, as I left it the last, I pushed round across the water-lane to obstruct those of the Pongo Now I think all would have gone well had it not been for Stephen, who after he had floundered forward a few paces in the ht him of his beloved orchid Not only did he return to try to rescue it, he also actually persuaded his friend Mavovo to accoan to lift the plant out when the Pongo fell upon the at them with their spears over the width of our canoe Mavovo struck back with the weapon he had taken froo sentry at the cave mouth, and killed or wounded one of theht him on the side of the head and knocked him down into the water, whence he rose and reeled back, alot hold of hied hi at the great orchid, till a Pongo reaching over the canoe drove a spear through his shoulder He let go of the orchid because he must and tried to retreat Too late! Half a dozen or o pushed themselves between the stern or bow of our canoe and the reeds, and waded forward to kill him I could not help, for to tell the truth at the moment I was stuck in a mud-hole made by the hoof of a hippopotamus, while the Zulu hunters and the Mazitu were as yet too far off Surely he irl Hope, hile wading shorewards a little in front of ht Back she cah the water like a leopard whose cubs are in danger

Reaching Stephen before the Pongo she thrust herself between hiour in their own language, which of course she had learned from those of the albinos ere not mutes

What she said I could not exactly catch because of the shouts of the advancing Mazitu I gathered, however, that she was anathe them in the words of souardians of the Holy Flohich consigned them, body and spirit, to a dreadful doom The effect of thislady nor her mother would repeat to me afterwards, was certainly re them the would-be slayers of Stephen, stayed their hands and even inclined their heads towards the young priestess, as though in reverence or deprecation, and thus remained for sufficient tier This she did wading backwards by his side and keeping her eyes fixed full upon the Pongo It was perhaps the most curious rescue that I ever saw

The Holy Flower, I should add, they recaptured and carried off, for I saw it departing in one of their canoes That was the end of my orchid hunt and of the money which I hoped to make by the sale of this floral treasure I wonder what becaood reason to believe that it was never replanted on the Island of the Flower, so perhaps it was borne back to the dio are supposed to have brought it when theyand the rescue of Stephen by the intrepid Miss Hope, whose interest in hih to induce her to risk her life upon his behalf, all we fugitives were dragged ashore somehow by our friends Here, Hans, I and the ladies collapsed exhausted, though Brother John still found sufficient strength to do what he could for the injured Stephen and Mavovo

Then the Battle of the Reeds began, and a fierce fray it was The Pongos ere about equal in numbers to our people, came on furiously, for they were mad at the death of their God with his priest, the Motombo, of which I think news had reached theing from their canoes because the as too narrow for ed into the reeds with the intention of wading ashore Here their hereditary enemies, the Mazitu, attacked thele that ensued partook hts than of a set battle It was extraordinary to see the heads of the co the reeds as they stabbed at each other with the great spears, till one went down There were feounded in that fray, for those who fell sank in the o, ere operating in as al the best of it, and driving the Mazitu back But what decided the day against theh I could not lift a rifle ed to collect these men roundto the Pongos that after ten or a dozen of theive back sullenly and were helped into their canoes by those th at a signal they got out their paddles, and, still shouting curses and defiance at us, roay till they becareat lake and vanished

Two of the canoes we captured, however, and with theos These the Mazitu wished to put to death, but at the bidding of Brother John, whose orders, it will be remembered, had the sa, they bound their arms and made them prisoners instead

In about half an hour it was all over, but of the rest of that day I cannot write, as I think I fainted from utter exhaustion, which was not, perhaps, wonderful, considering all that we had undergone in the four and a half days that had elapsed since we first embarked upon the Great Lake For constant strain, physical andthe whole of my adventurous life It was indeed wonderful that we ca I re very s was over, eed like a butterfly when the sun shi+nes after rain

”Oh! Mr Quaterain after arduous exertions and looking into the eyes of bloody war All the days of absence, and a good part of the nights, too, while the mosquitoes hunted slumber, I prayed for your safety like one o'clock, and perhaps, Mr Quatermain, that helped to do the trick, for what says poet? Those who serve and wait are alood as those who cook dinner”

Such were the words which reached and, oddly enough, i brain Or rather they were part of the words, excerpts fro speech that there is no doubt Sa our absence

CHAPTER XIX