Part 4 (1/2)
”You will get the money and Outram--and found the family afresh--but you will not do it alone _A woman will help you_”
Then his mind wandered a little and he muttered, ”How is Jane? Have you heard from Jane?” or some such words
At the rew hard and anxious
”I have not heard of Jane for years, old fellow,” he said; ”probably she is dead or married But I do not understand”
”Don't waste tiy ”Listen tomen see far--sometimes I dreamed it, or I read it in your face I tell you--_you_ will die at Outram Stay here a while after I am dead Stay a while, Leonard!”
He sank back exhausted, and at that one before, leapt down thewith all the voices of the storht the frail hut and shook it A cobra hidden in the thick thatch awoke froy and fell with a soft thud to the floor not a foot fro ue and head swollen by rage Leonard started back and seized a crohich stood near, but before he could strike, the reptile sank down and, drawing its shi+ning shape across his brother's forehead, once more vanished into the thatch
His eyes did not so h Leonard saw a ht scales in the dilated pupils and shi+vered at this added terror, shi+vered as though his own flesh had shrunk beneath the touch of those deadly coils It was horrible that the snake should creep across his brother's face, it was still , should not understand the horror It caused him to remember our invisible companion, that ancient enemy of mankind of whom the reptile is an accepted type; itsleep which the touch of such as this has no power to stir
Ah! noas going--it was ie, the last quick quiver of the blood, followed by an ashen pallor, and the sob of the breath slowly lessening into silence So the day had died last night, with a little purpling of the sky--a little sobbing of the wind--then ashen nothingness and silence But the silence was broken, the night had grown alive indeed--and with a fearful life Hark! how the storm yelled! those blasts told of torment, that rain beat like tears
What if his brother----He did not dare to follow the thought home
Hark! how the stor supports as though the hands of a hundred savage foes were dragging it
It lifted--by heaven it was gone!--gone, crashi+ng down the rocks on the last hurricane blast of the tempest, and there above theht flecked with scudding clouds, and there in front of them, to the east and between thehad struck Leonard heavily, so heavily that the blood ran down his face; he did not heed it, he scarcely felt it; he only clasped his brother in his arms and, for the first ti it with the blood frolory in the East Now it ran along the mountain sides, now it burned upon their summits, to each summit a pillar of flame, a peculiar splendour of its own diversely shaped; and now the shapes of fire leaped froht The dull clouds caught the light, but they could not hold it all: back it fell to earth again, and the forests lifted up their arreet it, and it shone upon the face of the waters
Tho to his knees he stretched out his ar with his lips
Then he sank upon Leonard's breast, and presently all his story was told
CHAPTER IV
THE LAST VIGIL
For a while Leonard sat by the body of his brother The daylight grew and gathered about him, the round ball of the sun appeared above the one Were it not for soments of the vanished hut, it would have been difficult to know even that it had been Insects began to chirrup, lizards ran from the crevices of the rocks, yonder the rain-washed bud of a mountain lily opened before his eyes Still Leonard sat on, his face stony with grief, till at length a shadow fell upon his, as they hurried to the place of death
Grasping his loaded rifle Leonard sprang to his feet Nearer and nearer caot the presence of the living in its desire for the dead Leonard lifted the rifle, ai out clearly on the silent air, and was echoed from krantz and kloof and mountain side, and from above answered the thud of the bullet For a moment the smitten bird swayed upon its wide pinions, then they seeht, and it fell heavily and lay flapping and striking at the stones with its strong beak
”I also can kill,” said Leonard to himself as he watched it die ”Kill till you are killed--that is the law of life” Then he turned to the body of his brother andthe eyes, tying up the chin with a band of twisted grass, and folding the thin toil-worn hands upon the quiet heart
When all was finished he paused froht struck him
”Where are those Kaffirs?” he said aloud--the sound of his voice seeht to have been up an hour ago Hi! Otter, Otter!”
The ain he shouted without result ”I don't like to leave it,” he said, ”but Icovered the body with a red blanket to scare away the vultures, he started at a run round so rocks that bordered the little plateau on which the hut had stood Beyond them the plateau continued, and some fifty paces from the rocks was a hollow in the mountain side, where a softer vein of stone had been eaten away by centuries of weather
It was here that the Kaffirs slept--four of therotto it was their custo no fire was burning, and no Kaffirs were to be seen