Part 25 (1/2)
Now there came into Roden's slumbers, at first dead and dreauorously soothing as at that hoar on the night after hishim off to sleep by the mere touch of her hand upon his forehead, by the soft intonation of her love-thrilled voice at his ear
Surely, her presence ith hi in the heart of the hostile country He had but to reach forth his hand and touch her Once ain he sank into the unconsciousness of a peaceful, dreaain in his sleep, and muttered uneasily Her face was before him once more, and on it was iony and despair as he had seen there when he hung over that grisly abyss, in weakness and excruciating pain; her hand alone holding him up from the dreadful death So in upon hi him spellbound and powerless tohim into safety, but futilely He had no power over hiht which oppressed him was terrible Then her face vanished in a whirl of despairing horror Once more all was a blank, all was deadness Only the silence of the lonely house, the regular breathing of the sleeper
”Roden, wake! My heart's life! my beloved one! Wake, wake!”
The voice thrilled in the sleeper's ear, vibrating through the dense, silent darkness like the notes of a silvery-toned gong Again there was a flash of a vision of that face again, pale with horror and dread, anguished beyond words--the vision of a white-clad for hair
With a spasht What did this mean, what did it portend, this voice of one as at thatthus out of the darkness? Heavens! had anything happened to her? It was so real, so vivid, that despairing call! What did it ht on the couch, his eyes rested upon the aperture foruishable before, save for a bright star or two beyond it, was now a stave of light Daylight? That was his first thought; but in a , changing The band of light was now a strong, red glare; and together with the sight there ca
Roden ide awake now; as wide awake as ever he had been in his life
Rising noiselessly froun in hand, even as he had slept, he reat care to avoid knocking against any obstacle, to theOne wary glance through the aperture, and then he beheld that which ca the last shred of hope to die within his heart
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
BETWEEN BLADE AND FLAME
The open space in front of the house was alive with ar at the s, others were fanning into fla up behind, and the subdued hubbub of their bass voices was the sound Roden had heard upon first awakening They were about as es as the eyes of the solitary white man, practically in their power already, could ever have the ill fate to rest on Most of them were entirely naked, save for a blanket, carried rather than worn, and, srease, showed like glistening fiends in the slare of the torches, as their sinuous frames moved to and fro with feline suppleness A feore s on one arm, and all were bedecked with some species of fantastic and barbarous adorn feathers of the blue crane; cows' tails too, and grotesque necklaces of wooden beads made of ”charm” wood; also belts of jackals'
claws Nearly all had a firearoodly sheaf of dark, snaky assegais And their intention there could be noThey were there to fire this deserted far the torches into flalee, as they told each other what a brave blaze this building was going to reat piles of dry thorns, torn frohter and joking, as the sharp points would prick the naked carcasses of those who gathered them This was fun indeed; this was sport Many of them had worked as farm servants on just such a place as this, one or two perhaps on this very place Now they were going to enjoy the fun of burning it to the ground, and it would make a merry blaze And shut up within it was a white man, one of the do their futile rising, laying loith its deadly breech-loaders the flower of their youth by thousands One of that now hated race would figure herein at his own holocaust But this they did not know
Roden Musgrave thought for ahad the very soul of his absent love thrilled across the mysterious drea had that anguished voice sounded in his ear amid the darkness of the lonely roo over him A minute more, and it would have sounded too late: was it not, indeed, too late now?
There was one chance and only one--the backTo it immediately he es had not entirely surrounded the house; and it was a poor one
He looked swiftly but warily forth That side see the Kaffirs had not thought of surrounding it All were now gathered in front watching or aiding in the preparations for a grand blaze Yet the light of the torches shed a glow even upon that side Still, to hesitate was death
He dropped through the , and as he glided swiftly across the open space, which lay between hiarden, every reet his discovery; the whiz of flying assegais, the crash of bullets But fortune favoured hi in the ditch behind the low sod wall, just as the flame was applied to the piles of brushhich had been heaped against the front of the house
His first thought had been to escape while they were busy at their congenial work of destruction But the house stood upon an open flat, and now as the flas were lit up as in the light of day Only the insignificant area covered by the welcome shade of the fruit trees afforded conceal across that illumined space, would instantly be discovered
There was no escape that way
Peering warily through the tufted grasses which had taken root along the top of the sod wall, Roden's gaze fell upon a scene which was indescribably barbarous and weird Fro forth; s and doors belching out great red fiery tongues, sometimes with such fury as to drive back helter-skelter a crowd of the savage incendiaries, and in thick, rolling coluht stars And for the excited barbarians were executing a frenzied war-dance, their red, ochre-s half to one side then to the other, sta their feet in unison And above the roar and crackle of the blazing pile the fierce, throaty rhythher, louder and louder, its every note quivering with an insatiate lust for blood Then, as the frenzy reached its height, leaving their places the savages would ran to and fro,those who had been driven out by the flaain would approach as near as they could, and make believe to be in wait for those who should cliais with a deep-throated, bloodthirsty gasp The pantomime was perfect, and he who crouched there as an involuntary spectator could not forbear a cold shudder, as he witnessed thus vividly represented before him the fate from which he had so narrowly, and by a moment of time, escaped
But had he escaped it? His present position was one the peril of which it was ierate Here he lay, imperfectly concealed, within a few yards of at least a hundred barbarians, excited to the ht have covered half an acre, was fenced on the farther side by high, thick quince hedges, through which it would be impossible to make his way noiselessly, if at all; otherwise the idea caarden while the attention of the Kaffirs was occupied with their barbarous dance On this side only, that which was bounded by the stone wall, was exit possible, which would ht into the teeth of his eneht of He was securely trapped--cornered like a snared leopard
Well, he would die like one, fighting to the last But this resolve afforded not much consolation We doubt if it ever does
With an eye to render his precarious position azed warily around At the end of the sod here it joined the quince hedge, he thought the ditch rowth thicker The lay of the ground seeain raising his head to a level with the grass-tufts, he sent a quick, rapid look at the Kaffirs They were at the very height of their ferocious orgie, and the wild roaring chorus, together with the crash and crackle of the flames, made such a hellish din, that they would have no ears for any sound hebelow the level of the top of the wall, he crept along the ditch
His hands were lacerated with , yet he dared not pause Any arden His hopes were to soreater depression, and its sides were groith tall grass and bra flat to the ground and drawing the undergrowth over hi as much freedom for his hands as possible