Tom Willoughby's Scouts Part 15

"A knot in the noose, let us say. Your Arab had better have something to eat: he may then tell us a good deal that we want to know. His arm can be attended to afterwards. He is not so near death as he thinks."

The man was given into the charge of the major's servant, to be fed.

"Your Englishman, I suppose, dealt with the Arab as he had seen him deal with your n.i.g.g.e.rs," remarked the major.

"He saw nothing of the kind," replied Reinecke with an air of malicious triumph. "While he was at the plantation I forbade the use of the whip.

You see, Major?--the English boasted humanity is sheer cant and hypocrisy: what we do openly they do on the sly."

"Hardly that, Reinecke. You forget there are German prisoners in the nullah. They probably saw the flogging."

"And shared it, I daresay. The English are capable of any atrocity.

But we shall find the man useful, Major. Nothing could be better. And the nullah is so near that though the rains have started we might crush the vipers soon: there'll be a pause in the operations on the frontier."

The Arab returned, refreshed and clean. Reinecke questioned him eagerly, and drew from him many details of what had happened since the flight from the plantation. The German prisoners, he said, had been placed on the island, where a hut had been built for them. Food was conveyed to them on a raft. As the man described the defensive works at the nullah, Reinecke drew a rough diagram in his pocketbook, and marked the positions of the trenches and the camp.

"The youngster has a good headpiece," said the major, looking with interest at the diagram. "His name? Willoughby? I'm afraid we can't claim German ancestry for him."

"A machine-gun will smash him," said Reinecke.

"A machine-gun would not be very effective against defences like these, and it would be a terrible business to get up anything heavier across such country, at any rate while the rains are on. He seems to have made good use of his time during the last two months in training his n.i.g.g.e.rs, and unfortunately has won over our trained askaris. A frontal attack would be very costly, my friend."

"I can show another way into the nullah, Herr Major," said the Arab.

"Why didn't you say so before?" cried Reinecke. "Where is it?"

"The Herr Hauptmann will take me back into his service?"

"Dog, would you bargain with me? By your own confession you deserted to the enemy."

"I was compelled."

"You deserted all the same. Deserters are shot. Your only chance of escaping the penalty is to a.s.sist us--to show us the way into the nullah. You'll do that, and if you fail you'll be shot."

The Arab protested that he was sure of his ground, and would faithfully lead the troops to an entrance into the nullah which was at present wholly unsuspected by the Englishman. He described its position, and Reinecke's eyes sparkled with antic.i.p.ation as he turned to Rudenheim and said--

"We have him, Major! We'll capture the place at little cost, and then---- Haroun, go and show the doctor your arm, and come to my quarters to-morrow."

"A moment," said the major. "You were flogged: what for?"

The Arab appeared to be for a moment disconcerted by the German's swift question. Then he answered:

"Because I would not work as hard as the Englishman wished, Herr Major."

"So! You may go ... The man is a liar, Reinecke. You will find that there's nothing much wrong with his arm, if anything at all. All the same, that northern entrance is genuine enough, I think; and we must certainly catch your cub. But I don't think we'll hang him; he's the kind of man I like to make a prisoner of war."

CHAPTER XIII--HUNTED

Major von Rudenheim's surmise that "the cub" had been busy was correct: Tom had never before been so fully occupied, and, as he afterwards confessed, he had never been happier in his life.

The northern end of the nullah had now the appearance of a prosperous native village. Tom had felt certain misgivings on the score of cleanliness and health; but he found that the Wahehe, like all tribes that inhabit inland and mountainous districts, away from the corrupting influences of the coast, were tidy and orderly, and under the authority of their old chief, Mirambo, the people settled down to a comfortable existence. The one drawback was the limited range of movement; but even in this respect the people were little worse off than they had been on the plantation, and their rooted belief that before long the Germans would be utterly driven from the country gave them bright hopes for the future. Moreover, the women and children in a native village rarely stray far from their homes, and as for the men, they had movement enough.

To begin with, Tom organised a regular body of scouts, incorporating some of his own men with those furnished by his new ally, M'setu. Always keeping in mind his alternative ultimate designs, either to trek into British territory or to hold his ground until the British overran the border, he determined, when the scouts became proficient, to patrol the whole country between the nullah and the Neu Langenburg road. The defeat of the Germans at Abercorn was very heartening: clearly they were not to have the easy conquest that Reinecke had apparently expected. At the same time, it was only too likely that their preparations were much more advanced than the British, and he could not hope that the Germans would yield the largest and most precious of their colonial possessions without a bitter struggle. It was also certain that the enemy would at some time or other make a serious effort to crush this mutiny; and while, in such a vast and well wooded country, he could not have commanded every possible avenue of approach even with ten times as many men as were available for scouting, he would at least make reasonably sure that any movement of the enemy on the main tracks should be reported to him.

At first he sent out one of the Wahehe with each of M'setu's men, and practised them in watching the movements of small parties of M'setu's people within a few miles of the nullah. Presently, in order to increase the number of his fighting-men, he accustomed M'setu's men to scout alone. By degrees he extended their field of operations until at length he had established a definite chain, or rather network, of scouting-posts commanding the princ.i.p.al tracks from Bismarckburg, and especially the main frontier road to Neu Langenburg. Within a month no enemy force or convoy could move along the frontier without Tom's hearing of it.

The reports were at first brought to him by runners, and reached him many hours late. Could he not devise some means of saving time and exertion alike? He remembered having read, in a book of travels, how the natives of the mountainous interior of New Guinea were accustomed to shout news from height to height. The hills to the south of his own position would lend themselves admirably to a similar system, and after a few rather heart-breaking experiments he succeeded in teaching the negroes to adopt this plan. Each prominent hill was given a name; the man stationed at any particular post had to shout the name to the next, and within a very few minutes Tom at the nullah learnt that a message had been dispatched by a scout perhaps forty miles away.

Meanwhile he practised the fighting-men in aiming and sighting and fire discipline, giving his commands by means of the whistle borrowed from the German sergeant. These exercises were performed, not only in the nullah, but on the ground cleared in front of the barricade and also in the forest. His stock of ammunition would not allow of much target practice, and he ruefully owned that the greater part of the men could not be expected to become good marksmen. It was more profitable to spend time in giving them cohesion in simple field movements. He divided them into sections of sixteen, and got up sham fights in the forest: one party advancing, the other retiring. At first the men whose part it was to retire refused to do so, and even came to blows with the attackers: why should they withdraw before men no better than themselves? But after a time they entered into the spirit of the game, and showed considerable apt.i.tude.

Tom found the askaris useful in the course of his various exercises. At first, when he practised his men in the nullah, the askaris looked on with disdain, and roared with laughter at the mistakes made by the negroes. But by degrees they grew interested; they commented among themselves on the contrast between the Englishman's patience and good temper and the rough treatment they had suffered at the hands of their German drill sergeants. Tom, though he affected to disregard them, was all the time keenly watching, and there came a moment when he suddenly turned to them and asked for two volunteers to show the Wahehe the correct way of kneeling to take aim. As he had expected, they were flattered; every man wished to serve as a model. For some days he did not apply to them again, and noticed a certain restlessness and disappointment among them. At length he allowed them to act regularly as guides and markers, but did not admit them definitively to the ranks of his fighting-men until they came to him in a body and begged to be taken fully into his service. They were Sudanese, like the majority of the German native troops. Many of their people were fighting in the British ranks: they preferred his drill to the German; and they were ready to vow fidelity to him.

"What about pay?" asked Tom. "I have no money."

They replied that in the nullah they had no use for pay, but no doubt he would pay them when he had the money--an English promise was good. Tom was rather doubtful of the wisdom of trusting men who so suddenly changed their allegiance, and he suspected that at the slightest set-back they would desert him. On the other hand, these trained men might serve as good stiffening for his untried troops, and ultimately he decided to incorporate them with the garrison of the nullah, but not to allow them to leave it until he had some clear proof of their loyalty.

As time went on, he became somewhat worried about two matters--the approach of the rainy season, and the food supply. The foliage of all the trees had turned red, a sure sign, according to Mwesa, that the rains were at hand. The lake would fill, the stream would become much swollen: would he be flooded out? What would be the effect of the damp upon his health and the health of the people? Hitherto there had been no sickness except minor ailments, which he had treated with such drugs from Reinecke's stores as he knew the use of. Ague and malaria were only names to him, but they stood for something terrible--the more terrible because unknown. He had a good stock of quinine, the great stand-by, he understood, in tropical climates; he would watch for the first sign of fever, and then dose freely. Fortunately one of the Arab overseers had been accustomed to doctor the workers on the plantation, and this man was gratified by being appointed health officer to the community.

The food question was an even greater difficulty, for while all might not be sick, all must be fed. The provisions brought from the plantation were running low: and though these had been supplemented by small animals trapped in the forest and by occasional gifts from M'setu, these sources were too precarious to be relied on. In order to ease the situation, Tom at last made a habit of going into the forest for a day's hunting once a week, leaving Mirambo in charge of the nullah. M'setu's people were excellent beaters and knew the likeliest places for game; the Wahehe were born hunters; but he could not afford to let them use his ammunition indiscriminately, and when they accompanied him they were armed only with spears. Everything depended on his own gun. In the course of these shooting expeditions he brought down several head of eland, hartebeest, and rhinoceros, the last being a special favourite with the people. The game was cut up and carried home by his own men and by M'setu's people, who were sufficiently paid for their services by the present of certain portions of each day's bag.

It was after one of these expeditions that Tom had had to take disciplinary measures with Haroun. The rationing system, after a little trouble, had worked well. Moses had proved himself to be thoroughly honest, and every one had his fair share. After a time Moses began to suspect that some one was pilfering. Small quant.i.ties of food mysteriously disappeared. A watch was kept; Tom called the people together and warned them that any one who acted against the common welfare must be punished; but the thief was not detected until, made bold by success, he forgot caution, and was caught red-handed by Moses.

On returning from a day's shooting Tom learnt that the culprit was the Arab who had volunteered his services on the first day at the nullah.

In such a man the crime could not be taken lightly, and Tom ordered the man half a dozen strokes of the whip.

A few days afterwards Haroun disappeared. The sentries on guard day and night at the barricade declared that the Arab had not pa.s.sed them. The nullah was searched; no trace of him could be found. Some of the people reported that, after the whipping, he had sulkily held himself aloof, and used to wander alone by the sh.o.r.e of the lake. At length it was generally believed that he had fallen victim to a crocodile, and his fate was a fruitful topic of conversation among the Wahehe.

One day, accompanied by Mwesa and some two-score beaters and carriers, Tom set off to shoot. The rains had just begun, and Mirambo had told him that with the filling and overflowing of the streams animals would certainly be found on the swamps thus created. He had usually gone either north or east, as being least likely to encounter enemies in those directions. On this occasion, however, he struck to the west, in order to reach low-lying ground where, according to M'setu's huntsmen, at this season of the year game was plentiful.

A couple of hours' march through the forest brought him to an extensive hollow, covered only with scrub and tall gra.s.s, and already showing signs of becoming the impa.s.sable swamp which would result from a few weeks' rain. The beaters, marching quietly ahead, soon made signs that they had sighted game, and presently, through the gra.s.s, Tom saw the long dark form of a rhinoceros placidly browsing. Stealing round to leeward, he gradually approached the animal until he was within easy range, fired, and had the satisfaction of seeing his quarry fall at the first shot.

The report of his rifle had startled another beast that was wallowing in a pool near by. It rose, sniffed around, then made off with lumbering but rapid gait across the hollow towards a belt of woodland on higher ground. Tom hurried in pursuit with his beaters, leaving Mwesa to guard the animal he had already shot.

The chase was a long one. The rhinoceros, before it recovered from its alarm, plunged through a long stretch of forest and scrub, and was found at last resting in a narrow glade bordered on the further side by tall bushes. Again Tom brought down the beast, this time at his second shot.

The natives, with cries of delight, were rus.h.i.+ng forward to skin and dismember it for transport when, without warning, there came from the bushes beyond the sharp crack of several rifles, bullets sang through the air, and two of the beaters fell. The rest bolted into the bush on either side, and Tom, a little less precipitately, was about to follow them when he saw a number of German askaris emerge from cover opposite, with Reinecke at their head.

Reinecke's eyes were already gleaming with triumph. He shouted a word or two which Tom could not catch, and then fired his revolver. In face of odds, Tom had already started to make good his escape: but when he heard the German's bullet whistle past him, he s.n.a.t.c.hed out his revolver, wheeled round, and fired. Reinecke flung up his arm, stopped short, and yelled to the askaris at his heels. Tom sprinted across the few yards of open ground, dashed into the bush, and ran, at first blindly, for he heard the askaris close behind: one or two of them were shooting at random in the hope of hitting him as he ran.

He was fleet of foot, and guessed that he could easily outstrip the askaris, laden with their service packs. The danger was that he might lose his way in the forest. All his men had disappeared; they would probably find their way back to the nullah without difficulty. It was important, however, that he should not be long behind them, for if they should report that he was captured or killed, the people might be seized with panic, and all his work be overthrown. He had left the glade at a different point from that at which he had entered it, and so could not follow the track made by his men. But fortune favoured him. He had not pushed his way far among the trees when he struck a game track, along which, if the askaris also did not discover it, he could make still swifter progress than they, hindered by the bush.

Some few minutes later, the track brought him to a small stream: it had no doubt been trodden by animals in quest of water. He jumped into the stream, ran a short distance in the same direction as the current, then made a long jump into a clump of low shrubs on the right bank. Replacing as well as he could the disarranged vegetation, so as to give no clue to his pursuers, he plunged once more into the bush, in the hope of coming by and by upon a cross track that would lead towards the nullah.

CHAPTER XIV--THE TRAIL