Samba Part 20

Taking the second ladder from Samba, Jack calmly descended on the other side, and was quickly followed by the boy. The latter made straight for the fetish hut. A light shone through the entrance immediately he had entered; there was a m.u.f.fled shriek; then voices in rapid talk, followed by the sound of heavy hammering. By the light of Jack's electric torch Samba was breaking the fetters.

By this time the whole village was astir. At the first instant of alarm every man, woman, and child gave utterance to a yell; but as soon as they caught sight of the dreadful apparition, the vengeful spirit Whose visit had been predicted, the giant with hideous jaw and flaming eyes, they ceased their cries, and scampered in awestruck silence across the compound towards the gate.

Slowly Samba's parents limped out of the hut after him, and with his a.s.sistance mounted the ladder and descended on the other side of the stockade. Jack had bidden Samba take them for a time into the forest.

To harbour them in his camp would involve further embroilment with Elbel, a thing to be avoided if possible. They had barely disappeared in the darkness when a shot rang out, and Jack felt something strike the framework above his head. Elbel had been awakened from sleep by the first yell, but on leaving his hut found himself enveloped in so thick a crowd of quivering, panic-stricken negroes that he could neither see what had caused their alarm nor get an answer to his irritable questions. The delay had been just long enough to allow the prisoners to escape.

Jack heard Elbel's voice raging at the people. As another shot whizzed by he reached up and extinguished the candles, then slipped over the stockade, drawing the ladder after him. Burdened with the bogie and the two ladders he hastened away into the forest. For some minutes he wandered about, missing the guidance of Samba, who was with his parents. At length he struck the path, and making his best speed regained his camp. Barney was awaiting him at the gate with loaded rifle, the trained men drawn up under arms.

"The bogie did it!" he cried, feeling very hot and tired now that his task was accomplished.

"Praise be!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Barney. "Eyes front! Present arrms! Dismiss!"

[1] This abounds in the forest, and is alike nails, string, and rope for the natives.

CHAPTER XIV

Lokolobolo's First Fight

"I am afraid we are in for it now," said Jack, as he sat with Barney, when the camp had become quiet, discussing the situation. "Elbel will know well enough who played the bogie, and he has now another grievance against me. I wonder what he will do."

"I would not disthress meself about it at all, sorr," said Barney. "He had a peep at a Pepper's ghost widout paying for a ticket, and 'tis himself that ought to be plased."

"Don't you ever have a fit of the dumps, Barney? You seem to live always in the top of spirits."

"What would be the good uv doing anything else, sorr? I've too little flesh on me bones now; what would I be if I grizzled?"

"I'm glad enough, I a.s.sure you. I don't know what I should have done without you. Uncle little imagined what he was leaving me to. Do you think anything has happened to him? It is three months since he went away, and five weeks since I had any news of him. I am getting anxious."

"'Tis true he is behind, like the cow's tail, sorr. An 'tis meself can explain it. Ye see, sorr, I've noticed wan thing about these n.i.g.g.e.rs.

Time is not much to an Irishman, to be sure, but 'tis less than nothing to a n.i.g.g.e.r. They don't keep count uv the days; an almanac would be clean beyond them; and 'tis my belief Nando has just put the master back a month, sorr, unbeknown."

"That's an original explanation, at any rate. But by Jove! here's Samba again. What does he want now?"

"Him say mudder lib for plenty sick, sah," said Lepoko, called in to interpret. "Mudder plenty tired fust; muss stand all de night in hut; no gib no food; her no can go no more; tumble down in forest. Samba say please ma.s.sa, let fader and mudder come; please, please, ma.s.sa, please, ma.s.sa, him say please ma.s.sa plenty too much all time."

"We must have them in, I suppose," said Jack, unable to resist the appeal in Samba's eyes and gestures. "I didn't want them here, they only add to our dangers and difficulties. Let him fetch them, Lepoko; he must be careful; if they are captured again they are sure to be shot."

Samba's face shone with delight. He scampered away. An hour pa.s.sed before he returned. Mboyo was carrying his wife in his arms; she was in the last stage of exhaustion. They were given shelter in Lepoko's hut; and that night, when Samba curled himself up to sleep with Pat, for the first time for many weeks he was a happy boy.

Jack had but just finished his breakfast next morning when a note was brought him from Elbel.

MONSIEUR,--

On m'a fait informer que les deux individus echappes de ce village sont a present refugies dans votre camp. J'ai l'honneur de vous sommer de rendre ces individus immediatement, en outre le pet.i.t garcon dont j'ai deja demande la reddition. Au cas que lesdits sujets de PEtat du Congo ne soient pas ramenes dans ce village avant midi cejourd'hui, je serai oblige de faire a leur egard des demarches qui me sembleront bonnes.

Agreez, monsieur, l'a.s.surance de ma consideration distinguee, ELBEL, _Agent de la Societe cosmopolite du Commerce du Congo_.

"What do you think of this, Barney? He says he's been told that the two persons who escaped from Ilola are now in my camp. He has the honour to request that I will give them up at once. Listen: 'In case the said subjects of the Congo State are not brought back to this village by noon to-day, I shall be compelled to take such steps in regard to them as may seem to me good.' Very precise and formal. My answer shall be a little shorter."

He lost no time in penning his reply. He wrote:

SIR,--

The three people you mention are with me. I shall be glad to learn the offence with which they are charged, and by what authority you take it upon yourself to try them and punish them.

Yours truly, JOHN CHALLONER.

"We shall get no answer to that, Barney."

But he was mistaken. A second note was brought him in which Elbel refused to explain or justify his actions to Monsieur Challoner. He was responsible to his Societe and to the administration of the Free State. He repeated his threat that at twelve o'clock, failing compliance with his demand, he would take steps to recover the fugitives, and concluded by saying that Monsieur Challoner must be answerable for the consequences.

"The fat's in the fire now, sorr," said Barney, when Jack had translated this letter to him. "I suppose you'll just say 'Go and be hanged' in answer to that?"

"No. I shan't answer it on paper. The crisis has come at last, Barney. I couldn't attack Elbel yesterday and be responsible for the first blow. But things are changed now. His action in regard to these poor people is sheer persecution; they've sought my protection, and no Englishman that I ever heard of has given up a wretch fleeing from persecution. We'll have to stand firm now, Barney. Elbel shan't get hold of them if I can prevent it."

"I'm wid ye, sorr, heart and soul. Sure an Irishman is not the man to stand by and see poor people ill-treated. What'll we do to get ready for him, sorr?"

"You can go and get some of the men to rig up platforms at several points inside the stockade. What a lucky thing it was we taught 'em how to board and floor the huts! Those planks will come in handy now.

And stay: set two or three men to bore loopholes in the stockade--not our riflemen; the men who've lost their right hands can manage that, perhaps, with their left if they try. Meanwhile, parade the riflemen.

I'll come out to them in a few minutes."

When the men were paraded, Jack felt very proud of his little company.

They were all alert, eager, ready. Jack explained to them through Lepoko what the difficulty was.

"I don't want you to fight against your will," he said. "If any man is unwilling to fight he may leave the camp if he chooses, or remain and do any other work required. But if he elects to fight he must obey orders, do his best, and never give in. You understand that: never give in!"

The men responded with loud cries of approval. Not a man of them fell out of the ranks. The exercise and drill they had undergone had filled them with military ardour; they were proud of their new accomplishments, and evidently eager to test them in earnest. And the white officials were so well hated that the opportunity of setting one at defiance was in itself a sufficient motive. Jack paid them a compliment on their readiness to serve--the negro dearly loves praise--and after inspecting each man's rifle and ammunition, dismissed them to various duties in the camp until the moment for action arrived.

The day's water supply had scarcely been got in, and there were no vessels at hand for storing a large quant.i.ty. The stock of food in the camp was sufficient to keep the whole population for three days on full rations, and might be eked out for a week or more if each man's allowance was reduced. It was inevitable that the idea of a siege should cross Jack's mind, and he foresaw that the difficulty about water would prove serious. Meanwhile, he could at least send out a few men to obtain supplies of food from the chief's other villages. He chose for this errand the men least likely to be useful as fighters, and impressed on them the necessity of avoiding Elbel's men. It would not be long before Elbel had the surrounding country closely patrolled, and then no man would be able to approach without taking his life in his hand. What supplies they should succeed in collecting were to be held concealed in the forest until there was an opportunity of conveying them into the camp without danger.

There were now within his stockade, besides himself and Barney, twenty-two men armed with rifles; the chief Mboyo, with his wife and Samba; fifteen men, ten women, and twenty-five children who had sought asylum with him; and the livestock of the natives--a few goats and fowls. Pat was one by himself. There were rifles for twenty men besides the twenty-two, but the fugitives were too much maimed, or too much reduced in strength by their sufferings, to make it seem worth while to arm them. Four or five, however, had recovered very rapidly, and seemed likely to prove useful recruits. They had at any rate enough reason for fighting well; not only on behalf of their chief, but in memory of their own sufferings. Pending an opportunity of teaching them the use of the rifle, Jack armed them with spears and employed them as sentries. A careful watch was kept to guard against surprise, which was little likely to occur in broad daylight across the wide open s.p.a.ce between the two settlements.

Jack awaited with no little anxiety the approach of noon, trying to forecast Elbel's course of action. The Belgian had, so far as he had been able to gather, about sixty men armed with Albini rifles, with probably as many hangers-on; but the natives' conceptions of arithmetic are so vague that this information could not be relied on; the actual number might be larger or smaller. It was not likely that the followers of the forest guards could be utilized as fighting men; but the guards themselves were well armed and full of confidence, for they had become accustomed to lording it over the virtually unarmed and helpless populace from whose forced labour the Congo Free State derives its profits. Jack was quite prepared to find that Elbel, knowing that his opponent's men had but recently been armed, and were not, like his own men, to all intents professional soldiers, would think himself strong enough to rush the camp, especially as, since the day of his arrival, the Belgian had appeared to show no further interest in the force at Jack's disposal.

"Perhaps he thinks we've drilled them merely for parade," he remarked with a smile to Barney. "But I think he'll find we can hold our own.

I'm not afraid of a direct attack. But if he tries to starve us out it'll be a different matter. I'm bothered about the water."

"Be aisy, sorr. Whin I was a bhoy me mother often did not know at breakfast time where the supper was coming from; but I only went to bed wance widout it, and that was whin I'd eaten it before the time, and was put to bed early as a punishment."