A Frontier Mystery Part 36

"And if my horse is lame how shall I use him?"

"You would not use him in any case," was his answer. "The sound of a horse's hoof travels far at night, that of a man's foot, not. We walk."

"Walk? Why then the place must be quite near."

"Quite near it is, Iqalaqala," slipping into rather an unwarrantable familiarity in addressing me by my native name, but this didn't exercise me you may be sure. "Quite near, but--nowhere near the snake pool.

Quite the other way. You will take the nephew of Nyamaki with you."

"Ah! And--what of Umsindo?"

"Ha! Umsindo? He is a good fighting bull--but then he is a blundering bull. Yet we will take him, for his strength will be useful. For, we will take Ukozi alive."

"That will not be easy, Jan Boom. And then--just think, how much easier it will be to kill him."

"Yet we will do it. We will take him alive. You were asking but now, _Nkose_, what other motive I had in helping you," he answered, with a dash of significance.

"Ah!"

"So we will take Ukozi alive. Is that to be?"

"Most certainly, if possible. But will it be possible? He is sure to fight. He will have people with him of course."

"Two, at the most. We had better take them alive too, if we can. It will make things worse for Ukozi. But to no one living save to the two we have named will you by word or hint give knowledge of what I have told you. To do so will mean certain failure."

I promised.

"Tell me now about this place, Jan Boom, and how you learned of its existence," I said, for now in my feverish impatience I would rather talk for the remainder of the night than go in to shut myself up with my thoughts throughout its hours of silence.

"I will do better, _Nkose_, I will show it you," he answered. "_Whau_!

if we succeed in what we are to do--and we must if the three of you only keep strictly to my directions--why then I may tell you; and with it a tale so strange that you, or other white people, will give it half belief or perhaps not any. Now I must go. There is still some of the night left, and it is important that none should know we have talked or even that I have been away from Isipanga. Return as silently as you came, and to-morrow, well before the sun goes down ride up to the house on a very lame horse."

"And with the other two?"

"With the other two. _Nkose_!" With which parting salute he was gone.

I waited a little, listening. No sound disturbed the dead silence save here and there the ordinary voices of the night. Then I regained my room.

Sleep was of course out of the question, and now I set to work deliberately to marshal my thoughts and bring them to bear on the situation. I felt no misgiving as to the Xosa's good faith--the fact that he had agreed to my being accompanied by two tried and trusted comrades seemed to prove that. Though had he stipulated that I should have gone alone, I should, while prepared for any emergency, unhesitatingly have accepted the conditions. Again, the reward was quite enough to tempt a man of his courage, especially as he came of a totally different race, added to which the corner of curtain which he had just lifted was sufficient to show that he bore a grudge against the witch doctor, not to say a very pretty feud. How and why this should be, pa.s.sed my understanding, but I knew enough of natives and their ways to know that I didn't know them, as, indeed, I believe no white man ever really does.

And the motive of this outrage? Clearly, it was due to some dark superst.i.tion, as I had suspected from the very first. She had not been injured up till now, would not be unless we failed to arrive in time.

There was unspeakable comfort in this, for I felt confident the Xosa was sure of his facts. But what stages of horror and despair must she not have pa.s.sed through since her mysterious capture? Well the villainous witch doctor should pay a heavy reckoning and those who had helped him; and, thinking of it, I, too, was all eagerness he should be taken alive; for a great many years of hard labour--perhaps with lashes thrown in-- which should be his reward, would be a far worse thing to him than a mere swift and easy death.

Then followed a reaction. What if Jan Boom had miscalculated and we arrived too late after all? A cold perspiration poured down me at the thought. "She will die, and that not easily," had been his words. That pointed to torture--oh good G.o.d! My innocent beautiful love! in the power of these fiends, and sacrificed to their h.e.l.lish superst.i.tions, and I helpless here! I seemed to be going mad.

No. That wouldn't do. I was letting my imagination run away with me in the silence and the darkness, and above all I wanted cool-headedness and strength. I must make up my mind to believe the Xosa's word and that all would yet be well. By this time the next night she would be with us again safe and sound.

Then I fell to wondering what sort of hiding-place could be found within a walk--an easy walk apparently--of my dwelling, and it baffled me. I could think of none. Moreover the surroundings had been scoured in search of the missing Hensley, and nothing of the kind had come to light. And then the first signs of dawn began to show, and I felt relieved, for now at any rate, one could be up and doing.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

WHAT WE FOUND.

I have seen a good many astonished natives in my time but never a more astonished one than my boy Tom that evening after supper, when staggering to my feet and lurching unsteadily I bade him in thick and indistinct accents to go into the store and fetch some new blankets for my two guests to sleep on. When on his return, I cursed him roundly, and threw an empty bottle at his head, taking good care however that it shouldn't hit him, then subsided on to the floor to all outward appearances in the last stage of helpless intoxication, poor Tom must have thought the end of the world had come. This, of course, was part of the programme as drawn up between myself and Jan Boom.

In every other particular I had scrupulously observed it even to the severe laming of my unfortunate horse. Poor beast! but then what were the pa.s.sing sufferings of a mere animal, when issues such as this were in the balance! I had got through the morning joining in the pretended search, and it was while thus engaged that I found an opportunity of imparting to the other two our plan of rescue.

"By the Lord!" exclaimed Kendrew, "I never heard such an extraordinary thing in my life."

"The thing is, can we swallow it?" was Falkner's remark. "These n.i.g.g.e.rs are such infernal liars."

"Well. I'm going to follow it up, even if I go alone," I said.

"Who the devil said you were going alone, Glanton?" he answered gruffly.

"Look here, we rather hate each other, but you can't say that up there in Zululand, for instance, I ever backed down."

"Certainly I can't, Sewin," I said. "What I can say is that in any sort of sc.r.a.p there's no man I'd rather have alongside than yourself. And as for hating each other, it's only natural you should hate me I suppose, but I've never returned the compliment."

"Well we'll knock h.e.l.l out of someone to-night anyhow," he said. "Now let's have all particulars of the scheme."

I gave them, exactly as I had had them from Jan Boom.

"The thing is to keep it up," I said. "That'll be the stiffest part of all--to keep it up. We mustn't go about looking as if we had found her already. Native eyes and ears are sharp, and native deductions are swiftly drawn."

This was agreed upon, and we continued our mock search more strenuously than ever. We dared not even let fall so much as a hint to the old people. Pitiable as it was to witness their distress, yet it was better that this should continue a little longer rather than that our success should be imperilled, as certainly would have been the case had we let slip the slightest inkling that there was ground for hope.

"Has Ivondwe made any revelation?" I asked the police inspector, later on as we were about to start. "Not a word. Would you like to talk to him, Glanton? You might get something out of him."

"Not to-day. To-morrow perhaps. Only keep him doubly guarded. He'll certainly escape if he can."

"He'll be a bigger magician than Ukozi if he does. He's handcuffed in a hut, with four of my men guarding him, two inside and two out. And the two out are just dead shots with rifle or pistol, although they do belong to the poor old police," he added meaningly.

"All right. Now I'm off to try and work the native intelligence department."

"And I hope to G.o.d you may succeed," had been the fervent answer.

"Good-bye."

So here we were, only awaiting our guide in order to set forth. The other two had also simulated inebriation, but only to a slight extent.

We had a business-like revolver apiece and plenty of cartridges, but no guns. Another significant item of our outfit comprised several strong, new _reims_. At last, after further waiting, which seemed an eternity, Jan Boom appeared.

There was mirth lurking in his face as he explained that he had come over at Tom's instance. Tom should have come to see if anything more was wanted before he turned in for the night, but he was afraid. His master seemed bewitched, he declared. He and the other two white men were all drunk, but his master was the most drunk of all--yes, by far.

His master drunk!

At any other time we would have roared over the absurdity of the situation, and Tom's very justifiable amazement. Now Jan Boom was directed to tell him to turn in, and then come back. He came back, but took rather long about it. "Now _Amakosi_!" he said. "We will start, but no word must be spoken save in the faintest of whispers, and only then if it cannot be avoided."