Perhaps it was rash, but my curiosity led me to accept this invitation.
Out I went, followed by Hans with a loaded double-barrelled rifle, and scrambled up the ant-heap which, as it was twenty feet high and there were no trees just here, commanded a very fine view of the desert beyond.
"Look to the north," said Hart from its foot.
I looked, and there in the bright moonlight five or six hundred yards away, ranged rank by rank upon a slope of sand and along the crest of the ridge beyond, I saw quite two hundred kneeling camels, and by each camel a tall, white-robed figure who held in his hand a long lance to the shaft of which, not far beneath the blade, was attached a little flag. For a while I stared to make sure that I was not the victim of an illusion or a mirage. Then when I had satisfied myself that these were indeed men and camels I descended from the ant-heap.
"You will admit, Mac.u.mazana," said Hart politely, "that if we had meant you any ill, with such a force it would have been easy for us to take a sleeping camp at night. But these men come here to be your escort, not to kill or enslave you or yours. And, Mac.u.mazana, we have sworn to you the oath that may not be broken. Now we go to our people. In the morning, after you have eaten, we will return again unarmed and alone."
Then like shadows they slipped away.
CHAPTER X
CHARGE!
Ten minutes later the truth was known and every man in the camp was up and armed. At first there were some signs of panic, but these with the help of Babemba we managed to control, setting the men to make the best preparations for defence that circ.u.mstances would allow, and thus occupying their minds. For from the first we saw that, except for the three of us who had horses, escape was impossible. That great camel corps could catch us within a mile.
Leaving old Babemba in charge of his soldiers, we three white men and Hans held a council at which I repeated every word that had pa.s.sed between Hart and Mart and myself, including their absolute denial of their having had anything to do with the disappearance of Lady Ragnall on the Nile.
"Now," I asked, "what is to be done? My fate is sealed, since for purposes of their own, of which probably we know nothing, these people intend to take me with them to their country, as indeed they are justified in doing, since I have been fool enough to keep a kind of a.s.signation with them here. But they don"t want anybody else. Therefore there is nothing to prevent you Ragnall, and you Savage, and you Hans, from returning with the Mazitu."
"Oh! Baas," said Hans, who could understand English well enough although he seldom spoke it, "why are you always bothering me with such _praatjes_?"--(that is, chatter). "Whatever you do I will do, and I don"t care what you do, except for your own sake, Baas. If I am going to die, let me die; it doesn"t at all matter how, since I must go soon and make report to your reverend father, the Predikant. And now, Baas, I have been awake all night, for I heard those camels coming a long while before the two spook men appeared, and as I have never heard camels before, could not make out what they were, for they don"t walk like giraffes. So I am going to sleep, Baas, there in the sun. When you have settled things, you can wake me up and give me your orders," and he suited the action to the word, for when I glanced at him again he was, or appeared to be, slumbering, just like a dog at its master"s feet.
I looked at Ragnall in interrogation.
"I am going on," he said briefly.
"Despite the denial of these men of any complicity in your wife"s fate?" I asked. "If their words are true, what have you to gain by this journey, Ragnall?"
"An interesting experience while it lasts; that is all. Like Hans there, if what they say _is_ true, my future is a matter of complete indifference to me. But I do not believe a word of what they say.
Something tells me that they know a great deal which they do not choose to repeat--about my wife I mean. That is why they are so anxious that I should not accompany you."
"You must judge for yourself," I answered doubtfully, "and I hope to Heaven that you are judging right. Now, Savage, what have you decided?
Remember before you reply that these uncanny fellows declare that if we four go, two of us will never return. It seems impossible that they can read the future, still, without doubt, they _are_ most uncanny."
"Sir," said Savage, "I will take my chance. Before I left England his lordship made a provision for my old mother and my widowed sister and her children, and I have none other dependent upon me. Moreover, I won"t return alone with those Mazitu to become a barbarian, for how could I find my way back to the coast without anyone to guide me? So I"ll go on and leave the rest to G.o.d."
"Which is just what we have all got to do," I remarked. "Well, as that is settled, let us send for Babemba and tell him."
This we did accordingly. The old fellow received the news with more resignation than I had antic.i.p.ated. Fixing his one eye upon me, he said:
"Mac.u.mazana, these words are what I expected from you. Had any other man spoken them I should have declared that he was quite mad. But I remember that I said this when you determined to visit the Pongo, and that you came back from their country safe and sound, having done wonderful things there, and that it was the Pongo who suffered, not you. So I believe it will be again, so far as you are concerned, Mac.u.mazana, for I think that some devil goes with you who looks after his own. For the others I do not know. They must settle the matter with their own devils, or with those of the Kendah people. Now farewell, Mac.u.mazana, for it comes to me that we shall meet no more. Well, that happens to all at last, and it is good to have known you who are so great in your own way.
Often I shall think of you as you will think of me, and hope that in a country beyond that of the Kendah I may hear from your lips all that has befallen you on this and other journeys. Now I go to withdraw my men before these white-robed Arabs come on their strange beasts to seize you, lest they should take us also and there should be a fight in which we, being the fewer, must die. The loads are all in order ready to be laden on their strange beasts. If they declare that the horses cannot cross the desert, leave them loose and we will catch them and take them home with us, and since they are male and female, breed young ones from them which shall be yours when you send for them, or Bausi the king"s if you never send. Nay, I want no more presents who have the gun and the powder and the bullets you gave me, and the tusks of ivory for Bausi the king, and what is best of all, the memory of you and of your courage and wisdom. May these and the G.o.ds you worship befriend you. From yonder hill we will watch till we see that you have gone. Farewell,"
and waiting for no answer, he departed with the tears running from his solitary eye.
Ten minutes later the Mazitu bearers had also saluted us and gone, leaving us seated in that deserted camp surrounded by our baggage, and so far as I was concerned, feeling most lonely. Another ten minutes went by which we occupied in packing our personal belongings. Then Hans, who was now washing out the coffee kettle at a little distance, looked up and said:
"Here come the spook-men, Baas, the whole regiment of them." We ran and looked. It was true. Marshalled in orderly squadrons, the camels with their riders were sweeping towards us, and a fine sight the beasts made with their swaying necks and long, lurching gait. About fifty yards away they halted just where the stream from our spring entered the desert, and there proceeded to water the camels, twenty of them at a time. Two men, however, in whom I recognized Hart and Mart, walked forward and presently were standing before us, bowing obsequiously.
"Good morning, Lord," said Hart to Ragnall in his broken English. "So you come with Mac.u.mazana to call at our poor house, as we call at your fine one in England. You think we got the beautiful lady you marry, she we give old necklace. That is not so. No white lady ever in Kendahland.
We hear story from Mac.u.mazana and believe that lady drowned in Nile, for you "member she walk much in her sleep. We very sorry for you, but G.o.ds know their business. They leave when they will leave, and take when they will take. You find her again some day more beautiful still and with her soul come back."
Here I looked at him sharply. I had told him nothing about Lady Ragnall having lost her wits. How then did he know of the matter? Still I thought it best to hold my peace. I think that Hart saw he had made some mistake, for leaving the subject of Lady Ragnall, he went on:
"You very welcome, O Lord, but it right tell you this most dangerous journey, since elephant Jana not like strangers, and," he continued slowly, "think no elephant like your blood, and all elephants brothers.
What one hate rest hate everywhere in world. See it in your face that you already suffer great hurt from elephant, you or someone near you.
Also some of Kendah very fierce people and love fighting, and p"raps there war in the land while you there, and in war people get killed."
"Very good, my friend," said Ragnall, "I am prepared to take my chance of these things. Either we all go to your country together, as Mac.u.mazana has explained to you, or none of us go."
"We understand. That is our bargain and we no break word," replied Hart.
Then he turned his benevolent gaze upon Savage, and said: "So you come too, Mr. Bena. That your name here, eh? Well, you learn lot things in Kendahland, about snakes and all rest."
Here the jovial-looking Mart whispered something into the ear of his companion, smiling all over his face and showing his white teeth as he did so. "Oh!" went on Hart, "my brother tells me you meet one snake already, down in country called Natal, but sit on him so hard, that he grow quite flat and no bite."
"Who told him that?" gasped Savage.
"Oh! forget. Think Mac.u.mazana. No? Then p"raps you tell him in sleep, for people talk much in sleep, you know, and some other people got good ears and hear long way. Or p"raps little joke Hart. You "member, he first-rate conjurer. P"raps he send that snake. No trouble if know how.
Well, we show you much better snake Kendahland. But you no sit on _him_, Mr. Bena."
To me, I know not why, there was something horrible in all this jocosity, something that gave me the creeps as always does the sight of a cat playing with a mouse. I felt even then that it foreshadowed terrible things. How _could_ these men know the details of occurrences at which they were not present and of which no one had told them? Did that strange "tobacco" of theirs really give them some clairvoyant power, I wondered, or had they other secret methods of obtaining news?
I glanced at poor Savage and perceived that he too felt as I did, for he had turned quite pale beneath his tan. Even Hans was affected, for he whispered to me in Dutch: "These are not men; these are devils, Baas, and this journey of ours is one into h.e.l.l."
Only Ragnall sat stern, silent, and apparently quite unmoved. Indeed there was something almost sphinx-like about the set and expression of his handsome face. Moreover, I felt sure that Hart and Mart recognized the man"s strength and determination and that he was one with whom they must reckon seriously. Beneath all their smiles and courtesies I could read this knowledge in their eyes; also that it was causing them grave anxiety. It was as though they knew that here was one against whom their power had no avail, whose fate was the master of their fate. In a sense Hart admitted this to me, for suddenly he looked up and said in a changed voice and in Bantu:
"You are a good reader of hearts, O Mac.u.mazana, almost as good as I am.
But remember that there is One Who writes upon the book of the heart, Who is the Lord of us who do but read, and that what He writes, that will befall, strive as we may, for in His hands is the future."
"Quite so," I replied coolly, "and that is why I am going with you to Kendahland and fear you not at all."
"So it is and so let it be," he answered. "And now, Lords, are you ready to start? For long is the road and who knows what awaits us ere we see its end?"
"Yes," I replied, "long is the road of life and who knows what awaits us ere we see its end--and after?"
Three hours later I halted the splendid white riding-camel upon which I was mounted, and looked back from the crest of a wave of the desert.
There far behind us on the horizon, by the help of my gla.s.ses, I could make out the site of the camp we had left and even the tall ant-hill whence I had gazed in the moonlight at our mysterious escort which seemed to have sprung from the desert as though by magic.
This was the manner of our march: A mile or so ahead of us went a picket of eight or ten men mounted on the swiftest beasts, doubtless to give warning of any danger. Next, three or four hundred yards away, followed a body of about fifty Kendah, travelling in a double line, and behind these the baggage men, mounted like everyone else, and leading behind them strings of camels laden with water, provisions, tents of skin and all our goods, including the fifty rifles and the ammunition that Ragnall had brought from England. Then came we three white men and Hans, each of us riding as swift and fine a camel as Africa can breed. On our right at a distance of about half a mile, and also on our left, travelled other bodies of the Kendah of the same numerical strength as that ahead, while the rear was brought up by the remainder of the company who drove a number of spare camels.
Thus we journeyed in the centre of a square whence any escape would have been impossible, for I forgot to say that our keepers Hart and Mart rode exactly behind us, at such a distance that we could call to them if we wished.
At first I found this method of travelling very tiring, as does everyone who is quite unaccustomed to camel-back. Indeed the swing and the jolt of the swift creature beneath me seemed to wrench my bones asunder to such an extent that at the beginning I had once or twice to be lifted from the saddle when, after hours of torture, at length we camped for the night. Poor Savage suffered even more than I did, for the motion reduced him to a kind of jelly. Ragnall, however, who I think had ridden camels before, felt little inconvenience, and the same may be said of Hans, who rode in all sorts of positions, sometimes sideways like a lady, and at others kneeling on the saddle like a monkey on a barrel-organ. Also, being very light and tough as rimpis, the swaying motion did not seem to affect him.
By degrees all these troubles left us to such an extent that I could cover my fifty miles a day, more or less, without even feeling tired.