CHAPTER XX.
TO WHAT END!
"The Sign of the Spider!" Laurence Stanninghame lying there, his faculties half dazed by the shock of his fall and the pain of his wound, hearing the words--uttered as they were in pure Zulu--almost persuaded himself that the terrible events of that day had been a dream. But no, it was real enough. His half-unclosed eyes took in the sea of grim, dark faces pressing forward to gaze upon him. "The Sign of the Spider?" What did it--what could it mean, that it should be all-powerful to stay those devouring spears, to avert from him the grisly death of blood, whose bitterness even then was already past? Then, as for the first time, he suffered his glance to follow the direction of theirs. He saw a strange thing.
The metal box had come forth, either jerked from its resting-place during his fall, or unconsciously plucked thence by his own hand in the last moment of his extremity, and now, still secured by the steel chain, it lay upon his breast. And oh! marvel of marvels! Gazing thus upon it, focussed by his half-closed eyelids and confused senses--the straggling monogram with its quaint turns and flourishes, lying brown upon the more shining metal, seemed to take exactly the form and aspect of a great sprawling tarantula. "The Sign of the Spider" had been their cry! And these were "The People of the Spider!" What magic, what mystery was this? Lilith"s last gift, Lilith"s image; even her very name! It had indeed acted as a talisman, as a "charm" to stand between him and the most deadly of peril, as her aspiration had worded it. Verily, again had Lilith"s love availed to stand between himself and a swift, sure, and b.l.o.o.d.y death! A marvel, and a stupendous one.
All this flashed through his mind as the Ba-gcatya crowded up around him, the hubbub of their excited voices sinking into an awestruck murmur as they gazed upon the man who wore "The Sign of the Spider." No wonder this man should have come forth alive from the ring of death, they decided,--he alone,--wearing that sign. And he alone had come forth.
All sounds of conflict had now ceased, giving way to the exultant shouts and ba.s.s laughter of the victorious savages looting the property of the slavers. Not a man was left alive up there, Laurence knew only too well.
He alone was spared, as the bearer of that mysterious sign; was spared, miraculously indeed--but to what end?
Now he became conscious of a movement among the crowd, which parted quickly, respectfully. Through the opening thus effected there advanced two men. Both were fine, tall warriors, elderly of aspect, for their short, crisp beards were turning gray, but apparently in the very prime of athletic strength and vigour. In outward adornment their appearance differed little from that of the bulk of the Ba-gcatya. Their shaven heads were surmounted by the _isicoco_, or ring, exactly after the Zulu fashion, and on either side of this, but fastened so as not to interfere with it, nodded a tuft of magnificent white ostrich plumes.
Laurence, who had now raised himself to a sitting posture, felt no doubt but that in these he beheld the two princ.i.p.al war-chiefs of the Ba-gcatya army.
"Who art thou, stranger, who wearest the Sign of the Spider?" began one of these in pure Zulu, after gazing upon him for a moment in silence.
Laurence at first thought to affect ignorance of the language, of which, indeed, he possessed considerable knowledge. He would the more readily get at their plans and intentions that way. But then it occurred to him he could hardly sustain his character as one to be favoured of the People of the Spider if professing an ignorance of their tongue, and he intended to work that fortunate incident for all it would carry. So he replied courteously:
"You see me, father. I alone am alive of those who fought up yonder.
Even the spear which would slay me refused its work. It was turned aside," showing the wound in his shoulder, of which he realized he must make light, though, as a matter of fact, it was giving him considerable pain.
A deep murmur from the vast and increasing audience convinced the speaker that he had scored a point in making this statement. The chief continued:
"Rest now, while we rest, O stranger, and eat, for the way is far which lies before us."
"And whither does that way lie, O brave ones who command the valiant?"
asked Laurence.
"Where dwelleth the Strong Wind that burns from the North." And with this darkly enigmatical rejoinder the speaker and his brother chief turned away, as a sign that the conference need proceed no further at present.
Some of those who had heard now beckoned Laurence forward, and, as he moved among that terrible host, many and strange were the glances which were cast at him. He, for his part, was not unmoved. This was an experience clean outside any he had ever known. The might and stature of these formidable warriors, lingering around in immense groups, many of them bleeding from ghastly wounds, yet devouring the dried food they carried, the while comrades were treating their hurts after a fashion which would have caused the civilized being to shriek aloud with agony; the ferocious volubility wherewith they discussed and fought the battle over again; and away beyond their lines, the earth black with corpses of the slain; while up yonder, though this he could not see, the rock circle was literally piled with those who had been his friends or followers for many a long day. All this impressed him to an extent which he had hardly deemed possible, though of any outward evidence thereof he gave no sign.
"Are all dead up yonder?" he asked some of the Ba-gcatya, as he joined them in their frugal fare.
A laugh, derisive but not discourteous to himself, greeted the question.
"_Au!_ The bite of The Spider does not need repeating twice," was the reply. "None who have once felt it live."
The Ba-gcatya, heavy as had been their losses, were in high good-humour over their victory. After all, it was a victory, and a hard-fought one.
They only lived for such. Losses were nothing to them. The spoils of the slavers" caravan--arms, ammunition, goods of all sorts, were distributed for transport among the younger regiments of the _impi_, which, its allotted period of rest over, at a mandate from its chiefs prepared for departure. And now the solitary white man in its midst--captive or guest, he himself was hardly certain which--had an opportunity of admiring the stern and iron discipline of this splendid army of savages.
That of the Zulu troops under the rule of Cetywayo, or even under that of Tshaka, might have equalled it, but could not possibly have surpa.s.sed it. Each company fell into rank with machine-like precision and celerity. The dead were left as they fell; those who were too grievously wounded to move received death from the swift, sure spear-stroke of a comrade; then, marching in five columns, the great army set forth on its return, striking a course to the northward.
Laurence Stanninghame"s feelings were pa.s.sing strange as he found himself thus carried captive, he knew not whither, by this mighty nation which had hitherto been to him but a name, as to whose very existence he had been until quite recently more than half sceptical. Hazon had not exaggerated its strength or prowess; no, not one whit. Of that he had had abundant testimony. And Hazon himself? That strange individual, with his marked-out personality, his cold-blooded ruthlessness and dauntless courage? Well, his career was done. He lay in yonder circle, buried beneath the slain, fighting to the last with fierce and consistent valour. And Holmes? Even Laurence"s hardened nature felt soft as he thought of the comrade with whom he had been so closely linked during these years of lawless and perilous enterprise. Well, they were gone, and he was spared, but--to what end?
Then the spirit of the true adventurer rea.s.serted itself. What lay before him? What were the chances opening out to him in the dim, unknown land whither they were speeding? "You will return wealthy, or--you will not return at all," had been Hazon"s words; and now their utterer would utter no more words of any kind--but he, Laurence, would he return at all? Would he?
And now, as they gained the edge of the great plain, the whole _impi_ raised a mighty battle-song, improvised to celebrate their triumph. Its fierce strophes rolled like thunder along the ranks to the tread of marching feet, and the mult.i.tude of hide shields dappled the plain far and near, and the wavy lines of spear-points flashed and sparkled in the sunlight.
And already over the wizard ring of the rock circle, piled with its slain, immense clouds of vultures were wheeling beneath the blue vault or swooping down upon their abundant feast. And the sun, flaming down upon the torrid earth, seemed to shed a pitiless, bra.s.sy glare upon this awful hecatomb, whose annals should ever remain unrecorded, swallowed up in the grim and gloomy mysteries of that region of cruelty and of blood.
For many days thus they journeyed--making rapid, but not forced marches.
The aspect of the country, too, varied,--open, wavy plains, where giraffe and buffalo were plentiful, and were hunted in great numbers for the supply of the _impi_--then gloomy forest tracts, which seemed to depress the Ba-gcatya, who hurried through them with all possible speed.
Broad rivers, too, swarming with crocodiles and hippopotami,--and these the warriors would dash through in a ma.s.s, making the most hideous yelling and splashing. But even the ground seemed gradually to ascend, and certain white peaks, for some time visible on the far sky line, were drawing nearer, growing larger with every march.
It may seem strange how readily Laurence Stanninghame adapted himself to this new turn in the tide of his affairs--and indeed now and again he would faintly wonder at it himself. He had fought against these formidable savages in the most determined and b.l.o.o.d.y hand-to-hand conflict that had ever befallen his lot, or, in all probability, ever would again. They had overwhelmed and ma.s.sacred his comrades and whole following; sparing himself alone, and that by a miracle. And now not only was he subjected to no ill-treatment or indignity, but moved freely among them, and was even suffered to retain his arms. Yet there was a sort of stand-offishness about most of them, in which he thought to descry a mingling of awe and repulsion.
Now and again, however, a thought would occur to him,--a thought productive of a cold shiver. To what end was he thus spared? Was it to be sacrificed in some hideous and gruesome rite? The thought was not a pleasant one, and it would intrude more and more. The hot African glow, the adventurous life, replete with every phase of weird and depressing incident, had strangely affected this man"s temperament. With all his coolness in emergencies--his readiness of resource--in times of rest he would grow moody and high-strung. A sort of surcharged, mesmeric property seemed to hold him at such times, and he would wonder whether the hideous experiences and iron self-repression which he had pa.s.sed through of late had not begun, unknown to himself, actually to affect his brain.
Now during the heat of the midday halt, he would withdraw and sit alone by the hour, contemplating the metal box, and at times its contents.
More and more, since his wonderful escape, was it a.s.suming in his eyes the properties of an amulet, or charm. It would rea.s.sure him, too, what time unpleasant thoughts would weigh upon him as to the end to which he had been reserved. Twice had Lilith"s love stood between him and death.
Would it not again? In truth the metal box was a possession beyond price.
All unconsciously his frequent and rapt contemplation of this object was standing him in valuable stead. The Ba-gcatya, furtively beholding him thus engaged,--for he was never beyond their watchful gaze,--were strengthened in their belief that he was a magician of the Spider, and feared him the more. He was thus, unconsciously, keeping up his character as such.
Yet, vivid as recollection was, as conjured up by the metal box, in other respects the old life seemed far away as a dream; misty, shadowy, vanishing. All its old conventionalities, its abstract notions of right and wrong, what were they? Dust. Even now, whither was he wending? Would he ever again behold a white face? It might be never.
"Have no white people ever visited your country, Silawayo?" he said one day while he and the two war-chiefs were talking together during the march.
"One only," was the reply, given with a shade of hesitation.
"And what became of him?"
"_Au!_ He went to---- Well, he went----" answered the chief, with a curious look.
The reply smote upon Laurence with a cold fear. What grim and gruesome form of mysterious doom did it not point to? "One only," Silawayo had said. He himself was the second. It seemed ominous. But it would never do to manifest curiosity, let alone apprehension, on his own account, so he forebore further query as to the mystery, whatever it might be. Yet he thought it no harm to say:
"And what was this white man, Silawayo?"
"He was _Umfundisi_" (a preacher), answered the other chief, Ngumunye.
"The king loves not such."
Well, the king need have no objections to himself on that score, at any rate, thought Laurence, with a dash of grim humour. But he only said:
"The king? Tell me about your king, _Izinduna_. How does he look? What is his name?"
"_Hau!_ Is it possible, O stranger, that you have never heard the name of the king?" said Ngumunye, turning upon Laurence a blankly astonished face.
"Did not Silawayo but now say that only one white man had visited your country--and even he had not returned?" said Laurence, in native fashion answering one query with another.
"Ha!" cried both chiefs, whom an idea seemed to strike. Then Ngumunye went on impressively:
"Look around, O bearer of the Sign of the Spider. For days we have seen no man,--the remains of huts have we seen, but of people none. You too were remarking upon it but yesterday."
"That is so," a.s.sented Laurence.
"The remains of huts, but of people none," repeated the induna, with a wave of his hand. "Well, stranger, that is the name of the king, the Great Great One."