As the question had now purely resolved into one of warfare, offensive
or defensive, Amaxosa was called into council, in order that a definite
and feasible plan of action might be formulated.
Leigh and Kenyon were disposed to stay just where they were, as the
place seemed well-adapted for defence, had an ample supply of water, and
was, at the same time, sufficiently close to Equatoria to be handy in
the event of their party finding it desirable to sally out upon Zero's
position.
Grenville, however, was distrustful with regard to the cave itself, as
he half-suspected that Muzi Zimba the hermit had a secret method of
entering the Mormon Town without going all round by the forest; and if
such a way existed, Zero would be quite certain to know of it, although
his followers might be kept, in ignorance for a purpose; and, of course,
it would never do for our friends to get themselves fixed between two
fires.
The Zulu chief listened intently to all the arguments _pro_ and _con_,
but never opened his mouth until Grenville, addressing him in the Zulu
tongue, asked him to express his opinion upon the matter under notice.
"Can my father," he said, "tell his son Amaxosa, whither the Black One
(Zero) has journeyed?"
"Surely, my brother," answered Grenville, "didst thou not hear when but
yesterday we stood yonder tethered like oxen for the slaughter that he
had compassed thrice three days' travel towards the east, and that his
bloodhounds could not return in time to gnaw the flesh from our broken
bones?"
"Ay, Inkoos," was the reply, "I heard the words, but yet believed them
not. Hearken! my father, when the Black One went forth, he went at dead
of night, and with him went the savage dogs and but one hundred men with
guns. Think, then, my father, for well thou knowest that did the Black
One journey but one day towards the rising sun without a full impi at
his back, he would be eaten up by the Arab tribes, who dwell outside
this land of witchcraft, and who hate him even as we do. More, my
father, I know that the men lied when they spoke, for only yester morn
did I see two of the snow-white message birds arrive, and they came from
the mountains of the distant southern lands.
"Hearken to my words, oh, chiefs! and if ye follow them, doubt not that
all shall yet go well.
"To-morrow night, when the moon rises, will the Black One rest beneath
the cool shadow of yon distant peak; let us be there, oh! chiefs, and he
shall sleep the sleep that never wakes in life.
"Thus shall the matter go--thou knowest well the place, my father--the
evil ones will come in from the southern lands--the Lands of Lakes and
Rivers--and will set their kraal beneath the great white mountain, and
towards the setting sun, at the spot in the deep hollow where there ever
flows a spring of clear, sweet water, where is a mighty wall of rock on
this side and on that side, and a hill hard to be climbed towards the
further north; and it shall be, my father, that when the evil ones,
filled with food and worn with the toil of the day, have entered into
the trap, and have lain them down to rest, that we will turn from its
course the flowing waters of the great river which runs on the path of
the rising sun, and will fill the place with weeping, and with the
bodies of dead men.
"With ten of these low black fellows (Zanzibaris) will I turn the river,
and with those that remain, and with the spears and guns, shalt thou, my
father, safely keep the northern hill, and it shall be that ere the
arrows of the dawn glance upon the snows of the great white mountain,
the evil ones shall be stamped flat and eaten up, and the foul carcase
of the Black Master of Evil himself, shall be but food for the vultures
and the wolves. I have spoken."
The Zulu's idea was, unquestionably, a very fine one, and promised to
rid our friends of their arch-enemy, together with a hundred of the very
vilest of his following at one fell swoop, and it was therefore
determined that the plan should be adopted in its entirety, their own
party thus taking the initiative.
If the scheme failed, the little band would be really no worse off than
they were at the present time, whilst if it succeeded--and with the
cunning of the Zulu at its back, it certainly had every chance of
success--the campaign would be capitally inaugurated by drawing the
lion's teeth at the very first attempt. Zero, it was conceded upon all
sides, was the one man to be feared, and could they but dispose of him
out of hand, the Mormon-cum-Slaver fraternity would be like a ship
without a helm, and would very soon find itself in unpleasantly rough
water.
Our friends calculated that the slavers, on discovering the near
approach of the water, would first drive their black captives up the
hill, and after Grenville's party had allowed these to pass and save
themselves, his men would keep the road against the slavers and fiercely
contest the narrow passage hand to hand, with axe and spear, rifle and
pistol. It would be a stubborn fight; that was certain, for, granting
that the slavers had expended a few men on their distant foray, they
would still be in the proportion of two to one; and if they once
penetrated the ranks of our friends, it would be all up with the little
band, as they would instantly be driven back by sheer weight of numbers,
into a ready-made watery grave of their own providing.
At dawn, therefore, the entire party breakfasted hastily, and, after
leaving in the outer cave a few articles likely to be of service to the
friendly old hermit, made their way quickly down the hill, and striking
well into the fog-banks at its foot, steered a straight course for the
distant mountains; Grenville and the other rescued white men, who were
extremely feeble, being carried by the Zanzibaris in hammocks, so as to
husband, as far as possible, what little strength they possessed.
The Zulu knew his ground thoroughly, and ere the mist had been
completely sucked up by the sun, had got his followers some miles on
their way, and travelling smoothly along the shallow bed of a small
stream, whose overhanging banks provided a capital safeguard against
prying eyes.
Naught of interest occurred that day, and by keeping the men hard at it,
so as to shorten the next day's journey, a good forty miles was knocked
off before the tired wayfarers lay down to snatch a brief spell of rest
until the tardy appearance of the moon provided them with sufficient
light to proceed by, when the little band again took the road and kept
moving until the waning light put a welcome period to their labours, and
sleeping a heavy, dreamless sleep until the sun once more awoke them to
the weary toil and travel of another burning tropic day.
A glorious sight now met the wondering eyes of our friends, for right
before them and distant perhaps a score of miles across the veldt, rose
the giant fabric of the wished-for mountain, now sharply defined in
every detail of its vast and massive grandeur. Straight up into the
very heavens themselves shot one glorious, glittering peak, whose
perfect beauty was beyond all earthly praise: around its lofty summit
the everlasting snows had grouped themselves like gleaming, flashing
jewels in the radiant crown of this mighty cloud-clad monarch of the
equator. Wreaths of filmy, fleecy mist drifted slowly here and there
across his distorted shoulders, which were seamed in every direction
with yawning fissures, whose awful blackness was rendered even more
striking by contrast with the unmatched, glittering glory of this
solitary inland peak, whilst the green and rolling veldt, sweeping away
unbroken to the horizon on every hand, formed a fit setting for this
lovely, lonely diadem of God's own fashioning.
Soon, however, the heat-clouds settled down upon the mountain, veiling
from sight all but its lower vast proportions, upon whose rugged sides
no vestige of vegetation could as yet be seen.
With but a short rest at mid-day, our adventurers pressed on, in spite
of the stifling heat, and reached the spring of which Amaxosa had
spoken, about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the fighting brigade
instantly threw themselves down to rest and sleep in the grateful shade
cast by the giant walls of overhanging rock, which stretched grimly
upwards on either hand, their barren wildness relieved only here and
there by a few odd patches of trees and bush.
Grenville himself kept guard, and Kenyon at once proceeded down the pass
and climbed some way up the mountain side to keep a sharp look-out over
the southern veldt, whilst Leigh and Amaxosa turned their faces towards
the river, and closely scrutinised its banks for quite half a mile
beyond the further exit of the pass ere they discovered a species of
creek, or inlet, only two score yards from the edge of the track, and in
every way eminently suited to their requirements. Leigh then returned
to the spring, and promptly dispatched ten of the Zanzibaris, with their
implements, to join the Zulu chief, and to lie hidden until they
received his further orders.
The scheme, artfully as it hod been planned, had one weak spot in it,
which gave both Grenville and Kenyon much serious thought, and that
anxiety was caused by the certain knowledge that Zero had with him his
three magnificent bloodhounds, which, token in conjunction with their
vile master--who was, perhaps, more of a brute than the noble animals
themselves--composed the most formidable quartette in Equatoria.
Grenville had already warned his friends not to waste their bullets on
the dogs, but to leave the brutes to him, as should the slavers once get
within range, he would not raise a hand against them until he had first
settled with the canine element His great fear was, however, that the
hounds would warn their masters of the presence of the little band the
moment they struck the scent. The way through the pass being, however,
mostly composed of rock, and a heavy gang of slaves going on in front,
it was, of course, more than possible that the scent would be rendered
too faint to attract anything but a mere passing whimper from the great
dogs.
When the party had had perhaps three hours' rest, a shrill whistle was
suddenly heard from Kenyon, and looking upwards Grenville saw him making
the agreed danger signal.
Half-an-hour later the American rejoined his friends, and reported that
a vast mob of human beings had come within range of his field-glass
during the last hour, and were now a score of miles away and heading
direct for their own position in the pass. News was quickly sent round
to Amaxosa, who, however, soon appeared and carried off the chief, who,
next to himself, stood highest among his own men. Him he carefully
inducted into the mysteries of the "Zulu irrigation scheme," as Kenyon
styled it, and then returned to the main body, where he considered "his
father would need his arm"--the fact, of course, being, that the
splendid fellow was simply spoiling for a good fight with his late
tormentors.