"Now," said Smellie as he turned once more to me, "we shall probably be
again threatened on the reappearance of that bloodthirsty villain. But
whatever you do, Hawkesley, maintain a bold front; let him see no sign
or trace whatever of weakness or discomposure in you. The fellow's
thirst for blood is by this time fully aroused, and every succeeding
victim will be subjected to greater refinements of torture; all that
diabolical scoundrel's fiendish ingenuity will now be exercised to
devise for his victims increasingly atrocious and protracted agonies.
There is one, and only one hope for us, which is that by a persistent
refusal to be terrorised by him, and a judiciously scornful demeanour,
we may at last exasperate him out of his self-control, and thus provoke
him into inflicting upon us the _coup-de-grace_ at once and without any
of the preliminary torments. Here he comes again. Now, for your own
sake, dear lad, remember and act upon my advice."
The first act of the wretch was to despatch his four assistants into the
forest, whence they returned in a short time with three long slender
poles and a considerable quantity of creeper or monkey-rope. With
these, under the fetish-man's superintendence, a very tolerable set of
light shears was speedily constructed, which, when finished, was erected
immediately over the fire--now an immense mass of glowing smokeless
cinders--in front of the idol. The entire arrangement was so
unmistakably suggestive that I could not restrain a violent shudder as
it occurred to me that it might possibly be my fate to be subjected to
the fiery torment.
All being ready, a dead silence once more fell upon the assembly, and
the chief actor in the inhuman ceremonial once more looked keenly around
him for a victim.
As in the first instance, so now again was the wand pointed at Smellie's
breast, and once more the cruel crafty bearer of it advanced on tip-toe
with a stealthy cat-like tread toward us. He approached thus until he
had reached to within about ten feet of the tree, when he once more
paused in front of us, gesticulating with the wand and making as though
about to strike with it the light blow which seemed to be the stroke of
doom, keenly watching all the while for some sign of trepidation on the
part of his victim. Then, whilst the wretch was in the very midst of
his fantastic genuflexions before us, Smellie turned to me with a smile
and observed:
"Just picture to yourself, Hawkesley, the way in which that fellow would
be made to jump if Tom Collins, the boatswain's mate, could only
approach him from behind now, and freshen his way with just one touch of
his `cat.'"
There was perhaps not much in it; but the picture thus suggested to my
abnormally excited imagination seemed so supremely ridiculous that I
incontinently burst into a violent and uncontrollable fit of hysterical
laughter (the precise effect which I afterwards ascertained Smellie was
anxious to produce); so highly exasperating the fetish-man that, with
eyes fairly sparkling with rage, he advanced and struck me a violent
blow on the mouth with his filthy hand, passing on immediately
afterwards to seek elsewhere for a victim.
He had not far to seek; the miserable wretch next me on my left was so
paralysed with fear that he was deemed a fit and proper person to become
the next sacrifice, and almost unresistingly--until resistance was all
too late--he was dragged forward into the inner circle, thrown flat upon
his stomach, and his hands and feet bound securely together behind him.
Then, indeed, he seemed suddenly to awake to a sense of his horrid fate;
and his superhuman struggles for freedom and his ear-splitting yells
were simply dreadful beyond all description to see and hear. The
fetish-man and his assistants, confident of the reliable character of
their work, stood back and looked on quietly at the miserable wretch's
unavailing struggles; they seemed to be regarded as quite a part of the
entertainment, and the unhappy creature was allowed to continue them
unmolested until they ceased from exhaustion. Then, when he lay quite
still, panting and breathless, with his eyes starting from their sockets
and the perspiration streaming from every pore, the fetish-man
approached him and deftly bending on to his fettered limbs an end of
stout monkey-rope, he was dragged along the ground into the fire, and
thence triced in an instant up to the shears, whence he hung suspended
at the height of about a foot immediately over the glowing embers.
The miserable sufferer bore the torment as long as he could, and I shall
never forget the awful sight his distorted features presented as,
drawing back his head as far as he could from the fierce heat, he glared
round the circle seeking perchance for a hand merciful enough to put him
out of his misery--but after the first minute of suffering his stoicism
abandoned him, and he writhed so violently that the fetish-man and his
assistants had to steady the shears in order to prevent them from
capsizing altogether. And with every writhe of the victim the slender
poles bent and gave, letting the miserable sufferer sink down some three
or four inches nearer the fire. The superhuman struggles, the frightful
contortions and writhings of the man, his ear-splitting yells, the
horrible smell of roasting flesh--oh, God! it was awful beyond all
attempt at description. I pray that I may never look upon such a
ghastly sight again.
The fiendish exhibition had probably reached its most appalling phase,
and I was wondering, shudderingly, what form of torture could possibly
exceed it in cruelty, when there was a sudden slight movement of my
bonds; they slackened and fell away from the tree-trunk against which I
leaned, and _I was free_. Not a moment was allowed me in which to get
over the first shock of my bewilderment; a soft plump hand grasped mine
and gently drew me round behind the tree, so rapidly that I had only
time to note the fact that apparently every eye in the assembly was
fixed upon the writhing figure suspended over the fire--and before I had
fairly realised what was happening I found myself a dozen yards away
from my starting-point, gliding rapidly and noiselessly through the deep
shadows cast by the tree-trunks, towards the outer darkness which
prevailed beyond the range of the fire-light; with our little black Hebe
friend of a few hours before dragging me along on one side of her and
Smellie on the other.
Five minutes later we had left the village so far behind us that the
barbarous sounds of horn and drum, mingled with the yells of anguish
from the tortured victim, momentarily becoming more and more softened by
our increasing distance, were the sole evidences that remained to us of
its existence, and we found ourselves hurrying along through the rank
grass, threading the mazes of the park-like clumps of lofty timber, and
forcing a passage through the thickly clustering festoons of parasitic
orchids, under the subdued light of the mellow stars alone.
With almost breathless rapidity our tender-hearted little deliverer
hurried us forward, frequently exclaiming in low urgent accents, "Zola-
ku! zola-ku," so expressively uttered that we had no difficulty in
interpreting the words to mean that there was the most extreme necessity
for rapid movement on our part. We accordingly hastened our steps to
the utmost limit of our capacity, and in about ten minutes from the
moment of our liberation emerged upon a long narrow strip of sandy
beach, with the noble river sweeping grandly to seaward before us. Here
our guide paused for a moment, apparently pondering as to what it would
next be best to do. Glancing down the river I saw indistinctly, at
about two hundred yards distance, some shapeless objects which I took to
be canoes drawn up on the beach, and pointing to them I exclaimed to
Smellie:
"Are not those canoes? If they are, what is to prevent our seizing one
and making our way down the river without further ado?"
Our little Hebe glanced in the direction I had indicated, and seemed
quite to understand the nature of my suggestion, for she shook her head
violently and exclaimed rapidly in accents of very decided dissent, "Ve!
_Ve_!! Ve!!!" pointing at the same time to Smellie's and my own
untended wounds.
At that moment a loud confused shouting arose in the distant village,
strongly suggestive of the discovery of our flight. The sounds
apparently helped our guide to a decision as to her next step, for,
seizing our hands afresh, she led us straight into the river until the
water was up to our knees, and then turned sharply to the right or up
stream. Pressing forward rapidly, our way freshened very decidedly by
unmistakable shouts of pursuit emanating from the neighbourhood of the
village, we reached, after about a quarter of an hour of arduous toil, a
small creek some forty yards wide. Pausing here for a moment, our guide
made with her hands and arms the motion of swimming, pointed across the
creek, touched Smellie on the breast with the query "Yenu?" and then
rapidly repeated the same process with me. We took this to mean an
inquiry as to our ability to swim the creek, and both replied "Yes" with
affirmative nods. Whereupon our guide, raising her finger to express
the necessity for extreme caution, and uttering a warning "Ngandu" as
she next pointed to the waters of the creek, waded gently and without
raising a ripple into the deep water, Smellie and I following, and with
a few quiet strokes we happily reached the other side in safety, to
plunge forthwith into the friendly shadows of the forest. Had we known
then--what we learned afterwards--that the word "Ngandu" is Congoese for
"crocodile," and that it was uttered as an intimation to us that the
river and its creeks literally swarm with these reptiles, it is possible
that our swim, short though it was, would not have been undertaken with
quite so much composure.
Once fairly in the forest, it became so dark that it was quite
impossible for us to see whither we were going, but our guide seemed to
be well acquainted with the route, which, from the comparatively few
obstacles met with, seemed to be a tolerably well-beaten path, so we
crowded sail and pressed along with tolerable rapidity behind the
slender black and almost indistinguishable figure of our leader. The
pursuit, too, was hotly maintained, as we could tell by the occasional
shouts and the sudden _swishings_ of branches at no great distance from
us in the bush; but at length, after a most wearisome and painful tramp
of fully nine miles, we got fairly out of reach of all these sounds, and
finally, at a sign from our deliverer, flung ourselves down in the midst
of a thick growth of ferns at the foot of a giant tree, and, despite the
increasing anguish of our wounds, soon went to sleep.
We awoke at daybreak, to find ourselves alone: our guide of the previous
night had vanished. We were greatly disconcerted at this, for we felt
that we should like to have done something--though we scarcely knew
what--to mark our appreciation of her extremely important services of
the preceding night. Besides, somehow, we had both taken the notion
into our heads that in liberating us, she had committed an unpardonable
sin against her former friends, and that when she crossed the creek and
plunged into the forest with us she was virtually cutting herself adrift
from her own people and casting in her lot with us. In which case, if
we should succeed in making good our escape and finding our way back to
the ship, we had little doubt about our ability to make such
arrangements on her behalf as should cause her to rejoice for the
remainder of her life at having befriended us. However, it seemed as
though, having conducted us to a place of temporary safety, she had
returned to the village, doubtless hoping to escape all suspicion of
having had a hand in our liberation.
It was a glorious morning. The sun was darting his early beams through
the richly variegated foliage, and touching here and there with gold the
giant trunks and limbs of the forest trees. The earth around us was
thickly carpeted with long grass interspersed with dense fern-brakes,
and here and there a magnificent clump of aloes, their long waxy leaves
and delicate white blossoms standing out in strong relief against the
blaze of intense scarlet or the rich vivid green of a neighbouring bush.
The early morning air was cool, pure, and refreshing as it gently
fanned our fevered temples and wafted to us a thousand delicate
perfumes. The birds, glancing like living gems between the clumps of
foliage, were saluting each other blithely as they set out upon their
diurnal quest for food. The bees were already busy among the gorgeous
flowers; butterflies--more lovely even than the delicate blossoms above
which they poised themselves--flitted merrily about from bough to bough;
all nature, in fact, was rejoicing at the advent of a new day. And ill,
suffering though we were, we could not but in some measure take part in
the general joy, as with hearts overflowing with gratitude we remembered
that we had escaped the horrors of the previous night.
A glance or two about us and we scrambled to our feet, intent, in the
first instance, upon an immediate search for water. We had just settled
the question as to which direction seemed most promising for the
commencement of our quest when a clear musical call floated toward us,
and looking in the direction from whence it came, we beheld our black
Hebe approaching us, dragging a small dead antelope by the heels after
her. So she had not abandoned us after all; on the contrary, she had
probably spent a good part of the night arranging for the capture of the
creature which was to furnish us with a breakfast.
On joining us she held up her prize for our inspection, and then, with a
joyous laugh at our approving remarks--at the meaning of which she
could, of course, only make the roughest of guesses--she set to work
deftly to clear away and lay bare a space upon which to start a fire, in
which task, as soon as we saw what she wanted, we assisted her to the
best of our poor ability. This done, she went groping about beneath the
trees apparently in search of something; soon returning with two pieces
of dry stick, one of which, I noticed, had a hole in it. A quantity of
dry leaves and sticks was next collected, having arranged which to her
satisfaction, she knelt down, and inserting the pointed end of one stick
in the hole of the other, twirled it rapidly between the palms of her
hands, producing by the friction thus set up, first a slight wreath of
smoke, and ultimately a tiny flame, which was carefully communicated to
the dry leaves, and then gently fanned by her breath into a blaze. And
in this way a capital fire for cooking purposes was speedily obtained.
In the meantime Smellie and I had produced our knives and had undertaken
to skin and cut up the animal, some juicy steaks from which were soon
spluttering on pointed sticks before the fire. The cooking operations
being thus put in satisfactory progress, our little black friend
borrowed my knife and plunged once more into the forest depths, to
return again shortly afterwards with a huge gourd full of deliciously
clear cool water.
The antelope steaks were by this time ready, and we all sat down to
breakfast together. For my own part, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed
the meal; but I was sorry to observe that Smellie ate with but little
appetite, drinking large quantities of water, however. The poor fellow
made no complaint, but I could tell by his haggard look, his flushed
cheeks, and his glittering eyes that it was quite time his wounds were
attended to, or we should be having him down with fever in the bush, and
then Heaven alone could tell when we should--if ever--be able to rejoin
the _Daphne_.
But we were not to be allowed to sink tamely into a state of despondency
or apprehension; our sable lady friend proved to be, like the rest of
her sex, a great talker, and she seized the opportunity afforded by the
discussion of breakfast to plunge into an animated conversation. She
began by introducing herself, which she managed in quite an original
fashion. Pausing for a moment, with a piece of steak poised daintily on
a large thorn, she pointed to herself and remarked "Mono;" then touched
Smellie and me lightly on the breast and added "Ingeya;" "Ingeya." We
nodded gravely to signify that we understood, or thought we did; upon
which she pointed to herself once more and observed, "Mono
Lubembabemba."
"Which, being interpreted, means, as I take it, that her ladyship's name
is Lubem by--something. Your most obedient servant, Miss Lubin by--"
She laughed a very pretty musical little laugh at Smellie's elaborate
assumption of mock gallantry and his bungling efforts to pronounce the
name.
"Lubem-ba-bemba," she corrected him; and this time the gallant second
lieutenant managed to stumble through it correctly, at which there was
more laughter and rejoicing on the lady's part. Then I was called upon
to repeat the name, which, having paid the most praiseworthy attention
whilst Smellie was receiving his lesson, I managed to do very fairly.
Then, flushed with her success, Miss Lubembabemba made a further attempt
at conversation. Pointing to herself and repeating her name, she next
pointed to Smellie and asked:
"Ingeya?"
Her meaning was so evident that Smellie answered at once, with another
elaborate bow:
"Harold Smellie; at your service."
"Halold-smellie-at-o-serveece!" she repeated with wide-opened eyes of
wonder at what she doubtless thought a very extraordinary name.
We both burst involuntarily into a laugh at this really clever first
attempt to reproduce the second lieutenant's polite speech; at which she
first looked decidedly disconcerted, but immediately afterwards joined
heartily in the laugh against herself.
"No, no, no," said Smellie, "that won't do; you haven't got it quite
right _Harold_; Harold."
"Halold?" she repeated. And after two or three attempts to put her
right--attempts which failed from her evident inability to pronounce the
"r"--Smellie was obliged to rest content with being henceforward called
"Halold."
Then, of course, she turned to me with the same inquiry:
"Ingeya!"
"Dick," said I.
This time she caught the name accurately, and then, to show that she
clearly understood the whole proceeding, pointed to Smellie, to me, and
to herself in rotation, pronouncing our respective names.
"Yes," commented Smellie approvingly, "you have learned your lesson very
well indeed, my dear; but we shall never be able to remember that
extraordinary name of yours--Lubemba--what is it--you know; besides, it
will take us a dog-watch to pronounce it in full; so I propose that we
change it and re-christen you after the ship, eh? Call you `Daphne,'
you know. How would you like that? You--Daphne; I--Halold, since you
_will_ have it so; and this strapping young gentleman, Dick. Would that
suit you? Daphne--Halold--Dick;" pointing to each of us in turn.
Her ladyship seemed to take the proposal as a tremendous compliment, for
her face lighted up with pleasure, and she kept on pointing round the
circle and repeating "Halold--Dick--Daphne" until breakfast was
concluded. And thenceforward she refused to answer to any other name
than Daphne, assuming an air of the most complete unconsciousness when
either of us presumed to address her as "Lubembabemba" (the butterfly).
Breakfast over, I thought it was high time to attend to our wounds. The
first requirement was water--plenty of it, and this want I managed with
some little difficulty to explain to Miss Daphne. Comprehending my
meaning at last she intimated that a stream was to be found at no great
distance; and we at once set off in search of it, our little black
friend carrying along with her a live ember from the fire, which, by
waving it occasionally in the air, she managed to keep glowing.
We had not very far to go--most fortunately, for I saw that Smellie's
wounds were momentarily giving him increased uneasiness and pain. A
walk of about a quarter of an hour took us to a sequestered and most
delightful spot, where we were not only perfectly concealed from chance
wanderers, but where we also found a small rocky basin full of
deliciously cool and pure water, which flowed into it from a tiny stream
meandering down the steep hill-side. In this basin we laved our hurts
until they were thoroughly cleansed from the dry hard coagulated blood,
and then we set about the task of bandaging them up. Daphne, who, by
the way, seemed to have little or no idea of surgery, made herself of
great use to us in the bathing process, when once she understood what
was required; but when it came to bandaging she found herself unable to
help us further, and sorrowfully confessed herself beaten. We were
compelled to convert our shirts, the only linen in our possession, into
bandages; and poor Daphne, to her evident extreme sorrow, had no linen
to sacrifice to our necessities, or indeed any clothing at all to speak
of. The costume of a Congoese belle, according to her rendering of it,
was a petticoat of parti-coloured bead fringe about twelve inches deep,
depending loosely from the hips; the rest of her clothing consisting
entirely--as Mike Flanaghan would have said--of jewellery, of which she
wore a considerable quantity. I may as well here enumerate her
ornaments, for the information and benefit of those who have never
enjoyed the acquaintance of an African beauty. In the first place she
wore a circular band of metal, about two inches wide, round her head and
across her forehead. This band, or coronet, had a plain border of about
half an inch wide, and inside this border, for about an inch in width
throughout its length, the metal was cut away in very fine lines,
forming an intricate and really elegant lace-like pattern. Then she
wore also a very large pair of circular ear-rings, similarly ornamented,
these ornaments being so large and heavy that they had actually
stretched the lobes, and so spoiled the shape of what would otherwise
have been a very pretty pair of ears. Upon each of her plump, finely-
shaped arms, between the shoulder and the elbow, she wore four or five
massive armlets of peculiar but by no means unskilled workmanship; and
lastly, round each ankle she wore a single anklet of similar
workmanship. On the previous night, when this rather lavish display of
jewellery had first attracted my casual notice, I had imagined it to be
brass; but now, seeing it again in the full light of day, I discovered
it to be _gold_, almost or quite pure, as I judged from its softness.
To return to our subject Daphne's first task on our arrival at the pool
had been to kindle another fire; and, after helping us as far as she
could to doctor our wounds, she next undertook an exploration of the
forest in our immediate neighbourhood, returning in about an hour's time
with three long, thin, straight shafts of a kind of bamboo, and three
small uprooted saplings. These articles she forthwith plunged into the
fire, and after an hour's diligent work manipulated the bamboos into
three very effective lances or javelins, and the saplings into three
truly formidable clubs, the knotted roots being charred and trimmed
until they formed rounded heads as large as one's two fists put
together. One of each of these weapons she presented both to Smellie
and to me, retaining one of each for herself; and thus armed, we were
ready to set out once more upon our travels. But it was high time that
our wanderings should be conducted with something like method. Our
object was, of course, to rejoin the ship with the least possible delay;
and before making a fresh start Smellie thought it would be just as well
to acquaint our companion with this our desire. He accordingly
undertook to do so, and a very amusing scene resulted; but he succeeded
at last in making his wish clearly understood, and this achieved we once
more resumed our march.