Ned woke soon after sunrise the next morning, and before his companions.
Fred, Clarence, Cocoeni, and the other Kaffirs were doing their best to
eclipse the howling of the caged leopards with their snoring.
The slaves were there, also the bakers, cooks, hairdressers, and general
all-round men. But the amazons were absent.
The general practitioners of the comb and harp were filling in their
spare time by whipping the slaves with cruel-looking thongs, as they
went about their drudgery.
The faces of those clean-shaven, undersized, and lean, white-robed men
still looked as expressionless and meek as long-imprisoned convicts
usually do. They had likewise the same unwholesome waxiness of
complexion; buff-coloured wax their thin cheeks and narrow foreheads
were, with purply close-set lips, and long, deep-placed, lustreless
blue-black eyes.
But, although they did not smile nor sneer, nor ever lose their sad
gentleness of expression, they cut pitilessly into those naked black
shoulders with their hard flagellators, and often out of ruthless
wantonness. The slaves were a square, dwarfish, and repulsive set of
bestial wretches, yet Ned began to view these placid and soulless
tormentors with greater repugnance and loathing; they were like
venomous, icy, and cowardly yellow snakes. Their features, however,
were sharp and fine, and of a sameness in profile if cast from one
mould. He had seen those calm, bird-like, relentless profiles in prints
of the Egyptian sculptures and paintings, with long, straight noses,
protruding and short upper lips, and receding small chins,--the true
signs of a used-up decadent race.
Sick with watching these methodical and pitiless strokes, he walked
through the portal and out a few yards into the yielding sand, then he
looked back and up the precipice.
He could see the broken walls at the top, over which he had peered
yesterday. The rising sun was shining upon them, and they gleamed
whitely against the soft azure. The precipice also glistened with its
variegated blush and yellow rose-leaf tints, with the darker veins of
grey and ochre. It was smooth and ridgeless, while the loopholes were
too narrow to be seen from where he stood.
The flat lintel and obelisk-like sides of the doorway had been cut a few
feet into the rock, so that the precipice protruded. The intaglio slabs
were covered with hieroglyphics and figures.
His eyes wandered to the sides, and here he met a surprise,--a long line
of gaily painted and anciently shaped chariots stood ranged, like
bathing-machines, against the base of the cliff. He had never seen a
chariot outside of pictures before, therefore these interested him
vastly, with their carving, gilding, and bright colours.
After looking minutely over one of them, he turned round to scan the
desert. Away in the distance rolled a low cloud of dust, through which
the sun shone upon glittering metal. It was approaching rapidly, and as
he watched resolved itself into the two hundred mail-clad amazons, who
were coming in at a swift run and in a straight line.
Very soon they were within a hundred yards of him, with flushed faces
and heaving breasts. There they stopped suddenly, and, forming rapidly
into eight deep, marched steadily towards where he stood.
He learned afterwards that they had been out for the past four hours,
doing their customary morning exercise of running, which was twenty
miles before breakfast. This was to keep them in good condition, and
one of their obligations as warriors. With friendly smiles they marched
past him and entered through the doorway without other recognition.
Following them slowly, he saw them pass through and into a door which he
had not observed the previous night.
He found his followers awake when he got in, and busy washing their
faces in basins, which the slaves were holding for them. As this was
exactly what he would have asked for, could he have made his desires
known, he straightway proceeded to follow their example.
"I expect they have tanks, or some way of catching and keeping the rains
from above," said Ned, seeing that they were so lavish with the precious
fluid.
A distant sound of splashing, accompanied by female voices, from behind
that curtained door answered his surmises.
Very soon afterwards the amazons appeared once more, accoutred, and with
fresh-coloured faces and damp flowing tresses. Breakfast was ready, and
without ceremony they fell to, and hastily did full justice to it.
The next operation which our heroes watched, but could not help with,
was the liberating and harnessing of the fierce leopards to the
chariots. Each amazon led out her own trained animals, like dogs in
leash, and strapped two to each chariot.
The fair leader now split her regiment, leaving half behind to mount
guard over this mine, while the other hundred and twenty distributed the
packages of our heroes amongst the chariots. They were ready to start.
Ned, the leader, chose to share her chariot, and the others picked out
their conquerors and beckoned them to enter.
With a swift, cat-like bound the leopards went off, while from the broad
wheels the sand flew up, and left behind a trail of yellow clouds that
quickly blotted out those left behind.
The passengers, not being used to chariot-riding, kneeled on the
packages, and hung on to the side-rails frantically.
But the drivers stood, like rocks, on their feet, with the reins round
their waists, held there by a ring, and their arms and hands free to use
their whips or weapons. Over each shoulder was slung a strap filled
with long shafts and a black palm bow.
They never slackened speed, for the leopards seemed tireless. They ran
softly yet swiftly, hour after hour, while the sun rolled overhead with
scorching force. The burning glare from the hot sand was blinding, and
the helmets and chains must have been almost unbearable, yet the hardy
drivers did not appear to feel them. They leaned forward with flashing
eyes and streaming tresses, and still urged their willing animals on.
Once during that day they roused a pack of fine lions, who bounded after
them. Ned saw one of these fierce beasts nearing the chariot, and
shouted to his driver to warn her of the danger. His rifle was between
his knees, loaded, but it was of no more use to him than a stick. He
dare not relax his grip of the side at the rate they were going, or he
would have fallen out.
The dauntless girl looked back, at his cry, with a merry laugh. Then,
gripping her whip with her teeth, she slipped off her bow, and
tightening the string, took out one of her shafts, and fitted it.
Swiftly turning half round, she bent the bow until the arrow-head was
touching it, then the string smote the bow with a twang like a loud
harp-note.
Ned watched the shaft, as it sped with a whistle through the air.
Straight it flew towards the lion, and buried itself in his flaming eye.
It was a splendid and deadly, though it looked a careless aim. With
one leap upwards the lion rolled over and over, half burying himself in
the loose sand in his death-throes.
When Ned looked from the lion to his slayer he saw her standing, with
her bow once more in its place and the whip in her hand, standing and
looking forward, while she drove for all she was worth.
The other lions were treated in the same fashion by the rest of the
drivers. Evidently they had nothing to learn in the ancient craft of
archery.
That afternoon, however, as they rested for an hour, Ned found an
opportunity of showing what his rifle could do. Yet, after her archery
feat, he did not feel too conceited over his most modern of
death-dealing implements.
The desert appeared infested with lions of the fiercest order. Hardly
were they seated when one appeared at a little distance. It was within
shooting distance, but too far off for her shaft, so, while she was
leisurely tightening her bow-string, he took a steady aim and fired. At
the report she started up with unfeigned alarm, but, quickly recovering
herself, she sat down again with stoical composure.
It was a long shot, but he did not need to repeat it. The lion was done
for.
When she saw this, she displayed the most lively and childish interest
about his rifle. Pointing to a great vulture in the sky, she signed him
to shoot it.
While he was taking aim, she put her fingers into her ears; then, when
she saw the bird drop headlong, she cried with wonder. He had raised
her admiration in a new direction.
All through that night and the best part of the next day they raced.
They only took three or four half-hours' rest during this time, while
they ate a few dates and drank a mouthful of water.
As for the leopards, they got nothing except a few small cakes during
those short breathing spaces. Our heroes were forced to own that for
swiftness and endurance the trained leopard beats both horse and
dromedary for desert travel.
At midday the distant city and lake appeared on the horizon, and by four
o'clock they had passed between the first of the palm trees, and left
the desert behind.
Ned, Fred, and Clarence had by this time become somewhat used to their
uncommon and ancient surroundings. The biblical and archaeological
chariots, armour, costumes, and features had startled them when first
seen. Now they were only driving toward, what they expected to find, a
specimen page of prehistoric illustrations, preserved in the heart of
that Africa from which those decayed nations had sprung.
Luxury and corruption caused the fall of Rome, Carthage, Greece,
Assyria, Egypt, and the countless races that preceded these chronicled
nations. When Melchizedek walked the earth, and Lot pleaded with the
angels, mankind was old and worn out with self-indulgences. When Noah
vainly preached to the sons of men, they had become dilettante, idle,
cynical, and luxurious; refined in art, cruelty, and callous vice;
enervated to the last degree, and barren of all impulse. This has
always been and always must be the results of ultra-civilisation. The
second step from utter barbarism which deals with conquest and cruelty,
is but the beginning of the end of all nations, ancient and modern. The
implacable order of nature is to grow and decline. Matter must change,
although its constituents are immortal.
The road from the desert to the city was broad and straight. Fifty
chariots could drive abreast through the centre, leaving the side-paths
for the pedestrians.
A double line of huge palm trees fringed this wide highway, and cast
violet shadows on the side-walks. Between the trunks they could see
rich and carefully irrigated fields of grain and vegetables--maize,
rice, manioc, wheat, pulse, yams, and pine-apples, melons, leeks,
onions, and garlic, with shady groves of sugar cane and bananas at the
corners, and hedges all around of vines.
The glistening of water in the regularly cut canals and lotus-covered
ponds, with the fringes of papyrus reeds and varied-tinted blossoms and
flowers, made a delicious picture of rural prosperity and radiance.
Regular symmetry and mathematical order were the predominant features of
these fertile plains, with their straight canals and square ponds. Not
a foot of soil was wasted nor left to run wild. It was all under
cultivation, like a carefully tended garden.
Dark-skinned and semi-nude slaves of both sexes crowded these fields and
plantations, while the same class of white-clad, yellow-skinned, and
diminutive overseers walked about and plied the whip remorselessly, yet
without excitement.
Our heroes longed to ask questions, for they were bursting with
curiosity, and they inwardly resolved to learn the language as soon as
possible, if they were permitted to live here long enough. Already they
had mastered the native terms for water, wine, food, chariots, leopards,
lions, spears, helmets, and armour. This was a fair beginning. As for
Cocoeni and his fellow-Kaffirs, they were devoting themselves most
assiduously to the pursuit of their conquests, and, as they showed by
their ardent glances, conquerors also. They appeared to be progressing
fairly well, considering that looks were their only means of
communication at present.
As they drove along, eight abreast, they noticed that they were causing
a considerable stir amongst the pedestrians and other natives whom they
met, overtook, or passed. They were also watching with great interest
these inhabitants.
They could distinguish the men by their small stature and general
spiritless condition. Woman seemed in this land to be the superior
animal, both in stature, deportment, and position.
Armed amazons, on high-spirited horses, cantered or dashed past them,
bestriding their beasts man-fashion. They were all splendidly costumed,
and many of them very beautiful. Some drove chariots with trained lions
and leopards as well as zebras and horses. It was a dazzling and
picturesque sight that impressed our heroes deeply.
Elephants also paced the roads with their laden howdahs gaily
caparisoned; others, again, drew heavy waggons. Oxen trailed along
strange-looking carts and waggons, while the footpaths teemed with life.
The men alone wore white robes. Numbers of these were about, carrying
or leading children as mothers do in other countries. Some had slaves
to do this for them, and when they were so far blest, they carried the
invariable whip, which they used unsparingly.
The chariots had now passed the fields and farm buildings, and were
approaching the city.
Massive buildings and walls began to appear, with exquisite gardens and
artificial terraces, from which wide steps led down to shady walks and
fairy ponds. Vine tendrils hung over the walls, and formed delicious
avenues. Ornamental trees and obelisks reared out of the under herbage.
Mighty baobabs showed centuries of growth. Monkeys swung from branch
to branch. Ibises, pelicans, and flamingoes were everywhere.
Between the spaces of those gardens and mansions, they had glimpses of
the great lake that supplied the fertility of this highly cultivated
region. On its surface they could see barges floating or moored to the
embankment. Here were quays, with pillars and steps, also crowded with
humanity and animal life.
Before them reared a many-columned arch, with battlemented walls on
either side, and an avenue of sphinxes leading up to it.
They rolled through these, and then they were within the city, with its
huge buildings, pillars, obelisks, stairs, fountains, awnings, arches,
crowded side streets, and varied bazaars and shops. Our heroes felt
abashed before these sublime, living tokens of a civilisation supposed
to have been for ages extinct.