ALLAN MAKES A PROMISE
I never could sleep well in the neighbourhood of the Black Kloof. It
always seemed to me to give out evil and disturbing emanations, nor was
this night any exception to the rule. For hour after hour, cogitating
the old wizard’s marvellous tale of the Walloos and Heu-Heu, their
devil-ghost, I lay in the midst of the intense silence of that lonely
place which was broken only by the occasional scream of a night-hawk,
or perhaps of the prey that it gripped, or the echoing bark of some
baboon among the rocks.
The story was foolishness. And yet—and yet there were so many strange
peoples hidden away in the vast recesses of Africa, and some of them
had these extremely queer beliefs or superstitions. Indeed, I began to
wonder whether it is not possible for these superstitions, persisted in
through ages, to produce something concrete, at any rate to the minds
of those whom they affect.
Also there were odd circumstances connected with this tale or romance
that might, in a way, be called corroborative. For instance, the
picture of Heu-Heu in the cave which Zikali, by his infernal arts or
tricks, reproduced in the flame of fire; for instance, the diamonds and
rubies, or crystals and spinels, whichever they might be, that at
present reposed in the pocket of my shooting coat. These, presuming
them to be the former, must have come from some very far-off or hidden
spot, since I had never seen or heard of such in any place that I had
visited, as they were entirely unlike those which, at that time, they
were beginning to find at Kimberley, being, for one thing, much more
water-worn.
Still, the presence of diamonds in a certain district had nothing to do
with the possible existence of a Heu-Heu. Therefore, they proved
nothing, one way or the other.
And if there were a Heu-Heu, did I wish to meet him face to face? In
one sense, not at all, but in another, very much indeed. My curiosity
was always great, and it would be wonderful to behold that which no
white man’s eyes had ever seen, and still more wonderful to struggle
with and kill such a monster. A vision rose before my eyes of Heu-Heu
stuffed in the British Museum with a large painted placard underneath:
Shot in Central
Africa by Allan Quatermain, Esq.
Why, then I, the most humble and unknown of persons, would become
famous and have my likeness published in the _Graphic,_ and probably
the _Illustrated London News_ also, perhaps with my foot set upon the
breast of the prostrate Heu-Heu.
That, indeed, would be glory! Only Heu-Heu looked a very nasty
customer, and the story might have a wrong ending; his foot might be
set upon my breast, and he might be twisting off my head, as in the
cave picture. Well, in that case the illustrated papers would publish
nothing about it.
Then there was the story of the town full of petrified men and animals.
This must be either true or false, since it lacked ghostly
complications. Although I had never heard of anything of the sort,
there might be such a place, and if so, it would be splendid to be its
discoverer.
Oh, of what was I thinking? Zikali’s yarn must be nonsense, and rank
fiction. Yet it reminded me of something that I had heard in my youth,
which for a long while I could not recall. At last, in a flash, it came
back to me. My old father, who was a learned scholar, had a book of
Grecian legends, and one of these about a lady called Andromeda, the
daughter of a king who, in obedience to popular pressure and in order
to avert calamities from his country, tied her up to a rock, to be
carried off by a monster that rose out of the sea. Then a magically
aided hero of the name of Perseus arrived at the critical moment,
killed the monster and took away the lady to be his wife.
Why, this Heu-Heu story was the same thing over again. The maiden was
tied to a rock; the monster came out of the sea, or rather, the lake,
and carried her off, whereby calamities were duly averted. So similar
was it, indeed, that I began to wonder whether it were not an echo of
the ancient myth that somehow had found its way into Africa. Only
hitherto there had been no Perseus in Heuheua Land. That rôle,
apparently, was reserved for me. And if so, what should I do with the
maiden? Restore her to a grateful family, I suppose, for certainly I
had no intention of marrying her. Oh, I was growing silly with
thinking! I would go to sleep; I _would,_ I _wo——_
A minute or two later, or so it seemed, I woke up thinking, not of
Andromeda, but of the prophet Samuel, and for a while wondered what on
earth could have put this austere patriarch and priest into my head.
Then, being a great student of the Old Testament, I remembered that
autocratic seer’s indignation when he heard the lowing of the oxen
which Saul spared from the general “eating up” of the Amalekites,
as the Zulus would describe it, by divine command. (What was the use of
cutting the throats of all that good stock, personally, I could never
understand.)
Well, in my ears also was the lowing of oxen, which, of course, formed
the connecting link. I marvelled what they could be, for our own were
grazing at a little distance, and poked my head out under the
wagon-hood to perceive a really beautiful team of trek cattle, eighteen
of them, for there were two spare beasts, which had just been driven up
to my camp by two strange Kaffirs. Then, of course, I remembered about
the oxen which Zikali promised to sell me upon easy terms, or under
certain circumstances to give me, and thought to myself that in this
matter, at any rate, he had proved a wizard of his word.
Slipping on my trousers, I descended from the wagon to examine them,
and with the most satisfactory results. They had quite recovered from
their poverty and footsoreness that had caused their former owner to
leave them behind in Zikali’s charge, and were now as fat as butter,
looking as though they would pull anything anywhere. Indeed, even the
critical Hans expressed his unqualified approval of the beasts which,
as he pointed out from various indications, really seemed to be
“salted,” and inoculated also, some of them, as could be seen from
the loss of the ends of their tails.
Having sent them to graze in charge of the Kaffirs who had brought
them, for I did not wish them to mix with my own beasts, which showed
signs of sickness, I breakfasted in excellent spirits, as wherever I
might go I was now set up with draught beasts, and then bethought me of
my undertaking to revisit Zikali. Hans tried to excuse himself from
accompanying me, saying that he wanted to study the new oxen which
those strange Zulus might steal, etc.; the fact being, of course, that
he was afraid of the old wizard, and would not go near him again unless
he were obliged. However, I made him come, since his memory was first
rate, and four ears were better than two when Zikali was concerned.
Off we trudged up the kloof, and as before, without delay, were
admitted within the fence surrounding the witch doctor’s hut, to find
the Opener-of-Roads seated in front of it, as usual with a fire burning
before him. However hot the weather, he always kept that fire going.
“What do you think of the oxen, Macumazahn?” he asked abruptly.
I replied with caution that I would tell him after I had proved them.
“Cunning as ever,” said Zikali. “Well, you must make the best
of them, Macumazahn, and as I told you, you can pay me when you get
back.”
“Get back from where?” I asked.
“From wherever you are going, which at present you do not know.”
“No, I don’t, Zikali,” I said, and was silent.
He also was silent for a long while, so long that at last he outwore my
patience, and I inquired sarcastically whether he had heard from his
friend Heu-Heu, by bat-post.
“Yes, yes, I have heard, or think that I have heard—not by bats,
but perchance by dreams or visions. Oho! Macumazahn, I have caught you
again. Why do you always walk into my snare so easily? You see some
bats, which in truth, as I told you, are but creatures that I have
tamed by feeding them for many years, flitter about me and fly away,
and you half believe that I have sent them a thousand miles to carry a
message and bring back an answer, which is impossible.
“Now I will tell you the truth. Not thus do I communicate with those
who are afar. Nay, I send out my thought and it flies everywhere to the
ends of the earth, so that the whole earth might read it if it could.
Yet perchance it is attuned to one mind only among the millions, by
which mind it can be caught and interpreted. But for the vulgar—yes,
and even for the wise White Man who cannot understand—there remains the
symbol of the bats and their message. Why will you always seek the aid
of magic to explain natural things, Macumazahn?”
Now I reflected that my idea of nature and Zikali’s differed, but
knowing that he was mocking me after his custom, and declining to enter
into argument as though it were beneath me, I said,
“All this is so plain that I wonder you waste breath in setting it out.
I only desired to know if you have any answer to your message, however
it was sent, and if so—what answer.”
“Yes, Macumazahn, as it happens I have; it came to me just as I was
waking this morning. This is its substance; that the chief of the
Walloos, with whom my heart talked, and, as he believes, most of his
people, will be very glad to welcome you in their land, though, as he
believes again, the priests of Heu-Heu, who worship him as a god and
are sworn to his service, will not be glad. Should you choose to come,
the chief will give you all that you desire of the river diamonds or
aught else that he possesses, and you can carry away with you, also,
the medicine that _I_ desire. Further, he will protect you from dangers
so far as he is able. Yet for these gifts he requires payment.”
“What payment, Zikali?”
“The overthrow of Heu-Heu at your hands.”
“And if I cannot overthrow Heu-Heu, Zikali?”
“Then certainly you will be overthrown and the bargain will fall to the
ground.”
“Is it so? Well, if I go, shall I be killed, Zikali?”
“Who am I that I should dispense life or death, Macumazahn? Yet,”
he added slowly, separating his words by deliberate pinches of
snuff—“yet I do not think that you will be killed. If I did I
should not trust you to pay me for those oxen on your return. Also I
believe that you have much work left to do in the world—my work, some
of it, Macumazahn, that could not be carried out without you. This
being so, the last thing I should wish would be to send you to your
death.”
I reflected that probably this was true, since always the old wizard
was hinting of some great future enterprise in which we should be mixed
up together; also I knew that he had a regard for me in his own strange
way, and therefore wished me no evil. Moreover, of a sudden a great
longing seized me to undertake this adventure in which perchance I
might see remarkable new things—I who was wearying of the old ones.
However, I hid this, if anything could be hid from Zikali, and asked in
a businesslike fashion,
“Where do you want me to go, how far off is it, and if I went, how
should I get there?”
“Now we begin to handle our assegais, Macumazahn” (by which he
meant that we were coming to business). “Hearken, and I will tell
you.”
Tell me he did indeed for over an hour, but I will not trouble you
fellows with all that he said, since geographical details are wearisome
and I want to get on with my story. You, my friend [this was addressed
to me, the Editor], are only stopping here over to-morrow night, and it
will take me all that time to finish it—that is, if you wish to hear
the end.
It is enough to say, therefore, that I had to trek about three hundred
miles north, cross the Zambesi, and then trek another three hundred
miles west. After this I must travel nor’west for a rather indefinite
distance till I came to a gorge in certain hills. Here I must leave the
wagon, if by this time I had any wagon, and tramp for two days through
a waterless patch of desert till I came to a swamp-like oasis. Here the
river of which Zikali had spoken lost itself in the sands of the
desert, whence I should see on a clear day the smoke of the volcano of
which he had also spoken. Crossing the swamp, or making my way round
it, I must steer for this slope, till at length I came to a second
gorge in mountains, through which the river ran from Heuheua Land out
into the desert. There, according to Zikali, I should find a party of
Walloos waiting for me with canoes or boats, who would take me on into
their country, where things would go as they were fated.
Before you leave, my friend, I will give you a map* of the route, which
I drew after travelling it, in case you or anybody else should like to
form a company and go to look for diamonds and fossilized men in
Heuheua Land, stipulating, however, that you do not ask me to take
shares in the venture.
*If Allan ever gave me this map, of which, after the lapse of so many
years, I am not sure, I have put it away so carefully that it is
entirely lost, nor do I propose to hunt for it amidst the accumulated
correspondence of some five-and-thirty years. Moreover, if it were found
and published, it might lead to foolish speculation and probable loss of
money among maiden ladies, the clergy, and other venturesome
persons—Editor.
“So that’s the trek,” I said, when at last Zikali had
finished. “Well, I tell you straight out that I am not going to make it
through unknown country. How could I ever find my way without a guide?
I’m off to Pretoria with your oxen or without them.”
“Is it so, Macumazahn? I begin to think that I am very clever. I
thought that you would talk like that and therefore have made ready by
finding a man who will lead you straight to the House of Heu-Heu.
Indeed, he is here, and I will send for him,” and he summoned a servant
in his usual way and gave an order.
“Whence does he come, who is he, and how long has he been here?” I
asked.
“I don’t quite know who he is, Macumazahn, for he does not talk
much about himself, but I understand that he comes from the
neighbourhood of Heuheua Land, or out of it, for aught I know, and he
has been here long enough for me to be able to teach him something of
our Zulu language, though that does not matter much since you know
Arabic well, do you not?”
“I can talk it, Zikali, and so can Hans, a little.”
“Well, that is his tongue, Macumazahn, or so I believe, which will make
things easier. I may tell you at once that he is a strange sort of man,
not in the least like any one you would expect, but of that you will
judge for yourself.”
I made no answer, but Hans whispered to me that doubtless he was one of
the children of Heu-Heu and just like a great monkey. Although he spoke
in a very low voice, and at a distance Zikali seemed to overhear him,
for he remarked,
“Then you will feel as though you had found a new brother, is it not
so, Light-in-Darkness?” which, if I have not said so before, was a
title that Hans had earned upon a certain honourable occasion.
Thereon Hans grew silent, since he dared not show his resentment of
this comparison of himself to a monkey to the mighty Opener-of-Roads.
I, too, was silent, being occupied with my own reflections, for now, in
a flash, as it were, I saw the whole trick stripped bare of its
mysterious and pseudo-magical trappings. A messenger from some strange
and distant country had come to Zikali, demanding his help for reasons
that I did not know.
This he had determined to give through me, whom he thought suited to
the purpose. Hence his bribe of the oxen, the news of which he had
conveyed to me while I was still far off, having in some way become
acquainted with my dilemma. Indeed, it looked as though everything had
been part of a plan, though of course this was not possible, since
Zikali could not have arranged that I should take shelter in a
particular cave during a thunderstorm.
The sum of it was, however, that I should serve his turn, though what
exactly that might be I did not know. He said that he wanted to obtain
the leaves of a certain tree, which perhaps was true, but I felt sure
that there was more behind.
Possibly his curiosity was excited and he desired information about a
distant, secret people, since for knowledge of every kind he had a
perfect lust. Or perhaps in some occult fashion this Heu-Heu, if there
were a Heu-Heu, might be a rival who stood between him and his plans,
and therefore was one to be removed.
Allowing ninety per cent. of Zikali’s supernatural powers to be pure
humbug, without doubt the remaining ten per cent. were genuine.
Certainly he lived and moved and had his being upon a different plane
from that of ordinary mortals, and was in touch with things and powers
of which we are ignorant. Also as I have reason to know, though I do
not trouble you with instances, he was in touch with others of the same
class or hierarchy throughout Africa—yes, thousands of miles
distant—of whom some may have been his friends and some his enemies but
all were mighty in their way.
While I was reflecting thus and old Zikali was reading my thoughts—as I
am sure he did, for I saw him smile in his grim manner and nod his
great head as though in approval of my acumen—the servant returned from
somewhere, ushering in a tall figure picturesquely draped in a fur
kaross that covered his head as well as his body. Arrived in front of
us, this person threw off the kaross and bowed in salutation, first to
Zikali and then to myself. Indeed, so great was his politeness that he
even honoured Hans in the same way, but with a slighter bow.
I looked at him in amazement, as well I might, since before me stood
the most beautiful man that I had ever seen. He was tall, something
over six feet high, and superbly shaped, having a deep chest, a sinewy
form, and hands and feet that would have done credit to a Greek statue.
His face, too, was wonderful, if rather sombre, perfectly chiselled and
almost white in colour, with great dark eyes, and there was something
about it that suggested high and ancient blood. He looked, indeed, as
though he had just stepped straight out of the bygone ages. He might
have been an inhabitant of the lost continent of Atlantis or a
sun-burned old Greek, for his hair, which was chestnut brown, curled
tightly, even where it hung down upon his shoulders, though none grew
upon his chin or about the curved lips. Perhaps he was shaven. In
short, he was a glorious specimen of mankind, differing from any other
I had seen.
His costume, too, was striking and peculiar, although dilapidated;
indeed, it might have been rifled from the body of an Egyptian Pharaoh.
It consisted of a linen robe that seemed to be twisted about him, which
was broidered at the edges with faded purple, a tall and battered linen
headdress shaped like the lower half of a soda-water bottle reversed
and coming to a point, a leather apron narrow at the top but broadening
towards the knees, also broidered, and sandals of the same material.
I stared at him amazed, wondering whether he belonged to some people
unknown to me, or was another of Zikali’s illusions, and so did Hans,
for his muddy little eyes nearly fell out of his head and he asked me
in a whisper,
“Is he a man, Baas, or a spirit?”
For the rest the stranger wore a plain torque or necklet apparently of
gold, and about him was girdled a cross-hilted sword with an ivory
handle and a red sheath.
For a while this remarkable person stood before us, his hands folded
and his head bent in a humble fashion, though it was really I who
should have been humble, owing to the physical contrast between us.
Apparently he did not think it proper to speak first, while Zikali
squatted there grimly, not helping me at all. At last, seeing that
something must be done, I rose from the stool upon which I was seated
and held out my hand. After a moment’s hesitation the splendid stranger
took it, but not to shake in the usual fashion, for he bent his head
and gently touched my fingers with his lips, as though he were a French
courtier and I a pretty lady. I bowed again with the best grace I could
command, then putting my hand in my trouser pocket, said, “How do you
do?” and as he did not seem to understand, repeated it in the Zulu
word, “_Sakubona._” This also failing, I greeted him in the
name of the Prophet in my best Arabic.
Here I struck oil, as an American friend of mine named Brother John
used to say, for he replied in the same tongue, or something like it.
Speaking in a soft and pleasing voice, but without alluding to the
Prophet, he addressed me as “Great Lord Macumazahn, whose fame and
prowess echo across the earth,” and a lot of other nonsense, with which
I could see that Zikali had stuffed him, that may be omitted.
“Thank you,” I cut in, “thank you, Mr.——?”
and I paused.
“My name is Issicore,” he said.
“And a very nice name, too, though I never heard one like it,” I
replied. “Well, Issicore, what can I do for you?” An inadequate
remark, I admit, but I wanted to come to the facts.
“Everything,” he answered fervently, pressing his hands to his
breast. “You can save from death a most beautiful lady who will love
you.”
“Will she?” I exclaimed. “Then I will have nothing to do with
that business, which always leads to trouble.”
Here Zikali broke in for the first time, speaking very slowly to
Issicore in Zulu, which I remembered he said he had been teaching him,
and saying,
“The Lord Macumazahn is already full of woman’s love and has no
room for more. Speak not to him of love, O Issicore, lest you should
anger the ghost of one who haunts this spot, a certain royal Mameena
whom once he knew too well.”
Now I turned upon Zikali, purposing to give him a piece of my mind,
when Issicore, smiling a little, repeated,
“Who will love you—as a brother.”
“That’s better,” I said, “though I don’t know
that I want to take on a sister at my time of life, but I suppose you
mean that she will be much obliged?”
“That is so, O Lord. Also the reward will be great.”
“Ah!” I replied, really interested. “Now be so good as to
tell me exactly what you want.”
Well, to cut a long story short, with variations he repeated Zikali’s
tale. I was to travel to his remote land, bring about the destruction
of a nebulous monster, or fetish, or system of religion, and in payment
to be given as many diamonds as I could carry.
“But why can’t you get rid of your own devil?” I asked.
“You look a warrior and are big and strong.”
“Lord,” he replied gently, spreading out his hands in an appealing
fashion, “I am strong and I trust that I am brave, but it cannot be. No
man of my people can prevail against the god of my people, if so he may
be called. Even to revile him openly would bring a curse upon us;
moreover, his priests would murder us——”
“So he has priests?” I interrupted.
“Yes, Lord, the god has priests sworn to his service, evil men as he is
evil. O Lord, come, I beseech you, and save Sabeela the beautiful.”
“Why are you so interested in this lady?” I asked.
“Lord, because she loves me—not as a brother—and I love her.
She, the great Lady of my land and my cousin, is my betrothed and, if
the god is not overthrown, as the fairest of all our maidens she will
be taken by the god.” Here emotion seemed to overcome him, very real
emotion, which touched me, for he bowed his head and I saw tears
trickle down from his dark eyes.
“Hearken, Lord,” he went on, “there is an ancient prophecy in
my land that this god of ours, whose hideous shape hides the spirit of
a long-dead chief, can only be destroyed by one of another race who can
see in the night, some man of great valour destined to be born in due
season. Now through our dream-doctors I caused inquiry to be made of
this Master of Spirits, who is named Zikali, for I was in despair and
knew what must happen at the appointed time. From him I learned that
there lived in the south such a man as is spoken of in the prophecy and
that his name meant Watcher-by-Night. Then I dared the journey and the
curse and came to seek you, and lo! I have found you.”
“Yes,” I answered, “you have found one whose native name
means Watcher-by-Night, but who cannot see in the dark better than any
one else, and is not a hero or very brave, but only a trader and a
hunter of wild beasts. Yet I tell you, Issicore, that I do not wish to
interfere with your gods and priests and tribal matters, or to give
battle to some great ape, if it exists, on the chance of earning a
pocketful of bright stones should I live to take them away, and of
getting a bundle of leaves that this doctor desires. You had better
seek some other white man with eyes like a cat’s and more strength and
courage, Issicore.”
“How can I seek another when, without doubt, you are the one appointed,
Lord? If you will not come, then I return to die with Sabeela, and all
is finished.”
He paused a few moments, and continued, “Lord, I can offer you little,
but is not a good deed its own reward, and will not the memory of it
feed your heart through life and death? Because you are noble I beseech
you to come, not for what you may gain, but just because you are noble
and will save others from cruelty and wrong. I have spoken—choose.”
“Why did you not bring Zikali his accursed leaves yourself?” I
asked furiously.
“Lord, I could not come to the place where that tree grows in the
garden of Heu-Heu; nor, indeed, did I know that this Master of Spirits
needed that medicine. Lord, be noble according to your nature, which is
known afar.”
Now I tell you fellows when I heard this I felt flattered. We all think
that we are noble at times, but there are precious few who tell us so,
and therefore the thing came as a pleasant surprise from this
extraordinarily dignified, handsome and, it would appear in his own
fashion, well-educated son of Ham—if he were a son of Ham. To my mind,
he looked more like a prince in disguise, somebody of unknown but
highly distinguished race who had walked out of a fairy book. But when
I came to think of it, that was exactly what he said he was. Anyway, he
was a most discriminating person with a singular insight into
character. (It did not occur to me at the moment that Zikali was also a
discriminating person with an insight into character which had induced
him to bring us two together for secret purposes of his own. Or that,
in order to impress me, he had stuffed Issicore with the story of a
predestined white man, told of in prophecy, who could see in the dark,
as, without doubt, he had done.)
Also the adventure proposed was of an order so wild and unusual that it
drew me like a magnet. Supposing that I lived to old age, could I,
Allan Quatermain, bear to look back and remember that I had turned down
an opportunity of that sort and was departing into the grave without
knowing if there was or was not a Heu-Heu who snatched away lovely
Andromedas—I mean Sabeelas—off rocks, and combined in his hideous
personality the qualities of a god or fetish, a ghost, a devil, and a
super-gorilla?
Could I bury my two humble talents of adventure and straight shooting
in that fashion? Really, I thought not, for if I did, how could I face
my own conscience in those last failing years? And yet there was so
much to be said on the other side into which I need not enter. In the
end, being unable to make up my mind, I fell into weakness and
determined to refer the matter to fate. Yes, I determined to toss up,
using Hans for the spinning coin.
“Hans,” I said in Dutch, a tongue which neither of the other two
understood, “shall we travel to this man’s country, or shall we
stay in our own? You have heard all; speak and I will accept your
judgment. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Baas,” said Hans, twirling his hat in his vacant fashion,
“I understand that the Baas, as is usual when he is in a deep pit,
seeks the wisdom of Hans to get him out—of Hans who has brought him up
from a child and taught him most of what he knows; of Hans upon whom
his Reverend Father, the Predikant, used to lean as upon a staff, that
is, after he had made him into a good Christian. But the matter is
important, and before I give my judgment that will settle it one way or
another, I would ask a few questions.”
Then he wheeled round, and, addressing the patient Issicore in his vile
Arabic, said,
“Long Baas with a hooked nose, tell me, do you know the way back to
this country of yours, and if so, how much of it can be travelled in a
wagon?”
“I do,” answered Issicore, “and all of it can be travelled in
a wagon until the first range of hills is reached. Also along it there
is plenty of game and water, except in the desert of which you have
been told. The journey should take about three moons, though, myself
alone, I accomplished it in two.”
“Good, and if my Baas, Macumazahn, comes to your country, how will he
be received?”
“Well by most of the people, but not well by the priests of Heu-Heu, if
they think he comes to harm the god, and certainly not well by the
Hairy Folk who live in the forest, who are called the Children of the
god. With these he must be prepared to war, though the prophecy says
that he will conquer all of them.”
“Is there plenty to eat in your country, and is there tobacco, and
something better than water to drink, Long Baas?”
“There is plenty of all these things. There is wealth of every kind, O
Counsellor of the White Lord, and all of them shall be his and yours,
though,” he added with meaning, “those who have to deal with the
priests of the god and the Hairy Folk would do well to drink water,
lest they should be found asleep.”
“Have you guns there?” Hans asked, pointing to my rifle.
“No, our weapons are swords and spears, and the Hairy Folk shoot with
arrows from bows.”
Hans ceased from his questions and began to yawn as though he were
tired, as he did so, staring up at the sky where some vultures were
wheeling.
“Baas,” he said, “how many vultures do you see up there? Is
it seven or eight? I have not counted them but I think there are
seven.”
“No, Hans, there are eight; one, the highest, was hid behind a
cloud.”
“You are quite sure that there are eight, Baas?”
“Quite,” I answered angrily. “Why do you ask such silly
questions when you can count for yourself?”
Hans yawned again and said, “Then we will go with this fine, hook-nosed
Baas to the country of Heu-Heu. That is settled.”
“What the deuce do you mean, Hans? What on earth has the number of
vultures got to do with the matter?”
“Everything, Baas. You see, the burden of this choice was too heavy for
my shoulders, so I lifted my eyes and put up a prayer to your Reverend
Father to help me, and in doing so saw the vultures. Then your Reverend
Father in the heaven above seemed to say to me, ‘If there are an even
number of vultures, Hans, then go; if an odd number, then stop where
you are. But, Hans, do not count the vultures. Make my son, the Baas
Allan, count them, for then he will not be able to grumble at you if
things turn out badly whether you go or whether you stay behind, and
say that you counted wrong or cheated.’ And now, Baas, I have had
enough of this, and should like to return to our outspan and examine
those new oxen.”
I looked at Hans, speechless with indignation. In my cowardice I had
left it to his cunning and experience to decide this matter, virtually
tossing up, as I have said. And what had the little rascal done? He had
concocted one of his yarns about my poor old father and tossed up in
his turn, going odd or even on the number of the vultures which he made
_me_ count! So angry was I that I lifted my foot with meaning, whereon
Hans, who had been expecting something of the sort, bolted, and I did
not see him again until I got back to the camp.
“Oho! Oho!” laughed Zikali, “Oho!” while the dignified
Issicore studied the scene with mild astonishment.
Then I turned on Zikali, saying, “A cheat I have called you before, and
a cheat I call you again, with all your nonsense about bat-messengers
and the tale you have taught to this man as to a prophecy of his
people, and the rest. _There_ is the bat who brought the message, or
the dream, or the vision, or whatever you like to call it, and all the
while he was hidden beneath your eaves,” and I pointed to Issicore.
“And now I have been tricked into saying that I will go upon this
fool’s errand, and as I do not turn my back upon my word, go I
must.”
“Have you, Macumazahn?” asked Zikali innocently. “You talked
with Light-in-Darkness in Dutch, which neither I nor this man
understood, and therefore we did not know what you said. But, as out of
the honesty of your heart you have told us, we understand now, and of
course we know, as everyone knows, that your word once spoken is worth
all the writings of all the white men put together, and that only death
or sickness will prevent you from accompanying Issicore to his own
country. Oho ho! It has all come about as I would have it, for reasons
with which I will not trouble you, Macumazahn.”
Now I saw that I was doubly tricked, hit, as it were, with the right
barrel by Hans and with the left by Zikali. To tell the truth, I had
quite forgotten that he did not understand Dutch, although I remembered
it when I began to use that tongue, and that therefore it did not in
the least matter what I had said privately to Hans. But if Zikali did
not understand Dutch, of which after all I am not so sure, at any rate
he understood human nature, and could read thoughts, for he went on:
“Do not boil within yourself, like a pot with a stone on its lid,
Macumazahn, because your crafty foot has slipped and you have repeated
publicly in one tongue what you had already said secretly in another,
and therefore made a promise to both of us. For all the while,
Macumazahn, you had made that promise and your white heart would not
have suffered you to swallow it again just because we could not hear it
with our ears. No, that great white heart of yours would have risen
into your throat and shut it fast. So kick away the burning sticks from
beneath the water of your anger and let it cease from boiling, and go
forth as you have promised, to see wonderful things and do wonderful
deeds and snatch the pure and innocent out of the hands of evil gods or
men.”
“Yes, and burn my fingers, scooping your porridge out of the blazing
pot, Zikali,” I said with a snort.
“Perhaps, Macumazahn, perhaps, for if I had no porridge to be saved,
should I have taken all this trouble? But what does that matter to you,
to the brave White Lord who seeks the truth as a thrown spear seeks the
heart of the foe? You will find plenty of truth yonder, Macumazahn, new
truth, and what does it matter if the spear is a little red after it
has reached the heart of things? It can be cleaned again, Macumazahn,
it can be cleaned, and amidst many other services, you will have done
one to your old friend, Zikali the Cheat.”
Here Allan glanced at the clock and stopped.
“I say—do you know what the time is?” he said. “Twenty
minutes past one—by the head of Chaka. If you fellows want to finish
the story to-night, you can do so for yourselves according to taste.
I’m off, or out shooting to-morrow I shan’t hit a haystack
sitting.”