"Run back and see if the askaris are still there," said Tom to Mwesa.
The lad darted away through the bush that clothed the top of the bank of
the defile. Returning in a few minutes, he reported that the enemy had
not stirred from their position.
"Then we will go on. Keep close to me."
They made their way carefully down the slope. At the bottom they peeped
over. A narrow cleft zigzagged down the face of a steep cliff, for the
most part bare rock, but with trees and bushes growing here and there
where soil gave them roothold. This vegetation and the windings of the
cleft hid Reinecke and the Arab from sight; but several hundred feet
below they could just discern, through the mist, the still surface of an
expanse of water.
Mwesa's eyes opened wide with surprise.
"Don't speak," whispered Tom. "Yes; I think it is our lake."
Reinecke's purpose was now clear to him. He acquitted his sentries of
negligence. Haroun had evidently discovered a hitherto unsuspected
means of egress from the nullah; on his information Reinecke had brought
up his askaris to take the position in reverse, but before committing
them to the enterprise had gone down to test the Arab's veracity. It
would take him a long time to climb down the steep and rugged cleft,
hampered as he must be by his wounded arm: still longer to climb up
again. What would he do when he returned? Would he at once order the
attack? Daylight would last just long enough: a night attack was
impossible; no sane person would attempt to descend by so precipitous a
path in darkness. Would he camp for the night, and attack with the
dawn? It seemed to Tom that he would hardly wait unless delay were
unavoidable, for there was the chance that rain would fall again, and a
tropical storm that might continue for days would render his scheme
hopeless. No doubt his decision would depend on the result of his
observations below.
To what point in the nullah the cleft led, Tom had at present no
knowledge. It might descend to the lake side, or wind away to some spot
farther down. He thought rapidly over the courses open to him. He
might make his way back through the ravine, plunge into the bush, and
hurry along parallel with the nullah until he gained the entrance.
Thereby he might provide against the threatened attack and perhaps take
measures for a counterstroke. But one consideration told heavily
against this idea. At his best speed he could hardly expect to reach
the barricade before dark, and meanwhile Reinecke, if he found the
secret way so easy as Haroun had apparently declared, might have led his
men into the nullah, taken the people by surprise, and overcome what
resistance they were able to make without their leader.
What alternative was there? If Reinecke once rejoined the askaris
waiting in the defile nothing could avail to check him. It was
impossible to slip past him on the narrow cleft, and organise the
defence while he returned for his men. Could he be prevented from
returning? Without him the German lieutenant would probably hesitate to
risk a plunge into the unknown. Tom thought that Mwesa and himself
should be a match for Reinecke and the Arab; but if a cry or a shot
reached the ears of the men waiting above, all would end in disaster.
The only chance of success seemed to lie in following Reinecke down the
cleft and lying in wait for him at some spot where he could be taken at
a disadvantage. Tom hurriedly whispered his plan to Mwesa, then stepped
down into the cleft and began his careful descent.
The frequent windings of the narrow gully, the patches of vegetation,
the boulders that stood up here and there, rendered detection from below
unlikely; but Tom moved very warily, peering round every corner, every
bush and rock, listening for voices or footsteps. The lower he and the
negro descended, the more cautious they were. Once or twice Tom
slipped, and had to catch at a tree or a shrub to prevent himself from
slithering down. No such mishaps befell the barefooted negro, and Tom
wished that his soles were so hardened as to enable him to discard his
boots. Step by step they crept downward. Presently they caught sight
of the opposite side of the nullah, a rugged precipice looming through
the mist, with a portion of the lake cut off at its base. A little
farther down Tom stopped suddenly. Twenty or thirty feet below him
Reinecke and the Arab, side by side, were lying on a big rock that
appeared to jut out from the cliff, and were peering down. No doubt
they were hidden by the rock from the sight of the people below--how far
below Tom could not tell, for the camp and the lowest stretch of the
cleft were invisible to him.
Mwesa, clutching his knife, looked expectantly at his master. Tom could
have shot the two men where they lay; but apart from a natural
repugnance to killing them unawares, he knew that the sound of shots
would rise to the party above and put them on the alert. Whatever he
did must be done without noise.
Drawing Mwesa back, he led him some little distance up the cleft until
he came to a shallow recess, partly concealed by a patch of bush. Here
they could wait until the men below reached them in their upward climb.
Tom withdrew behind the bush, bidding Mwesa stand a little forward and
watch: his dark body would be less likely to attract the eyes of the
climbers.
It was some time before they heard slow footsteps on the cleft below
them, and then ejaculations from Reinecke complaining of the steepness
of the ascent. Then Mwesa reported that the German had rounded a bend;
the Arab was just behind him. Tom drew the lad back behind the bush.
"Deal with Haroun," he whispered, "when I have dealt with Reinecke."
The two men mounted slowly. Tom waited until the German had come within
two or three paces of him, then stepped out into the middle of the
narrow path. Reinecke, a foot or two below him, looked up. His face
paled beneath the bronze: he recoiled, and fumbled for his revolver.
Before he could grasp it Tom sprang at him, and with one deftly aimed
blow on the point of the chin hurled him against the side of the cleft.
He fell like a log. At the same moment Mwesa darted past his master,
and flung himself on the Arab, who had halted in consternation at the
sudden onslaught. He stepped back, warded off Mwesa with his arm, and
turned to escape down the cleft. Before he had taken three steps the
negro had recovered himself, and plunged his knife into the Arab's back.
[Illustration: MWESA FLUNG HIMSELF ON THE ARAB.]
So swiftly, so silently had things been done that no sound could have
reached the ears of any one who had chanced to be within a hundred
paces.
Tom bent down over the German. He was unconscious. Strange fate, that
had made him for the second time the captive of the man he had wronged!
"Watch him," said Tom to Mwesa. "Call me if he revives before I come
back."
He went down the cleft until he reached the rock on which the men had
lain. Climbing it, he looked over upon the huts fifty or sixty feet
below, the lake near by, and a considerable stretch of the nullah.
There were signs of excitement among the people, who were gathered in
knots, talking and gesticulating. The German prisoners, standing in
front of their hut in the middle of the island, evidently suspected that
something had happened, some emergency had arisen, for they were
shouting, beckoning to the men nearest the margin of the lake.
"I had better reveal myself at once," thought Tom.
He stood up on the rock, put his whistle to his lips, and blew the
signal for "Fall in." The voices, the movements, of the people ceased
as by magic. They looked around in amazement, facing down the nullah,
from which direction numbers of the fighting-men came running. These
asked eagerly where the m'sungu was: they had heard his whistle; he must
be among them again. But no one had seen him. Again the whistle
sounded. Some of the men glanced upward, and saw Tom standing on the
rock. For one moment they were transfixed with surprise; then a great
shout broke from their lips; the women and children flocked around them,
leaping and screaming with excitement and joy; and Tom wondered what
effect the hubbub would have on the enemy waiting in the ravine.
Signalling that he would soon be with them, he returned to the spot
where he had left Reinecke and Mwesa. The German gave signs of
returning consciousness. In a minute or two he opened his eyes and
stared dully up into Tom's face. Recollection came to him gradually; he
tried to rise, his hand again seeking his revolver. The holster was
empty; Mwesa had taken that weapon, and also his sword.
"You are my prisoner," said Tom. "We will now go down to my camp."
Reinecke cursed him.
"You strike a one-armed, helpless man," he said. "You treacherous
hound!"
Tom was taken aback by this strange accusation. He had had so little
experience of the German soldier that he did not understand that curious
attitude of mind which views everything a German does as right and
proper, but the same thing done by others as infamous and base. The
charge of treachery from the man who had trapped him, left him to die,
and only a few hours before this moment had fired at him when he too had
been taken unawares, struck him dumb. Then, curtly, impatiently, he
said:
"Come, we will waste no time. You can walk, I think. Mwesa, lead on.
Find the way into the nullah. Follow him, Herr Reinecke: I shall be two
paces behind you."
Mwesa scampered down the steep descent like a young roe: the others
followed more prudently. When Tom arrived at the rock from which he had
viewed the camp, Mwesa was not to be seen. But a moment later his
laughing face showed round the base of the rock, like a child playing
peep-bo.
"Dis way, sah," he cried; "dis way."
At one side of the rock was the top of a narrow channel that wound down
the face of the cliff. So steep was this latter that not even a mountain
goat could have scaled it safely; but Nature had so carved the channel
that it formed a zigzag pattern, like those paths which the art of man
has cut in precipitous cliffs at popular resorts on our coasts. Down
this rough path the two men followed Mwesa, hidden from the sight of
those below by the contour of the cliff.
About twenty feet above the ground the zig-zagging ceased, and the
channel took a sheer drop, almost entirely concealed by bushes. While
Tom, standing on a ledge of rock, wondered how the final descent was to
be achieved, Mwesa had found the way. Clinging to the tough stems and
branches of the bushes, he went down a few feet, then stopped and turned
his face upward.
"Ladder here, sah," he called.
The Arab had, in fact, so bent the branches and stems, and so connected
them by means of strands of creepers, as to form a light ladder that
spanned the last dozen feet of the descent. Hidden by the overgrowing
vegetation, it might have been passed and repassed hundreds of times
without being discovered.
Mwesa clambered down, and bounded among the excited people who had
clustered in expectation of the m'sungu's reappearance. After a minute
or two, Reinecke emerged from the foliage, and stood glowering, an image
of sullen rage, upon the negroes who had once owned him master. Fingers
were pointed at him, yells of derision mocked him: even the children
strutted in front of him, as if to vaunt their freedom. One of the elder
men stepped forward with menacing gestures: but he was checked by a
stern command from Tom, who had just appeared. He was hailed with
renewed shouts of triumph; some of the people threw themselves at his
feet, as slaves bow to their lord. Tom's lips quivered; he felt a lump
rise in his throat. Then he called to Mwesa, who was pouring out an
eloquent story to the crowd surrounding him.
"Go down to the barricade," he said. "See whether the guards are at
their posts, and bring Mirambo to me."
He signed to the people to fall back to their huts, and beckoned to
Moses, who had been hanging on the outskirts of the crowd, looking with
a somewhat nervous and sheepish air at his late master.
"Give Herr Reinecke some food," said Tom. "Herr Reinecke, you will
remain where you are for the present. You cannot escape: if you make an
attempt you will be shot. I will give you proper quarters presently."
The German responded with a glare of venomous hate, and turned away.