To give an adequate idea of my thoughts and feelings at that moment, or
during those that followed, would amount to a sheer impossibility.
Truly I had distinguished myself. I had undertaken to recover the
stolen steed in bold and doughty fashion, and had allowed myself to be
drawn into the most transparent booby-trap ever devised for the
deception of mortal idiot. Instead of returning in triumph, having
fulfilled Beryl's parting injunction, here was I, strapped up
helplessly, my head and face swathed in a filthy greasy Kafir blanket,
only able to breathe--and that with difficulty--through its unspeakably
nauseous folds. Heavens! I wonder I was not sick. Kicked and punched
too, and a butt for every kind of jeer and insult from these black
ruffians, although of course I could not understand the burden of the
latter. But where was it going to end?
Why had they not murdered me then and there? I thought. Could it be
that they were taking me to some secure place where they might do it at
their leisure, and hide away my body in some hole or cave where there
was not the smallest chance of it ever being found, and so bearing
witness against themselves? It looked like it--and the idea made my
blood run cold with a very real and genuine fear.
All thoughts of rescue--of immediate rescue--I was forced to put aside;
delayed rescue would be too late. My comrades would hardly succeed in
spooring us in the dark, and it was quite dark now; moreover, they were
but three, and judging from the varying voices of those who held me, the
latter must be fairly numerous. No, the situation was hopeless--
abjectly hopeless. Half-dead with fatigue and semi-suffocation, my mind
a prey to the most acute humiliation and self-reproach, I stumbled on--
how I did so I hardly know. At last I could bear it no longer. They
might kill me if they liked, but not another step would I stir until
that horrible suffocating gag was removed.
Something of this must have struck them too, for after a muttered
consultation, they began fumbling at the cattle thongs with which I was
bound, and lo; the filthy blanket was dragged off my head, and I sat
drinking in the fresh night air in long draughts.
"No talk--no call out," said a voice at my side. "You talk--you call
out, then--so."
It was not too dark to see the significant drawing of the hand across
the speaker's throat by which the injunction was emphasised. The latter
I judged it advisable to obey--for the present at any rate.
In this way we kept on through the night; it seemed to me for hours. I
could make out the loom of the heights against the star-gemmed sky, and
noticed that it narrowed considerably as though we were threading a long
defile. More than once I stumbled, and not having the use of my hands
to save myself, fell flat on my face, to the brutal amusement of the
ruffians in whose power I was. I deemed it inadvisable to look about me
too much, but could make out quite a dozen forms in front of me, and
that there were plenty behind, I gathered from the hum of muffled
voices. Indeed, another sense than that of sight went to confirm any
conjecture as to their numbers, for the sweet night air was constantly
poisoned by a reek of rancid grease and musky, foetid humanity. But of
the three horses I could now see no sign.
At last a brief halt was made, evidently at some known water-hole or
spring, for soon one of them emerged from the bush bearing a great
calabash, and the sound of the splashing liquid as it was poured into
bowls was as very music to my ears. The long, rough, forced march; the
dash and excitement which had preceded it, had done their work. I was
simply parched with thirst, and said so.
Thereupon the English-speaking Kafir came towards me with a smaller
bowl. He put it to my lips, but before I could reach it the brute
withdrew it again and dashed the contents into my face.
"That all the water you get," he laughed.
It was too much. Even the fear of immediate vengeance counted for
nothing at that moment. My arms were secured but my legs were not.
Throwing myself backward as I sat I let out with these in such wise as
to plant both feet, with the force of a battering ram, right in the pit
of the stomach of my jeering tormentor as he bent over me laughing. He
rebounded like an indiarubber ball, rolled half a dozen yards, and lay
writhing and groaning and gasping--while I, of course, made up my mind
to instant death.
But to my surprise the other Kafirs seemed to think it the best joke in
the world, for they burst out laughing immoderately, mocking and
chaffing their damaged comrade, imitating him even, as he twisted and
groaned in his agony. I remembered the saying that a crowd that laughs
is not dangerous, and to that extent felt reassured. Yet, what when my
victim should have recovered? That would be the time to look out for
squalls.
Taking advantage of their good humour, I uttered the word "_Manzi_."
They stared; then one fellow got up and taking the calabash, shook it.
Yes, there was still a little, and pouring it into a bowl brought it to
me, letting me drink this time, he still shaking with laughter over the
amusement I had just afforded them. Then we resumed our way.
This seemed to be along the steep side of a mountain, and judging from
the increased freshness of the air we appeared to have gained a good
altitude. Refreshed by my drink of water I was able to travel better,
and I looked somewhat eagerly about, with an eye to possibilities,
resolved, too, to keep one for any opportunity. On the one hand our way
seemed overhung by cliffs; on the other, space. Finally the whole gang
struck inward between what looked like narrowing rock walls, and came to
a halt.
And now, as the fire which had been promptly started blazed up, I saw
that our resting place was beneath a gigantic overhanging slab of rock,
forming a sort of cave. Beyond this I could catch sight of a patch of
stars with dark tree-tops waving gently against them; the while I was
guided to the back of the recess, and bidden to sit down, an invitation
I had no desire to dispute, after my late exertions. But they had,
apparently, no idea of loosening the thongs, and my very superficial
knowledge of their tongue did not rise to the point of requesting it.
In sooth, I began to wish I had treated my erstwhile tormentor with a
little less violence. I could have used him as a medium of conversation
at any rate.
Now from some place of concealment was dragged forth a live sheep, tied
by the legs; while one of the Kafirs was sharpening a butcher's knife
upon a slab of rock. Poor beast! Its condition appealed to me in that
mine was exactly similar, and the probabilities were that its fate would
be mine, with the difference that I should not be eaten afterwards; for
it was there and then butchered, and the flaying and quartering being
accomplished in a surprisingly short space of time, the entire carcase
was disposed by relays upon the glowing fire, and indeed the hissing and
sputtering, and the odours of the roast, filled my own nostrils with a
grateful savour. I could do with a mutton chop or two, after the scanty
fare and hard exertion of the recent twelve hours.
Soon the feasting began, and there was a great chewing, and cracking of
bones. The while I sat and endeavoured calmly to size up the whole
situation. And its accessories were about as wild and grim as the most
startling annals of any romance. Here was I, helpless, in the power and
at the mercy of a score or so of as cut-throat a set of naked and
ochre-smeared savages, as such romance could picture; forcibly brought
here to this probably unknown fastness of theirs, and for what? From
motives of self-preservation alone they could not afford to restore me
to liberty after having once been in this, which was probably one of
their most secure retreats, and I was conscious of a dire and terrible
sinking of heart. Yet there was no war between ourselves and these
people. They would hardly, therefore, go such lengths as to kill me,
and so raise the whole countryside upon them. But as against this came
another thought. There is no declared war between society and the
dangerous and criminal classes in London or New York or Paris, or any
other great city. Yet he who should venture into the innermost haunts
of these and place himself in their power would be extremely unlikely
ever to be seen again by inquiring friends; and my case here was
precisely similar.
Recognising that a well-fed man is likely to be in better humour than a
fasting one, be he savage or civilised, I waited until these had nearly
finished their repast before intimating by signs and such few words as I
knew, that I should like some small share of it. They stared, laughed,
then one took a strip of meat from the fire, and came over to me,
holding it up in a sort of bob-cherry fashion. But I was not to be
taken in so easily as that, and uttered the word for hot. At this they
laughed harder than ever, and having waited long enough, I soon got
outside the mutton, hunger overcoming my repugnance to being fed in so
unappetising, not to say disgusting, a fashion. But the whole episode
seemed to put them into high good humour, from which I had begun to
augur great things, when an interruption occurred which was inauspicious
in the extreme. This was caused by a new arrival, none other than the
evil-looking rascal whom I had rendered temporarily _hors de combat_,
and who, unable to keep up with the others owing to the pain he was
suffering, had now overtaken them.
The first thing this fellow did was to seize a knife which was lying
idle, and rush over to me, uttering a savage snarl, his repulsive
countenance working hideously with vengeful ferocity. Instinctively I
prepared to receive him in the same way as before, whereat he hesitated,
and this I believed saved my life, for the others interfered and there
was a great hubbub of voices, and a swaying to and fro of the crowd, as
more got between him and me. I thought it would have ended in a free
fight, but at length the fellow suffered himself to be persuaded, and
subsided, growling, by the fire, to make a vehement onslaught upon such
meat as still remained.
Having disposed of this he came over to me again. The other Kafirs were
for the most part disposing themselves for sleep, while some had lighted
pipes, and were puffing away contentedly, conversing in a deep-toned,
subdued hum. Indeed, but for my perilous situation the scene was one of
wild and vivid picturesqueness--the great overhanging rocks reflecting
the glow of the fires or throwing out weird, uncouth silhouettes from
moving figures; the red forms of the grouping savages, and the
outlandish but not unpleasing tones of their strange tongue; the rolling
eyeballs and the gleam of white teeth, as one or other of them opened
his mouth in a yawn or a grin.
"What you doing here?" began the fellow.
"I didn't come willingly, I was brought. And now suppose you let me
go," I answered.
"Let you go? Ha! See there." And he pointed to something behind me.
I turned. A wide dark space hitherto unnoticed caught my gaze. A black
patch it looked like. No, it was a hole, a jagged irregular hole or
crevice.
"That hole deep--damn deep," he went on. "Let you go? yes--down there.
No find again. We cut your throat first, see--I do that--then throw you
in. No find again. Ha!"
I believe I went pale, and I know my flesh crept all over at the
prospect of this horrible fate. But I remembered Septimus Matterson's
dictum--more than once laid down--with regard to these people: "You must
never let them imagine you're afraid of them." So I laughed as I
answered--
"You daren't do it. The police would hunt you down, and then the
Government would hang every man jack of you."
"Hang? Ha! Not it. We don't care for no damn Government. To-morrow
morning you go down hole."
"Why wait till to-morrow?"
The ruffian chuckled.
"See better then. Leave no spoor. Light not good now--might forget
something. Body found, perhaps we hang. No body found, then perhaps
you not dead. Damn deep that hole. Ha!"
"You'll hang all the same," I said. "You will be spoored here, and
there will be plenty of traces of what has become of me."
"No trace. We cut your throat _over_ the hole, then throw you in. Now
you go to sleep. Morning soon come."
Grinning hideously the fellow rolled his blanket round him and lay down.
Most of the others were already asleep, but it was not likely I should
follow their example or act upon the ironical suggestion of my
tormentor. Was he but trying to frighten me, I tried to think? but
then, a word here and there which I had caught, and certain significant
glances on the part of my gaolers, seemed to bear out all he had said.
They had every motive for getting rid of me, and in such wise as to
leave no trace. And here were the means all ready to their hands.