ROBERTSON IS LOST
So I went and was conducted by Billali, the old chamberlain, for such
seemed to be his office, who had been waiting patiently without all
this while, back to our rest-house. On my way I picked up Hans, whom I
found sitting outside the arch, and found that as usual that worthy had
been keeping his eyes and ears open.
“Baas,” he said, “did the White Witch tell you that there is a big
_impi_ encamped over yonder outside the houses, in what looks like a
great dry ditch, and on the edge of the plain beyond?”
“No, Hans, but she said that this evening she would show us those in
whose company we must fight.”
“Well, Baas, they are there, some thousands of them, for I crept
through the broken walls like a snake and saw them. And, Baas, I do not
think they are men, I think that they are evil spirits who walk at
night only.”
“Why, Hans?”
“Because when the sun is high, Baas, as it is now, they are all
sleeping. Yes, there they lie abed, fast asleep, as other people do at
night, with only a few sentries out on guard, and these are yawning and
rubbing their eyes.”
“I have heard that there are folk like that in the middle of Africa
where the sun is very hot, Hans,” I answered, “which perhaps is why
She-who-commands is going to take us to see them at night. Also these
people, it seems, are worshippers of the moon.”
“No, Baas, they are worshippers of the devil and that White Witch is
his wife.”
“You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, Hans, for whatever she
is I think that she can read thoughts from far away, as you guessed
last night. Therefore I would not have any if I were you.”
“No, Baas, or if I must think, henceforth, it shall be only of gin
which in this place is also far away,” he replied, grinning.
Then we came to the rest-house where I found that Robertson had already
eaten his midday meal and like the Amahagger gone to sleep, while
apparently Umslopogaas had done the same; at least I saw nothing of
him. Of this I was glad, since that wondrous Ayesha seemed to draw
vitality out of me and after my long talk with her I felt very tired.
So I too ate and then went to lie down under an old wall in the shade
at a little distance, and to reflect upon the marvellous things that I
had heard.
Here be it said at once that I believed nothing of them, or at least
very little indeed. All the involved tale of Ayesha’s long life I
dismissed at once as incredible. Clearly she was some beautiful woman
who was more or less mad and suffered from megalomania; probably an
Arab, who had wandered to this place for reasons of her own, and become
the chieftainess of a savage tribe whose traditions she had absorbed
and reproduced as personal experiences, again for reasons of her own.
For the rest, she was now threatened by another tribe and knowing that
we had guns and could fight from what happened on the yesterday, wished
naturally enough for our assistance in the coming battle. As for the
marvellous chief Rezu, or rather for his supernatural attributes and
all the cock-and-bull story about an axe—well, it was humbug like the
rest, and if she believed in it she must be more foolish than I took
her to be—even if she were unhinged on certain points. For the rest,
her information about myself and Umslopogaas doubtless had reached her
from Zikali in some obscure fashion, as she herself acknowledged.
But heavens! how beautiful she was! That flash of loveliness when out
of pique or coquetry she lifted her veil, blinded like the lightning.
But thank goodness, also like the lightning it frightened;
instinctively one felt that it was very dangerous, even to death, and
with it I for one wished no closer acquaintance. Fire may be lovely and
attractive, also comforting at a proper distance, but he who sits on
the top of it is cremated, as many a moth has found.
So I argued, knowing well enough all the while that if this particular
human—or inhuman—fire desired to make an holocaust of me, it could do
so easily enough, and that in reality I owed my safety so far to a lack
of that desire on its part. The glorious Ayesha saw nothing to attract
her in an insignificant and withered hunter, or at any rate in his
exterior, though with his mind she might find some small affinity.
Moreover to make a fool of him just for the fun of it would not serve
her purpose, since she needed his assistance in a business that
necessitated clear wits and unprejudiced judgment.
Lastly she had declared herself to be absorbed in some tiresome
complication with another man, of which it was rather difficult to
follow the details. It is true that she described him as a handsome but
somewhat empty-headed person whom she had last seen two thousand years
ago, but probably this only meant that she thought poorly of him
because he had preferred some other woman to herself, while the two
thousand years were added to the tale to give it atmosphere.
The worst of scandals becomes romantic and even respectable in two
thousand years; witness that of Cleopatra with Cæsar, Mark Antony and
other gentlemen. The most virtuous read of Cleopatra with sympathy,
even in boarding-schools, and it is felt that were she by some miracle
to be blotted out of the book of history, the loss would be enormous.
The same applied to Helen, Phryne, and other bad lots. In fact now that
one comes to think of it, most of the attractive personages in history,
male or female, especially the latter, were bad lots. When we find
someone to whose name is added “the good” we skip. No doubt Ayesha,
being very clever, appreciated this regrettable truth, and therefore
moved her murky entanglements of the past decade or so back for a
couple of thousand years, as many of us would like to do.
There remained the very curious circumstance of her apparent
correspondence with old Zikali who lived far away. This, however, after
all was not inexplicable. In the course of a great deal of experience I
have observed that all the witch-doctor family, to which doubtless she
belonged, have strange means of communication.
In most instances these are no doubt physical, carried on by help of
messengers, or messages passed from one to the other. But sometimes it
is reasonable to assume what is known as telepathy, as their link of
intercourse. Between two such highly developed experts as Ayesha and
Zikali, it might for the sake of argument safely be supposed that it
was thus they learned each other’s mind and co-operated in each other’s
projects, though perhaps this end was effected by commoner methods.
Whatever its interpretations, the issue of the business seemed to be
that I was to be let in for more fighting. Well, in any case this could
not be avoided, since Robertson’s daughter, Inez, had to be saved at
all costs, if it could possibly be done, even if we lost our lives in
the attempt. Therefore fight we must, so there was nothing more to be
said. Also without doubt this adventure was particularly interesting
and I could only hope that good luck, or Zikali’s Great Medicine, or
rather Providence, would see me through it safely.
For the rest the fact that our help was necessary to her in this
war-like venture showed me clearly enough that all this wonderful
woman’s pretensions to supernatural powers were the sheerest nonsense.
Had they been otherwise she would not have needed our help in her
tribal fights, notwithstanding the rubbish she talked about the chief,
Rezu, who according to her account of him, must resemble one of the
fabulous “trolls,” half-human and half-ghostly evil creatures, of whom
I have read in the Norse Sagas, who could only be slain by some
particular hero armed with a particular weapon.
Reflecting thus I went to sleep and did not wake until the sun was
setting. Finding that Hans was also sleeping at my feet just like a
faithful dog, I woke him up and we went back together to the
rest-house, which we reached as the darkness fell with extraordinary
swiftness, as it does in those latitudes, especially in a place
surrounded by cliffs.
Not finding Robertson in the house, I concluded that he was somewhere
outside, possibly making a reconnaissance on his own account, and told
Hans to get supper ready for both of us. While he was doing so, by aid
of the Amahagger lamps, Umslopogaas suddenly appeared in the circle of
light, and looking about him, said,
“Where is Red-Beard, Macumazahn?”
I answered that I did not know and waited, for I felt sure that he had
something to say.
“I think that you had better keep Red-Beard close to you, Macumazahn,”
he went on. “This afternoon, when you had returned from visiting the
white doctoress and having eaten, had gone to sleep under the wall
yonder, I saw Red-Beard come out of the house carrying a gun and a bag
of cartridges. His eyes rolled wildly and he turned first this way and
then that, sniffing at the air, like a buck that scents danger. Then he
began to talk aloud in his own tongue and as I saw that he was speaking
with his Spirit, as those do who are mad, I went away and left him.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because, as you know, Macumazahn, it is a law among us Zulus never to
disturb one who is mad and engaged in talking with his Spirit.
Moreover, had I done so, probably he would have shot me, nor should I
have complained who would have thrust myself in where I had no right to
be.”
“Then why did you not come to call me, Umslopogaas?”
“Because then he might have shot you, for, as I have seen for some time
he is inspired of heaven and knows not what he does upon the earth,
thinking only of the Lady Sad-Eyes who has been stolen away from him,
as is but natural. So I left him walking up and down, and when I
returned later to look, saw that he was gone, as I thought into this
walled hut. Now when Hansi tells me that he is not here, I have come to
speak to you about him.”
“No, certainly he is not here,” I said, and I went to look at the bed
where Robertson slept to see if it had been used that evening.
Then for the first time I saw lying on it a piece of paper torn from a
pocketbook and addressed to myself. I seized and read it. It ran thus:
“The merciful Lord has sent me a vision of Inez and shown me where she
is over the cliff-edge away to the west, also the road to her. In my
sleep I heard her talking to me. She told me that she is in great
danger—that they are going to marry her to some brute—and called to me
to come at once and save her; yes, and to come alone without saying
anything to anyone. So I am going at once. Don’t be frightened or
trouble about me. All will be well, all will be quite well. I will tell
you the rest when we meet.”
Horrorstruck I translated this insane screed to Umslopogaas and Hans.
The former nodded gravely.
“Did I not tell you that he was talking with his Spirit, Macumazahn?”
(I had rendered “the merciful Lord” as the Good Spirit.) “Well, he has
gone and doubtless his Spirit will take care of him. It is finished.”
“At any rate we cannot, Baas,” broke in Hans, who I think feared that I
might send him out to look for Robertson. “I can follow most spoors,
but not on such a night as this when one could cut the blackness into
lumps and build a wall of it.”
“Yes,” I answered, “he has gone and nothing can be done at present,”
though to myself I reflected that probably he had not gone far and
would be found when the moon rose, or at any rate on the following
morning.
Still I was most uneasy about the man who, as I had noted for a long
while, was losing his balance more and more. The shock of the barbarous
and dreadful slaughter of his half-breed children and of the abduction
of Inez by these grim, man-eating savages began the business, and I
think that it was increased and accentuated by his sudden conversion to
complete temperance after years of heavy drinking.
When I persuaded him to this course I was very proud of myself,
thinking that I had done a clever thing, but now I was not so sure.
Perhaps it would have been better if he had continued to drink
something, at any rate for a while, but the trouble is that in such
cases there is generally no half-way house. A man, or still more a
woman, given to this frailty either turns aggressively sober or remains
very drunken. At any rate, even if I had made a mess of it, I had acted
for the best and could not blame myself.
For the rest it was clear that in his new phase the religious
associations of his youth had re-asserted themselves with remarkable
vigour, for I gathered that he had been brought up almost as a
Calvinist, and in the rush of their return, had overset his
equilibrium. As I have said, he prayed night and day without any of
those reserves which most people prefer in their religious exercises,
and when he talked of matters outside our quest, his conversation
generally revolved round the devil, or hell and its torments, which, to
say the truth, did not make him a cheerful companion. Indeed in this
respect I liked him much better in his old, unregenerate days, being, I
fear, myself a somewhat worldly soul.
Well, the sum of it was that the poor fellow had gone mad and given us
the slip, and as Hans said, to search for him at once in that darkness
was impossible. Indeed, even if it had been lighter, I do not think
that it would have been safe among these Amahagger nightbirds whom I
did not trust. Certainly I could not have asked Hans to undertake the
task, and if I had, I do not think he would have gone since he was
afraid of the Amahagger. Therefore there was nothing to be done except
wait and hope for the best.
So I waited till at last the moon came and with it Ayesha, as she had
promised. Clad in a rich, dark cloak she arrived in some pomp, heralded
by Billali, followed by women, also cloaked, and surrounded by a guard
of tall spearmen. I was seated outside the house, smoking, when
suddenly she arrived from the shadows and stood before me.
I rose respectfully and bowed, while Umslopogaas, Goroko and the other
Zulus who were with me, gave her the royal salute, and Hans cringed
like a dog that is afraid of being kicked.
After a swift glance at them, as I guessed by the motion of her veiled
head, she seemed to fix her gaze upon my pipe that evidently excited
her curiosity, and asked me what it was. I explained as well as I
could, expatiating on the charms of smoking.
“So men have learned another useless vice since I left the world, and
one that is filthy also,” she said, sniffing at the smoke and waving
her hand before her face, whereon I dropped the pipe into my pocket,
where, being alight, it burnt a hole in my best remaining coat.
I remember the remark because it showed me what a clever actress she
was who, to keep up her character of antiquity, pretended to be
astonished at a habit with which she must have been well acquainted,
although I believe that it was unknown in the ancient world.
“You are troubled,” she went on, swiftly changing the subject, “I read
it in your face. One of your company is missing. Who is it? Ah! I see,
the white man you name Avenger. Where is he gone?”
“That is what I wish to ask you, Ayesha,” I said.
“How can I tell you, Allan, who in this place lack any glass into which
to look for things that pass afar. Still, let me try,” and pressing her
hands to her forehead, she remained silent for perhaps a minute, then
spoke slowly.
“I think that he has gone over the mountain lip towards the worshippers
of Rezu. I think that he is mad; sorrow and something else which I do
not understand have turned his brain; something that has to do with the
Heavens. I think also that we shall recover him living, if only for a
little while, though of this I cannot be sure since it is not given to
me to read the future, but only the past, and sometimes the things that
happen in the present though they be far away.”
“Will you send to search for him, O Ayesha?” I asked anxiously.
“Nay, it is useless, for he is already distant. Moreover those who went
might be taken by the outposts of Rezu, as perchance has happened to
your companion wandering in his madness. Do you know what he went to
seek?”
“More or less,” I answered and translated to her the letter that
Robertson had left for me.
“It may be as the man writes,” she commented, “since the mad often see
well in their dreams, though these are not sent by a god as he
imagines. The mind in its secret places knows all things, O Allan,
although it seems to know little or nothing, and when the breath of
vision or the fury of a soul distraught blows away the veils or burns
through the gates of distance, then for a while it sees and learns,
since, whatever fools may think, often madness is true wisdom. Now
follow me with the little yellow man and the Warrior of the Axe. Stay,
let me look upon that axe.”
I interpreted her wish to Umslopogaas who held it out to her but
refused to loose it from his wrist to which it was attached by the
leathern thong.
“Does the Black One think that I shall cut him down with his own
weapon, I who am so weak and gentle?” she asked, laughing.
“Nay, Ayesha, but it is his law not to part with this Drinker of Lives,
which he names ‘Chieftainess and Groan-maker,’ and clings to closer by
day and night than a man does to his wife.”
“There he is wise, Allan, since a savage captain may get more wives but
never such another axe. The thing is ancient,” she added musingly after
examining its every detail, “and who knows? It may be that whereof the
legend tells which is fated to bring Rezu to the dust. Now ask this
fierce-eyed Slayer whether, armed with his axe he can find courage to
face the most terrible of all men and the strongest, one who is a
wizard also, of whom it is prophesied that only by such an axe as this
can he be made to bite the dust.”
I obeyed. Umslopogaas laughed grimly and answered,
“Say to the White Witch that there is no man living upon the earth whom
I would not face in war, I who have never been conquered in fair fight,
though once a chance blow brought me to the doors of death,” and he
touched the great hole in his forehead. “Say to her also that I have no
fear of defeat, I from whom doom is, as I think, still far away, though
the Opener-of-Roads has told me that among a strange people I shall die
in war at last, as I desire to do, who from my boyhood have lived in
war.”
“He speaks well,” she answered with a note of admiration in her voice.
“By Isis, were he but white I would set him to rule these Amahagger
under me. Tell him, Allan, that if he lays Rezu low he shall have a
great reward.”
“And tell the White Witch, Macumazahn,” Umslopogaas replied when I had
translated, “that I seek no reward, save glory only, and with it the
sight of one who is lost to me but with whom my heart still dwells, if
indeed this Witch has strength to break the wall of blackness that is
built between me and her who is ‘gone down.’”
“Strange,” reflected Ayesha when she understood, “that this grim
Destroyer should yet be bound by the silken bonds of love and yearn for
one whom the grave has taken. Learn from it, Allan, that all humanity
is cast in the same mould, since my longings and your longings are his
also, though the three of us be far apart as are the sun and the moon
and the earth, and as different in every other quality. Yet it is true
that sun and moon and earth are born of the same black womb of chaos.
Therefore in the beginning they were identical, as doubtless they will
be in the end when, their journeyings done, they rush together to light
space with a flame at which the mocking gods that made them may warm
their hands. Well, so it is with men, Allan, whose soul-stuff is drawn
from the gulf of Spirit by Nature’s hand, and, cast upon the cold air
of this death-driven world, freezes into a million shapes each
different to the other and yet, be sure, the same. Now talk no more,
but follow me. Slave” (this was addressed to Billali), “bid the guards
lead on to the camp of the servants of Lulala.”
So we went through the silent ruins. Ayesha walked, or rather glided a
pace or two ahead, then came Umslopogaas and I side by side, while at
our heels followed Hans, very close at our heels since he did not wish
to be out of reach of the virtue of the Great Medicine and incidentally
of the protection of axe and rifle.
Thus we marched surrounded by the solemn guard for something between a
quarter and half a mile, till at length we climbed the debris of a
mighty wall that once had encompassed the city, and by the moonlight
saw beneath us a vast hollow which clearly at some unknown time had
been the bed of an enormous moat and filled with water.
Now, however, it was dry and all about its surface were dotted numerous
camp-fires round which men were moving, also some women who appeared to
be engaged in cooking food. At a little distance too, upon the further
edge of the moat-like depression were a number of white-robed
individuals gathered in a circle about a large stone upon which
something was stretched that resembled the carcase of a sheep or goat,
and round these a great number of spectators.
“The priests of Lulala who make sacrifice to the moon, as they do night
by night, save when she is dead,” said Ayesha, turning back towards me
as though in answer to the query which I had conceived but left
unuttered.
What struck me about the whole scene was its extraordinary animation
and briskness. All the folk round the fires and outside of them moved
about quickly and with the same kind of liveliness which might animate
a camp of more natural people at the rising of the sun. It was as
though they had just got up full of vigour to commence their daily, or
rather their nightly round, which in truth was the case, since as Hans
discovered, by habitude these Amahagger preferred to sleep during the
day unless something prevented them, and to carry on the activities of
life at night. It only remains to add that there seemed to be a great
number of them, for their fires following the round of the dry moat,
stretched further than I could see.
Scrambling down the crumpled wall by a zig-zag pathway, we came upon
the outposts of the army beneath us who challenged, then seeing with
whom they had to do, fell flat upon their faces, leaving their great
spears, which had iron spikes on their shafts like to those of the
Masai, sticking in the ground beside them.
We passed on between some of the fires and I noted how solemn and
gloomy, although handsome, were the countenances of the folk by whom
these were surrounded. Indeed, they looked like denizens of a different
world to ours, one alien to the kindly race of men. There was nothing
social about these Amahagger, who seemed to be a people labouring under
some ancient ancestral curse of which they could never shake off the
memory. Even the women rarely smiled; their clear-cut, stately
countenances remained stern and set, except when they glowered at us
incuriously. Only when Ayesha passed they prostrated themselves like
the rest.
We went on through them and across the moat, climbing its further slope
and here suddenly came upon a host of men gathered in a hollow square,
apparently in order to receive us. They stood in ranks of five or six
deep and their spear-points glimmering in the moonlight looked like
long bands of level steel. As we entered the open side of the square
all these spears were lifted. Thrice they were lifted and at each
uplifting there rose a deep-throated cry of _Hiya_, which is the Arabic
for She, and I suppose was a salutation to Ayesha.
She swept on taking no heed, till we came to the centre of the square
where a number of men were gathered who prostrated themselves in the
usual fashion. Motioning to them to rise she said,
“Captains, this very night within two hours we march against Rezu and
the sun-worshippers, since otherwise as my arts tell me, they march
against us. She-who-commands is immortal, as your fathers have known
from generation to generation, and cannot be destroyed; but you, her
servants, can be destroyed, and Rezu, who also has drunk of the Cup of
Life, out-numbers you by three to one and prepares a queen to set up in
my place over his own people and such of you as remain. As though,” she
added with a contemptuous laugh, “any woman of a day could take my
place.”
She paused and the spokesman of the captains said,
“We hear, O Hiya, and we understand. What wouldst thou have us do, O
Lulala-come-to-earth? The armies of Rezu are great and from the
beginning he has hated thee and us, also his magic is as thy magic and
his length of days as thy length of days. How then can we who are few,
three thousand men at the most, match ourselves against Rezu, Son of
the Sun? Would it not be better that we should accept the terms of
Rezu, which are light, and acknowledge him as our king?”
As she heard these words I saw the tall shape of Ayesha quiver beneath
her robes, as I think, not with fear but with rage, because the meaning
of them was clear enough, namely that rather than risk a battle with
Rezu, these people were contemplating surrender and her own deposition,
if indeed she could be deposed. Still she answered in a quiet voice,
“It seems that I have dealt too gently with you and with your fathers,
Children of Lulala, whose shadow I am here upon the earth, so that
because you only see the scabbard, you have forgotten the sword within
and that it can shine forth and smite. Well, why should I be wrath
because the brutish will follow the law of brutes, though it be true
that I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I less
merciful I would leave you to the clutching hands of Rezu, who would
drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your
hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his heat. But I
bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I
knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you
from yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.
“Take counsel together now and say—Will you fight against Rezu, or will
you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow’s sun I
will begone, taking these with me,” and she pointed to us, “whom I have
summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are
the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,
“‘Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and
save us from this hell?’
“Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear
no more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you
and your ways.”
The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha
stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the
situation.
It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against
their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral
nature, one that emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered
was, being what she seemed to be, why she thought it worth while to
exercise it at all. Then I remembered her statement that here and
nowhere else she must abide for some secret reason, until a certain
mystical gentleman with a Greek name came to fetch her away from this
appointed _rendezvous_. Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or
rather, suffering as she did from hallucinations, believed herself to
have no choice and was obliged to put up with a crowd of disagreeable
savages in quarters which were sadly out of repair.
Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,
“If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
Hiya?”
“My wisdom shall be your guide,” she answered, “this white man shall be
your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face to
face and bring him to the dust,” and she pointed to Umslopogaas leaning
upon his axe and watching them with a contemptuous smile.
This reply did not seem to please the man for he withdrew to consult
again with his companions. After a debate which I suppose was animated
for the Amahagger, men of few words who did not indulge in oratory, all
of them advanced on us and the spokesman said,
“The choice of a General does not please us, Hiya. We know that the
white man is brave because of the fight he made against the men of Rezu
over the mountain yonder; also that he and his followers have weapons
that deal death from afar. But there is a prophecy among us of which
none know the beginning, that he who commands in the last great battle
between Lulala and Rezu must produce before the eyes of the People of
Lulala a certain holy thing, a charm of power, without which defeat
will be the portion of Lulala. Of this holy thing, this spirit-haunted
shape of power, we know the likeness and the fashion, for these have
come down among our priests, though who told it to them we cannot tell,
but of it I will say this only, that it speaks both of the spirit and
the body, of man and yet of more than man.”
“And if this wondrous charm, this talisman of might, cannot be shown by
the white lord here, what then?” asked Ayesha coldly.
“Then, Hiya, this is the word of the People of Lulala, that we will not
serve under him in the battle, and this also is their word that we will
not go up against Rezu. That thou art mighty we know well, Hiya, also
that thou canst slay if thou wilt, but we know also that Rezu is
mightier and that against him thou hast no power. Therefore kill us if
thou dost so desire, until thy heart is satisfied with death. For it is
better that we should perish thus than upon the altar of sacrifice
wearing the red-hot crowns of Rezu.”
“So say we all,” exclaimed the rest of the company when he had
finished.
“The thought comes to me to begin to satisfy my heart with thy coward
blood and that of thy companions,” said Ayesha contemptuously. Then she
paused and turning to me, added, “O Watcher-by-Night, what counsel? Is
there aught that will convince these chicken-hearted ones over whom I
have spread my feathers for so long?”
I shook my head blankly, whereat they murmured together and made as
though they would go.
Then it was that Hans, who understood something of Arabic as he did of
most African tongues, pulled my sleeve and whispered in my ear.
“The Great Medicine, Baas! Show them Zikali’s Great Medicine.”
Here was an idea. The description of the article required, a
“spirit-haunted shape of power” that spoke “both of the spirit and the
body of man and yet of more than man,” was so vague that it might mean
anything or nothing. And yet——
I turned to Ayesha and prayed her to ask them if what they wanted
should be produced, whether they would follow me bravely and fight Rezu
to the death. She did so and with one voice they replied,
“Aye, bravely and to the death, him and the Bearer of the Axe of whom
also our legend tells.”
Then with deliberation I opened my shirt and holding out the image of
Zikali as far as the chain of elephant hair would allow, I asked,
“Is this the holy thing, the charm of power, of which your legend
tells, O People of the Amahagger and worshippers of Lulala?”
The spokesman glanced at it, then snatching a brand from a watch-fire
that burnt near by held it over the carving and stared, and stared
again; and as he did, so did the others bending over him.
“Dog! would you singe my beard?” I cried in affected rage, and seizing
the brand from his hand I smote him with it over the head.
But he took no heed of the affront which I had offered to him merely to
assert my authority. Still for a few moments he stared although the
sparks from the wood were frizzling in his greasy hair, then of a
sudden went down on his face before me, as did all the others and cried
out,
“It is the Holy Thing! It is the spirit-haunted Shape of Power itself,
and we the Worshippers of Lulala will follow thee to the death, O white
lord, Watcher-by-Night. Yes, where thou goest and he goes who bears the
Axe, thither will we follow till not one of us is left upon his feet.”
“Then that’s settled,” I said, yawning, since it is never wise to show
concern about anything before savages. Indeed personally I had no wish
to be the leader of this very peculiar tribe in an adventure of which I
knew nothing, and therefore had hoped that they would leave that honour
to someone else. Then I turned and told Umslopogaas what had passed, a
tale at which he only shrugged his great shoulders, handling his axe as
though he were minded to try its edge upon some of these “Dark-lovers,”
as he named the Amahagger people because of their nocturnal habits.
Meanwhile Ayesha gave certain orders. Then she came to me and said,
“These men march at once, three thousand strong, and by dawn will camp
on the northern mountain crest. At sunrise litters will come to bear
you and those with you if they will, to join them, which you should do
by midday. In the afternoon marshall them as you think wise, for the
battle will take place in the small hours of the following morning,
since the People of Lulala only fight at night. I have said.”
“Do you not come with us?” I asked, dismayed.
“Nay, not in a war against Rezu, why it matters not. Yet my Spirit will
go with you, for I shall watch all that passes, how it matters not and
perchance you may see it there—I know not. On the third day from
to-morrow we shall meet again in the flesh or beyond it, but as I think
in the flesh, and you can claim the reward which you journeyed here to
seek. A place shall be prepared for the white lady whom Rezu would have
set up as a rival queen to me. Farewell, and farewell also to yonder
Bearer of the Axe that shall drink the blood of Rezu, also to the
little yellow man who is rightly named Light-in-Darkness, as you shall
learn ere all is done.”
Then before I could speak she turned and glided away, swiftly
surrounded by her guards, leaving me astonished and very uncomfortable.