`MAK' IS SENT IN.
The barracks of Illakaree did not form an attractive object in the
lovely landscape surrounded by hills, in and out amongst which the
Reptile River ran, for a building hastily raised of corrugated iron
never was and never will be beautiful.
"I say ugly," said Mark to his cousin, "but all the same I should like
to be inside one when there was a bad hailstorm. My word, what a shindy
there would be with the big stones--lumps of ice, I suppose, they would
be in a place like this--hammering down upon the zinc roof."
"The soldiers look cheery enough."
"And healthy," said the doctor.
"Thoroughly," said Sir James. "It is a pity they cannot make
arrangements down at the port to give their men a holiday up here."
They were close up to the captain's quarters, and he, catching sight of
the party, came out hastily to shake hands.
"Well," he said, in a light cheery way, "what can I do for you? How are
you getting on?"
"Excellently," said the doctor, "thanks to you. We have secured the
ponies, two waggons, and two span of oxen with their drivers."
"That's right. Have you got your forelopers too."
"Not yet, but I suppose there will be no difficulty about them."
"Not the slightest. We generally have one or two black fellows eager to
get a job with someone going up country. I will undertake to find them.
The oxen are all right, for I have seen them. You couldn't have had a
better lot, and you are quite right too over the ponies. Now, is there
anything else I can do?"
Before the doctor could speak, the frank, good looking young captain
turned to the boys.
"Nice lucky pair of young dogs you are--going on a natural history and
hunting trip like this! What wouldn't I give to come with you!"
"Well, come, then," said Sir James. "I should be delighted to
strengthen our party with such a companion. You know a good deal about
the country, don't you?"
"Well--yes. I have had two or three little excursions in the direction
you are going through the great forests and away on to where the old
stones are said to be, Dr Robertson," continued the speaker, turning to
that visitor.
"But I understood you to say that you had never seen them."
"No; I had to turn back, for my leave had nearly expired, and I came
away with the belief that there were no ruins, and that those who had
reported about them had seen nothing but some of the castle-like kopjes
that look sometimes at a distance like built fortresses of huge granite
stones. Still I have heard on the other hand that there are such ruins,
and that after their fashion the black tribes keep it a secret and look
upon the spot as a sort of Mecca--a sacred place which it is dangerous
to approach and which they will not allow the white man to come near for
fear he should be hurt, and from fear on their own part of the old
bogeys which haunt the ruins. I don't answer for this. It may be all
talk, and if I had time there is nothing I should like to do better than
to prove it."
"Then you think there is risk in going there."
"No," said the captain, "I really do not. If there were I don't think
that the guide would be so ready to undertake his task."
"But the ruins may exist," said the doctor; and the boys listened with
their ears wide open or well on the gape for news.
"Certainly; there is plenty of room," said the captain, laughing; "and
the black fellow I told you about, as far as I can make out from his
jumble of the Ulaka language and broken English, declares that he has
seen them--big stone kraals, he calls them."
"Well, why can't you come with us to see?" said the doctor. "It is
bound to be very interesting."
"Awfully," said the captain, "and there must be plenty of good sport out
there. I'll vouch for that."
"What shall we get?" asked Mark eagerly.
"Lions," said the captain, smiling--"plenty of them. Do you like lion
shooting?"
"How can I?" said Mark testily. "How could I? I never shot anything
bigger than a pheasant in my life. You are laughing at me."
"Oh, no," said the captain, patting him on the shoulder; "and I daresay
next time we meet you will have bagged one or more, and have the skins
to show me. Then you will get leopards, which by all means shoot, for
they are very mischievous. You will find plenty of hippos in the river,
and crocs too. That's why they call it Reptile River; and if you go on
far enough, as you ought to if you have plenty of time, you may get a
shot or two at giraffes. Ah, and as I say if you go on far enough you
may run against okapis."
"O--what, sir?" cried the boys eagerly.
"Oh, a curious new animal that they are reporting. They say it looks
half way between a giraffe and a zebra, and it's found in the great
central forests. Ah, boys, you have got a fine time before you, and as
I said before, I envy you both."
"Then why not think better of Sir James's invitation?" said the doctor.
"I am sure you would be able to assist us wonderfully. Say you will
come."
"Can't," said the captain firmly. "Duty. The people about here are
very peaceable now, but they may break out at any time; and suppose
there was an _emeute_ amongst these blacks while I was away shooting. I
thank you, Sir James, most heartily, but it is impossible. You will
have a capital guide, though, who will show you the way far better than
I could."
"Yes, the guide," said Mark hastily. "That's why we have come up this
morning."
"Well, you couldn't have come at a better time," said the officer. "He
has been far away, for some reason best known to himself, but he marched
into camp last evening, looking as if he were monarch of all he
surveyed."
"Then that's the man we saw!" cried Dean excitedly.
"Tall, black, fine-looking fellow, well built, and a savage chief every
inch of him?"
"Yes," said Mark eagerly; "and hardly any clothes."
"That's the man. There, I will send one of my men to fetch him here;"
and stepping to the window he called to the sentry on duty to pass the
word for someone to hunt out Mak and bring him there.
"Mak!" said the doctor, laughing. "What, have you got Scotch blacks
here?"
"Oh, no. We call him Mak because he is like one of the Makalaka.
Properly he belongs to a great tribe called the Ulakas, who used at one
time to occupy the kopjes about here. I suppose that is why this place
has come to be known as Illakaree."
Only a few minutes later the tall, stately-looking black of the
preceding evening was seen crossing the barrack enclosure, carrying his
spear over his shoulder and looking down with a sort of contempt at the
young bugler by his side, to which the boy retorted by looking up as
contemptuously at the stalwart black, thinking of him as a naked nigger.
"Now I don't wish to interfere," said the captain. "I only want to be
of service to you gentlemen out in this wild place, if I can. It is no
presumption to say, I suppose, that you can't understand the Illaka
dialect?"
"Certainly not," said the doctor. "I daresay I could get on if the man
addressed me in ancient Greek."
"Which he will not do," said the captain, laughing. "He will say very
little, and what he does say will consist of the most curious jumble of
English that ever man gave utterance to. So will you trust me to make
terms with him as to what he is to do and what he is to be paid? I
purpose offering him the same terms as were given to him by his last
employers. He wants very little--and no current coin. A good knife or
two and some brass rings will satisfy him. And as to his work that he
is to do for you, I tell you frankly that he will not do a stroke, but
he will tramp with you upon hunting expeditions till he will tire you
out; he will be as keen-scented as a dog, a splendid tracker of every
kind of wild beast, and if needs be he will fight for you bravely to the
death."
"Well, you couldn't give him a better character," said the doctor, "for
our purpose. But what bad qualities have you to put against this?"
"Oh, he is a very wolf at eating."
"Well, it's only fair that he should be," said Mark, "if he hunts for
and finds the meat."
"I quite agree with you," said the captain. "Then let me see; I did
tell you that he won't do a stroke of work. He is too great a swell--
for he really is a chief, and was beaten by a stronger party and had to
retreat for his life."
"But I say," said Mark, "how are we going to get on with him if he is
going to carry on in that stuck-up, haughty way?"
"Oh, that's nothing," said the captain, laughing. "He puts that on when
he comes into camp, to show his contempt for my men. A few of the larky
spirits teased him a bit some time ago, and he wouldn't stand it. But I
have seen a good deal of him, and he likes me because I wigged the men
and gave them to understand before him that I would have none of that
nonsense. Why, when he is away out in the forest or veldt with a
hunting party--and people treat him well--he is like a merry boy, a
regular child of nature. But treat him with contempt, and it raises his
bile directly. We are too fond of treating these natives as niggers,
but some of them are fine fellows, and as brave as lions--Pooh!
Nonsense! As brave as men can be. Yes," he continued, as an orderly
appeared, "send in Mak."
The fine-looking black stepped in, to stand in dignified silence,
looking keenly round at the party, while the captain spoke to him in
broken English which sounded somewhat like that of a weak old nurse
prattling to a child, and in answer to which the black responded with
the single word, "Good."
"There," said the captain, "I have explained everything to him,
gentlemen, and his word `Good' means that he will serve you faithfully,
and show you plenty of game, to find which he will take you to the
mineral forest where the trees are so high that it is nearly always
twilight, and after that guide you on to the great city where the old
people lived, and show you the mighty stones with which they built.
That's all, gentlemen. Metaphorically signed and sealed and witnessed
by your humble servant, Frank Lawton, of Her Majesty's 200th Light
Infantry."
"Thank you," said the doctor. "I never knew there was so much in the
one word good before."
Mark glanced at the black, who had been listening intently to the
doctor, and catching the boy's movement he fixed him with his eyes so
that they two were for some moments apparently trying to read each
other's thoughts.
"Well, you look all right," said the boy to himself, and his frank, open
countenance expanded into a pleasant smile.
At this the haughty face before him changed suddenly, as if so much
natural sunshine had flashed out, and stepping up to the boy he turned
his spear upside down so that the point of the keen, leaf-like blade
rested on the plain boarded floor of the captain's room, and bending
forward he laid the back of his right hand upon Mark's breast.
"Baas," he said, in a deep musical voice; and then moving slowly and
with dignity he passed round to each, to repeat the action and the word,
his eyes beaming upon everyone in turn, and then finishing off by
uttering once more the one word, "Good."
He then glanced at the captain and asked him some question, to which the
captain nodded.
The next minute he had glided bare-footed and silent out of the room,
while as the party watched they saw him march haughtily past the window
and away across the barrack yard.
"There, gentlemen, that's settled, then," said the captain.
"Settled?" said Sir James. "But I ought to give him what the country
people call a fastening penny, ought I not?"
"Oh, no, nothing of the kind."
"But about finding him when we want to start? For I want to get away
from here as soon as possible."
"You will not have to find him," said the captain, laughing. "He will
find you. You may see him hanging about, or you may not. But you may
depend upon one thing, that from henceforth he will be like your shadow.
Oh, but one word," the captain added. "Your men seem quiet,
respectable fellows, but it might be advisable for you to say a few
words to them about their treatment of your guide. You know what I
mean--about their looking upon him as a nigger. I don't think you need
speak to Buck Denham, the big bullock driver, nor to the Hottentot.
There."
Sir James and the doctor offered plenty of words of thanks, at which the
captain laughed.
"My dear sirs," he said, "not a word more. Put yourselves in my place
and suppose I came up country as you did. Wouldn't you have been as
pleased as I and our mess are to meet a brother Englishman so far away
from home? So not a word more but these: If ever I can serve you in any
way, here I am, and you know my name. There, boys, we will see you off
when you start, and fire a salute, just as if we had had a visit from
the Prince."