"To save our lives I will reveal the spot unto thee. Come, it is but an
arrow's flight distant!"
The chief heard the words and sprang straight at her throat, but ere he
could reach her the Arabs pulled him down. She stood erect and queenly,
a splendid specimen of savage womanhood.
"Follow me," she cried, wildly, and twenty of the raiders, myself
included, sprang forward and accompanied her a little distance into the
jungle until we came to a great ironwood-tree. For a moment she halted,
with her back towards it, apparently taking bearings by a
cottonwood-tree with silvery bark, and then, counting thirty paces in
its direction, told us to search.
In a few minutes the dead leaves and fallen boughs were cleared,
revealing a floor of hewn wood, and this being torn up the coveted
treasure, consisting of more than a hundred magnificent tusks, was
discovered beneath.
Shouting with glee, the raiders rushed back to their leader, announcing
the news, and triumphantly dragging the chief's wife back with them.
Her three female companions cried loudly to the headman to release them,
but he only laughed brutally, and ordered the Arabs around him to put
them back with the other slaves. Then, finding to their dismay that the
headman's promise would not be fulfilled, the whole of the captured
women made the forest ring with howls of execration, and heaped upon the
raiders the most terrible curses their tongues could utter.
Meanwhile, the ivory was being pulled out of its hiding-place, and
allotted in burdens to the slave-carriers. The flames, now spreading
from hut to hut, leaped, roared and crackled, and a thick black smoke
ascended, drifting slowly over the tops of the giant trees.
Turning to the proud chief of the Avejeli, the headman, through the
negro interpreter, exclaimed,--
"I gave unto thee a chance to escape, but thou wouldst not accept it,
even though the liberty of thy wives depended upon thy word."
"The word of a follower of Tippu-Tib, like water fallen upon sand, is
never to be found again," Yakul answered.
Ngalyema bit his lip in anger, and waving his hand to those around him,
exclaimed in Arabic,--
"Bind him. Let the son of offal die!"
In a trice cords were slipped around the ankles, wrists and neck of the
unfortunate wretch in such a manner as to render him utterly powerless.
Then the Arabs asked,--
"Speak, O leader, in what manner shall the pagan's life be taken?"
"Take him yonder into the forest, and find a nest of red ants at the
foot of a tree. There bind him, smear upon him some plantain juice, and
let the insects devour him."
"Thou hast spoken well, O leader!" the brigands cried, exultingly, and
before he could realise the horrible fate that awaited him, the
unfortunate chief, whose only offence was the strenuous and gallant
defence of his home and his people, was hurried away into the jungle by
the joyful rabble.
The shouting of the men executing the brutal Ngalyema's orders could be
heard away in the forest, while the remainder of the bandits proceeded
with their work of relentless destruction. Not content with levelling
the villages to ashes, they cut down the plantain grove, trampled down
the corn, and destroyed the manioc, afterwards refreshing themselves
with draughts from a trough of banana wine found in the village.
When the party returned from securing the chief in a position where he
would be quickly eaten alive by the pests of the forest, the whole of
the fighting-men reassembled, apparently beside themselves with delight
at the complete mastery they had obtained over the savages. Piteous
appeal availed the unfortunate slaves nothing. They were beaten, cuffed
and tied together--two who attempted to escape, including the chief's
wife who had divulged the whereabouts of the ivory, being shot dead, and
their bodies kicked ruthlessly aside.
At length the raiders, headed by one of the captured women, who was
promised her liberty if she would act as their guide, moved forward
along a narrow track leading into the depths of the forest, enriched by
one hundred and thirty tusks, and nearly two hundred slaves.
As the men marched, onward, goading on the slaves with revolting
brutality, I lingered behind for a moment to pick up a curiously-shaped
axe that had apparently been forgotten. As I did so a loud, despairing
shriek fell upon my ear.
I glanced around. The last of the rear guard of Tippu-Tib's brigands
had disappeared along the dark track. I remembered that the register of
the actions of the righteous is in Illiyyun, the book distinctly
written: those who approach near unto Allah being witnesses thereto.
Again the piercing shriek was repeated, and I knew that the unfortunate
wretch, bound to a tree, was being tortured to death, and literally
devoured by a myriad insects. The injustice of his sentence caused me
to hesitate, and a second later I resolved to release him.
I had but a few moments in which to accomplish it, for I well knew that,
if discovered, my own life might be taken by the wild, bloodthirsty
horde, who were indeed companions of the left hand, whom Allah had cut
off, and over whom was the arched fire. Nevertheless, I dashed into the
jungle, axe in hand, and guided by the condemned man's cries, found him
lashed tightly to a tree, and already covered from head to foot by the
pests.
In an instant my axe severed his bonds and he sprang forward, and
falling upon his knees, gratefully kissed my feet, uttering many words
of thanks which I could not understand.
But I had not a moment to linger, therefore I gave him "peace," and
speeding back again to the smouldering ashes of the village, plunged
into the forest depths down the dark, narrow path my merciless
companions, the ivory-raiders, had taken.