For once I was able to agree with him.
We had dinner in the open, under the waggon sail which I had rigged up
as shelter from the sun, and which now did duty to give shelter from the
dew.
"I'm afraid it's all game fare to-night, Mrs Sewin," I said. "This is
roast bush-buck haunch, and that unsightly looking pot there beside the
Major contains a regular up-country game stew. I rather pride myself on
it, and it holds five different kinds of birds, besides bacon, and odd
notions in the way of pepper, etc."
"And that's what you call roughing it," was the answer. "Why, it looks
simply delicious."
"By Jove, Glanton, we must get the recipe from you," said the Major when
he had sampled it. "I never ate anything so good in my life."
Tom and another boy in the background, were deft when help was required,
and I know that if anybody ever enjoyed their dinner my guests did on
that occasion. And upon my word they might well have done so, for trust
an old up-country man for knowing how to make the best of the products
of the veldt; and the best is very good indeed. And as we partook of
this, by the light of a couple of waggon lanterns, slung from the poles
of our improvised tent, the surroundings were in keeping. On the open
side lay a panorama rapidly growing more and more dim as the stars began
to twinkle forth, a sweep of darkening country of something like fifty
or sixty miles, reaching away in the far distance beyond the Blood
River, on the left, and immediately in front, beyond the Tugela, the
wooded river bank and open plains and rocky hills of Zululand. Then,
suffusing the far horizon like the glow of some mighty grass fire, the
great disc of a broad full moon soared redly upward, putting out the
stars.
"Now this is what I call uncommonly jolly," pronounced the Major,
leaning back in his chair, and blowing out the first puffs of his after
dinner pipe.
"Hear--hear!" sung out Falkner. And then, warmed up into a glow of
generosity by a good dinner and plenty of grog, I'm blest if the fellow
didn't trot out quite a yarn about the cow chevying him and my timely
assegai throw; whereupon there was a disposition to make a hero of me on
the spot.
"Pooh! The thing was nothing at all," I objected. "An everyday affair,
if you're working with unbroken cattle."
Yet there was one face which expressed more than the others, expressed
in fact unbounded approval, as it was turned full on me with that
straight frank gaze, and I exulted inwardly, but then came a thought
that dashed everything and was as a judgment upon my quite unwarrantable
conceit. This was it. What if they are engaged, and that full, frank
look of approval is one of gratitude that I should have saved--if not
the life of the other--at any rate the certainty of him being badly
injured? It is singular that no such idea had ever occurred to me
before, but it did now, and seemed to lend significance to certain signs
of resentment and ill-will which I had noticed on Falkner's part on
occasions where his cousin was concerned. And the thought was a
thoroughly disquieting one, I admit.
"Listen! Here they come," I said, holding up a hand. "The
entertainment is about to begin."
The distant and deep-toned hum of conversation had reached us from where
our dusky entertainers were enjoying their feast, and an occasional
outburst of laughter. Now, instead, came the regular rhythm of a savage
song, drawing nearer and nearer.
"I think we can't do better than let them perform just in front here," I
went on. "The ground's open, and the moon almost as bright as day."
This was agreed to enthusiastically, and soon the singing grew louder
and louder, and the whole body in their picturesque gear, came marching
up, beating time upon their shields with sticks and assegai hafts. They
halted in half moon formation and one man stepping out from the rest,
gave the sign for silence. Then having saluted us with much _sibongo_,
he led off, in a sort of chant, loud and clear at first, then rising
higher and higher. The others took it up at a given point in response,
and although the song did not run to many notes, it was soon thundered
aloud in a harmonious wave of sound. When it had attained its highest
pitch, at a sign from the _choragus_ it ceased--ceased with such
suddenness as to impart an impression that was positively uneasy.
"Dashed effective, by Jove!" pronounced the Major, breaking the spell.
"Why, it is beautiful--positively beautiful," declared Miss Sewin. "The
harmony and the rhythmic waves of sound are perfect. Tell me, Mr
Glanton, what was it all about?"
"Oh, it was merely a song of welcome, improvised over yonder while they
were scoffing my cows."
"Really? Do you mean to say it was all impromptu?"
"Of course. That's the way these people do things."
"Won't they go over it again?"
"Oh, there's plenty more to come. Rather too soon for an encore yet."
While I spoke they were forming up again. This time they broke up into
a hunting song. When it seemed to have gained its height, it suddenly
ceased, and all darted away across the veldt till nearly out of sight in
the moonlight.
"What the deuce are they up to now?" said Falkner, filling his pipe.
"You'll see. Listen. Now they are returning with the game."
Again the voices broke forth, now returning as I had said, and swelling
higher and higher, in a long recitative uttered by some dozen, and
replied to in rolling chorus by the whole body.
"They are recounting their exploits now--what game they have got, and
how they got it," I explained, as the singing ceased.
"By Jove, are they?" cried Falkner. "Look here, Glanton, I've got an
idea. How would it be to scare up a hunt to-morrow, and get a lot of
these chaps to help? I'd like to see how they go to work in their own
way. That would be worth seeing."
"Well, it might be managed. What d'you think, Major?"
"A capital idea. But--hang it, we haven't got our guns."
"Oh, as to that," I said, "you could use mine. There's a shot gun and a
rifle, and a rifle and smooth-bore combined. That'll arm all hands."
"Well done, Glanton. You're a jewel of a chap!" cried Falkner,
boisterously. "The very thing. But, I say. How about arranging it
with them now. No time like the present, eh?"
The idea appealed to me exceedingly, not for its own sake, I fear, but
because it would afford an opportunity of detaining my guests--or shall
we say one of them--yet longer, perhaps even another night, for it would
be hard if I could not manage to prolong the hunt until too late for
them to return. Really Falkner Sewin was not without his uses in the
world.
"I think it would be simply delightful!" interjected that "one of them."
"We will be able to see some of it too, won't we, Mr Glanton?"
"Why of course, Miss Sewin. I'll send the boys up to some convenient
spot with lunch and we'll make a regular picnic of it."
The idea was received with enthusiasm. Only Mrs Sewin somewhat faintly
objected that they had a long way to go to get home afterwards. But
this I over-ruled by hoping they would not find my poor accommodation so
very trying that the prospect of another night of it--if the worst came
to the worst--should prove entirely out of the question.
Just then a group of men detached themselves from the rest, and came
over to us, to salute and ask how we liked the performance.
"This is Wabisa, the next biggest chief under Tyingoza," I said,
introducing the foremost, a tall, dignified head-ringed man. "Now, Miss
Sewin, here is a real chief. Tyingoza could not come to-night, but will
to-morrow morning."
"I'm so glad," she answered, looking at Wabisa with interest.
I gave them some roll tobacco which I had ready for them, and told my
boys to make them some coffee. The while I arranged for to-morrow's
bush-buck hunt. There was no difficulty about it at all, even as I had
expected. I could have as many boys as I wanted.
"They must hunt too, Wabisa," I said. "The white _amakosi_ want to see
if the assegai is a better weapon than the gun."
"_Ou_! That they shall see," laughed the chief.
"Is there going to be any more dancing, Mr Glanton?" said the youngest
girl.
"Yes. The best part. They're going to give us the war dance now," and
I suggested to Wabisa that it was getting late, and the white ladies
might be growing tired.
Of all native dances a war dance is the most catching, and this had not
long started before even the old Major found himself beating time with
his feet, while as for Falkner, it was all I could do to prevent him
from rushing in among them to take his part. The chant now rose quickly
to a ferocious roar, and as the dancers swayed and crouched, turning
half round, then leaping erect, while going through the pantomime of
striking an enemy, to the accompaniment of a strident death hiss, the
whole scene was vivid and realistic enough to have rendered some people
decidedly nervous. Then the thunderous stamping of six hundred feet,
the beating of sticks on shields, and the shrilling rattle of assegai
hafts--a sound not quite like any other I ever heard, and I've heard it
often--add to this the rolling of fierce eyeballs, and the waving of
tufted shields in the moonlight and you have a picture unrivalled for
thrilling and at the same time exhilarating terror. A gasp as of
involuntary relief went up from my guests as the thunder and racket
ceased with a suddenness of silence that was almost appalling in
contrast Miss Sewin was the first to speak.
"It is perfectly magnificent," she declared. "I for one don't know how
to thank you, Mr Glanton, for giving us such a splendid entertainment."