"Tell me now about this place, Jan Boom, and how you learned of its
existence," I said, for now in my feverish impatience I would rather
talk for the remainder of the night than go in to shut myself up with my
thoughts throughout its hours of silence.
"I will do better, _Nkose_, I will show it you," he answered. "_Whau_!
if we succeed in what we are to do--and we must if the three of you only
keep strictly to my directions--why then I may tell you; and with it a
tale so strange that you, or other white people, will give it half
belief or perhaps not any. Now I must go. There is still some of the
night left, and it is important that none should know we have talked or
even that I have been away from Isipanga. Return as silently as you
came, and to-morrow, well before the sun goes down ride up to the house
on a very lame horse."
"And with the other two?"
"With the other two. _Nkose_!" With which parting salute he was gone.
I waited a little, listening. No sound disturbed the dead silence save
here and there the ordinary voices of the night. Then I regained my
room.
Sleep was of course out of the question, and now I set to work
deliberately to marshal my thoughts and bring them to bear on the
situation. I felt no misgiving as to the Xosa's good faith--the fact
that he had agreed to my being accompanied by two tried and trusted
comrades seemed to prove that. Though had he stipulated that I should
have gone alone, I should, while prepared for any emergency,
unhesitatingly have accepted the conditions. Again, the reward was
quite enough to tempt a man of his courage, especially as he came of a
totally different race, added to which the corner of curtain which he
had just lifted was sufficient to show that he bore a grudge against the
witch doctor, not to say a very pretty feud. How and why this should
be, passed my understanding, but I knew enough of natives and their ways
to know that I didn't know them, as, indeed, I believe no white man ever
really does.
And the motive of this outrage? Clearly, it was due to some dark
superstition, as I had suspected from the very first. She had not been
injured up till now, would not be unless we failed to arrive in time.
There was unspeakable comfort in this, for I felt confident the Xosa was
sure of his facts. But what stages of horror and despair must she not
have passed through since her mysterious capture? Well the villainous
witch doctor should pay a heavy reckoning and those who had helped him;
and, thinking of it, I, too, was all eagerness he should be taken alive;
for a great many years of hard labour--perhaps with lashes thrown in--
which should be his reward, would be a far worse thing to him than a
mere swift and easy death.
Then followed a reaction. What if Jan Boom had miscalculated and we
arrived too late after all? A cold perspiration poured down me at the
thought. "She will die, and that not easily," had been his words. That
pointed to torture--oh good God! My innocent beautiful love! in the
power of these fiends, and sacrificed to their hellish superstitions,
and I helpless here! I seemed to be going mad.
No. That wouldn't do. I was letting my imagination run away with me in
the silence and the darkness, and above all I wanted cool-headedness and
strength. I must make up my mind to believe the Xosa's word and that
all would yet be well. By this time the next night she would be with us
again safe and sound.
Then I fell to wondering what sort of hiding-place could be found within
a walk--an easy walk apparently--of my dwelling, and it baffled me. I
could think of none. Moreover the surroundings had been scoured in
search of the missing Hensley, and nothing of the kind had come to
light. And then the first signs of dawn began to show, and I felt
relieved, for now at any rate, one could be up and doing.