ALLAN WEEPS
On they came, slowly and steadily, preceded by a cloud of skirmishers—a
thousand or more of these—who kept as open an order as the narrow
ground would allow and carried, each of them, a bundle of throwing
spears arranged in loops or sockets at the back of the shield. When
these men were about a hundred yards away we opened fire and killed a
great number of them, also some of the marshalled troops behind. But
this did not stop them in the least, for what could fifty rifles do
against a horde of brave barbarians who, it seemed, had no fear of
death? Presently their spears were falling among us and a few
casualties began to occur, not many, because of the protecting wall,
but still some. Again and again we loaded and fired, sweeping away
those in front of us, but always others came to take their places.
Finally at some word of command these light skirmishers vanished,
except whose who were dead or wounded, taking shelter behind the
advancing regiments which now were within fifty yards of us.
Then, after a momentary pause another command was shouted out and the
first regiment charged in three solid ranks. We fired a volley point
blank into them and, as it was hopeless for fifty men to withstand such
an onslaught, bolted during the temporary confusion that ensued, taking
refuge, as it had been arranged that we should do, at a point of
vantage farther down the line of fortifications, whence we maintained
our galling fire.
Now it was that the main body of the White Kendah came into action
under the leadership of Ragnall and Harût. The enemy scrambled over the
first wall, which we had just vacated, to find themselves in a network
of other walls held by our spearmen in a narrow place where numbers
gave no great advantage.
Here the fighting was terrible and the loss of the attackers great, for
always as they carried one entrenchment they found another a few yards
in front of them, out of which the defenders could only be driven at
much cost of life.
Two hours or more the battle went on thus. In spite of the desperate
resistance which we offered, the multitude of the Black Kendah, who I
must say fought magnificently, stormed wall after wall, leaving
hundreds of dead and wounded to mark their difficult progress.
Meanwhile I and my riflemen rained bullets on them from certain
positions which we had selected beforehand, until at length our
ammunition began to run low.
At half-past eight in the morning we were driven back over the open
ground to our last entrenchment, a very strong one just outside of the
eastern gate of the temple which, it will be remembered, was set in a
tunnel pierced through the natural lava rock. Thrice did the Black
Kendah come on and thrice we beat them off, till the ditch in front of
the wall was almost full of fallen. As fast as they climbed to the top
of it the White Kendah thrust them through with their long spears, or
we shot them with our rifles, the nature of the ground being such that
only a direct frontal attack was possible.
In the end they drew back sullenly, having, as we hoped, given up the
assault. As it turned out, this was not so. They were only resting and
waiting for the arrival of their reserve. It came up shouting and
singing a war-song, two thousand strong or more, and presently once
more they charged like a flood of water. We beat them back. They
reformed and charged a second time and we beat them back.
Then they took another counsel. Standing among the dead and dying at
the base of the wall, which was built of loose stones and earth, where
we could not easily get at them because of the showers of spears which
were rained at anyone who showed himself, they began to undermine it,
levering out the bottom stones with stakes and battering them with
poles.
In five minutes a breach appeared, through which they poured
tumultuously. It was hopeless to withstand that onslaught of so vast a
number. Fighting desperately, we were driven down the tunnel and
through the doors that were opened to us, into the first court of the
temple. By furious efforts we managed to close these doors and block
them with stones and earth. But this did not avail us long, for,
bringing brushwood and dry grass, they built a fire against them that
soon caught the thick cedar wood of which they were made.
While they burned we consulted together. Further retreat seemed
impossible, since the second court of the temple, save for a narrow
passage, was filled with corn which allowed no room for fighting, while
behind it were gathered all the women and children, more than two
thousand of them. Here, or nowhere, we must make our stand and conquer
or die. Up to this time, compared with what which we had inflicted upon
the Black Kendah, of whom a couple of thousand or more had fallen, our
loss was comparatively slight, say two hundred killed and as many more
wounded. Most of such of the latter as could not walk we had managed to
carry into the first court of the temple, laying them close against the
cloister walls, whence they watched us in a grisly ring.
This left us about sixteen hundred able-bodied men or many more than we
could employ with effect in that narrow place. Therefore we determined
to act upon a plan which we had already designed in case such an
emergency as ours should arise. About three hundred and fifty of the
best men were to remain to defend the temple till all were slain. The
rest, to the number of over a thousand, were to withdraw through the
second court and the gates beyond to the camp of the women and
children. These they were to conduct by secret paths that were known to
them to where the camels were kraaled, and mounting as many as possible
of them on the camels to fly whither they could. Our hope was that the
victorious Black Kendah would be too exhausted to follow them across
the plain to the distant mountains. It was a dreadful determination,
but we had no choice.
“What of my wife?” Ragnall asked hoarsely.
“While the temple stands she must remain in the temple,” replied Harût.
“But when all is lost, if I have fallen, do you, White Lord, go to the
sanctuary with those who remain and take her and the Ivory Child and
flee after the others. Only I lay this charge on you under pain of the
curse of Heaven, that you do not suffer the Ivory Child to fall into
the hands of the Black Kendah. First must you burn it with fire or
grind it to dust with stones. Moreover, I give this command to all in
case the priests in charge of it should fail me, that they set flame to
the brushwood that is built up with the stacks of corn, so that, after
all, those of our enemies who escape may die of famine.”
Instantly and without murmuring, for never did I see more perfect
discipline than that which prevailed among these poor people, the
orders given by Harût, who in addition to his office as head priest was
a kind of president of what was in fact a republic, were put in the way
of execution. Company by company the men appointed to escort the women
and children departed through the gateway of the second court, each
company turning in the gateway to salute us who remained, by raising
their spears, till all were gone. Then we, the three hundred and fifty
who were left, marshalled ourselves as the Greeks may have done in the
Pass of Thermopylæ.
First stood I and my riflemen, to whom all the remaining ammunition was
served out; it amounted to eight rounds per man. Then, ranged across
the court in four lines, came the spearmen armed with lances and swords
under the immediate command of Harût. Behind these, near the gate of
the second court so that at the last they might attempt the rescue of
the priestess, were fifty picked men, captained by Ragnall, who, I
forgot to say, was wounded in two places, though not badly, having
received a spear thrust in the left shoulder and a sword cut to the
left thigh during his desperate defence of the entrenchment.
By the time that all was ready and every man had been given to drink
from the great jars of water which stood along the walls, the massive
wooden doors began to burn through, though this did not happen for
quite half an hour after the enemy had begun to attempt to fire them.
They fell at length beneath the battering of poles, leaving only the
mound of earth and stones which we had piled up in the gateway after
the closing of the doors. This the Black Kendah, who had raked out the
burning embers, set themselves to dig away with hands and sticks and
spears, a task that was made very difficult to them by about a score of
our people who stabbed at them with their long lances or dashed them
down with stones, killing and disabling many. But always the dead and
wounded were dragged off while others took their places, so that at
last the gateway was practically cleared. Then I called back the
spearmen who passed into the ranks behind us, and made ready to play my
part.
I had not long to wait. With a rush and a roar a great company of the
Black Kendah charged the gateway. Just as they began to emerge into the
court I gave the word to fire, sending fifty Snider bullets tearing
into them from a distance of a few yards. They fell in a heap; they
fell like corn before the scythe, not a man won through. Quickly we
reloaded and waited for the next rush. In due course it came and the
dreadful scene repeated itself. Now the gateway and the tunnel beyond
were so choked with fallen men that the enemy must drag these out
before they could charge any more. It was done under the fire of
myself, Hans and a few picked shots—somehow it was done.
Once more they charged, and once more were mown down. So it went on
till our last cartridge was spent, for never did I see more magnificent
courage than was shown by those Black Kendah in the face of terrific
loss. Then my people threw aside their useless rifles and arming
themselves with spears and swords fell back to rest, leaving Harût and
his company to take their place. For half an hour or more raged that
awful struggle, since the spot being so narrow, charge as they would,
the Black Kendah could not win through the spears of despairing
warriors defending their lives and the sanctuary of their god. Nor, the
encircling cliffs being so sheer, could they get round any other way.
At length the enemy drew back as though defeated, giving us time to
drag aside our dead and wounded and drink more water, for the heat in
the place was now overwhelming. We hoped against hope that they had
given up the attack. But this was far from the case; they were but
making a new plan.
Suddenly in the gateway there appeared the huge bulk of the elephant
Jana, rushing forward at speed and being urged on by men who pricked it
with spears behind. It swept through the defenders as though they were
but dry grass, battering those in front of it with its great trunk from
which swung the iron balls that crushed all on whom they fell, and
paying no more heed to the lance thrusts than it might have done to the
bites of gnats. On it came, trumpeting and trampling, and after it in a
flood flowed the Black Kendah, upon whom our spearmen flung themselves
from either side.
At the time I, followed by Hans, was just returning from speaking with
Ragnall at the gate of the second court. A little before I had retired
exhausted from the fierce and fearful fighting, whereon he took my
place and repelled several of the Black Kendah charges, including the
last. In this fray he received a further injury, a knock on the head
from a stick or stone which stunned him for a few minutes, whereon some
of our people had carried him off and set him on the ground with his
back against one of the pillars of the second gate. Being told that he
was hurt I ran to see what was the matter. Finding to my joy that it
was nothing very serious, I was hurrying to the front again when I
looked up and saw that devil Jana charging straight towards me, the
throng of armed men parting on each side of him, as rough water does
before the leaping prow of a storm-driven ship.
To tell the truth, although I was never fond of unnecessary risks, I
rejoiced at the sight. Not even all the excitement of that hideous and
prolonged battle had obliterated from my mind the burning sense of
shame at the exhibition which I had made of myself by missing this
beast with four barrels at forty yards.
Now, thought I to myself with a kind of exultant thrill, now, Jana, I
will wipe out both my disgrace and you. This time there shall be no
mistake, or if there is, let it be my last.
On thundered Jana, whirling the iron balls among the soldiers, who fled
to right and left leaving a clear path between me and him. To make
quite sure of things, for I was trembling a little with fatigue and
somewhat sick from the continuous sight of bloodshed, I knelt down upon
my right knee, using the other as a prop for my left elbow, and since I
could not make certain of a head shot because of the continual whirling
of the huge trunk, got the sight of my big-game rifle dead on to the
beast where the throat joins the chest. I hoped that the heavy conical
bullet would either pierce through to the spine or cut one of the large
arteries in the neck, or at least that the tremendous shock of its
impact would bring him down.
At about twenty paces I fired and hit—not Jana but the lame priest who
was fulfilling the office of mahout, perched upon his shoulders many
feet above the point at which I had aimed. Yes! I hit him in the head,
which was shattered like an eggshell, so that he fell lifeless to the
ground.
In perfect desperation again I aimed, and fired when Jana was not more
than thirty feet away. This time the bullet must have gone wide to the
left, for I saw a chip fly from the end of the animal’s broken and
deformed tusk, which stuck out in that direction several feet clear of
its side.
Then I gave up all hope. There was no time to gain my feet and escape;
indeed I did not wish to do so, who felt that there are some failures
which can only be absolved by death. I just knelt there, waiting for
the end.
In an instant the giant creature was almost over me. I remember looking
up at it and thinking in a queer sort of a way—perhaps it was some
ancestral memory—that I was a little ape-like child about to be slain
by a primordial elephant, thrice as big as any that now inhabit the
earth. Then something appeared to happen which I only repeat to show
how at such moments absurd and impossible things seem real to us.
The reader may remember the strange dream which Hans had related to me
that morning.
One incident of this phantasy was that he had met the spirit of the
Zulu lady Mameena, whom I knew in bygone years, and that she bade him
tell me she would be with me in the battle and that I was to look for
her when death drew near to me and “Jana thundered on,” for then
perchance I should see her.
Well, no doubt in some lightning flash of thought the memory of these
words occurred to me at this juncture, with the ridiculous result that
my subjective intelligence, if that is the right term, actually created
the scene which they described. As clearly, or perhaps more clearly
than ever I saw anything else in my life, I appeared to behold the
beautiful Mameena in her fur cloak and her blue beads, standing between
Jana and myself with her arms folded upon her breast and looking
exactly as she did in the tremendous moment of her death before King
Panda. I even noted how the faint breeze stirred a loose end of her
outspread hair and how the sunlight caught a particular point of a
copper bangle on her upper arm.
So she stood, or rather seemed to stand, quite still; and as it
happened, at that moment the giant Jana, either because something had
frightened him, or perhaps owing to the shock of my bullet striking on
his tusk having jarred the brain, suddenly pulled up, sliding along a
little with all his four feet together, till I thought he was going to
sit down like a performing elephant. Then it appeared to me as though
Mameena turned round very slowly, bent towards me, whispering something
which I could not hear although her lips moved, looked at me sweetly
with those wonderful eyes of hers and vanished away.
A fraction of a second later all this vision had gone and something
that was no vision took its place. Jana had recovered himself and was
at me again with open mouth and lifted trunk. I heard a Dutch curse and
saw a little yellow form; saw Hans, for it was he, thrust the barrels
of my second elephant rifle almost into that red cave of a mouth, which
however they could not reach, and fire, first one barrel, then the
other.
Another moment, and the mighty trunk had wrapped itself about Hans and
hurled him through the air to fall on to his head and arms thirty or
forty feet away.
Jana staggered as though he too were about to fall; recovered himself,
swerved to the right, perhaps to follow Hans, stumbled on a few paces,
missing me altogether, then again came to a standstill. I wriggled
myself round and, seated on the pavement of the court, watched what
followed, and glad am I that I was able to do so, for never shall I
behold such another scene.
First I saw Ragnall run up with a rifle and fire two barrels at the
brute’s head, of which he took no notice whatsoever. Then I saw his
wife, who in this land was known as the Guardian of the Child, issuing
from the portals of the second court, dressed in her goddess robes,
wearing the cap of bird’s feathers, attended by the two priestesses
also dressed as goddesses, as we had seen her on the morning of
sacrifice, and holding in front of her the statue of the Ivory Child.
On she came quite quietly, her wide, empty eyes fixed upon Jana. As she
advanced the monster seemed to grow uneasy. Turning his head, he lifted
his trunk and thrust it along his back until it gripped the ankle of
the King Simba, who all this while was seated there in his chair making
no movement.
With a slow, steady pull he dragged Simba from the chair so that he
fell upon the ground near his left foreleg. Next very composedly he
wound his trunk about the body of the helpless man, whose horrified
eyes I can see to this day, and began to whirl him round and round in
the air, gently at first but with a motion that grew ever more rapid,
until the bright chains on the victim’s breast flashed in the sunlight
like a silver wheel. Then he hurled him to the ground, where the poor
king lay a mere shattered pulp that had been human.
Now the priestess was standing in front of the beast-god, apparently
quite without fear, though her two attendants had fallen back. Ragnall
sprang forward as though to drag her away, but a dozen men leapt on to
him and held him fast, either to save his life or for some secret
reason of their own which I never learned.
Jana looked down at her and she looked up at Jana. Then he screamed
furiously and, shooting out his trunk, snatched the Ivory Child from
her hands, whirled it round as he had whirled Simba, and at last dashed
it to the stone pavement as he had dashed Simba, so that its substance,
grown brittle in the passage of the ages, shattered into ten thousand
fragments.
At this sight a great groan went up from the men of the White Kendah,
the women dressed as goddesses shrieked and tore their robes, and
Harût, who stood near, fell down in a fit or faint.
Once more Jana screamed. Then slowly he knelt down, beat his trunk and
the clattering metal balls upon the ground thrice, as though he were
making obeisance to the beautiful priestess who stood before him,
shivered throughout his mighty bulk, and rolled over—dead!
The fighting ceased. The Black Kendah, who all this while had been
pressing into the court of the temple, saw and stood stupefied. It was
as though in the presence of events to them so pregnant and terrible
men could no longer lift their swords in war.
A voice called: “The god is dead! The king is dead! Jana has slain
Simba and has himself been slain! Shattered is the Child; spilt is the
blood of Jana! Fly, People of the Black Kendah; fly, for the gods are
dead and your land is a land of ghosts!”
From every side was this wail echoed: “Fly, People of the Black Kendah,
for the gods are dead!”
They turned; they sped away like shadows, carrying their wounded with
them, nor did any attempt to stay them. Thirty minutes later, save for
some desperately hurt or dying men, not one of them was left in the
temple or the pass beyond. They had all gone, leaving none but the dead
behind them.
The fight was finished! The fight that had seemed lost was won!
I dragged myself from the ground. As I gained my tottering feet, for
now that all was over I felt as if I were made of running water, I saw
the men who held Ragnall loose their grip of him. He sprang to where
his wife was and stood before her as though confused, much as Jana had
stood, Jana against whose head he rested, his left hand holding to the
brute’s gigantic tusk, for I think that he also was weak with toil,
terror, loss of blood and emotion.
“Luna,” he gasped, “Luna!”
Leaning on the shoulder of a Kendah man, I drew nearer to see what
passed between them, for my curiosity overcame my faintness. For quite
a long while she stared at him, till suddenly her eyes began to change.
It was as though a soul were arising in their emptiness as the moon
arises in the quiet evening sky, giving them light and life. At length
she spoke in a slow, hesitating voice, the tones of which I remembered
well enough, saying:
“Oh! George, that dreadful brute,” and she pointed to the dead
elephant, “has killed our baby. Look at it! Look at it! We must be
everything to each other now, dear, as we were before it came—unless
God sends us another.”
Then she burst into a flood of weeping and fell into his arms, after
which I turned away. So, to their honour be it said, did the Kendah,
leaving the pair alone behind the bulk of dead Jana.
Here I may state two things: first, that Lady Ragnall, whose bodily
health had remained perfect throughout, entirely recovered her reason
from that moment. It was as though on the shattering of the Ivory Child
some spell had been lifted off her. What this spell may have been I am
quite unable to explain, but I presume that in a dim and unknown way
she connected this effigy with her own lost infant and that while she
held and tended it her intellect remained in abeyance. If so, she must
also have connected its destruction with the death of her own child
which, strangely enough, it will be remembered, was likewise killed by
an elephant. The first death that occurred in her presence took away
her reason, the second seeming death, which also occurred in her
presence, brought it back again!
Secondly, from the moment of the destruction of her boy in the streets
of the English country town to that of the shattering of the Ivory
Child in Central Africa her memory was an utter blank, with one
exception. This exception was a dream which a few days later she
narrated to Ragnall in my presence. That dream was that she had seen
him and Savage sleeping together in a native house one night. In view
of a certain incident recorded in this history I leave the reader to
draw his own conclusions as to this curious incident. I have none to
offer, or if I have I prefer to keep them to myself.
Leaving Ragnall and his wife, I staggered off to look for Hans and
found him lying senseless near the north wall of the temple. Evidently
he was beyond human help, for Jana seemed to have crushed most of his
ribs in his iron trunk. We carried him to one of the priest’s cells and
there I watched him till the end, which came at sundown.
Before he died he became quite conscious and talked with me a good
deal.
“Don’t grieve about missing Jana, Baas,” he said, “for it wasn’t you
who missed him but some devil that turned your bullets. You see, Baas,
he was bewitched against you white men. When you look at him closely
you will find that the Lord Igeza missed him also” (strange as it may
seem, this proved to be the case), “and when you managed to hit the tip
of his tusk with the last ball the magic was wearing off him, that’s
all. But, Baas, those Black Kendah wizards forgot to bewitch him
against the little yellow man, of whom they took no account. So I hit
him sure enough every time I fired at him, and I hope he liked the
taste of my bullets in that great mouth of his. He knew who had sent
them there very well. That’s why he left you alone and made for me, as
I had hoped he would. Oh! Baas, I die happy, quite happy since I have
killed Jana and he caught me and not you, me who was nearly finished
anyhow. For, Baas, though I didn’t say anything about it, a thrown
spear struck my groin when I went down among the Black Kendah this
morning. It was only a small cut, which bled little, but as the
fighting went on something gave way and my inside began to come through
it, though I tied it up with a bit of cloth, which of course means
death in a day or two.” (Subsequent examination showed me that Hans’s
story of this wound was perfectly true. He could not have lived for
very long.)
“Baas,” he went on after a pause, “no doubt I shall meet that Zulu lady
Mameena to-night. Tell me, is she really entitled to the royal salute?
Because if not, when I am as much a spook as she is I will not give it
to her again. She never gave me my titles, which are good ones in their
way, so why should I give her the _Bayéte_, unless it is hers by right
of blood, although I am only a little ‘yellow dog’ as she chose to call
me?”
As this ridiculous point seemed to weigh upon his mind I told him that
Mameena was not even of royal blood and in nowise entitled to the
salute of kings.
“Ah!” he said with a feeble grin, “then now I shall know how to deal
with her, especially as she cannot pretend that I did not play my part
in the battle, as she bade me do. Did you see anything of her when Jana
charged, Baas, because I thought I did?”
“I seemed to see something, but no doubt it was only a fancy.”
“A fancy? Explain to me, Baas, where truths end and fancies begin and
whether what we think are fancies are not sometimes the real truths.
Once or twice I have thought so of late, Baas.”
I could not answer this riddle, so instead I gave him some water which
he asked for, and he continued:
“Baas, have you any messages for the two Shining ones, for her whose
name is holy and her sister, and for the child of her whose name is
holy, the Missie Marie, and for your reverend father, the Predikant? If
so, tell it quickly before my head grows too empty to hold the words.”
I will confess, however foolish it may seem, that I gave him certain
messages, but what they were I shall not write down. Let them remain
secret between me and him. Yes, between me and him and perhaps those to
whom they were to be delivered. For after all, in his own words, who
can know exactly where fancies end and truths begin, and whether at
times fancies are not the veritable truths in this universal mystery of
which the individual life of each of us is so small a part?
Hans repeated what I had spoken to him word for word, as a native does,
repeated it twice over, after which he said he knew it by heart and
remained silent for a long while. Then he asked me to lift him up in
the doorway of the cell so that he might look at the sun setting for
the last time, “for, Baas,” he added, “I think I am going far beyond
the sun.”
He stared at it for a while, remarking that from the look of the sky
there should be fine weather coming, “which will be good for your
journey towards the Black Water, Baas, with all that ivory to carry.”
I answered that perhaps I should never get the ivory from the graveyard
of the elephants, as the Black Kendah might prevent this.
“No, no, Baas,” he replied, “now that Jana is dead the Black Kendah
will go away. I know it, I know it!”
Then he wandered for a space, speaking of sundry adventures we had
shared together, till quite before the last indeed, when his mind
returned to him.
“Baas,” he said, “did not the captain Mavovo name me Light-in-Darkness,
and is not that my name? When you too enter the Darkness, look for that
Light; it will be shining very close to you.”
He only spoke once more. His words were:
“Baas, I understand now what your reverend father, the Predikant, meant
when he spoke to me about Love last night. It had nothing to do with
women, Baas, at least not much. It was something a great deal bigger,
Baas, something as big as what I feel for you!”
Then Hans died with a smile on his wrinkled face.
I wept!