And now night once more descended upon East Utah, and the prisoner knew
that he had one day less to live. Still, he kept up heart and remained
on the _qui vive_ for any opportunity of escape; and this at last
presented itself, as he had feared and yet hoped, through the medium of
his friend the officer.
The Mormons had again withdrawn the night guard, taking only the
precaution of leaving Grenville's irons on him even while in prison, and
the officer, having said good-night and locked him in, quietly took his
way home; but he never reached it, for in another ten seconds his brains
were strewn about the roadway, his corpse thrown into the river, and
Amaxosa, possessed of the key, had opened the prison and was shaking
hands with his chief. He was, however, much taken aback at finding his
friend in chains; still, neither hesitated to plunge into the water,
which of course drowned the clanking of the irons, and both were soon
outside the walls, receiving the suppressed congratulations of
Myzukulwa.
Progress now proved very slow indeed, owing to our hero's fettered
state, and after a mile had been compassed in the water, unavailing
efforts were made to break or loosen the chains; then, seeing that much
valuable time was being lost, Amaxosa went ahead at a run to fetch the
quagga, whilst his brother assisted Grenville in his slow progress
towards liberty.
Never before had restraint appeared so irksome to our friend. It was
certainly probable that he was considered safe in his prison for the
night; but, on the other hand, should the prophet wish to talk with
him--a not unusual occurrence, as we have seen--at night, or should the
officer be missed by his friends, a search would of course be
instituted, the hue and cry raised, and knowing that he would strike out
for the plateau, the Mormons would immediately pursue him at speed.
Grenville fairly groaned at the thought of being again recaught in
consequence of their miserable and cowardly cunning in keeping him so
heavily ironed.
In East Utah it fell out precisely as the fugitive had feared; the
officer was wanted, searched for, and, as he could not be found, his
prisoner was next looked up; then finding the bird flown, the community
at once determined that treachery had been at work, and an hour after
Grenville's escape fifty men were on his trail, vowing deadly vengeance
upon their recreant officer, whilst he, poor soul!--or, rather, all that
remained of him--was bobbing up and down in the River of Death as it
glided sullenly along its course, carrying to the vast and wandering
ocean the message of the peaceful sky. When not quite half-way to the
plateau, and just as the fugitive pair reached a narrow forest track
where bush and timber was piled up like an enormous tangled wall on
either side, the Mormons overtook them, and Myzukulwa faced round as a
noble stag turns at bay, and determined to "die in silence, biting hard
amidst the dying hounds."
The moon streamed in at the entrance to the forest path and shone full
on his magnificent warlike figure, his stern forbidding face, and his
glittering spear, and for a moment the Mormons, being without fire-arms,
hung in the wind. Seeing this, the Zulu shook hands with Grenville.
"Let my father escape," he said; "he cannot fight with his hands tied,
and his faithful son, the child of the Undi, will stop this path--ay,
and pile it up with the dead bodies of these evil dogs, even as my
father slew them in hundreds by the dark River of Death; and when the
whole nation of these cunning witch-finders is dead, and my father is
free to come and go as he will, then let him think of his son Myzukulwa,
the son of Isanusi, and take away his body from these low people, and
bury him with his face towards the land of the people of the Undi. I
have spoken;" and giving Grenville a long and yearning look, which made
the tears start to his eyes, the Zulu turned to face the foe, and,
uttering his awful war-cry, struck down two of the Mormons who had
approached within reach of his spear.
Man after man went down, but coming at the splendid fellow so many at
the time with their long spears, the cowards continually wounded him,
and Grenville, who stood by, grinding his teeth in impotent rage, at
last had the pain of seeing his faithful friend borne to the ground,
fairly overpowered by numbers. Again springing to his feet, however,
the Zulu dashed up to the leader of the party, who was none other than
the last remaining member of the Holy Trinity, stabbed him to the heart,
and with a cry of victory fell dead across the corpse of the foe, his
life-blood welling out through a hundred gaping wounds, and the dead
bodies of upwards of a dozen Mormons bearing ghastly testimony to the
fact that Myzukulwa, the son of Undi, had died even as he had lived, as
a warrior, magnificently brave and fearless, as a friend faithful unto
death. Peace be with him!
The Mormons, having disposed of Myzukulwa, ordered Grenville to follow
them back to East Utah, which he did, first kneeling down and taking
from round the dead chief's neck a curious amulet which he always wore,
and which Grenville transferred to his own.
One of the guards, more inquisitive than the rest, asked why he did
this, and our friend boldly answered, "I'm not dead yet, you know; and
if I do get away, I swear to you I will kill a man of you for every drop
of blood that it has taken fifty of you cowards to draw from yonder
brave and true-hearted man."
For a time his captors preserved impassive silence, only hurrying him
along as fast as he could move whilst hampered by his fetters, and then
at length he was asked "what had become of the traitor."
"What traitor?" asked Grenville.
"What traitor? why, your late guard of course."
"Mormon," was the stern answer, "I might by admitting the truth of your
suspicion strengthen the position of my friends in your eyes, but I
cannot dishonour the memory of the brave and upright dead. Your
officer's corpse will be found in the River of Death, whither the hand
of the Zulu sent him. He was far and away the best man you had, and his
loss is an infinitely greater one to your community than that of the
wretched Prophet, as you call him, whose corpse you are at so much
trouble to carry now."
When at length the party reached East Utah, Grenville was at once
re-introduced to his prison, which was guarded by a patrol of ten men,
who were kept on duty for the remainder of the time of his imprisonment,
with drawn swords in their hands--such terror had the warlike address of
the little party at the plateau struck into the craven souls of the
Mormons; indeed, so much afraid were they of losing their prisoner that
a grave consultation was held as to whether he should not be killed at
once, to prevent any further risk arising from his escape. This,
however, they dared not do without the consent of the whole nation, the
Trinity having ceased to exist; and for the sake of saving one day it
was of course foolish to think of convoking a general assembly of the
Saints.