In Search of the Okapi Part 59

From below there came a shrill clamour, but the Hunter, never pausing to give the creatures a thought, lifted Venning in his arms and felt his way to the cave, clambered up through the hole, found the other exit hidden by the mat, and crept down the broken pa.s.sage beyond. In a turn of the pa.s.sage they saw Compton's face peering out under a lighted candle, the one visible object in the darkness, set in a strained expression, in which were blended joy, anxiety, and wonder.

They gripped hands in silence, then--

"We've found the boat," said Venning.

"What is that noise down below?" asked d.i.c.k.

"Have you got any food?" This from Mr. Hume.

"A sackful."

"Then let us eat first of all."

They sat down there and then and ate, and when they had eaten they were silent, because the creatures below were silent too, and Mr.

Hume knew that then they were dangerous. He went back to stand behind the mat knife in hand, ready to attack, for now that he had got his two boys back, he said to himself grimly that he would stand no nonsense. Back in that dark pa.s.sage d.i.c.k sat with his friend's head on his shoulder, and one limp hand grasped in his, marvelling much at the mystery of the place and at the providential meeting. He had cause to wonder how Venning had borne the horrors of the underground as well as he had, for towards the morning it seemed as if those ghouls of darkness vied with each other in producing the most appalling shrieks, howls, and bursts of mirthless laughter.

They played ventriloquial tricks in the pa.s.sages and caverns, making the sounds come from different points after varying intervals of silence; and all the time, as could be gathered from occasional words in the incoherent gabble, uttering threats against the white men.

Then, at the very break of dawn, after a couple of hours of silence, the plot they had formed was put into shape.

"Ngonyama!"

Mr. Hume stepped out on to the platform. "Who calls?"

"It is I, the Inkosikase."

She was standing at the very parapet where he himself had leant when he saw the light borne by d.i.c.k on the spot where he now stood. She stood up boldly on the canon side of the great cavity, about fifty yards away.

"Your life was forfeit, Ngonyama, but I spared you--I spared you."

"I hear."

"You are but a mouse in these earth runs, Indhlovu."

The Hunter laughed, and the unseen creatures took up the laugh, flinging it back till the hollow places rang with the wild noise.

"Hear, and take heed. Take heed lest they fall on you. Wow! Ye have seen my power and the strength of my medicine in the stilling of the waters."

"It was Ha.s.san who stilled the waters. Say on."

"Yoh!" The woman paused, taken aback. "See, my medicine tells me you came here to search for the s.h.i.+ning canoe. Maybe I can tell you where it is hid by the wizards."

"I know, wise woman. Say on."

"Wow! But," she said triumphantly, "ye do not know the way out, and ye are helpless till I tell you."

"I know."

"Then why do you stay here?"

"Enough! I know the way out. What is your message to me?"

His confidence staggered her, and it was some moments before she could speak.

"But there is the young chief. Ye would save him. I will make a bargain with you for his life."

"He is here, woman."

d.i.c.k stepped out from the shadows, and she threw up her arms with a wail.

"Say what you have to say," said Mr. Hume, sternly, "for I see you would have some service of me, and had hoped to buy me with news I have no want for."

"Ngonyama, great white one, I am but a woman, and ye are too strong for me."

Mr. Hume nodded.

"I am a woman; only a woman."

"Was it a woman's task to set those ravens upon me and the young chief?"

"I am a mother, Indhlovu, and a mother's heart is strong for her child. I feared you because of my son. You were strong, and he trusted you. He was away, and you were left to do as you wished--to take his place, to destroy him. It is the way of men to use power for themselves."

"It is not my way."

"O great white one, give me counsel. The Arab thief has truly stopped the river, and the waters rise in the valley--rise among the gardens; and when Muata returns he will see water where there was gra.s.s."

"Ay, Muata will ask how this thing happened. And they will answer, because a woman interfered with his plans. The son will know that it was his mother who brought this evil on the place because she thought she could do better than Ngonyama."

"It is true; it is true," she wailed, beating her breast. "So tell me, great one, how this evil may be put right, but it must be done quickly, for the Arab has brought canoes up, and his men are in the valley ready to seize the women and children."

This was startling news indeed. "Canoes in the valley?"

"In the valley itself; and our men are scattered here and there on the ridges at the mercy of these wolves, though they fight hard.

Ngonyama, tell me!"

"There is only one thing to do," said Venning, joining in.

"I listen," she cried, leaning forward. "Quick, wise one. You who played with the little ones at the huts, you who talk to the ants, tell me."

"The one thing to do is to let the water in."

"Ye mock me," she cried fiercely.

"Let in the water, and the canoes will be dashed to pieces; the women and the little ones saved." "But how can this be done?"

"You know this place and the secrets of it. Those holes behind you that look out on the valley were made by hands. Is there no place where the wall is thin?"

The woman lifted up her hands and shouted a cry of exultation, then she ran swiftly, and they saw her presently standing above the V- shaped wedge in the wall, a deep scar in the cliff made by the fall of a portion of the rock. With wonderful agility she climbed down to the apex and set to work on the face of the rock with a kind of maniacal fury. When she climbed out to the top they saw she had drawn a square, with a mark at each corner plainly visible.