The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley Part 16

"So?" said Dawes again. "Now, listen, Sintoba. No one ever played me any such trick with impunity, and it is not going to be done to-day. Do you and Fulani stroll up to me while I am talking to them--quite quietly, you know, as if you were looking for a _ram_ or something which might be in the waggon. My answer to them shall not be given in a corner. Now go away, or they will suspect."

"What is to be the programme?" said Gerard, when they were alone; for although far from having attained Dawes's ease and fluency in the Zulu language, still he had learned a great deal, and understood the burden of the above, if not every word.

"Simplicity itself, Ridgeley, as you'll see directly," replied Dawes, sipping his steaming coffee with the utmost deliberation. "But I think our Swazi friends will not shape a course for their own country to-day.

Ah, here they come."

The Swazis, to the number of six, were approaching from their side of the camp. It could be seen that they had rolled up all their effects into bundles, which were lying where they had slept. Their spokesman, a tall, lanky, wolf-faced fellow, named Kazimbi, asked if they could speak to the Inkose.

"Not yet, Kazimbi," replied Dawes, imperturbably. "Wait until I have done my coffee."

The men drew back and stood talking in smothered whispers. Dawes finished his cup, and filled himself up another, taking rather longer over it than he would ordinarily have done. Then he lighted his pipe.

"Now I am ready," he said, rising and strolling over to the waggon, where he seated himself on the disselboom. Gerard, who had hardly been able to restrain his impatience, followed.

"The people want to go home, Inkose," began Kazimbi, when they had ranged themselves in front of the two white men. "They are tired."

"Or frightened?" said Dawes, quietly.

"They are grateful to you, Inkose, and call you their father. But the way is long they say, far longer than they expected it would be when they were induced to leave their own country. They are tired and footsore and want to return."

"That is not all, Kazimbi. They are frightened."

"_Whou_!" exclaimed the man with a half smile, and bringing his hand to his mouth with a rapid gesture. Then realising the futility of any further humbug, he said. "That is so, Inkose. We Amaswazi are not as you white people. The Amazulu hate us. There is an _impi_ of them sent to harry our border, to kill our people, although we are not at war. We fear to go any further. This is the country of the Igazipuza. We fear them. We do not want to be killed by the Igazipuza."

And an emphatic hum of approval arose from his compatriots at the speaker's words.

"I cease to wonder that the Amazulu despise you," said Dawes, calmly.

"I cease to wonder that brave men such as they should look upon you Amaswazi as a nation of dogs, when six of its men, at the first chance of danger, wish to run away, and leave those who have paid and fed them, to bear its full brunt. Are you not dogs even to hint at such a thing?"

The Swazis looked at each other, sullen but not ashamed.

"It is this way, Inkose," pursued the spokesman. "It is we who are in danger, not you. The Amazulu have no enmity against you white people.

They will not harm you. They respect you. But it is us they hate. The Igazipuza will kill us and drink our blood. We must save our lives while there is yet time."

"Now have my ears been filled with the words of a fool, Kazimbi,"

replied Dawes. "Listen! You say you wish to return to your own country because you fear these Igazipuza. You say in the same breath that they respect us whites and hate and despise you Amaswazi. Now are you not therefore far safer when with us, as part of ourselves, as the hands and feet of the people these Igazipuza respect, than you would be when wandering through the country by yourselves? Then indeed would they not cut the hearts out of you and drink your blood, O fool, Kazimbi, tongue and mouthpiece of five other fools? And would you not deserve it?"

Disconcerted, abashed, and somewhat angry at the quiet but cutting irony thus turned upon him, Kazimbi made no immediate reply, while murmurs of impatience began to arise among his countrymen. Gerard, who had followed every word of the dialogue with the keenest of interest, noticed that Sintoba--and Fulani, the other waggon-driver, a big, strong, trustworthy native--had edged up close behind the group, though apparently engaged on some other business. The leaders, too, a couple of ordinarily intelligent native lads, were squatting hard by, watching the proceedings. None of these apparently were armed, whereas the Swazis all carried sticks.

"_Au_!" exclaimed Kazimbi sullenly, and throwing off all disguise. "Pay us our wage, and let us depart."

"If you depart it will be without your wage, which you will have forfeited by breaking your agreement and the agreement of your chiefs,"

said Dawes. "Are you prepared to face your chiefs with such a story?

Are you willing to throw away the wage of all this service?"

But the malcontents were past reason. The turbulent murmurs grew in volume.

"We must go!" they cried. "Wage or no wage we will go. We do not want to be killed by the Igazipuza."

"Well, I say you shall not go," said Dawes, rising to his feet.

"_Hau_!" burst from the group. "_Hau_! we are going now." And an insolent laugh went up.

"Stand! The first who moves is a dead man."

The defiant laugh died in their throats. They gazed in direst consternation at the revolver presented full at them, at the resolute grey eyes behind it--at the two revolvers, for Gerard, quick to grasp the situation had covered them with his. The complete turning of the tables was ludicrous.

"We hold twelve lives here," said Dawes, "and you are but six. The first man who moves will be shot dead, and once we begin shooting, in half a minute there will not be one of you left standing. Now you, Kazimbi, walk six paces away from the rest. Only six."

Grey with apprehension, the Swazi obeyed. No sooner had he gained the requisite distance than he was seized from behind by Sintoba and Fulani, and securely bound with _reims_. The others standing huddled together like sheep, still covered by the deadly six-shooters, whose dread capacities they knew only too well, were round-eyed with fear. And behind them they caught a glimpse of the two leaders, each armed with a broad-bladed stabbing a.s.segai, which had come forth from some cunning place of concealment.

"Tie him across the waggon wheel," said Dawes. And in a trice the spokesman of the malcontents was spread-eagled across the wheel, triangled in such wise that he could move neither hand nor foot.

Dawes took a couple of _reims_ from an after-ox yoke, and deliberately tied a knot in each. No longer was there any necessity to hold the others covered with the pistols. They were completely cowed. Then speaking, he said--

"You are a set of miserable cowards, you Amaswazi. You thought yourselves just strong enough to defy me and run away and leave me in the lurch, but you have found out your mistake. Now this is my word to you. You will return to your duties as before, until I choose to dismiss you, and it will depend upon your future behaviour whether I shall fine you a part of your wage for this mutinous conduct or not.

You will either do this or--face the other alternative. Here it is. If you refuse, you may go. But you go without food or blankets or arms, not even a stick. Very likely I shall follow you up in the bush, and shoot some or all of you. But I shall not shoot you dead, only in the leg or somewhere that will disable you. Then when the Igazipuza find you, as I have no doubt they will, it is no swift and easy death that will be yours. I should not wonder if they spent the whole day burning you with fire. Even if you escape them and return home, what will your chief say to you for deserting me, and thus causing him to break his word, for by some means or other I will take care to let him know. But, first of all, I shall spend the whole morning flogging Kazimbi here. I believe him to be the fomenter of all the discontent. I think he may very likely die under the lash before I have done with him, but am not sure. Now take your choice. Which is it to be?" concluded Dawes, whirling the knotted _reims_ in the air, and bringing them down with a sounding swish upon the disselboom of the waggon.

The Swazis, completely cowed, stared stupidly at the speaker. Kazimbi, triced up all ready for the lash, turned grey with fear, and moaned piteously for mercy. Whatever course the others might decide to follow, he would not desert, he protested. He would be the white men's dog to the end of time, only let them spare him now. It was hard that his skin should depend on the decision of the others, he pleaded--drawing down upon himself the somewhat grimly ironical retort that, whereas he had been their spokesman, now they were his.

"We will remain as before," said the others, almost immediately. "We will fulfil our duties until we are no longer wanted."

"Very good," said Dawes, with the self-possession of a man who had foreseen this result all along. "Untie Kazimbi."

On returning to where they had left their property, such of the Swazis as possessed a.s.segais found that those weapons had been removed. Their sticks only were left them. Then orders were given to inspan and the trek was resumed.

As though to obliterate their former misconduct, the behaviour of the malcontents was admirable. But the eye of their masters was ever upon them. Dawes and Gerard, riding on horseback, had a knack of turning up here, there, and everywhere during the trek. No opportunity for desertion was allowed them.

"I don't know quite what to think, Ridgeley," said Dawes, as they rode on a little ahead, about an hour before the evening outspan. "We've squashed their devilment for the time being, but, after all, we are very much at their mercy. The _schelms_ might hook it any hour of the night they chose, for all we'd be the wiser. We can't mount guard over them all night--besides, it's bad policy."

"Why shouldn't we mount guard over them all night--one of us by turns?

It would be no joke if they did clear out. We should be mighty short handed with all the trek stock. Besides, they might betray us to these Igazipuza they seem in such a mortal funk of."

"Not the least chance of that. They'd get the worst of it themselves.

Besides the Igazipuza know all about us by this time--even if they haven't been watching us all along. Remember that fellow who killed our buck--Vunawayo!"

"The idea of being watched is distinctly demoralising," said Gerard.

"There's a sort of creepy, eerie feeling about the notion, don't you know."

"I'm inclined to plead guilty to something of an error of judgment,"

said Dawes. "A fellow of my experience ought to have known better than pooh-pooh any native story however tall. I didn't believe in the existence of these people, and now I do. The chap we met yesterday left us under no sort of doubt as to their existence. I'm afraid we shall have trouble with them yet. All this stock we've got along is temptation enough to any thieving gang. No. We ought to have avoided this border altogether, and trekked straight down to Luneburg. Well it's of no use now talking of what ought to have been done. We must just push on and trust to luck to get us through."

Nothing in Nature suggested the brooding peril which overhung their path. The deep blue of the sky was without a cloud. The scenery of this beautiful wilderness, with its boldly outlined hills, was wild and romantic, but not forbidding. There was plenty of the smaller species of game to be shot for the going after--partridges and francolin, and a bush-buck or so--and the warm air was musical with the voices of ringdoves, with many a strange bird-call from the black strips of bush which belted the slopes of the hills.

"Hallo, hallo! What's all this?" said Dawes, suddenly, as they rounded a spur.

There was a prodigious flapping of wings, and a cloud of great white vultures rose from the ground to join a number of others which were wheeling lazily overhead. At sight of the hors.e.m.e.n, however, the swooping circles widened and the great birds darted off. In a moment they seemed to disappear.