The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley Part 18

"Save me, save me, father!" yelled Kazimbi, rolling like a log at Dawes's feet.

"Keep cool, Ridgeley," muttered the latter. "Don't fire a shot, on your life."

Anything more ferocious and appalling than the aspect of these savages as they poured like a torrent upon the camp it would be hard to conceive. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Naked save for their _mutyas_, each had a red disc painted on his breast, and another between the eyes. They leaped high in the air as they ran, brandis.h.i.+ng their a.s.segais and great s.h.i.+elds, and, roaring in long-drawn, bloodthirsty cadence, their terrible slogan. It seemed as though no living thing there, whether man or beast, would survive the blind fury of their overwhelming rush.

And indeed it was a fearful moment for all concerned as they swarmed around the waggons. Gerard, well-nigh carried off his feet by the surging rush, doubted not but that his last moment had come, as the sea of spear-blades, some red and reeking with blood, flashed in front of his eyes, as the deafening vibration of the hideous shout stunned his ears. Still, his presence of mind never deserted him; still through it all he remembered Dawes's emphatic injunction to keep cool and offer no violence.

It was hard all the same, as he felt himself hustled here and there by the fierce horde. However, he was of strong and athletic build, and with a well-affected, good-humoured bluffness, he was able to push back the foremost aggressors without having recourse to any weapon.

"What have you got to sell, _abelungu_?" shouted the wild crowd, with a roar of boisterous laughter. "We come to trade--we come to trade."

"The way to trade isn't to raise all this abominable din," replied Dawes, coolly. "Sit down, can't you, and talk quietly."

A roar of derision greeted this.

"We are the Igazipuza, _'mlungu_," they shouted. "Ha--Come forth, you dogs!"

This to the Swazi fugitives who had slunk under one of the waggons, in the desperate hope that these terrible and dreaded warriors might take their departure as suddenly as they had appeared.

"Come forth, dogs--come forth!" they vociferated again. And daring no longer hesitate, the wretched Swazis crept trembling from their would-be hiding-place.

"Ha, you long-legged, wolf-faced jackal," cried a savage-looking villain, seizing Kazimbi by the throat, and placing the point of his a.s.segai against his breast. "What is your name?"

"Kazimbi, _Inkose_!" faltered the trembling Swazi.

"Kazimbi? _Hau_! not much _iron_ about you," jeered his tormentor in a great mocking voice. "_Whau_! I did not do that," he laughed, as some of the crowd behind wantonly or accidentally jogged his elbow, causing the blade of the a.s.segai to pierce the chest of Kazimbi, eliciting from that unfortunate a startled shriek, for the wound was a deep one, and the blood spurted forth in a warm jet. The bystanders yelled with laughter. The jest was excellent.

"I did not do it, but now I will." And maddened by the sight of blood, the ferocious savage drove the broad spear blade up to the hilt into the chest of the miserable Swazi, and continuing the blow by a swift, powerful, down-stroke, ripped open the whole body, which fell to the earth a horrible weltering ma.s.s. Raising their terrific war-cry, these human wolves cl.u.s.tered around it, stabbing, ripping, hacking, till soon the only distinguishable remains of the wretched Kazimbi was his bleeding heart, plucked out and reared aloft upon an a.s.segai point.

This shocking and appalling scene the two white spectators of it were powerless to prevent. Themselves hemmed in by the fierce crowd, now infuriate in its growing blood-l.u.s.t, their own lives hung upon no more than a hair. Another of the wretched Swazis was set upon and barbarously slaughtered, and then Gerard could stand it no longer.

Scattering all considerations of prudence to the winds, he threw himself in front of the three remaining victims, and drawing his revolver--as being more readily handled than the gun which he carried--presented it full at the ma.s.s of infuriated savages. And Dawes, himself hemmed in, seeing this, held his breath for the life of his young companion.

"Stand back!" thundered Gerard. "Stand back, you cowardly dogs!"

The voice, the act, the deadly weapon pointing right in their faces, the resolute countenance and flas.h.i.+ng eyes, had an extraordinary effect.

That one man should thus dare to beard them, the dreaded Igazipuza, in their might, to stand before their reddened spears in the thick of their blood fury, to wrest the prey from the raging lion in the act of devouring it, to throw himself between their wrath and a few miserable dogs of Swazis, struck these ferocious savages as little short of miraculous. To the wild fierce hubbub there succeeded a dead silence.

The forest of bristling spear-blades tossing aloft, dropped motionless.

Heads were bent forward and a sea of rolling eyeb.a.l.l.s glared upon the intrepid form of the young Englishman. Then from every chest went up a quick, deep-toned gasp of wonder--of amazement.

"Who is your chief?" cried Dawes, who had taken advantage of their momentary confusion to edge his way to the side of his young companion.

"Is this a horde without a leader? We are not at war with the Zulu people that an _impi_ should 'eat up' our camp and kill our servants.

Where is your chief?"

"Your servants have not been harmed, _Umlungu_," said a voice in the crowd. "There they are, your Amakafula. These were not your servants, only some miserable Swazi dogs, who had run away from you, as you yourselves just now told us. Have they not been well and rightly served?"

The crowd had parted, making way for the speaker, in whom our friends now recognised the man who had been talking with them prior to the startling interruption. He with the remainder of the group now came forward.

"Well, three of them have been killed, let the rest now be spared," said Dawes, who was not inclined to dispute the logic of the Zulu's dictum, and whose matter-of-fact nature was in the last degree averse to running any quixotic risk on behalf of the worthless fellows who had treated him so scurvily. "And now, if the Igazipuza wish to trade, let them sit down quietly and say so, if not, let them go their way in peace, and we will proceed upon ours."

This was pretty bold, considering how absolutely at the mercy of these turbulent barbarians was the speaker and his mere handful of companions.

But he thoroughly knew his ground. A bold and resolute att.i.tude is the only one which commands their respect, as indeed Gerard's intrepid and apparently foolhardy act served to show. And in pursuance of this idea he would not offer them even the smallest gift, at any rate until they became civil, lest they should construe the act into a concession to fear.

"We want to trade, _abelungu_, but not here," shouted several voices.

"Not here. At the kraal of our father, Ingonyama."

"Yes, yes. To the kraal of our father," repeated the crowd.

"You have not enough people to drive all that stock," cried a voice.

"We will help you."

"We will--we will," echoed the crowd, with a shout of boisterous laughter. And tearing away the thin fence of bushes which enclosed them, the savages began to drive out the cattle and sheep, p.r.i.c.king them with their a.s.segais, and roaring with laughter at the pain and terror of the poor beasts.

"Wait one moment!" cried Dawes. "We have hardly anything to trade, and are returning home. It will be very inconvenient to us to go out of our way. Take a couple of oxen and half a dozen goats as a present to your chief, Ingonyama, and tell him we hope to visit him at some future time.

Now we will keep on our way."

"No--no!" roared the crowd. "No--no! You cannot pa.s.s so near the kraal of our chief without paying him a visit. So come with us, _abelungu_.

We will help drive your cattle."

The tone though effusively good-natured was not to be mistaken. The best policy was to affect to believe the good nature genuine, and that these playful barbarians really were consumed with anxiety to show hospitality to the two white traders, instead of practically taking them prisoners. And that such they were admitted of no shadow of a doubt.

In a second the minds of both had grasped the situation. If they refused to proceed to Ingonyama's kraal, the Igazipuza would a.s.suredly plunder them of every hoof, for they were already driving off the stock--plunder them even it might be of the trek-oxen and the two horses. They might even take it into their heads to ma.s.sacre them, but this was improbable. So making a virtue of necessity, and giving his companion a hint to do the like, Dawes replied that since they and their chief were so anxious to have them as guests, why, they should have their wish. Then he gave orders to inspan.

Shouting, singing, and indulging in horseplay the savages crowded round, watching the process. Then as the waggons rolled slowly off, they would clamber into the huge vehicles, or hang on behind in cl.u.s.ters, roaring with laughter as some fellow tumbled off, or a whole bunch of them got jerked into the air by an unexpected b.u.mp. Indeed, it became difficult to drive the oxen at all. Gerard and Dawes were riding their ponies, surrounded by the group of ringed men who had first visited their camp.

These, though evidently men of authority, seemed little inclined to exert that attribute, and made no attempt to check the rowdiness and horseplay of the younger warriors. Among these latter the poor Swazis were having a bad time; being jeered and threatened, and in momentary fear of sharing the fate of their countrymen whose mangled corpses lay behind, another feast for the vultures. The Natal natives were treated with more respect--especially Sintoba, who, marching beside his span, seemed perfectly indifferent to all the brag and swagger of the armed crowd. Indeed, once or twice, when they pressed him too close, he menaced them with the b.u.t.t end of his long whip-handle.

Thus in the midst of their most unwelcome escort did our two friends proceed upon their enforced visit across the border of northern Zululand.

Note 1. The process of carrying out sentence p.r.o.nounced against anybody for witchcraft or other offence, and which may consist of the slaughter of the individual and the confiscation of his cattle and wives, or the ma.s.sacre of himself and his whole family, or even of his whole kraal.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"THE LION'S DEN."

The princ.i.p.al kraal of the Igazipuza lay in a great natural crater, surrounded by cliff-crowned heights. Like all the Zulu kraals it wore an excessively neat and symmetrical appearance in its perfect circular formation; the dome-shaped huts, which could not have numbered less than five hundred, standing between the double ring fences, which latter rose as high as a man's chin, and being constructed of the th.o.r.n.i.e.s.t of mimosa boughs tightly interlaced, presented a formidable _chevaux-de-frise_ to whosoever would cross or break through them. It was a large and imposing kraal, as became the residence of an influential chief, the head quarters of a powerful clan.

The situation of the place had evidently been chosen with no insignificant eye to strategy. Shut in by its amphitheatre of heights, the bushy hollow wherein it lay was accessible from one side alone, and that could only be approached by an exposed and toilsome climb up a long and rugged slope. A sentinel posted on the heights around could descry the advance of an enemy for miles, and all the fighting force could concentrate their efforts on the one accessible point. Of course a couple of field-pieces planted on the nearest cliff could have banged the place to rubbish in half an hour, but to foemen armed as themselves, or even with rifles, this stronghold of the Igazipuza was a very formidable fastness indeed, and not far short of impregnable.

All these points did Dawes and Gerard take in as, upon the afternoon of the third day following their compulsory enterprise, the waggons creaked and groaned behind their panting, toiling spans, up the rugged acclivity aforesaid, whither their live stock, urged on by its very willing if self-const.i.tuted drivers, had already preceded them in a now vanis.h.i.+ng cloud of dust. They noticed, too, on gaining the ridge whence they could look down upon the great kraal lying a mile or so before and beneath them, that the valley was one of considerable area, and though bush-clad was green and gra.s.sy. There was yet one thing more they noticed. Rising abruptly from the bush, about a mile and a half in the rear of the kraal, was a conical tooth-shaped rock, the more noticeable because it seemed to have no business to be there at all. It was a kind of excrescence on the natural formation of the ground, which was there smooth. Yet this strange pyramid, with its precipitous cliff-face, thus shot up abruptly to a height of nearly a hundred feet.

Their cogitations on this and other matters were interrupted suddenly, and in a manner which was somewhat alarming. From the tree-clad hillsides arose the same wild roaring shout which had preceded the ma.s.sacre of the unfortunate Swazi runaways, and they beheld charging down upon them from either side a band of armed men, shaking their s.h.i.+elds and a.s.segais by way of adding to the strength and hideosity of the uproar.

"All this dancing and bellowing is getting just a trifle thin--eh, Ridgeley?" said Dawes, with a touch of ill-humour, as the savages came surging round the waggons, and amusing themselves by yelling at, and now and again goading, the already panting and terrified oxen. The Swazis, who had not dared leave the sides of their white protectors, turned grey with fear. This was too much like what had preceded the slaughter of their companions.

But the Zulus in the present instance confined their aggression to mere boisterous noise. And then the kraal in front seemed suddenly in a turmoil. Heads could be seen peering over the palisades, and another body of warriors came swarming from its gates. These advanced, marching in regular orderly column, to meet the wild uproarious crowd which was swaying and surging around the slowly progressing waggons; and as they approached they began to sing. The burden of their song might be translated in this wise--

"Ho! the Lion's teeth are sharp, They bite, they tear; And the land is white with bones Round the Lion's lair.