The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley Part 21

And with this mystification came a great and growing curiosity. As he was here he determined to explore further. He would take advantage of being alone and unwatched to ascend the rock. A horrible fascination, which was more than mere curiosity, seemed to beckon him on, and with it ran an instinctive feeling that the knowledge thus gained might possibly be of use to him. Acting upon this impulse he rode round to the other side and began the ascent.

The latter was not difficult. Precipitous only on its front face, the further side of the pyramid, though steep, was smooth enough to enable him to ride nearly to the top. Here, however, he was obliged to leave his horse and ascend on foot by a rough-hewn but well-worn path.

The summit was large enough to hold about fifty persons. It was smoothly rounded, with a hollow depression in the centre. And as Gerard's glance fell upon this, every drop of blood within him seemed to turn to ice.

A sharp, tough stake, pointed at the top, rose upright in the centre of the hollow, and upon this stake, in a sitting posture, shrivelled, half mummified, was impaled a human body. The head lay over on the shoulder, and on the features, drawn back from the bared teeth in a grin of ghastly torment, was the most horrible expression of fear and agony.

The eyeb.a.l.l.s, l.u.s.treless and shrunken, stared upon the intruder with a stare that might haunt him to his dying day, and gazing upon the grisly contortion of the bound and trussed limbs--the terrible att.i.tude--the foetid odour of the corpse--for in this dry atmosphere decomposition had been a long and gradual process--it seemed to the petrified and unutterably horror-stricken spectator that the tortured wretch must still have life in him.

Recovering by a strong effort of will some degree of self-possession, for the horrid sight had turned him sick and faint, Gerard drew nearer to the corpse. The stake, burnt and hardened to a point, was of the _umzimbili_ or iron-wood. This was clearly not the first time it had been so used, and now as he remembered the skulls and bones lying beneath, he thought with a shudder on the numbers of wretches who might have suffered this most hideous of deaths. Heavens! and might not he himself, and Dawes, be called upon to suffer in like fas.h.i.+on, at the mercy, as they were, of this horde of cruel barbarians?

He turned his face outward to look over the valley. The sweet golden suns.h.i.+ne, now declining, shed a softened and beautiful light upon the verdure of the bush, toning down the angles of the grey cliffs. Blue smoke clouds curled lazily upward from the great circle of the kraal, lying below in the distance, and the sound of far-away voices floated melodiously, pleasingly upon the clear still air. It was a lovely scene, a scene that many might travel any distance to look upon, but to him who now gazed upon it from this grim and horrid Golgotha it was darker, blacker than the Tartarus of Dante.

Then another sight arrested Gerard's attention. Along the brow of the cliff was a row of stout pegs driven firmly into the ground, and round each was tied a _reim_, or raw-hide rope, whose other end dangled over into s.p.a.ce. These were what he had seen flapping overhead when he was below. With a shuddering loathing he drew up one of them. Its end was not a running noose as he had expected, only a loop, so small that he could not even put his hand through it. What new horror did this represent?

And then a quick, deep-toned e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n behind made him start--start so violently in the sudden unexpectedness of the interruption in the then state of his nerves, that he was within an ace of losing his balance and pitching headlong over the height. Recovering himself, however, he turned to confront a tall Zulu who stood contemplating him with an expression of ironical mirth, and recognised the great frame and evil countenance of Vunawayo.

"Ha, _Umlungu_!" said the latter. "So you have come to look at the point of The Tooth?"

"Yes," answered Gerard, as composedly as possible. "But, Vunawayo, what is that?"

"This?" said the savage, reaching up his hand to the point of the stake.

"It is the point of The Tooth--the part it eats with."

"No; that, I mean," pointing to the impaled corpse.

"_Hau_! That is--its last morsel," replied Vunawayo, with the laugh of a demon. "When The Tooth bites, it bites hard. Wizards--and such people. I told you it did."

"What, then, are these used for?" went on Gerard, showing the raw-hide rope which he had drawn up.

"These? Ha! not all who come here to be eaten by The Tooth are bitten by its point. This loop you see was tied round a man's wrists. He was then flung over to the full end of the rope, and his arms being fastened behind him, were broken by the jerk. He dangled there until he dropped loose. The last to suffer in this way was a woman who had been a captive, and was taken to wife by the chief. She killed her newborn child, saying that she would die rather than increase the strength of the Igazipuza. She did die--but she took a long time about it--a long, long time."

"And who was the man who was impaled, Vunawayo? What did he die for?"

"Be not too curious, _Umlungu_," was the answer. "Have patience. There may soon come a time when you shall attend at the 'eating of The Tooth.'

Have patience."

To Gerard, in his then frame of mind, it seemed that the other's tone was fraught with grim irony, with fell significance.

"Let us go down," resumed Vunawayo. "Ha! our meeting up here has been short and unexpected. But it may be that we shall meet again upon the point of The Tooth, and then our meeting will be a much longer one. Oh yes; we shall meet again up here," added the savage, with a sinister laugh, as he turned to lead the way down.

And Gerard, unnerved by these evidences of the sickening barbarities practised by this ferocious clan, could hardly bring himself on his return to tell Dawes what he had seen.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE ATTEMPTED ESCAPE.

Dawes, prompt to discern that his young companion had seen or heard something to unnerve him, was not long in getting at the whole story of the latter's discovery.

"It's a pity you turned your explorations in that direction, Ridgeley,"

was his verdict, "for I'm afraid the result has knocked you out of time some--and it's still more a pity that Vunawayo should have stumbled across you up there, because of course he saw that you were a bit upset, and it gives them a sort of a hold on us. Well now, you see, my plan is the best in the long run. You must try and make a break for it, and see what you can do for the rest of us."

But still Gerard refused, refused uncompromisingly to leave his comrade alone in the power of these barbarians. At length it was agreed they should toss up which should make the attempt.

"Here, you'd better do the throwing, or you'll be swearing I've hocussed the coin," said Dawes, with a dry smile. "By Jove, I've tossed for many a thing, from drinks upwards, but never for quite such a life-and-death business as this. Still, I hope you may win, for I tell you candidly you would stand a bad chance if left here. Well, heads you go, tails I stay. What's it to be--two out of three, or 'sudden death'?"

"Sudden death sounds unlucky. Two out of three we'll say. You throw."

"All right," said Dawes, producing a s.h.i.+lling and contemplating it with that dry, quizzical look of his that did duty for most men's laugh.

"Her most Gracious Majesty isn't in it up here compared with Ingonyama-- confusion to the latter. Now--call." And up went the coin.

"Heads!" sang out Gerard. Heads it was.

Up went the coin again. This time "tails" turned up.

"So far a draw. Now for the casting vote," said Dawes.

"Heads!" cried Gerard again. "Hurra--No. I've lost--though I've won the toss," he ended, as the coin, having wobbled indecisively, settled down, head uppermost, on the waggon-box.

"That's as it should be," said Dawes. "The next thing is to choose our time. A rainy, dark night would be the best. Zulus, you know, hate being out of doors at night. They're as frightened of bogies as so many children. But there's no chance of any such luck, I'm afraid. Well, we must just watch our opportunity."

The latter came. Two nights after the decision by lot there was a gathering and a war-dance at the Igazipuza kraal. Throughout the afternoon the warriors were parading and singing, and towards sundown there was a great beef-killing, at which Gerard himself a.s.sisted, and in order to lull suspicion, affected great interest in the spearing of the doomed cattle, half of which, frenzied with apprehension and the clamour of the crowd, broke loose and temporarily escaped their slayers, affording much sport to the excited savages in hunting them down one by one, and slaughtering them, amid an indescribable uproar.

"Now, Ridgeley, you have got everything you will require," said Dawes.

"The map, ammunition, everything. The row will be at its thickest in less than an hour. That will be the time. Even the guards at the entrance to this hole will be so taken up watching the fun down here, you may be able to slip past them."

But Fortune was destined to prove unfavourable. As the moment for making the attempt drew near, and even John Dawes the imperturbable felt his pulses beat quicker, messengers arrived from the chief requesting-- though the request was really a command--their presence at the gathering.

It was disconcerting, at first. But Dawes's keen faculties saw in the apparent difficulty his opportunity. The messengers were few in number, and eager to get back themselves to the scene of the festivities. He readily fell in with the request, and with great deliberation replied that they would saddle up their horses and ride over forthwith. This proposal, so far from being received with suspicion, excited no surprise. Zulus are great sticklers for etiquette; therefore it struck the messengers as in no wise strange that the two white men should elect to put in their appearance with every adjunct of state at their command--to wit, on horseback.

"G.o.d bless you, Ridgeley," said Dawes, with unwonted seriousness, contriving, under cover of saddling up, to exchange a firm hand-clasp with his young companion, unseen by the messengers. "When we get near the kraal, then edge off and make a dash for it. I'll give you the word."

Their outspan was some three or four hundred yards distant from the kraal. As they approached the latter, they could see that the war-dance was in full swing. In the red glow of the great fires the forms of hundreds of excited savages, in all their wild paraphernalia, showed forth weird, monstrous, fantastic, as they went through their barbarous performance, and the thunder of the war-song gathered in volume, swelling up to the star-lit heavens like the fierce roar of ravening beasts. Gerard's heart was beating like a hammer.

"Now, Ridgeley! Now is your time!" whispered Dawes, as the messengers who were escorting them had in their eagerness been gradually increasing their distance in advance.

Gerard, who had learnt prompt.i.tude in a sufficiently hard and practical school, said not a word. Wrenching round his horse's head, for the animal was loath to part from its companion, he spurred away into the dark bush, straight for the head of the valley. And as he rode, from all the agonised suspense of his young heart, went up an unspoken prayer that he might succeed, that he might be the means of rescuing his companion from the deadly peril which lowered over him, which lowered over them both.

The kraal was already left behind on his right, the wild tumult of the war-dance began to grow fainter. A puff of cool air fanned his face.

He had almost gained the ridge. Could it be--dared he hope--that he was after all to meet with no opposition? Could it be that the guards had all been summoned to attend the revelry? Ha! what was that?

In the light of the stars--and South African starlight can be very bright--he saw dark forms running, converging on his line of flight, could even distinguish the white on their s.h.i.+elds, the occasional glint on the point of an a.s.segai. Then a line of figures started up right before him, as it were out of the earth itself, barring his way, and a deep-toned, peremptory voice called upon him to halt.

It was a critical, a fearful moment, yet he hesitated not. Putting his horse right at the foremost, he charged through. And then the wild Igazipuza war-cry rent the night, and he could hear the whiz of flying a.s.segais past his head.

Even then he would not use a weapon--would not fire. Like lightning it flashed through his brain that he must get through bloodlessly--without taking a life--or not at all. He might kill one or more of his a.s.sailants. He might even thus ensure his own escape; but in that case would he not be dooming to death his comrade? Would not the latter be inevitably sacrificed? Would not the revengeful and exasperated barbarians demand life for life, blood for blood? Seldom, we trow, has one so young in years been called upon to face so difficult and delicate a dilemma, seldom has he disposed of it so resolutely, so judiciously.