The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley Part 31

"We know not, father; we know not--"

"Ha! Ye know not!" said Sobuza, making a sign.

Immediately a warrior stepped forward, and without a word, drove his great a.s.segai through the hag's body.

"I give you all one more chance," roared the chief again, cutting short the howl of terror which went up. "Where is Ingonyama?"

"On The Tooth, father. On The Tooth!" eagerly yelled a whole chorus of voices.

"If this is a lie, then shall every one of you be even as she," said the chief, sternly, pointing with his foot at the corpse of the one who had been ill-advised enough to protest ignorance.

"It is no lie, father!" they cried l.u.s.tily. "He is there. It is no lie."

"Ill will it be for yourselves if it is," said Sobuza, darkly. "And now, witches, this nest of yours shall burn."

Half a dozen warriors sprang eagerly forward, and in as many moments flames were bursting from the straw huts. Disappointed in their hopes of thus smoking out any fighting men who might have crept in there for shelter, the warriors amused themselves by spearing the dogs as they rushed forth, shouting with laughter as a whole cloud of a.s.segais whizzed past some one more fortunate or more fleet than the rest, without transfixing him. But no further violence was offered to the women and children. The king's sentence had gone forth only against such as should offer resistance, and did not include these.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

THE LAST OF THE FREEBOOTERS.

Meanwhile Gerard, with a perfect agony of dread and apprehension at his heart, was speeding with his young Zulu allies in the direction of "The Tooth." Though they could hardly hope to gain it un.o.bserved, yet by way of neglecting no precaution, they crept along as much as possible under cover of the bush. Fortunately, the approaches were well-known to Gerard, who was thus able to guide his party straight to the point by which alone it was accessible.

"See, there!" exclaimed Nk.u.mbi-ka-zulu, suddenly, touching his arm.

"_Au_! the wizards!"

They had got the face of the great rock pyramid almost in section.

Looking up, Gerard beheld with a shudder the hanging bodies, which he had first seen from a distance. They were very near now, quite near enough to make out the features of the tortured victims, who, however, appeared to be dead, for they hung motionless against the cliff.

Shuddering again, Gerard recognised in the drawn, ghastly countenances those of the three Swazis.

There were still only the three, yet from this he augured no good thing.

That horrible stake on the apex of the mount--he could not see that.

Did it, too, hold its tortured writhing victim? What had they done with John Dawes, with Sintoba, Fulani, and the other natives? And then he began to hope that for some purpose they might yet have been spared. If so, it might not be too late.

"Now, Nk.u.mbi," he whispered eagerly. "Up we go! This is the side. I will be first at the top; do you keep close behind me. There cannot be many up there. The place will not hold more than a few, and besides, all their fighting force will be busy with Sobuza."

As they drew near the summit of the gruesome rock of death, a strange, unwonted stillness reigned. Could it be that the place was deserted?

Had the savages already accomplished their horrible work and gone away?

Gerard's heart beat like a hammer as he climbed the last bit of steep rocky path, and he could hardly see. His brain seemed to swim.

Suddenly a strange, rumbling, scuffling sound met his ears, the sound as of a struggle. Mingling with it were quick, deep-toned e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns. A wave of a great relief surged round his heart, for he recognised one of the voices. He was not, then, too late.

In a moment he gained the summit, and this was what he saw.

In the centre of the depressed hollow, arrayed in all the grotesque and hideous paraphernalia of a witch-doctor, the great lion's skin draping him from head to foot, stood Ingonyana, surrounded by half a dozen warriors. Beside him rose the grim, pointed stake, empty now, and ready to receive another victim. And the victim was there. Struggling in the grasp of four athletic savages, struggling with all the might of a powerful and sinewy frame, bound as he was, straining every nerve and muscle, was a white man. They had pa.s.sed a _reim_ round his neck, and were trying to draw his head down almost to his knees, in a word, to truss him like a fowl, preparatory to impaling him upon that hideous stake. And in this man, Gerard recognised at a glance John Dawes.

So intent were all upon the execution of their barbarous task, that the approach of the party took place absolutely unheeded. To fling himself upon the warriors who were straggling with his friend was to Gerard the work of a fraction of an instant. To empty his revolver into the head of one, and the body of another was that of the same iota of time. Then as the remaining two with a yell of surprise started back to seize the weapons, which they had dropped while engaged in their straggle with the prisoner, they were speared by the Zulus who had followed close behind Gerard.

"_Usutu_! Death to the _abatagati_!" thundered Nk.u.mbi-ka-zulu, hurling a casting a.s.segai full at the chief.

Ingonyama, however, caught it deftly on his s.h.i.+eld, and charged forward upon the thrower, followed by his six remaining warriors. Bending the air with their ferocious blood-shout, the Igazipuza, having recovered from their momentary surprise, strove now to bear back the a.s.sailants, to press them over the cliff's brow. But the blood of the young Ngobamakosi warriors was up. Not an inch did they give way, and numerically the odds were in their favour. Hand to hand--slas.h.i.+ng, parrying, thrusting--they fought.

So swift was the attack--so hard pressed by the ferocious and desperate freebooters was Gerard and his allies, that the former had not even so much as a moment of time wherein to release Dawes. He could only stand before him to protect him with his life. Then suddenly seizing his opportunity, he slipped his rifle between the shoulders of two of the striving Ngobamakosi, and hardly taking aim pressed the trigger.

Ingonyama leaped in the air, and fell heavily forward, the blood pouring from a small round hole in his forehead.

"_Au_! Between the eyes has his life been let out!" cried Nk.u.mbi-ka-zulu, unconsciously echoing the words of the dead chief himself, uttered so prophetically over the lion's skin which he still wore.

And, remembering the words, despair was in the hearts of the bystanders; but despair to the intrepid, almost fanatical Igazipuza meant only a fresh access of desperation. So far from the fall of their chief inspiring them with dismay, it only nerved them to resistance more stubborn, more ferocious than ever.

Three out of the six were already slain, one almost disabled from wounds. Three likewise of the Ngobamakosi were down--so far man for man. The remaining three, pressed back inch by inch, were already at the cliff's brow. As for asking quarter that was the last thing in the world they would ever have dreamed of. Gerard now found the opportunity to cut the _reims_ which bound his friend, and thrust his revolver into the hand of the latter.

Hardly had he done so when a terrific uproar arose beneath--the royal shout of _Usutu_. On it came, surging upward, and immediately there sprang upon the apex of The Tooth some five or six warriors. The red circle showed them to be enemies, the panting chests and hacked s.h.i.+elds and the quick eager way in which they turned to glance back as soon as they had gained the summit, showed them to be fugitives. A gasp of surprise escaped the two white men as they caught sight of the foremost.

It was Vunawayo.

"Ha! _Umlungu_!" cried the latter, as he sighted Gerard, "I told you we should meet again on the point of The Tooth! And we have."

There was something so terrific, so appalling in the very aspect of the gigantic savage, as covered with blood, his evil features working in a most fiendish and malignant grin, he darted like lightning upon Gerard, that even the latter might have been excused if he had felt momentarily unnerved. Unluckily, too, his foot slipped, so that his rifle bullet, instead of meeting his a.s.sailant full in the chest, only hummed past the latter's ear. He was at the mercy of his formidable foe. Parrying with his s.h.i.+eld the blow aimed at him by Gerard's dabbed rifle, Vunawayo made a furious stab. But Gerard, avoiding it, gripped his a.s.sailant by the legs and threw him. The agile and powerful Zulu, however, was half up in a moment, and the straggle became a hand-to-hand one. No a.s.sistance either could Dawes or the Ngobamakosi give, all their efforts being fully taxed to hold their own against this new accession of strength to the side of their enemies.

"_Au_, _'mlungu_! I told you our meeting would be a long one," growled Vunawayo, between his set teeth, as they rolled nearer and nearer to the brow of the cliff. Gerard the while felt every muscle in his powerful young frame cracking, strained as it was to prevent the savage from freeing the hand which held the a.s.segai. Moments seemed years--nearer and nearer to the fatal brink the combatants rolled. Then the fierce and desperate savage, suddenly jerking free his left wrist, seized his adversary by the throat.

Then Gerard felt that his end had come. His eyes seemed squeezed out of his head. The whole world was spinning round with him. A tug--a final effort--his opponent had got him to the edge of the height. He was going--both were going--

The air rang with the deep-throated "_Usutu_!" as Sobuza and his followers came swarming over the edge of the summit. Gerard was conscious of a spout of warm blood over his face, for the moment blinding him; of the relaxing grip of his adversary; of a plunge and scuffle as the body of the latter crashed over the brink--of the grasp of powerful hands dragging him back to life and safety. Then, half choked, his brain swimming, he rose to his feet, and took in what had happened--what was happening--the last act in the suppression of the redoubtable freebooting clan.

It all took place in a moment. The summit was alive with warriors, with tossing s.h.i.+elds and bristling weapons, all pressing forward upon one man.

He was standing fronting them like a stag at bay--standing on a projecting pinnacle of rock, balancing himself right over the abyss. He was a man of large, fine stature, and his eyes flashed with the elation of a heroic courage, as covered by his great s.h.i.+eld, and a broad a.s.segai flourished aloft in his right hand, he defied his slayers to approach.

"Ho, hunting-dogs of the king, here is your quarry! Come and seize it,"

he shouted, in deep, mocking tones. "What, afraid? The king's _impi_ afraid of one man! What a sight for the spirit of Tyaka! Ha! I am the last of the Igazipuza, and the whole of the king's _impi_ fears me-- fears me!" he repeated, in a kind of long-drawn chant--a very death-song, in fact.

Now the summit sloped down to the pinnacle of rock whereon the man stood. To attack him hand-to-hand was certain death, for his object was plain--to seize and drag into the abyss with him whoever should approach, and thus to die true to the traditions of his order, an enemy's life in his hand. a.s.segais thrown at him from above he only laughed at, parrying them easily with his s.h.i.+eld. Sobuza and his warriors were beside themselves with helpless rage. The jeering laughter and contemptuous defiance of the man goaded them to madness.

But how to get at him? The chief was too proud to admit himself beaten by asking the aid of the firearms of his white allies, whereas they, in sheer admiration of the man's desperate intrepidity, forebore to use them. Even John Dawes, notwithstanding his recent rough treatment and narrow escape from the most barbarous of deaths, could hardly bring himself to fire upon this sole survivor of the race which had so abominably ill-used him.

But the difficulty solved itself unexpectedly. The savage, seeing Gerard pus.h.i.+ng his way to the front--seeing, too, the rifle in his hand, mistook his intentions. If they were not going to purchase the pleasure of taking his life at the price of losing one of their own, they should not have it for nothing.

"Ho, cowards!" he roared with flas.h.i.+ng eyes. "Ho, cowardly dogs who fear one man. Go, tell your king I spit at his head-ring! Igazi--pu-- za!" And as the last long-drawn note of the ferocious war-shout of his tribe escaped his lips, he turned and sprang out into empty air, and a dull, heavy thud and the clink of metal upon stones rising upward to the ears of those above, told that the last of the Igazipuza warriors had died even as those who had gone before him had died--fierce, stubborn, formidable to the end, but unyielding.

A gasp of relief, admiration, awe, went up from the spectators of this powerfully tragic scene. Then they turned to leave the mount of death.

"_Whau_! these are _abatagati_ indeed!" quoth Sobuza. "But they are right valiant fighters."

"And this, my father, what shall we do with it?" said one of the warriors, designating the body of Ingonyama, which lay just as it had fallen, covered with the great lion's skin. "Shall we not place it on 'the point of the Tooth,' that even the very birds may behold the fate of the enemies of the Great Great One?"

"The king's orders did not say that," replied Sobuza, who was not free from motives of cla.s.s-feeling. "Ingonyama was a chief, and a brave man, and now he is dead. Let him lie in peace, for was he not a chief?"

"What of this?" said Dawes, touching the lion's skin.