Zero the Slaver Part 10

"G.o.d in heaven!" he screamed, "Dora, sister Dora! or am I mad, indeed."

Well might poor Grenville think his brain had turned. After all Zero's wicked boasts of crime, and all his cousin's bitter sorrow for his long-dead wife, how could he believe that _there before him, in the flesh, beautiful as when first he saw her in East Utah, stood Dora, Lady Drelincourt_, dressed in deep black, with a pure white cross upon her breast, and fastened to a martyr's stake, in the darkest part of darkest Equatorial Africa?

"d.i.c.k!" she cried, "dear d.i.c.k Grenville, tell me, does my darling husband live, or have I lost him, too. Tell me, tell me! I beseech you, for the love of G.o.d."

Pulling himself together, as the music of those well-known accents reached his ears, Grenville at once ran to the poor girl's side, and quickly unbound the chain which fixed her to the cruel stake, speaking meanwhile soothing words of hope and joy, and peace on earth, whilst Kenyon, hearing that her boy was in the town, went off, like an arrow from the bow, to make certain of the safety of his friend and patron's little son.

In every direction, as the detective entered the town, he found blazing houses, and dead and dying men, but the Atagbondo had behaved splendidly, and set a lesson to their evil white-skinned foes, in this respect, that on woman or on child they laid no hand, but every man they found died by the spear or by "the stick." One ghastly sight, however, did Kenyon see, for absolutely pinned to a burning house by a Zulu a.s.segai, which had pa.s.sed right through her heart, hung the dead mistress of Zero, the slaver-chief, and the beholder know that the hand that killed her was the hand of justice--justice on a woman more evil in her ways than many a wicked man who had that day fallen in fair fight.

Cornered, like rats, and yet more numerous than their fierce opponents, the slavers fought with all the Courage of despair, but naught availed them, and soon the only house in Equatoria which remained intact, was the great public hall, into which the storming party had collected the entire movable wealth of the slaver fraternity, and from the roof of which the Saint George's ensign now floated lazily upon the labouring breeze. Seeing the good old flag, Grenville at once led his rescued "sister," as it was always his habit to call her, back to the Mormon town, and the anxious young mother forgot the awful scenes of carnage and of blood, in the joy of embracing, once more, her loving little child.

Ordering the men to shoulder everything worth having, and to return to the upper cave before Zero and his band could arrive, Grenville and Kenyon prepared to leave Equatoria, accompanied by Lady Drelincourt and her son, and by the woman of whom mention has previously been made, together with her child, who was now in better health, whilst the whole of the Mormon-c.u.m-slaver women and children had scampered away to the woods, which lay in the rear of the town.

Just now, however, the victorious little band received a very severe check, for ere they reached the skull-shaped hill, the report of firearms broke upon their ears, and Grenville suddenly exclaimed, "By Jove! what can have happened? There goes Alf's repeater. What, in the name of fortune, is he doing here?"

Das.h.i.+ng up the hill, and leaving the women in shelter on the town side of it, they came upon a sad sight. Right below their position, Leigh and about a hundred men only, were sullenly falling back upon the knoll, fighting every inch of the ground like fiends, but being steadily driven in, by something like seven times their number of heavily-armed slavers.

As the retreating party got against the hill, the slavers uttered a shout of triumph, and charging in, drove the little band in every direction; but little they reckoned upon the thunderbolt which fell upon them from above. Down from the top of the knoll like a living, irresistible whirlwind, came the lion-hearted children of the Zulu, led by their fierce and active chief, and close upon their heels, in a compact serried ma.s.s, followed the ready "People of the Stick," behind whom Leigh and his gallant little band re-formed and charged the slavers home.

By this time the rifles were almost silent, only Grenville's piece occasionally speaking its mind, for he seemed to have eyes for every combat of a friend, and when the great Zulu had led his men clean through the heart of the slavers, and had charged madly back again along a ghastly lane of dead and dying men, the foe drew off a little, and sought to load his guns.

This would never do, and with a wild earth-shaking shout, Amaxosa again charged the craven crowd; with him came the staunch war-dogs of the Zulu, who loved the slaughter as they loved their daring chief, and scarce a rod behind came Barad "the Hailstorm," his faithful people following into the very jaws of death the gallant "Chieftain of the Stick," and ever side by side with the mighty Zulu, there fought Alf Leigh, scarcely less fierce than his sable friend, and even more determined; and before the "giant three" the foe fell in every direction, like corn beneath the sickle.

Suddenly, however, Leigh broke out of the line, and, with a wild cry of triumph, fiercely engaged Zero himself, hand to hand, and axe to axe.

The slaver-chief was a powerful and an active man, but he was no match for the colossal Englishman, to whom fury, revenge, and long-nursed bitter hate, had given a tenfold strength, and in ten seconds Zero lay wounded and stunned upon the ground.

Then there arose a mighty uproar, the slavers charged madly in upon the foe, and bore them back a dozen rods, fighting the while like fiends, and thus succeeded in carrying their wounded chieftain off the field, then surging in around the little band which was now fighting in square, the desperate slavers made a tremendous effort to annihilate their plucky and determined foes. Clubs are poor weapons to keep the face of a square, and the formation was quickly broken, and, fighting like lions, our friends were driven backward to the hill, every one of them fairly drenched with blood, and almost all wounded, whilst their number now totalled something under a hundred men.

All about lay the slain, singly and in knots and heaps; dead men everywhere, and everywhere rivers of blood, and the horrid stench of slaughter.

After a few moments' rest, the slavers charged in with a wild shout, resolved, at all cost, to wipe out the little band of heroes who held the skull-shaped hill; and when the surging struggling ma.s.s of men had been lost in a rain of blows, for full ten minutes, all chance of escape or triumph for our friends seemed gone: but fifty men were left to fight three hundred.

Grenville and Leigh, Amaxosa and Kenyon, were back to back, their blows rained straight and sure, and at every blow from each a man went down, still what could they do against such overwhelming odds as six to one.

Down went the gallant Umbulanzi, with a great spear wound in his back, and down upon his breathless corpse went his recreant foe, his head split to the very chin by a vengeful blow from Grenville's ready axe.

All was in vain, yet even as our friends had given up all hope of escaping from the hideous crowd which surged in upon them like hungry wolves round a dying buffalo, a clear, cold voice rang out in stentorian tones across the startled veldt, arresting every hand and every arm.

"Cease," it said; "cease and hold your hands, ye uncirc.u.mcised ones, both white and black, unless ye wish to die." And there upon the knoll, to the utter horror of our friends, flaunted the dreaded banner of Mormonism, and round the mingled ma.s.s of combatants, and of dead and dying men, there extended on every hand a mighty triple ring of armed and hated followers of the False Prophet.

Ringed in by fully a thousand well-armed men, further resistance was worse than useless. Moreover, Grenville's keen eye quickly noted the curious fact that, so far from displaying anything like enthusiasm over the advent of the Mormon host, the slavers seemed considerably more taken aback by the presence of the new arrivals than even his own party.

The tension of feeling between the three bands was all at once unintentionally relieved by poor Leigh suddenly noticing Dora on the crest of the knoll, where the poor girl had been an agonised spectator of the awful fight, and where her cries, notifying the dreaded Mormon approach, had been no more audible than the twitterings of a sparrow.

Suddenly noticing her, I say, an expression of positive terror froze poor Leigh's face, his hair rose up upon his head, and with a fearful shriek of "Dora, Dora, my long-dead, darling wife!" he threw up his hands and fell p.r.o.ne upon his face, with the life-blood welling from his mouth.

Kenyon threw himself upon his knees beside his friend, but in another instant Dora was holding her lover's head upon her lap, lover and husband both in one, lost and found; and, after all these cruel years of weary waiting, must she find her darling but to lose his love for ever?

No! for the good G.o.d was full of mercy to the faithful heart that had trusted Him to the very stake of martyrdom, and her husband soon came round again, but to relapse into a dangerous attack of brain fever, from which he escaped only by slow degrees, and it took many weary months and a world of anxious nursing night and day ere Alfred Leigh regained his normal strength.

Speaking again, the Mormon leader, a fine-looking old man, with a snow-white beard, commanded the combatants to lay down their arms and consider themselves the prisoners of the Holy Three, and this order the slavers instantly obeyed.

Stepping coolly forward, however, Grenville spoke up boldly--

"Who are you, and by what right do you command here, sir? Yonder floats the flag of England, under which we serve, and we demand that you respect its world-wide rights."

"Richard Grenville, I know you," was the cool reply, "and here I command everyone by the right of might, so lay down your arms, or my men shall sweep you off the face of the earth and save further trouble: ay, both you and yonder heap of carrion with you," and the Mormon pointed to the slavers, who were huddled together a hundred yards distant from their late antagonists.

Clearly the game was up, and there was nothing for it but to comply with the Mormon's commands, which all did with a very ill grace, when, commencing with the slavers, they were quickly bound; but, coming swiftly to Grenville the Mormon leader spoke.

"I know," he said, "that ye are brave and upright, but b.l.o.o.d.y-minded men, yet is your word your bond, and if ye give it me now that ye will not essay escape, no cord or chain shall touch ye or this your giant friend," and he pointed to the great Zulu, who was painted a ghastly red from head to foot.

Eagerly thanking the Mormon, all gladly gave the required parole, and, under this man's direction, they then carried Leigh into a room in the public offices and left him there with his wife and child; after which, by permission, Kenyon first attended to the wounds of his own party, and afterwards to those of the slavers, though the old Mormon cynically remarked to him that it would be much more merciful to let the scoundrels die at once.

A curious meeting it was in Central Africa between the detective and his quarry, when this amateur doctor came to the point of exercising his healing art upon the fallen Zero.

"Well, Monckton Ba.s.sett, we meet again," said Kenyon, coolly; "and now let me look at this head of yours, for I should be sorry for you to go off the ropes without Uncle Sam having a hand in the affair."

For reply Zero hurled a fearful curse at the detective, and ordered him to begone, so Kenyon calmly left the scoundrel to himself.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"QUOD DIXI DIXI."

As soon as opportunity offered, Grenville closely questioned the Chieftain of the Stick as to the manner in which his party, commanded by Leigh, had been expelled from the cavern, where all had thought them so securely entrenched, and now it was that our friends received another striking proof of Zero's intense cunning, and of the absolutely perfect knowledge which the man possessed regarding the mountain fastnesses in the immediate neighbourhood of his quarters.

Foolishly enough, the little band had failed to notice the singular fact that the air in the cave was at all times fresh and crisp, instead of being extremely heavy and "muggy," as is ordinarily the case in long, unventilated caverns; and it was only now that they realised the truth, which was that Muzi Zimba's home was situated in the very heart of an immense volcano, which had been extinct for ages, but whose final convulsions had probably torn the range in two, and formed the kloof, or pa.s.s, of the Dark Spirit of Evil.

This fact, however, was perfectly well-known to their astute and unscrupulous foe, and, appreciating his knowledge at its right strategic value, and sending on by night a large party provided with an immense rope-ladder, Zero had occupied the adjacent heights above and in the rear of Leigh's position, and had actually dropped three hundred men down through the very crater of the extinct volcano; and the first intimation which the defenders of the cave had received of the presence of this large force in their immediate rear, came to them in the objectionable form of a well-aimed volley poured into their very backs at point-blank range, just at the moment of the delivery, by Zero with his main army, of a furious attack upon their defences in the mouth of the cave.

To turn their attention to the force ambushed in their rear would, of course, have been to let the slaver-chief in upon them, when the cavern would have literally become a shambles, and every man of the party would have died a dog's death, for the ambushed foe was securely entrenched between the position of our friends and the entrance of the mountain burrow leading to the old well.

Choosing the least of two evils, Leigh drew his men together, and then launched them like a thunderbolt down the hill and into the very heart of Zero's force, which they drove before them like chaff before the wind. Then, getting right through the ranks of the slavers, our friends, to the utter bewilderment of the foe, ignored altogether the cover of the forest, and commenced to fall back steadily upon Equatoria, in order, of course, to effect a junction with Grenville and Kenyon, whom Zero, perhaps naturally, imagined to be lying dead in the cavern along with poor Ewan and upwards of a score of the Atagbondo, who had fallen victims to the first treacherous and fatal discharge of the ambushed foe.

In the running fight which had ensued, the loss on the side of our friends had not been worth speaking of, whilst Leigh, with his repeater charged with explosive bullets, had dropped an enemy on every hundred yards of ground from the mountain to the skull-shaped knoll. But when the slavers once sighted the mighty volumes of smoke ascending from their burning town, they naturally scented something extremely wrong, and Zero's active mind instantly jumped to the likeliest solution of the mystery, and told him that Grenville and the great Zulu, both of whom he hated beyond expression, were revenging themselves upon his force at home, and stamping out his town.

This caused the slaver to throw the whole of his available force, at any cost, upon the desperate little band, and drive them in upon the town pell-mell, with fearful loss upon both sides, for the Atagbondo had contested every inch of ground, with a stubborn valour little short of incredible when it is borne in mind that to rifle, spear, and axe, they could only oppose their rough-hewn wooden clubs.

Of the Zanzibari carriers nothing had been seen since the very commencement of the fight, for they had been placed for safety in the hindmost cavern of all, as being worse than useless to the fighting brigade; but whether the cowards were still in hiding there, or whether the ambushed slavers had found and ma.s.sacred the wretched men forthwith, was, of course, as yet unknown, though, as the slavers in the cavern had followed our friends out when they fled the spot, it was more than probable that the fellows were still where their masters had left them.

Seeing, however, that the Mormon leader was almost certain to have their old location searched for the baggage and belongings of the party, Grenville thought it much better to make a virtue of necessity, and to communicate the position of affairs to the old man without further delay, adding that, on the whole, he almost thought he would prefer to let even the Mormons divide the goods and chattels of his friends, rather than see them calmly appropriated by such a wretched craven crew.

Our friend accordingly asked an audience of the aged Prophet--for by this high-sounding, but somewhat empty, t.i.tle the old man was designated by his own people--and informed him that in the old hermit's cave upon the northern mountains there lay very much valuable baggage and ammunition, which, unless it was instantly looked after, would probably be opened and appropriated by the thievish bearers, and he added that it would be quite unnecessary to send an armed force to take possession, as the wretched cowards would run away at the first sight of an armed man.

The prophet briefly acknowledged the information, and then dismissed Grenville, first, however, promising that the little party should have the use of their own well-stocked medicine-chest immediately upon its arrival in Equatoria--a favour which Kenyon had most earnestly impressed upon our friend the absolute necessity of inducing the Mormon to grant, if by any means in his power he could prevail upon him to do so.

Just before nightfall the Zanzibaris made their unwilling appearance, bearing their master's baggage, and being driven along, like sheep for the slaughter, by a couple of formidable-looking and heavily-armed Mormons, and the whole property of the little band was at once deposited in the public hall, with the exception of the much-desired medicine-chest, which was delivered, without loss of time, to the waiting Kenyon, who particularly required its contents for immediate use in poor Leigh's case, the complications of which were already causing this amateur doctor much mental worry and very grave anxiety, as the patient after becoming conscious for a few moments, had again relapsed into a state of complete coma.