A Frontier Mystery Part 16

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE INCIDENT OF THE LOST COIN.

The dog stopped short, hackles erect, and fangs bared, emitting a series of deep-toned growls which to the object of his hostility should have been disconcerting, to put it mildly. But, somehow, he seemed disinclined to pursue his investigations to the bitter end. This was strange.

"What can it be?" was the thought in my own mind simultaneous with the voiced query of my companion.

Natives--Ivondwe excepted--were wont to hold Arlo in respect, not to say awe, upon first acquaintance. The one who now made his appearance, betrayed no sign of any such feeling, as he came towards us. Yet he was armed with nothing more reliable than a slender redwood stick. He came forward, deliberately, with firm step, as though no aroused and formidable beast were threatening him with a very sharp and gleaming pair of jaws, the sun glinting upon his head-ring and shining bronze frame, came forward and saluted. Then I noticed--we both noticed--that he had only one eye.

"Ha--Ukozi. I see you--see you again," I observed, in greeting.

"_Inkosikazi_!" he uttered, saluting my companion.

What struck me at that moment was the behaviour of the dog. Instead of rushing in upon the new arrival, and putting him vigorously on the defensive until called off, as was his way, he seemed concerned to keep his distance, and while still growling and snarling in deep-toned mutter I could detect in his tone an unmistakable note of fear. This too was strange.

"Who is he?" said Miss Sewin, as the newcomer placidly squatted himself.

"Is he a chief?"

"Something bigger perhaps," I answered. "He's a witch doctor."

"What? A witch doctor?" her eyes brightening with interest. "I thought witch doctors were horrid shrivelled old creatures who wore all sorts of disgusting things as charms and amulets."

"Most of them do, and so would this one when he's plying his trade in earnest. Yet he's about the biggest witch doctor along this border, and his fame extends to Zululand as well."

"Ah!" as an idea struck her. "Now here's a chance for him to keep up his reputation. I wonder if he could find my coin."

As we both knew where it was--or indeed in any case--the opportunity seemed not a bad one. But I said:

"You must remember, Miss Sewin, that native doctors, like white ones, don't practice for nothing, and often on the same terms. What if this one should ask as the price of his services--no--professional attendance, shouldn't it be?--a great deal more than the lost article's worth?"

"Don't let him. But in any case I don't believe he has the ghost of a chance of finding it."

"Don't you be too sure," I said. And then, before I could open upon him on the subject Ukozi opened on me on another.

"Nyamaki is not home again, Iqalaqala?"

I was beginning to get sick of the disappearing Hensley by that time, so I answered shortly:

"Not yet."

"Ha! The Queen cannot do everything, then. You did not go home that night, Iqalaqala?"

"I did not. Your _muti_ is great, Ukozi--great enough to stop a horse."

"_Muti_! Who talks of _muti_? I did but foresee. And Umsindo? He, too, did not reach Nyamaki's house that night?"

"No."

"What is in the water yonder?" he went on, bending over to look into the pool, for he had squatted himself very near its brink. "It moves."

Both of us followed his gaze, instinctively, eagerly. And by Jove! as we looked, there arose the same disturbance, the same unwinding of what seemed like a shining sinuous coil, yet taking no definite shape. Again it sank, as it had risen, and a hiss of seething bubbles, and the circling rings radiating to the sides, alone bore witness to what had happened.

"I declare it's rather uncanny," said my companion. "Does he know what it is? Ask him."

I put it to Ukozi. We had swum there several times, dived deep down too, nearly to the bottom, deep as it was, yet we had never been disturbed by anything. Only to-day, before his arrival, had we seen this thing for the first time--and that only once. He echoed my words, or part of them.

"Nearly to the bottom! But this place has no bottom."

"Now you forget, father of mystery," I said, knowingly. "It has, for we have sounded it, with a piece of lead at the end of a line."

He looked amused, shaking his head softly.

"Yet, it is as I say," he answered. "It has no bottom."

Rapidly I gave Miss Sewin the burden of our conversation, and she looked puzzled. The while, Arlo, crouching a few yards off, was eyeing the witch doctor strangely, uttering low growls which deepened every time he made a movement, and still, beneath the sound I could always detect that same note of fear.

"What is in the water down there, Ukozi?" I said. "Not a crocodile.

What then?"

He was in no hurry to reply. He took snuff.

"Who may tell?" he answered, having completed that important operation.

"Yet, Iqalaqala, are you still inclined--you and Umsindo--to continue swimming there, and diving nearly to the bottom--ah-ah! nearly to the bottom?"

He had put his head on one side and was gazing at me with that expression of good-humoured mockery which a native knows so well how to a.s.sume. I, for my part, was owning to myself that it would take a very strong motive indeed to induce me to adventure my carcase again within the alluring depths of that confounded _tagati_ pool, for so it now seemed. Moreover I knew I should get no definite enlightenment from him--at any rate that day--so thought I might just as well try him on the subject of Miss Sewin's loss. But as I was about to put it to him he began:

"That which you seek is not down there."

"Not down there?" I echoed. "But, what do we seek, father of the wise?"

"It shines."

The thing was simple. He had found it and planted it somewhere, with a view to acquiring additional repute, and--incidentally--remuneration.

"I think we shall recover your coin, Miss Sewin," I said.

"Ah. He can find it for us then? If he does I shall become quite a convert to witch doctorism, for want of a better word."

"You will see. Now, Ukozi. Where is that which we seek?"

"_Au_! It shines--like the sun. To find it something else that shines will be necessary. Something that shines--like the moon."

I laughed to myself over this "dark" saying, and produced a half-crown-- a new one.

"Here is what shines like the moon at full," I said.

He held out both hands, looked at it for a moment as it lay in the hollow thus formed, then said: