Jasper Lyle Part 10

Vanbloem's Hottentots told me they had lost cattle lately, but could not account for it. This vagabond has been at the bottom of it, depend upon it."

And May contemplated the sleeper as he would a mischievous animal; shaking his fist and making hideous grimaces over him.

"He will be up and at you, you little fool," whispered Frankfort, surprised at the death-like repose of the Kafir, who scarcely seemed to breathe.

"He can't rise, master," replied May, with a low laugh; "first of all, he's drunk, for I left some brandy in the bottle I pretended to throw away; and next, see the snake-bite in his leg: 'No need to tie him up,'

said I, when I saw that. Ah, the schelm! here's the top joint of his finger chopped off--he belongs to some of old Mawani's people. Mawani wouldn't let the Gaika Nazelu marry his daughter, so Nazelu attacked his kraal ten years ago, and marked all the boys this way, after killing the men, or cutting off their ears and hands."

Frankfort and Ormsby shuddered as they discovered the snake-bite in the bend of Zoonah a knee, who, all unconscious and stupified, still slept on, in spite of May's chattering and caperings round him.

Ormsby drew back with a start as the bushman lifted the reptile, which he had discovered, with its back broken, but with some remains of life, for it reared itself up, and fixed its filmy eyes on the young officer's face; but Frankfort stepped briskly forward, and crushed its head.

Instinct roused the Kafir from his heavy slumber as May waved his a.s.segai over him; but stupified, and sensible only of intense pain, he sunk back with a sullen air, keeping, however, a steady gaze on May.

_This page only partly readable; about an inch down the right, missing_.

"Poor wretch!" said Frankfort, "he must not, if we can help him. I have the cure of snake-bites; May, fetch the medicine-chest in my wagon."

May took the proffered key, from which a shrill whistle ere he went in search of which, however, he put less faith tha Fitje's _coctions_ of herbs, which she had prepare as soon as she, good-hearted little that the young Kafir had been wounded tile. Plenty of healing roots and herb the spot--for G.o.d often plants the ai snakes most abound--and very soon t and his wife were at their task of huma ing Zoonah's wound; May, while i bestowing on his patient a variety of ep Hottentot, Dutch, English, and Kafir la.

The savage understood the reality though it was not in his nature to trac or respond to its sympathies by grat.i.tude gloom was on his countenance at having thus, like a wild beast, in the hunters submitted to the surgery; and, the t dressed, raised himself against the tru and stared from one to the other of the him.

"May," said Ormsby, who held a hand, "what has made the rascal follow him."

Zoonah, who understood English, knew, cast his eyes upon the turf, and bushman's translation of the question.

After duly considering the answer h and accepting the cigar, he answered in language--

"Zoonah is the white man's dog, they journey in the same path."

To which a.s.sertion May added in "lies."

_Problem ends here_.

"Ask him," said Frankfort, "why he followed stealthily."

"Because I was alone, and thought the Hottentots would kill me," said Zoonah.

"He lies," added May.

"Where are you going?"

"To my people--I left my heart in the bush,"--meaning his wife.

"Why did you leave Vanbloem?"

"He sent me away."

"Why did you try to steal arms from the master's wagon?"

"I do not understand you."

Zoonah's stolid air convinced Frankfort, too, that it was of no use to question him. It was evident that May was right--he was a spy on his way to his own chief's kraal, and, as the bushman observed, it was useless to waste words upon a liar.

"He's born liar--he'll die liar; he's born blackguard, and he'll die blackguard."

And, with this last truly English vituperative, May left the thicket, and went to prepare his master's breakfast.

He had tied up the dogs and kept watch himself all night, lying in the long gra.s.s between Frankfort's tent and Ormsby's wagon, and had seen Zoonah, just as the moon was waning, winding himself along in snake fashion, till he reached the young officer's sleeping-place, in which he was wont to spend part of the day, reading and smoking, with "pistol, sword, and carbine," slung above him.

Doubtless, Zoonah had long had his attention fixed on these particular objects, and allowing the cavalcade to pa.s.s the open plains, had come up with it as soon as it was fairly bivouacked in the embowered nook selected by May. Here he awaited his opportunity to plunder.

But Kafirs have a dread of what they cannot see--a house, a tent, or a wagon, may always, they believe, contain some mysterious agency of evil, and hence, on Ormsby's instinctively clutching the pistol the Kafir dropped it in terror, which was increased by a movement of May's. The wily bushman, though, had no mind to throw the Kafir off his guard; the roar of the river proved that it was impa.s.sable; in the rear were the inhospitable plains of sand, the Kafir must ere this have exhausted such provision as he could have carried from Vanbloem's, and would therefore not go far; and, in a word, May resolved not to alarm the little camp until obliged to do so.

The result was, that Zoonah traced his way to the thicket where the bushman had left a decoy, in the shape of scattered bread and meat, and an apparently empty bottle.

"I watched that bush yesterday evening," said May, when explaining his devices to Frankfort; "for though I laughed at Master Ormsby, it's always right to be 'primed and loaded.' Well, I watched that bush closely, because, whenever the birds lighted on it, they flew away and would not stop a minute. Some came there to roost in their nests--but no, off they went, came back again, and then away--'Ah!' says May, 'some one _spenning_ (lurking, hiding) there, I know;' so I was glad to see Master Ormsby tie Marmion to his wagon, while we were hunting the porcupine, and I told old Piet to lie between that and the tent, where I made a good fire. This schelm little thought we went off so far; but I gave Fitje the long pistol ready loaded, and told her to fire it, if she was frightened--but she was not," added May quietly, "and lay down as soon as she heard the dogs coming home with us. I tied them up as soon as I had fed them, and so now, if the sir pleases, I'll reim the prisoner."

"Reim the prisoner?" said Ormsby; "what does he mean?"

"Tie him to the wagon wheel, master," answered May, "and keep him there, till we can get rid of him handsomely."

Probably, May's ideas about getting handsomely rid of Zoonah were rather vague; at any rate, he had no idea of trusting him in the smallest degree, and he was greatly astonished when Frankfort observed, "Nay, nay, we won't bind him; he looks half-starved.

"Poor wretch; we may make him earn his living by being useful--it is no business of ours if he chooses to leave Vanbloem, we cannot send him back--he is but a savage, and we must be kind to him."

"Right, master," replied May, after grave consideration; "but he's a thief, as well as a liar, so take care."

So saying, they left Zoonah in the leafy covert.

May put no trust in Zoonah, and such was Fitje's dread of him, that she would not lie down to rest, unless her husband laid his gun beside him.

The sportsmen decided on crossing the river as soon as it was fordable; and Zoonah, rejoicing in contributions of tobacco, cigars, and provisions, was happy, after Kafir fashion, lying on the soft turf, and contemplating, with a longing eye, the cattle he professed to guard, but hoped to steal from the men who had saved his life, and now fed him, and treated him with kindness.

Although May heartily despised Zoonah, he was always in good humour with him; for there is nothing in nature more cheery and good-humoured, though hot-tempered and keenly alive to injury, than a bushman, caught young, and tamed and educated by real Christian people.

Three or four evenings after the incident described, as Frankfort and Ormsby sat by the river, after the last meal of the day, anxiously comparing the depth of water with a certain mark they had drawn on a jutting rock, their attention was diverted by an earnest "talk" going on between May and Zoonah.

The latter was deriding May's idea of _Umtiko_ (G.o.d). Zoonah, finding disguise was useless, now conversed in excellent English. May's suppositions were right. He had been educated at Shiloh; but the care bestowed on a Kafir seldom answers the humane purpose intended. Savage he is, and savage he will he, unless, indeed, the age of miracles is not past and gone.

"You say that Umtiko is good," said Zoonah; "how do you _know_ it?"

May pointed out the benefits we derive from G.o.d.

"How do you know they come from him? Did you ever see him?"

"He is invisible."

"If he is so good and so glorious, why does he not show himself? The teachers are always telling us about G.o.d; but first, a Kafir never believes what he does not see, and next, the teachers say that all men are liars; how, then, can they expect _us_ to believe _them_?"