John Ames, Native Commissioner Part 22

Utterly beside herself now with the horror of this dreadful thought, she dashed from the hut--one idea in her mind--to get away from this awful place at whatever cost. But there was another who entertained different ideas concerning the disposal of her movements, and that was the wolf.

For as she approached the gap in the circular fence which const.i.tuted the exit, the brute lay and snarled. She talked soothingly, then scoldingly, as to a dog. All to no purpose. It lifted its hideous head, and snarled louder and more threateningly. But it would not budge an inch, and she could only pa.s.s through that gap over its body.

Perfectly frantic with desperation, Nidia tore a thorn bough from the fence; and, advanced upon the beast. It crouched, snarling shrilly; then, as she thrust the spiky end sharply against its face, it sprang at her open-mouthed, uttering a fiendish yell. But for the bough she would have had her throat torn out; as it was the sharp spines served as a shield between her and the infuriated brute, which, with ears thrown back and fangs bared, squirmed hither and thither to get round this th.o.r.n.y buckler--its eyes flashing flame, its jaws spitting foam. The struggle could not last for ever. Her strength was fast leaving her, and in her extremity a wild shriek of the most awful terror and despair pealed forth from the lips of the unhappy girl. Then another and another.

What was this? Unheard by the combatants because drowned by the savage yells and snarls of the one and the terrified screams of the other, there was a tearing, crashing sound at the upper end of the enclosure.

A man dashed through the th.o.r.n.y fence--a white man--hatless and with clothes well-nigh in tatters--pale as death, his right hand grasping a sword-bayonet. Without a moment's hesitation he made straight at the infuriated beast, darting such a stab with his weapon that had it gone home the wizard's "familiar spirit" would have needed a successor. The quick movements of the animal, however, turned the blade aside--result a deep ugly gash along the ribs. But seeing it had no longer to deal with a badly frightened woman, but a strong, determined man, the skulking nature of the beast came uppermost even in the midst of its fury. With a shrill yelp of pain and fear, it fell off, and, turning, fled through the entrance like a streak of lightning.

The girl dropped the th.o.r.n.y bough and faced her rescuer, with a burst of half hysterical laughter. One exclamation escaped her--

"John Ames!"

Wonder, delight, relief--all entered into the tone. In the extremity of her fear and exhaustion conventionality was lost sight of--formality forgotten. The name by which she had been accustomed to designate him alone with her friend, to think of him alone with herself would out.

Not another, word, though, could she utter. She stood there breathless, panting, a mist before her eyes, after the violence of her exertions, the extremity of her fear.

"Don't try and talk," he said--"simply rest."

She looked at him--still panting violently--shook her head, and smiled.

She was physically incapable of speaking after her exertion. But even then a contrast rose vividly before her--this man now, and when she had last seen him. They had bidden him good-bye, she and her relative, in the front door of the hotel at Wynberg, cordially--and conventionally-- mutually expressing the wish to meet again soon up-country. Now, here he stood, having dropped, as it were, from the clouds, to come to her aid in her moment of sore need. And his appearance--haggard, unshaven, hatless, his clothes in tatters; yet it seemed to her sufficient at this moment that he was here at all. For some little while they sat in silence. Then he said--

"If you are sufficiently rested, tell me how it is you are here--in this place."

"Oh yes; I can talk now. But--oh, what would I have done with that horrible fiend of an animal but for you? I should have been torn to pieces."

"Strange, too, how it got here. I know the sort of beast. It in a kind of mongrel hyaena--Lupiswana, the natives call it. Ah! Now I begin to see."

This as if a sudden idea had struck him. But again he repeated his request that she should tell him her experiences. And this she did-- from the murder of the Hollingworths right on.

"And so you were coming to me for refuge?" he said, for she had made no secret of that part of it either. "It was well indeed you did not, for I only escaped through the fidelity of my own servant. I will tell you all about it another time. I must take care of you until we fall in with a patrol. We shall have to keep closely in hiding, you know. I am only a fugitive like yourself. The whole country is up in arms, but it is only a question of time and--"

A bullet hummed over the speaker's head, very near, simultaneously with the crash of a firearm, discharged from the entrance of the enclosure, where a small lean native stood already inserting another cartridge in the breach of his smoking rifle. But John Ames was upon him with a tiger spring, just in time to strike up the barrel and send the bullet humming into s.p.a.ce.

"No, no! You don't go like that," he said in Sindabele, gripping the other's wrists. The savage, small and thin, was no match for the tall muscular white man; yet even he was less puny than he appeared and was striving for an opportunity to slide, eel-like, from that grasp, and make good his escape. "_Gahle, gahle_! or I will break your wrists."

Then the native gave in, whining that Jonemi was his father, and he shot at him in mistake, seeing him in his kraal. He had retired there in peace, in order to keep out of all the trouble that was being made.

"Yes; thou knowest me, and I know thee, Shiminya," was the answer. "In the mean time I will take thy rifle--which belongs to the Government-- and cartridges. That's it. Now, go and sit over there, and if thou movest I will shoot thee dead, for I can shoot better than thou."

The discomfited sorcerer, now the odds were against him, did as he was told, turning the while to Nidia and adjuring her to speak for him. His was the kraal that had taken her in. He had housed and fed her. This very day he had intended to take her to Sik.u.mbutana. He had gone forth to see that the way was clear so that he might do so in safety, and, returning, had found Jonemi, whom, mistaking for some plunderer, he had fired at.

Nidia, of course, understood not a word of this, but John Ames had let the rascal's tongue run on. He more than suspected Shiminya to be an instigator of the murder of the Inglefields, and was sure that he was aware of it. For the rest, it certainly seemed as he had said. Nidia's own tale was in keeping. They had been somewhat rough in their manner to her, but had given her food and shelter, and had done her no serious harm. As for her ghastly find within the hut, John Ames had speedily quieted her fears on that head. This Shiminya was a wizard of note, and portions of the human anatomy were occasionally used by such in their disgusting and superst.i.tious rites.

"We have need of many things which thou hast in thy huts, Shiminya," he said, "for we are going to leave thee, and return to Sik.u.mbutana"--this with design. "I, for instance, have no hat, and my clothes are torn. I need further thy rifle, or rather the rifle of Government, and all the cartridges thou hast. Rise, therefore, and show us where such may be found. But first I will bind thy hands."

The countenance of the sorcerer, which had brightened up, fell at this.

Nidia, at a word from John Ames, having searched in the huts for the necessary thongs, the binding was effected in the most masterly manner.

Then, forcing the prisoner into the hut where Nidia had made her startling discovery, John Ames set to work to ransack the place.

Luckily, it was a very store-house of European goods, which Shiminya, being of an avaricious turn, had exacted from his clients and dupes and kept h.o.a.rded up here. Most of the articles of wear, though of coa.r.s.e and shoddy make, were new; and, best of all, there were four packets of Martini-Henry cartridges stowed away in the thatch; for here was one who knew where to look for that kind of contraband goods.

"I am now going to kill thee, Shiminya," said John Ames, when he had selected, not all he wanted, but all he would be able to carry.

The wizard looked scared, for well he knew how richly he deserved death at the hand of every white man in the land, and this one he believed to be quite capable of carrying out his threat. But the cunning rogue shrewdly played upon his best stop, and kept reiterating all he had done for the _inkosikazi_ when she had appealed to him for protection, frightened and exhausted and alone.

"Yet it is necessary that I should slay thee, Shiminya, for although thou hast done this for the _inkosikazi_, I know that thou lovest me not; and if I spare thee, how long will it be before thou art running in front of Madula's people, and crying, 'This way hath Jonemi gone'?"

And turning to Nidia, he asked her to go outside, saying that he would join her in a moment. Then, being alone with his captive, he took up a heavy k.n.o.bkerrie.

"Now, Shiminya. Thy death is near," he said, raising the club.

But the wizard was another instance to the contrary of the cut-and-dried idea that cruelty and cowardice are bound to go hand in hand. No further appeal for mercy did he make. Not a word did he utter. With a last look of hate glowing in his snaky eyes, he put forth his skull, as though to meet the blow. But the other lowered his weapon.

"I give thee thy life, Shiminya," he said. "Should the time ever come, remember that thy life lay within my hand and I gave it thee."

The wizard murmured a.s.sent. Of a truth he felt that the jaws of Death had been opened very wide before him, and then closed.

"But I trust thee not, so I will leave thee here bound," went on John Ames. "It will not be long ere thy people find thee out."

He tied his prisoner fast by the feet to the pole of the hut, and was just leaving him, when Shiminya exclaimed--

"_'Nkose_, make, I pray thee, the door very fast. Do not only tie it.

Thrust also a stout stick through the fastenings."

"Why so?" said John Ames in amazement.

"Animals might get in. And I am helpless."

"Lupiswana, for one?"

"_Au_! Jonemi knows everything," replied the sorcerer, with a half smile.

"I see. Yes; I will see that the door is fast. _Hlala-gahle_, Shiminya."

"Now we must leave," he said, rejoining Nidia, and then setting to work to bar up the wizard in his own den. Then, as they stepped forth, he told her how he had designedly caused the latter to feel himself within the very portal of death, in order that he might the more thoroughly realise how entirely his life had been given him. If there was any good in the man he would appreciate this act of clemency, explained John Ames.

She looked at him in admiration.

"What an ingenious idea!" she said. "But there must be some good in him or he would have killed me when I was in his power."

"There is that in his favour. Yet I wish I could think that he had no worse object in view in not killing you. He is one of the Abantwana 'Mlimo, and I have had my eye on him for some time. The other man wore a police uniform, you say? You were not able to catch his name?"

"No. You see, I don't understand a word of the language."

"H'm. That's a pity, for your description of him almost tallies with that of the greatest rascal unhung, and whom I hope will not very long remain unhung."

"This is not the way I came in by," said Nidia. "Look. I don't remember that water-hole."

They had gained the river-bed, and before them lay a still deep pool.

But the grisly remains which lay beneath its placid waters rose not up in judgment against the cruel murderer, who sat bound in his own den up above; and little did they who now pa.s.sed it dream of the shrieking tragedy of which it had more than once been the scene in the dead of night. And the wizard? At that moment even he was beginning to taste of some of the terror which he had delighted in meting out to his helpless victims, for he himself was now helpless, and the evil beast having returned, and being by some mysterious instinct aware of the fact, was tearing and scratching and growling at the fastenings of the hut door in order to get at its more evil master, who, for his part, in spite of the extra precaution, was momentarily growing more and more anxious lest it should succeed. One taste of white flesh he had promised his "familiar"! The probability was that ere the day should close it would have gorged its fill of black.