The Fire Trumpet Part 56

"Really?" she said, still with a misgiving.

"Really. There won't be a vestige of a row, so don't be in the least afraid. Look. What do you think old Sandili is saying?"

"What?"

"That he never saw a white woman who was really pretty until this moment. And faith, I agree with him."

Lilian laughed, and flushed softly; not so much at the old savage's compliment as at her lover's endors.e.m.e.nt of it.

"Eh--what?" cried Claverton, who was listening to something Sandili was saying. "Fancy spoiling that pretty speech. The old brute?"

"What does he say?"

"He says that _you_ haven't given him anything, and must give him sixpence. I told him you would do nothing of the sort."

"But I will. I should like to, just for the fun of the thing," she laughed. "Only, tell him he mustn't drink it; he must buy tobacco or something else with it. He looks awfully tipsy already."

This Claverton duly translated, and the old savage nodded a.s.sent--of course as a mere matter of form--and Lilian gave him the sixpence with her own hand. Then he looked up at Marshall and made the same request; but that worthy, who had been watching the proceedings with disapproval, growled out, with something very like an oath, that "the old blackguard would get nothing out of him."

"He's going away now," said Claverton. "We'll watch him start. I imagine there'll be some difficulty in getting him under weigh."

And there was. For when his horse was brought round--a sorry quadruped, with ragged caparisonings in keeping with those of its owner--behold, the old chief was so much the worse for liquor that, when helped into the saddle, he would have tumbled off on the other side but for the timely support of one of his followers, who was ready to hand. Then two others mounted, one on each side of their exalted ruler, and thus supporting him, rode off, the whole trio swaying and lurching from side to side; for the supporters were only a degree less "screwed" than the supported. About thirty followers, mounted and on foot, brought up the rear, chattering, shouting, and laughing, as they went.

"There goes the Great Chief of the Gaikas," remarked Claverton, ironically, as they stood gazing after the receding party; "the man upon whose nod it depends as to whether the colony will be swamped in war, or whether the outbreak will be just an abortive affair in the Transkei, to be settled by the Police. And--look at him!"

"Drunken brute!" growled Marshall. A tall man, with grizzled hair and beard, now strolled up to them. It was the storekeeper. "Evenin'," he said, laconically, doffing his hat as he caught sight of Lilian. "I heard some one talking outside; but there were too many of those chaps within, and I couldn't get away for a minute, or they'd have looted the place. h.e.l.lo, Joe! Where're you from?"

"Been the rounds. What was up with that n.i.g.g.e.r jes' now?"

"Oh, I kicked him out. He kept plaguing me to give him some 'bacca-- said he was Sandili's brother. I told him to clear, or, if he was Sandili himself, I'd kick him out. And I did."

"Aw, aw!" guffawed Joe. "But I say, Thompson, you don't seem to lay yourself out much to amuse the chief!"

"Who? Sandili? Oh, no. He often comes here. I just give him a gla.s.s of grog and a bit of 'bacca, and let him sit down and make himself happy till he goes. I never bother about him. He cadges a lot of 'tickeys',"

(threepenny-bits) "out of his fellows. They come here to get a drink, and then the old rascal makes them 'stand' him instead."

Marshall guffawed again. "I say," he said, "those chaps are making a jolly row. Why don't you clear them out?"

"Where?" said the trader, turning. "Oh, they'll go when they're tired."

"They" being a group of Kafirs, sitting round the man lately ejected, who was declaiming violently, and waxing more excited every moment, as he flung his arms about and brandished his sticks, and his language became more and more threatening. Claverton, who foresaw a row, was divided between a wish to get Lilian away and reluctance to desert a countryman under the circ.u.mstances; but the first consideration was paramount.

"Well, we must be going. Good day to you," he said, shaking hands with the trader. "Good day, Marshall. Are you coming?"

"N-no; I think I'll rest a bit longer."

Just then the whole party, numbering perhaps a dozen, walked up to Thompson, the injured individual in advance. The latter, in an insulting and aggressive tone, demanded a sovereign in satisfaction for his wrongs.

Calmly eyeing the braggart and the muttering group behind him, the storekeeper lighted his pipe and repeated his order to quit.

"No, we won't!" roared the savage. "We'll roast you in your own _winkel_ [shop] before long. Only wait a bit." And then the others began all talking at once, louder and louder, and in a threatening and excited way, pressing closer and closer upon the two white men.

"Got a revolver, Joe? That's right; so have I. Always carry it in these troublous times. Now then, Umsila; off you go--you and all the rest of them."

The Kafirs, who saw that both the white men were armed, drew back, and, still muttering and threatening, they began to depart. Then, with loud jeering laughter and many threats, they started off at a trot along the plain, sending forth a long, resounding whoop upon the evening air. It was taken up by the kraals on the hillsides, and echoed farther and farther, fainter and fainter, till it died in the distance. The two men looked at each other.

"I say, Thompson, if I were you I should pack up my traps and clear out of this," said Marshall.

Lilian was rather silent as they rode away from the place. The sight of that fierce-looking, loud-talking group of angry savages confronting the two white men had frightened her, and then the voices rose more violent in tone.

"Don't be afraid, dear," said her companion, tenderly, "Those two are perfectly well able to take care of themselves, and Jack Kafir barks a great deal more than he bites. They're all right."

"Yes, I know," she replied, trying to smile. "I am so easily frightened."

"For your own sake I wish you were not, otherwise I like it, and it seems rather to suit you. But now, only think what a lot you'll have to tell them. Why, you've had an interview with no end of a big chief; and--well, it's a pity that row should have come in just in time to spoil the recollection of the ride, but it was really nothing."

Suddenly arose that wild, weird whoop; and turning their heads, they could see the Kafirs bounding along the hillside waving their karosses and gesticulating, and calling to each other as they ran.

"There, I told you so," he went on. "They've had enough 'jaw,' and now they're going home."

But a gloom seemed to have fallen upon Lilian's spirits. To her, in those fierce, dark forms bounding along the distant ridge, and in the weird, savage cry--like the gathering cry of a host--pealing forth and echoing in sudden answer from point to point till it died away against the purple slopes of the far mountains, there was something terrible, as though it pictured forth an earnest of the coming strife--and the smile faded from her lips.

"Oh, Arthur, can they do nothing to avert this dreadful war?"

"I'm afraid not, dearest. The only thing--if only it's done--will be to nip it in the bud. Let them break out, and then give them a crashing defeat at the start."

"And--you will have to go?"

He was silent for a moment. "Yes," he said at length, "I don't see how I can sit still when the whole country turns out to a man."

"Of course not; you must go. I shall have to spare you for a time-- darling. It will be only for a time, won't it?" she said, beseechingly.

"It will. There isn't a shadow of danger for me. I truly believe I bear a charmed life for some reason or other, a reason I think I've discovered," he added, meaningly. "But I've had so many narrow shaves-- more than fall to the lot of most people--that I have become a bit of a fatalist."

A sudden impulse seized her. "Arthur, I'm going to tell you something I never told you before." And then she told him the events of that night at Seringa Vale, shortly before Mr Brathwaite's death. "Now do you see why I said I thought you were dead? But you'll laugh at the whole thing as a mere fancy."

He showed no disposition to laugh; his face wore a grave, even a solemn look.

"When was this?" he asked.

She told him the exact day and hour.

"Lilian," he said, very solemnly, "it was you and no other agency whatever that saved my life--saved it for yourself. Therefore, it is certain that it is not to be taken now, yet awhile." And awestruck, she listened as he told her how he had lain fevered at the very point of death in the Matabili hut, and that the sight of her had sent him into that soothing sleep which was the turning-point.

And then, as they drew near home, and the soft light faded from the lofty Kei hills, between which the river flowed far down in the silent gloom between its frowning krantzes, the calming effects of the hour was upon these two. The present was very, very sweet. They had had a brief period of perfect happiness, after the years of dreary waiting, and now, if separation was to come, it would not be for long, and they would look forward hopefully to the time when, the disturbances over, peace should be restored.

That night Claverton and his host were sitting out on the _stoep_ smoking their pipes, the rest of the party having long since retired.

The conversation throughout the evening had turned upon the state of affairs, and now the same topic held.