The Fire-Gods Part 17

It was no more than a scuffle at the best. Crouch emptied his revolver; but it was too dark to shoot straight. Max used his fist, and sent one of the men rolling backwards; whilst Crouch flew like a leopard at Caesar's throat. It was all over in an instant. Caesar and his men drew off as suddenly and quickly as they came, taking with them the Arab whom Max had wounded or killed.

Crouch took out his pipe and filled it.

"I wish I had had the luck to hit that rascal," said Max, "instead of one of the Arabs."

Crouch grunted as he lit his pipe.

"When I shoot that man," said he, "I don't want it to be due to luck.

Nothing's too bad for a slave-dealer, if that's what he is--which I doubt."

It was then that they were joined by the Fan whom they had left with Edward. He presented a note to Crouch, written in pencil on a leaf torn from a note-book.

"_How goes it?_" was all it said.

Crouch scribbled a reply: "_He's gone to bed. But remain at your post till daybreak._"

Sunrise brought their vigil to an end. No sign of the Portuguese was to be seen; and presently news was brought to the village by a man who had been setting traps in the forest, and who had known nothing of the alarm. This man stated that he had seen Caesar returning to Makanda, followed by two Arabs, who carried the body of a third.

The delight of the natives exceeded anything that Max Harden had ever seen in his life. They beat their wooden drums, and sang and danced in jubilation. They realized that, at last, after two years of oppression, the yoke of the Fire-G.o.ds had been lifted from their shoulders. They regarded Crouch and his companions as angels who had dropped from the skies to deliver them from bondage.

That evening the three Englishmen held a council of war. They regretted that Caesar had learnt of their return to the valley. But that was inevitable; they had been in duty bound to help the natives. Though the mystery of Makanda was by no means solved, they had, at least, an inkling of the truth. The explosion they had heard in the valley was undoubtedly the blasting of rock; and there was no question that it was for this purpose that Caesar required the services of slaves. That explained why he had been unwilling for either the Europeans or the Fans to leave the stockade. The kraal, fenced around by high palisades, and guarded by Arab slave-drivers, contained the slave gangs; and who can say what cruelty was perpetrated therein? The slave trade had been abolished; but at that time, in the heart of Africa, it still flourished in all its blackest colours, with utter disregard for the equality of all men, who--whatever the colour of their skin may be--are equal in the sight of G.o.d. Edward Harden was a man in whose big heart a sense of justice burned like a living flame. When he considered the innate cruelty of the Portuguese, who was willing to enslave even women and little children, his wrath rose within him and the blood flew to his face. He felt that he could not rest until the fortress of Makanda had been taken, the slaves set free, and Caesar brought to his account.

Still, Edward was no fool. He knew well enough that it would be madness for three of them to endeavour to attack a defensive position held by a determined man and, at least, half a dozen Arabs. It was then that they decided to arm M'Wane and his Fans. They had with them six rifles and a shot-gun; a great quant.i.ty of reserve ammunition had been left at the camp on Observation Creek. Crouch and Max undertook to teach the Fans to shoot; whilst Edward, with a party of villagers, made his way back to the camp in the jungle, to bring up all their supplies.

The following morning Edward Harden set out upon his journey, and it was a strange crowd that followed him into the forest. The majority of them were women; but the African woman is accustomed to manual labour. At Zanzibar, sea-going ships are coaled by great buxom wenches, who can lift a hundredweight as though it were a trifle. With many inland tribes, between Mombasa and the West Coast, the work in the fields is conducted almost exclusively by women. The men pride themselves upon being warriors, hunters of big game and setters of traps. They consider it beneath their dignity to dig and delve and hoe the ground, since such employment entails no personal danger. Edward, therefore, was well contented to have women as his servants; and before he started he bargained to pay them in beads, cloth and cowrie sh.e.l.ls.

Whilst he was absent, Crouch and Max became drill-sergeants for the nonce. The Fans were first taught the mechanism of the rifle, and how to clean it. They were then instructed in aiming drill. Though Crouch had now a fair working knowledge of their language, for the most part he taught them by demonstration; and they proved most promising recruits.

At last a target was set up in the valley; and rifle practice took place daily both in the morning and the evening.

By the time Edward returned, though the Fans were not yet marksmen, it seemed probable that they would be ready to take the field in another day or so. Still, both Crouch and Edward desired to run no risks. They did not intend to operate against Makanda, until they could do so with every chance of success. It was Edward's suggestion that they should reconnoitre the settlement before they advanced. They desired to discover the quickest route to the granite hills, and some position thereon--within striking distance of Makanda--where they could establish their headquarters. It was also necessary to find out the strength of Caesar's garrison. At the time of their visit, they had not been able to ascertain how many Arabs were secreted in the kraal. De Costa, they knew, need not be taken into account; the man was an arrant coward. But the Arab is a foe who can never be despised; he is a good rifle-shot, an intelligent soldier, and his religion teaches him to be brave.

The next question was to decide who should be sent forward as a scout; and it was Max who was selected for the task. Edward had just returned from the jungle; and besides, the big man was by no means so quick and agile as his nephew. Crouch was out of the question; he had burnt so much of his cork foot that he could only hobble and would take too long over the journey. It was finally decided that Max should start a day in advance of the others, taking with him provisions for three days, as well as his rifle and revolver.

That evening, Edward and Max climbed to the top of Solitude Peak. During the day the crest of the mountain was invariably wrapped in clouds, but towards evening these usually disappeared. On this occasion, a most magnificent panorama of the surrounding country was presented to their view. They looked down upon the whole valley of the Hidden River, from Makanda to the mangrove swamp; and it was then that Edward filled in the final details of his map.

They saw that it was possible to reach Caesar's stockade without entering the jungle. If one followed the valley above which lay the Pambala village, one would come, in course of time, to the granite hills to the east of Makanda. They calculated that, if Max started at daybreak, he would reach his destination towards the evening.

Accordingly, soon after sunrise, Max set out, bearing with him the good wishes of his friends. A native footpath led some distance down the valley, but there turned into the jungle. Max struck across country, holding his course south-west by the compa.s.s.

He halted at midday to enjoy a meal of biscuits and sardines, washed down by the clear water from a neighbouring brook. As he sat in solitude, in the midst of that illimitable wilderness, he could not but reflect upon the strangeness of his situation. Here was he, who all his life had been accustomed to the roll of London 'buses and the cries of newsboys in the streets, seated on a boulder, in the blazing heat of the tropics, thousands of miles beyond the pale of civilization.

It was whilst he was there that he beheld, for the first time in his life--if we make exception of the animals he had seen in the Zoo--a great rock-python which lay, coiled in the gra.s.s, not twenty paces from him. The sight of the thing caused him to shudder. He sprang instantly to his feet. As he did so the snake heard him, and glided away among the rocks. In the thickest part of its body the great reptile was about the size of a man's thigh; and it must have been over twenty feet in length.

Max, having no desire for such a companion, moved on in haste, keeping the mountain to his left. For the most part, he pa.s.sed through a kind of neutral territory, where the dominion of the jungle gave way to the barren, rock-bound slopes of Solitude Peak. The afternoon was well advanced by the time he arrived at the granite hills.

Here, he exercised the greatest caution. It was possible that a sentinel had been posted on the crest-line. He accordingly advanced by way of a donga, which led to the hill-top, and in which he could not be seen. When he cleared the donga, a few yards from the crest, he went down on hands and knees, and crawled from boulder to boulder.

A few minutes later, he found himself looking down upon the settlement of Makanda. He was immediately above the kraal, and from that alt.i.tude he was able to see inside the enclosure. The kraal consisted of four rows of huts. In one of these was a white figure which, even without the aid of his gla.s.ses, he had no difficulty in recognizing as one of the Arabs. This man, rifle in hand, entered a hut, and presently came out with a party of six slaves, all of whom wore iron collars around their necks, which were fastened together by a single chain. Followed by the Arab, this party left the kraal, and turned to the left, towards the southern extremity of the lake.

Max directed his field-gla.s.ses upon the stockade. He could see no one therein but Caesar's Arab cook, who was walking leisurely from the direction of the river with a bucket of water in either hand.

By now the slave-driver and his party were out of sight to the south.

Max, anxious to observe whatsoever was in progress, descended from the sky-line and ran in all haste along the ridge. He soon came to a place whence he was able to see the course of the river, which had taken a sudden bend to the west above the lake, where it was spanned by a rope suspension bridge, such as is often met with in the heart of Africa.

Beyond the bridge, the sight that he witnessed held him rooted to the spot.

He beheld a large quarry, where about fifty natives were at work. In charge of these were four Arabs, and Max had no difficulty in distinguishing Caesar and the half-caste de Costa.

The work which was in progress was singular, by reason of the fact that this was Equatorial Africa where, at that time, commerce, industry and enterprise were quite unknown. A group of slaves in charge of the Portuguese himself, was gathered together beneath the walls of the quarry. A little distance from them was a great heap of rubbish.

Suddenly, the whole party was seen to set off running in the direction of the river. Caesar was the last to retire.

There followed a tremendous explosion. A great column of dust and smoke was thrown up into the air. And even before this had descended, or had been carried away upon the wind, both Caesar and the natives had hastened back to the place, where there was now a great rent in the living rock.

There they set to work carrying baskets of debris to de Costa, who supervised a party engaged in sifting. Now and then, something was taken from the siftings and handed to de Costa, who examined it, and cast it into a wheelbarrow. At intervals, this wheelbarrow was taken to a third party at the water's edge that was engaged in washing something in pans.

Max was, at first, too interested and surprised at all this to take notice of an occurrence in the nature of a tragedy which was taking place farther up the stream. There, about a dozen natives lay stretched at full length upon the sand at the water's edge. Some of these lay still and motionless, as if in death; others were writhing in agony; from time to time one would endeavour to raise himself, but invariably fell back, drawing up his knees as if in fearful pain.

Even at that distance, Max could not fail to recognize the symptoms of cholera--the most severe and fatal of all diseases. At various intervals in the history of the world, cholera has raged in Asia and throughout the eastern parts of Europe. In the early part of the nineteenth century a violent outbreak occurred in Bengal, which in a short time spread throughout the length and breadth of India. Thence, it raged eastward into China, and westward through Persia and Turkey to Russia and Central Europe. North Africa was also afflicted, and the valley of the Nile, whence the pestilence had evidently now crossed to the basin of the Congo.

No disease in the world is more deadly and virulent. It strikes down its victims swiftly and without warning. Even as the men worked at the quarry, Max observed one who took himself a little distance from his fellows, and sat down upon a rock as though he were in pain.

Caesar followed him, and ordered the man to return. The poor fellow was too weak to obey; and thereupon the slave-master raised his whip and three times brought down his lash upon the naked back of the sufferer.

The man's cries for mercy carried even to the hills, and it was all Max could do to restrain the burning indignation which kindled in his soul.

Presently the order was given for the slaves to return to the kraal; and the whole party set out across the bridge, driven forward by the whip.

If any man, in all G.o.d's Kingdom, had merited death by dint of his misdeeds, it was surely this relentless Portuguese.

CHAPTER XVI--THE OPEN CHEST

At sundown Max looked about him for somewhere to sleep. He soon found a sandy patch between two great boulders, and here he took off the haversack in which he had carried his provisions. He had filled his water-bottle at the brook.

After he had eaten he lay down, converting his helmet into a pillow. He felt quite secure; he could not possibly be discovered, unless some one actually walked over him--an event that was very unlikely to occur. He was thoroughly tired out after the day's march; for all that, he found himself quite unable to sleep. He could not rid his mind of the sight he had seen that evening: the miserable slaves, dropping like poisoned flies, struck down by the cholera which raged amongst them, and yet goaded by the whip. And if Max's sense of pity had been aroused, he was scarcely less curious to discover the nature of the work that was going forward at the quarry. When, at last, he fell asleep this thought was dominant in his mind.

He awoke suddenly, and found the same question on his lips: why were they blasting at the quarry? He could not have been asleep for more than a few hours, for the moon was but newly arisen. On consulting his watch, he found that it was only half-past twelve.

He failed in his endeavours to go to sleep again; so he sat up, and tried to think the matter out. He had already accomplished part of his mission: he had discovered that Caesar had not more than six Arabs with whom to defend the stockade. It remained for him, on the following morning, to see if he could find a point upon the ridge whence rifle-fire could be opened upon Makanda. For the time being, however, he resolved to go down into the valley under cover of darkness, to cross the suspension bridge and examine the quarry.

Leaving his haversack, water-bottle and rifle behind him, he armed himself with his revolver, and set forward down the hill, making a wide detour around the kraal. He was then devoutly thankful that Gyp had departed from the land of the living. He found that he was obliged to pa.s.s nearer to the settlement than he liked; and had the Great Dane been on watch, no doubt she would have given the alarm.

As it was, he pa.s.sed in safety, and reached the river bank. He had no difficulty in finding the suspension bridge, which he crossed on tiptoe, as rapidly as possible. On the other side his attention was immediately attracted by the loud groans of the sufferers who had been left to their fate.

It was quite beyond his power to do anything to help these men. He had no medicines; he could not speak their language; and in the majority of cases, the disease was so far gone as to be incurable.

Before he left the hills, the moon had disappeared behind a bank of clouds. During the last ten minutes, a tempest had been driving up from the west, which now burst with all its force upon the valley of the Hidden River.

Africa is the land of mighty storms. The sky grew so dark that it was impossible for Max to see one yard before him. Then, there approached in one wild, savage gust, a roaring, raging wind that bent the great trees of the forest like saplings and picked up the water in the lake before Makanda in little driving waves, whilst the rain came down in sheets. The suspension bridge swung to and fro like a kite. There came flash upon flash of lightning which illumined the quarry, so that the bare walls of rock were blazing like a furnace.