The Golden Rock Part 57

The desperate struggle could not be renewed by him if the Zulus returned, and at any moment a fresh string of them might appear.

Already there were eager shouts as the escaped warrior spread the news of the presence of Sirayo. Well they knew him from the fight at the waggon; and they would esteem it an honour to vanquish him. Mingled, too, with the cries of his name were the names of his white companions and of the white lady. What would be her fate when they triumphed, as in the end they must?

"By the Lord, has a single man done this?" It was Webster who spoke.

He had heard the conflict, had seen the first blow given by Sirayo, and had rubbed fiercely to bring back the blood to his numbed limbs.

"They will come," said Sirayo, speaking slowly; "I will hold them for a time. When I fall be ready to take my place. The inkosikasi, does she live?"

"Yes," said Webster, with his eyes brightening at the unyielding courage of the savage warrior.

"Give her an a.s.segai," he said, and put the point of his blood-stained blade to his throat.

Webster shuddered at the fearful significance of the gesture, then picked up an a.s.segai, and stood waiting with the Gaika to bar the pa.s.sage.

There was a cry from Laura. "Come," she said, "quick!"

Webster turned with a roar, expecting to face the foe; but he stood amazed to see the native who had so opportunely arrived to cut their bands disappearing through a hole in the wall. Laura stood by, holding Hume by the hand, while with the disengaged hand she pointed at the hole.

"A refuge," she whispered; "a hiding-place."

"Hold the pa.s.sage a minute, Sirayo," he cried, then ran to her, and looked through into a dark cavern. "Is it safe?" he asked.

"Yes," said Hume; "but I have lost half my perception with the loss of sight; there is some sort of cave here, I think. The man told me he had run here for shelter."

There was a shout from beyond.

Laura struggled through; then Webster lifted Hume, and almost shot him in. "Klaas, come!"

The Gaika looked along the pa.s.sage and hesitated. Webster ran, caught him by the neck, and jammed his head in the hole, then shoved him through by main force.

"Jim, come in!" cried Laura.

He was already advancing to the pa.s.sage, but he turned. "I cannot, Laura. Sirayo must come too;" and he rushed away to join the chief, who stood astride the pa.s.sage eyeing a fresh body of the enemy, whose glaring eyes and quivering nostrils met the view above the striped shields.

Two men stood shoulder to shoulder, their shields before them, and two behind held their bucklers above the heads of those in advance.

"Now!" they cried, "together!" and advancing in a solid ma.s.s, by their sheer weight pushed back their two opponents into the open room; but beyond the opening the two would not budge.

Webster drove his fist full in the face of the foremost native, who fell, stunned, against the men behind, and in the opening made Sirayo plunged his a.s.segai. Then the two of them struck and thrust furiously, while the Zulus in front, who could not use their hands, cried to those behind to give them room, but the latter, scenting blood, pressed on the more fiercely, till at last they forced their way and, by their impetus, fell headlong into the room. Webster and the chief sprang aside a moment, and then dashed among their foes before they could rally; and the desperate rush they made, and their great strength exerted to the utmost in each swift blow, combined with the fierce war-shout and terrible vigour of the great Zulu, produced a panic. The injured men at first ran crying out, and then the survivors fled, leaving the two alone with a few writhing figures. Then they struggled, all blood-stained and panting, through the hole to the hiding-place, and the stone was replaced.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE CHIEF'S PLAN.

They had entered a narrow chamber, into which the light streamed through numerous cracks, in volume sufficient to bring every object into dim relief. For several minutes the little band, s.n.a.t.c.hed from certain death at the last moment, stood anxiously listening for the movements of their enemies, scarcely daring to hope that their hiding-place would not be immediately detected; then, with a sigh of relief, they grasped each other's hands and peered about them.

At one corner of the room was the old woman who had first visited them, mixing something in a stone dish; near her crouched the witch-doctor, with his head bent in a state of utter dejection, while, with his back to the wall and his eyes fixed upon the woman, leant the warrior whose prompt action had so timely released the captives. Sirayo was seated on the floor, with the Gaika endeavouring to stanch the blood that still trickled down his arm. Hume stood with his hands to his eyes, having torn off the bandage, which, in its sun-dried state, had increased his torture, his face looking haggard and white. As her eyes, growing accustomed to the darkness, dwelt upon his pathetic action, and noticed the signs of suffering in his face, Laura realised what he must have endured through the long hours of darkness. She moved to his side, and gently took his arm, the tears gathering in her eyes.

The old woman rose up, washed away the blood from the wounds of the warrior of her own race, then anointed them with the preparation on which she had been engaged, and over the wounds so treated laid a thin leaf peeled from a large bulbous root. The man turned away, and took a deep draught of water from a calabash, the gurgling noise breaking strangely on the silence.

Sirayo stood up, and thrust his arm before the old woman, and she, without a word, busied herself with it, probing it with her skinny fingers to feel if the bones were broken, and giving a satisfied grunt when she found it was sound. Moving the limb under a stream of sunlight, and bidding Klaas support it, she washed out the wound, then brought the gaping ends together, and st.i.tched them with a dried thorn of mimosa and sinews. She spread ointment on the wound, and bound the arm up with a curious fragment cut from a long strip stretched along the wall. With the same material she made a sling for his arm, then, with a dry chuckle, dismissed him, and cast a questioning gaze at the others.

Seeing, from the expression of Hume's face, that he was the only other needing her attention, she stepped to his side, drew his hand away, and with glittering eyes peered into his mutilated face. Then, roughly pushing Laura aside, she drew him to the light and again scrutinised him, while the others looked on in silence, subdued by the confidence in her own power of this old and withered savage.

She whispered to the crouching witch-doctor, and he submissively brought her first a calabash of water, with which she moistened the blackened and inflamed lids, then some vegetable, which she began to chew with her almost toothless gums, making awful grimaces. Then, taking the masticated pulp, she spread it over the lids, stretched on them leaves from the bulb, and with the handkerchief made a bandage.

Hume had submitted with a strange patience, and, now that the operation was over, stood with his face in the light.

Laura stole to his side again. "Do you feel any relief?" she murmured.

"Hush," whispered Webster.

They listened, and heard a sharp exclamation outside. Those who stood near the wall peeped through the crack, and saw a Zulu standing in the centre of the vacated chamber, looking around him curiously at the signs of the struggle.

There was a fierce hiss, and the Zulu, with a cry of alarm, darted off, while the old woman opened wide her mouth in a silent laugh, and cracked her fingers. She it was who had made this noise.

They heard a noise of men leaping to the ground, and a distant shouting, gradually sinking to a confused murmur.

"They have gone," said Sirayo. "Old mother, have you any food?"

The old dame responded not very amiably, but at an authoritative order from her own chief she disappeared through a narrow opening, hitherto-- hidden in the gloom, into another apartment, while, at the prospect of food, the men brightened up. A man may soon become indifferent to danger, but peril never deadens the edge of hunger, so that many a man condemned to death has breakfasted heartily a few minutes before the hour set for his execution. The fare laid before them was not tempting, but they ate the food ravenously and felt the better for it. Laura retired into the other compartment, after somewhat timidly eyeing the old woman, and the strange crone followed her, mumbling and smiling, as well as her toothless gums would permit, at this new type of feminine beauty. The natives prepared to sleep, that appearing to them the most natural alternative, but the developed nerves of the civilised white rebelled against such indulgence at such a time. Hume leant against the wall with his arms folded, putting a few whispered questions to Webster, who restlessly moved up and down, as though pacing the bridge.

"I want to get out of this place," he growled. "It isn't natural--it's cramped, dark, uncanny, with the dried skin of a snake on the wall, and in its evil-smelling corners the lurking superst.i.tion of a mysterious and b.l.o.o.d.y past. If we stay here we'll deserve the worst kind of ill-luck."

"How large are these ruins?" asked Hume.

"About fifty yards across, but with a mult.i.tude of pa.s.sages coiling round the centre chamber, from which we escaped into this hole, which, I take it, lies between the first curve of the pa.s.sage and the inner chamber."

"Then, if the Zulus, knowing we are concealed somewhere in the pile, made a systematic search, they must find us?"

"Certainly; and knowing we were in the inner chamber they will begin their search from that point, and discover our hiding-place at once."

"Would it not be best, then, to find out what the Zulus are about?"

"Good; anything to get out of this place. I'd better get out the way I squeezed in. Where's the port-hole--the loose stone?"

"Stop; Jim, you must not go; you're too clumsy for this work. Klaas!"

"Sieur!"

"We are in great danger here. To get free we need the help of a brave man, a man who can move softly, and use his eyes and ears well. You are he."

"Eweh, Inkose, I am that man."

"You will get out of this place, and, keeping yourself concealed, see where the Zulus are and what they do."

"I will do it," and he fixed the point of his a.s.segai in a crack in the wall where the movable stone was fixed.