The Golden Rock Part 63

"Mother of G.o.d! what a sight! His eyes are red and look out from a black mask."

"He is like a devil," muttered Gobo; and, with his gun at his hip, he pressed the trigger.

"Baleka!" cried a warrior, pushing in. "Sirayo eats our men up by the lone rock, and men are swarming across the river for this place."

"To the mountain!" cried Gobo, turning to fly.

"Not I!" cried the Captain furiously.

"Nor I!" said Ferrara.

And the two dashed at Hume.

He fired and the Captain fell; but Ferrara gripped him by the throat, and the two reeled about in a fierce struggle, and in their ears, though without conveying much meaning, there came the sound of shouting beyond the walls. As they stood for a spell, gasping for breath to renew the struggle, they heard the Zulus calling to each other to fly, and Ferrara by a terrific effort hurled Hume away, sent him staggering, to fall heavily over the heap of fallen stones, then himself vanished into the underground pa.s.sage, a moment before the little son of Umkomaas dashed into the ruined chamber at the head of his victorious warriors.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

THE UNDERGROUND CHAMBER.

Sirayo's leadership had prevailed. He attacked the main body of the enemy before sunrise, and the young warriors of the Rock, fired by his ferocious courage, had withstood the desperate rush of the Zulus until Chanda's regiment came up on the trail of the second detachment, when the enemy, terribly thinned, took the path to the mountain wisely left open for them.

Before the fight Sirayo had taken the long throwing a.s.segai from Inyami and snapped the haft across his knee within three feet of the blade.

"Do ye likewise," he said to the regiment, "and you will fight the Zulus hand-to-hand with their own weapons, for it is by their short a.s.segais they have conquered."

The young warriors obeyed, and for the first time they went into a fight without hurling their spears.

After the great fight, which left the ground about a lonely rock of strange shape strewn with dead and dying, the women flocked to the scene, to attend to the wounded, and Sirayo, with the remnant of his band, marched to the ruins. As they neared the place, the men broke out with their song of victory--a deep-throated roar tossed to the mountain--and the warriors about the ruins formed up to meet them, whistling shrilly and drumming on their shields, while the boy-chief stood before the ranks, his black eyes glittering.

"Bayate!" they thundered. "Great is Sirayo, the big black bull, the swooping eagle!"

The air vibrated to their shouts, and the warriors of the Rock, with the marks of battle on them, gave an answering shout, and proclaimed Sirayo as their chief.

If the Zulu had been a younger man, he would perhaps have seized the opportunity and grasped the proffered honour, which would have meant instant death to the little chief, and a fierce attack upon any suspected of supporting him.

As it was, the chief took a pinch of snuff, while his bloodshot eyes glared fiercely at the son of Umkomaas, standing within reach of his red and dripping a.s.segai.

"Do you hear, little chief?" he said in his deep tones.

"I hear, and I know. Strike if you will."

Sirayo took from his head the broken eagle plume, and fixed it on the head of the child.

"Behold your chief!" he cried, lifting his a.s.segai and letting his dark glance sweep along the ranks of excited men. "He is a babe, but he has the heart of a lion. Chief, see your men; they fought like my own Zulus of the far south. Take thought that your heart never turns black towards them."

Then Sirayo turned into the ruins, and found Hume wetting with his dripping handkerchief the lips of the old woman, who lay bleeding slowly from a wound in the breast. The chief looked at the fallen stones and at the p.r.o.ne body of the Portuguese Captain.

"What evil has happened?" he asked.

"I heard them shout your name, chief," said Hume, keeping his face bent over the woman; "you have triumphed?"

"Yebo! it was well done, and it was a great fight. Your eyes are no longer dark; that is better than my victory. Ay, it is good! Where are the others?"

"Down there;" and he pointed at the hole.

"Did they go before the fight, and leave you alone?"

"I could not see, and they were hurried. They forgot me."

"Yoh! And do they hide there like jackals? It was not a good thing to leave a blind man."

"They did it without thought I fear there is something dark thereunder, chief, for a strange man, I think, has gone down. I would have followed, but my head was dizzy from a fall; and then I heard this old woman crying feebly for water, and I went out to the spring. We must go down."

Sirayo called for men, and when a few came in with wild looks he bid them carry the old woman to the spring and tend to her. The men exclaimed, when they saw Hume, and clapped their hands to their mouths, but Sirayo sternly bid them go.

"They do not like my face," said Hume, with a bitter smile.

"They are not women, that they should be terrified at a scar received in battle."

"Then my face would frighten a woman;" and he shuddered. "Will you go first, chief?"

A faint smile flickered for a second about the grim mouth of the warrior; then he lowered himself into the hole. "We shall need a light," he said, and split the haft of an a.s.segai. They found themselves in a narrow pa.s.sage curiously arched and ribbed, which coiled round and widened as they advanced, turning always to the left. The walls were polished, as if by constant friction, and where the ribs met overhead was a well-defined ridge, or backbone, regularly articulated.

It was very still, the stagnant air heavy with a sickly odour, and twice they paused to struggle against a feeling of dizziness; but a slight current of air, coming with a cooling touch, freshened them, so they were able to struggle on, through a short length where the pa.s.sage suddenly narrowed, to a large wedge-shaped chamber.

They stood peering by the flickering and waning light at some dim forms stretched upon the floor, at two spots of light at the far end through which the air came, at a double row of shining objects on either side the narrow end of the wedge, and at an object in the centre from which there came a wreath of smoke, spreading the odour that had so disturbed them.

As Hume hesitated, with a sharp fear at his heart, one of the figures moved, then rose up, swaying to the side for support.

"Thank G.o.d!" he cried; and at the sound of the voice the figure started back, moved his head from side to side as though he tried in vain to pierce the gloom behind the spark of fire, and then cried hoa.r.s.ely:

"Quien es?"

"Ah, it is you! Surrender; we are armed."

The man made no answer; but, stooping, he appeared to grope among the prostrate forms; then with a fierce growl of satisfaction lifted one, and by the light that filtered through the two openings they caught the sheen of steel in his hand; they saw, too, the face of Laura, white and deathlike.

"I will not surrender!" he said slowly; "and if I die she dies also."

"Don't!" cried Hume hoa.r.s.ely. "Give her to me, for Heaven's sake!"

"Not I," he growled, and placed her face in the stream of light, so that Hume could see the closed eyes and white cheeks.

Hume trembled and went faint with terror. "For mercy's sake, take her out of this, into the fresh air."

"And what of me?"