The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley Part 17

"Here's a chap who can't fly!" cried Gerard, eagerly, putting his horse at one of the _aasvogels_, who, thoroughly gorged, could only waddle along like a puffin. And then a cry of horror escaped him, and his face paled. Boiling gently down the slope of the ground, where the vulture had let go of it, was a severed head--the head of a native child of about nine or ten years of age. Grim and gory, with the eyes picked out by the carrion birds, the frightful object rolled. Gerard felt nearly sick with horror. At the same time Dawes's horse, shying violently, nearly unseated his rider.

The slope of the hill here was covered by a low, bushy scrub. Lying about among this, contorted into ghastly att.i.tudes, were several bodies, all natives, and representing all ages and s.e.xes. They had been torn by the vultures, and ripped and mangled by their slayers, and the appearance they presented to those who thus came upon them wholly unexpectedly in the midst of the wilderness was inexpressibly hideous and horrible. Three of the bodies were those of full-grown men, the rest women and children--thirteen persons in all. They were covered with a.s.segai-stabs, out of which the blood seemed yet to ooze, and they were all ripped up, a circ.u.mstance which pointed to their slayers being of Zulu nationality. Why had these poor creatures, thus travelling peaceably through the country--for fragments of mats and other articles pointed to the probability of it being a family trek--been thus fallen upon and ruthlessly butchered--men, women, and children, even to the month-old baby speared again and again on its mother's back? Who had done it? The two white discoverers of the ma.s.sacre looked at each other, and the mind of each shaped the same reply--Igazipuza.

A shadow pa.s.sed between them and the sun, then another and another. The vultures, having become accustomed to the cause of their first alarm, had gathered again, impatient to drop down to their horrible feast. To Gerard it seemed that all the virtue had gone out of the sweet golden sunlight, yielding place to a flaming bra.s.sy glare, and the atmosphere seemed to reek of blood.

"Poor devils!" said Dawes. "They're 'eaten up' and no mistake. We had better not let on about this to the 'boys,' or all that diplomacy this morning is just thrown away. Nothing on earth would keep them from taking to their heels."

After all, it is human to err, and Dawes for once was wrong in his judgment. Had the Swazis but stumbled upon the horrid sight, it would most effectually have killed in them any further desire to tempt their fate in a journey on their own account. They would have demanded nothing better than to hug the vicinity of the waggons as closely as possible.

With a dire foreboding of impending peril upon them the two quitted the spot, and rode back upon their track, for they had come on ahead rather further than they had intended. They had not progressed far, when Dawes said quietly--

"Don't start, Ridgeley. But if you can do so without turning your head, look up--to the left."

Gerard did so. High up on the slope of the hillside was a flash and shimmer of something. The slanting rays of the afternoon sun glinted upon the points of spears, upon the smooth surface of great shields. A group of armed savages sat watching the two hors.e.m.e.n.

Whatever their intentions might have been, whether hostile or the reverse, they made not the slightest attempt at concealment. There they sat--out in the open. Had they been watching them when they discovered the ma.s.sacre; could they, indeed, have been seen from that point of vantage? That these were the perpetrators of that barbarous deed Dawes had little doubt. They were but few, certainly--a dozen at most--but how many more were concealed close at hand, ready to spring out upon them!

It was a terribly trying situation. While feigning to talk at their ease as they rode along, the nerves of both of our two friends were strung to the uttermost. Every moment might come the whiz of a.s.segais from the bush, which in places grew right down to the path--every moment the roar of the war-shout, the swift and tiger-like charge. To Gerard especially, less accustomed to peril than his companion, and by nature less cool, the situation was desperately trying; and by the time they reached the waggons, and the spot being convenient, ordered an outspan then and there, the dark cloud of peril hovering above them seemed to brood thicker and thicker. Even the very sun seemed to set in a lurid sea of blood.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE IGAZIPUZA.

"Bolted! Every man Jack of them!"

Thus John Dawes, as he and Gerard stood looking dubiously at each other in the faint sickly light of dawn. A thick mist lay heavy on the earth, so thick that, as the former said, a man could hardly see the end of the nose upon his face. The place occupied by the Swazi herdsmen and drivers knew them no more, nor was there any trace of those worthies in or around the encampment. Moreover, their traps had eke disappeared.

The thing John Dawes feared had come to pa.s.s, and, shaking his head, he could only repeat blankly--

"Bolted! Every man Jack of them!"

Gerard could not but feel relieved in his innermost heart that this defection had not befallen during his period of watching. He and Dawes had gone the round together when the latter had relieved him. Then the Swazis were rolled up, snug and snoring, in their blankets. An hour before dawn a thick mist had rolled up, covering everything, and then it was that their faithless retainers had seen their opportunity, and had slipped away under cover of its folds.

"Overhaul them? Not we?" said Dawes, in answer to Gerard's suggestion.

"This mist may last for hours, and even if it didn't they'll have made the most of their leg-bail by now, depend upon it. Besides, it would be courting plunder to leave the waggons here in charge of 'boys' only, as we should have to do if we started to chevy those _schelms_. No. We must get on as best we can without them, but it'll mean a goodish handful for you and me. We shall have to drive and herd the stock ourselves."

"What if we have to?" said Gerard, heartily. "It won't hurt us, and, for the matter of that, I dare say I could undertake the whole lot of it myself, leaving you as free as before."

"You can't, Ridgeley. Sheep and cattle can't be driven in one lump. I wish we hadn't brought along that confounded small stock; taken something else instead, only we couldn't get it. Now we'd better make coffee, and be all ready to inspan as soon as the mist lifts."

They were seated at the fire, and had just filled up steaming pannikins of the strong black brew, when the sound of deep voices was heard, and immediately there appeared a group of figures out of the mist. That these were their defaulting retainers was an idea which the first glance served to dispel. There were more than twice the number; besides, the tall fine frames, the haughty poise of the head, the large war-shields, bespoke them Zulus.

They halted a brief moment as they came in sight of the fire, then strode up to half a dozen paces of the two white men, and halting again, eyed the latter in silence for a moment, and one of them said--

"_Saku bona_."

Dawes, as he returned the greeting, with one quick keen glance scrutinised the group, and noted two things. The man they had met two days before, Vunawayo, was not in it, and though all were fully armed, they had not, in accordance with Zulu etiquette, deposited their weapons a few paces in the background. They, for their part, he fancied, looked meaningly at the two guns which lay beside himself and Gerard, and ready to the hand of each. They were, as we have said, tall, fine men, and most of them ringed. But though they carried the large war-shield instead of the little ornamental shield usually employed on pacific journeyings, and were fully armed with a.s.segai and k.n.o.bkerrie, and here and there a battle-axe, their persons were bedizened by no martial gear--being, in fact, devoid of little other adornment than the _mutya_.

These men, he decided, were either the whole or part of an "eating-up"

expedition [Note 1], or they were members of the dreaded Igazipuza.

The Zulus had squatted down on their haunches in crescent formation.

There were fifteen of them. Dawes handed them the large horn snuff-box he always carried. It was pa.s.sed round, and for a few minutes they were all taking pinch after pinch in silent contentment. Then one of them said--

"What have you got to sell, _Umlungu_?"

"Very little," was the answer. "We are at the end of our trip, not at the beginning, and have got rid of nearly everything."

"Among the Swazi dogs? Why did you not come through the Zulu country?"

"We heard there had been too many traders there before us," replied Dawes, unveraciously. "And in the part we did touch we could do nothing. The people were not inclined to trade."

"Are these all your people?" went on the Zulu, with a glance at the four Natal natives, who, Sintoba excepted, had been gazing at them with a curiosity strongly dashed with awe. Sintoba, however, had given them the "_Saku bona_" as on terms of perfect equality, and they had returned it. "They are few to take care of so much property," went on the spokesman.

"They are," said Dawes. "We had some Swazis--six of them--but they ran away in the night."

"_Whau_! They will not run far," said the Zulu, and a meaning grin played upon the faces of his countrymen.

"Do you know Sobuza?" asked Gerard, handing them a huge pannikin of strong black coffee, well sweetened, of which, in accordance with custom, he took a preliminary sip.

They looked at each other, and then followed a discussion as to whether it was Sobuza the son of Panhla, or that other Sobuza who was once in command of the king's bodyguard, or Sobuza the son of somebody else.

Gerard added that he didn't know who Sobuza's father was, but his father's son, at any rate, was a chief in the Udhloko regiment.

"_Ehe_!" cried the warriors in concert. "That is Sobuza the son of Panhla. He has his kraal by the Intaba'nkulu. Do you know him, _Umlungu_?"

"I did, once. But, next time you see him, ask him when he is inclined for another swim in the Umgeni river." And then, as well as he could, he described the incident of the chief's misadventure, and how, indeed, he was able to come to his aid twice in the same day. The Zulus listened attentively, and Gerard hoped that his object in telling the story was gained, viz. to establish some sort of a claim upon their friendship in case they should belong to the dreaded freebooting clan.

"Do you belong to the chief Ingonyama?" said Dawes, when he had done.

"Ingonyama?"

"Yes."

"Ingonyama's kraal is out Hlobane way. Are you going to visit him?"

said the Zulu, in true native fashion avoiding a direct answer, and further, replying to one question by another.

"We know not. Perhaps, if we have time," answered Dawes, rising. "And now, _amadoda_ [men], it is becoming light. We must get upon our road again."

With magical suddenness the sun had burst forth. The sky overhead was a vivid blue, which had almost a shade of the most lovely green in it, in direct contrast to the white and solid ma.s.ses of fleecy vapour which was giving way before the arrowy rays. The curtain of mist, rolling back from the slopes of the hills, was disclosing a carpet of sheeny dewdrops, sparkling, glittering in the sun like a sea of diamonds.

Dawes was about to give orders to inspan, when there burst forth from around the spur of the hill a most horrible and startling tumult.

A wave of dark figures surged into view, shouting, whistling, leaping.

On they poured like a pack of wolves. But some distance ahead of them-- fleeing for their lives, their eyes starting from their heads in deadly fear--coming straight for the camp, ran five or six men, natives, hard pressed by the surging ma.s.s in their rear. Then arose from a mult.i.tude of fierce throats, drawn out into a half chant, half roar, but deafening in its thunderous volume, a most hideous and appalling shout--

"_Igazi_--_pu_--_za_!"

a.s.segais hurled from the onrushing ma.s.s whistled through the air. One of the fugitives fell. In a moment a howling, raving crowd was around him, upon him, their tiger-like roars drowning the shrieks of the wretched man being literally hacked to pieces. Another staggered into camp, and fell almost at Gerard's feet, covered with spear-wounds. And in the fleeing refugees frenzied with terror, they recognised the treacherous and defaulting Swazis.