The Sign of the Spider Part 27

His body and limbs slashed with many spear-wounds--his clothing cut to ribbons--his half-starved and filthy aspect--as he was hustled forward into the king's presence, the Arab would have looked a pitiable object enough but for one thing. The dignity begotten of high descent and indomitable courage never left him--not for one moment. Weak as he was with loss of blood and the pain of his untended and mortifying wounds--the glance of his eyes, no less than the set of his keen, hawk-like face, was as proud, as fearless, as that of the king himself.

"Down, dog!" growled the guards, flinging him forward on his face. "Lick the earth at the feet of the Great North Wind, whose blast kills!"

But immediately Lutali staggered to his feet, and the h.e.l.l blast of hate and fury which shone from his eyes was perfectly demoniacal.

"There is but one G.o.d, and Mohammed is the prophet of G.o.d!" he roared.

"Am I to prostrate myself before an infidel dog--the chief dog of a pack of dogs? This for the sc.u.m!" And he spat full towards Tyisandhlu.

An indescribable shiver of awe ran through the dense and serried ranks of armed warriors, followed by a terrible tumult.

"_Au!_ he is mad!" cried some; while others clamoured, "Give him to us, Great Great One. We will put him to the fiery death!"

But the king returned no word. It is even possible that his own intrepid soul was moved to admiration by the sublime courage of this man--his prisoner, bound, helpless, weakened--standing thus before him--before him at whose frown men trembled--face to face, and thus defying him. One other who beheld it, the sight must have powerfully moved, for with a lull in the tumult a voice rose clear and distinct:

"Spare him, O Great Great One, for he is a brave man."

If anyone had told Laurence Stanninghame but an hour earlier that he was about to commit so rash and suicidal an act as to beg the life of another at the hands of a grossly insulted despot, and in the face of an enraged nation, he would have scouted the idea as too weakly idiotic for words. Yet, in fact, he had just committed that very act. Deep and savage were the resentful growls that greeted his words. "_Au!_ he presumes! He shares in the insult offered to the majesty of the king,"

were some of the ominous mutterings that went forth.

The king merely glanced in the direction of the speaker, and said nothing. But Lutali, becoming aware for the first time of the presence of his former confederate, turned towards the latter.

"Ask not my life at the hands of these dogs, these unclean swine, Afa,"

he cried;--"lo, Paradise awaits to receive the believer. I hasten to it; I enter it;" and he threw back his head fearlessly, while his eyes shone with a fanatical glare.

"Spare him, O king, for he is a brave man," urged Laurence again.

"And so art thou, I think," replied Tyisandhlu, turning a somewhat haughty stare upon the speaker. Then he muttered, "Yet not this one."

An interruption occurred; gruesome, grotesque. A number of figures, seeming to spring from no one knew where, were seen gliding forward.

They were coal black from head to foot, and their faces were more like masks than the human countenance, being bedaubed with some pigment that gave each of them the aspect of possessing two huge goggle eyes. But these horrible beings seemed at first sight to have no arms and no legs, their whole anatomy being encased in a sort of black, hairy sacking, whence tails and streamers, also hairy, flapped in the air as they moved. Hideous, indeed, they looked,--hideous and grotesque, half reptile, half devil.

They surrounded Lutali--all in dead silence, the guards precipitately falling back to give them way. Then the king spoke, and his words were gentle and mocking:

"Go now to thy Paradise, O believer; these will show thee the way.

_Hamba-gahle!_"

He waved his hand, and, in obedience to the signal, the whole group of black horrors fastened upon the Arab and dragged him away. And from all who beheld there went up a deep, chest note of exclamation that was part satisfaction, part awe.

The king, having received further reports and attended to other business connected with the army, withdrew. Laurence, watching the stately personality of this splendid savage retiring amid the groups of indunas towards the gate of the great kraal, felt his ever-present conjectures as to his own fate merge in a vivid sense of interest. But Tyisandhlu seemed to have forgotten his existence, for he bestowed no further word upon him; however, he was taken charge of by Ngumunye, who a.s.signed him a large hut within the royal kraal.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Cannibals.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE SHADOW OF THE MYSTERY.

The next few days were spent by the Ba-gcatya in dancing and ceremonial--and by Laurence Stanninghame in trying to find out all he could about the Ba-gcatya. He laid himself out to make friends with them, and this was easy, for the natural suspiciousness wherewith the savage invariably regards a new acquaintance, once fairly laid to rest, the Ba-gcatya proved as chatty and genial a race of people as those of the original Zulu stock. But on one point the lips of old and young alike were sealed, and that was the fate of Lutali. No word would they ever by any chance let fall as to this; but the awed silence wherewith they would treat all mention of it, and their hurried efforts to change the subject, added not a little to the impression the last glimpse of his Arab confederate had made upon Laurence. What awesome, devilish mystery did not those hideous beings represent?

For the rest, he learned that these people were of Zulu stock, and having opposed the accession of Tshaka, when that potentate usurped the royal seat of Dingiswayo, had deemed it advisable to flee. They had migrated northward, even as Umzilikazi and his followers had done, though some years prior to the flight of that chieftain. But they were nothing if not conservative, and so intent was the king on preserving the pure Zulu blood, that he was chary of allowing any slaves among them. As it was, the issue of all slaves had no rights, and could under no circ.u.mstances whatever rise above the condition of slavery. And Laurence, noting the grand physique, and even the handsome appearance, of the sons and daughters of this splendid race, had no doubt as to the wisdom of such a restriction.

Now, as the days went by, there began to grow upon Laurence a sort of restfulness. The terrible conflict and merciless ma.s.sacre of his friends and followers had impressed him but momentarily, accustomed as he was to scenes of horror and of blood--and indeed in direct contrast to such did he the more readily welcome the peaceful tranquillity of his present life. For the dreaded Ba-gcatya at home were a quiet and pastoral race--owning extensive herds of cattle--also goats and a strange kind of large-tailed sheep--though, true to their origin, horned cattle formed the staple of their possessions, and the land around the king's great palace was dappled with grazing stock, and the air was musical with the singing of women hoeing the millet and maize gardens.

Then again, the surrounding country swarmed with game, large and small, from the colossal elephant to the tiny d.i.n.kerbuck. To Laurence, pa.s.sionately fond of sport, this alone was sufficient to reconcile him to his strange captivity--for a time. He would be the life and soul of the Ba-gcatya hunting parties, and skill and success, together with his untiring energy and philosophical acceptance of the hardships and vicissitudes of the chase, went straight to the hearts of these fine, fearless barbarians. He became quite a favourite with the nation.

The female side of the latter, too, looked upon him with kindly eyes. He would chaff the girls, when he came upon them wandering in bevies, as was their wont, and tell them strange stories of other conditions of life, until they fairly screamed with laughter, or brought their hands to their mouths in mute wonder.

"_Whau_, Nyonyoba, why do you not _lobola_ for some of these?" said Silawayo one day, coming upon him thus engaged. "Then you could dwell among us as one of ourselves."

"One might do worse, induna of the king," he returned tranquilly, with a glance at the group of bright-faced, merry, and extremely well-shaped damsels, whom he had been convulsing with laughter.

"_Yau!_ Listen to our father," they cried. "He is joking, indeed. _Yau!_ Farewell, Nyonyoba. Fare thee well." And they sped away, still screaming with laughter.

The old induna looked quizzically after them, then at Laurence. Then he took snuff.

"One might do worse, Silawayo," repeated Laurence. "I have known worse times than those I have already undergone here. But all I possess I have lost. My slaves your people have killed, and my ivory and goods the king has taken, leaving me nothing but my arms and ammunition. Tell me, then, do the Ba-gcatya give their daughters for nothing, or how shall a man who is so poor think to set up a kraal of his own?"

The induna laughed dryly.

"We are all poor that way, for all we own belongs to the king. Yet the Great Great One is open handed. He might return some of your goods, Nyonyoba."

This, by the way, was Laurence's sobriquet among these people, bestowed upon him by reason of his skill and craft in stalking wild game.

It was even as he had said. This raid had gone far towards undoing the results of their lawless and perilous enterprise--a portion of his gains were safe, but this last blow was of crippling force. And only a day or so prior to it he had been revelling in the prospect of a speedy return to civilized life, to the enjoyment of wealth for the remainder of his allotted span. He recalled the misgivings uttered by Holmes, that wealth thus gained would bring them no good, for the curse of blood that lay upon it. Poor Holmes! The prophecy seemed to have come true as regarded the prophet--but for himself? well, the loss reconciled him still more to his life among the Ba-gcatya.

Of Tyisandhlu he had seen but little. Now and then the king would send for him and talk for a time upon things in general, and all the while Laurence would feel that the shrewd, keen eyes of this barbarian ruler were reading him like a book. Tyisandhlu, moreover, had expressed a wish that a body of picked men should be armed with the rifles taken from the slavers, and instructed in their use; and to this Laurence had readily consented.

"Yet consider, Ndabezita,"[2] he had said, "is it well to teach them reliance on any weapon rather than the broad spear? For had your army possessed fire-weapons, never would it have eaten up our camp out yonder. It would have spent all its time and energy shooting, and that to little purpose. It would have had time to think, and then the warriors would have brought but half a heart to the last fierce charge."

"There is much in what you say, Nyonyoba," replied the king; "yet, I would try the experiment."

So the indunas were required to select the men, and about three hundred were organized, and Laurence, having spent much care in their instruction, soon turned out a very fair corps of sharp-shooters. No scruple had he in thus increasing the fighting strength of this already fierce and formidable fighting race, to which he had taken a great liking. He even began to contemplate the contingency of ending his life among them, for of any return to civilization there seemed not the remotest prospect; and, indeed, rather than return without the wealth for which he had risked so much, he preferred not to return at all.

Even the memory of Lilith brought with it pain rather than solace. After all this time--years indeed, now--would not his memory have faded? The life he had led tended to foster such memory in himself, but with her it was otherwise. All the conditions of her daily life tended rather to dim it. That sweet, short, pa.s.sionate episode had been all entrancing while it lasted; yet was it not counterpoised by the certainty that with women of her temperament such episodes are but episodes? All the bitter side of his philosophy cried aloud in the affirmative.

He had now been several months among the Ba-gcatya; and had long since ceased to feel any misgiving as to his personal safety at their hands.

But his sense of security was destined to receive a rude shock, and it came about in this way.

Returning one day from a hunt, at some distance from Imvungayo, he had marched on ahead of his companions, and, the afternoon being hot, had lain down in the shade of a cl.u.s.ter of trees for a brief nap. From this the buzz of muttering voices awakened him.

At first he paid no attention, reckoning that the remainder of the party had come up. But soon a remark which was let fall started him very wide awake indeed, and at the same time he recognized that the voices were not those of his present companions, but of strangers. From a certain quaver or hesitancy in the tones, he judged them to be the voices of old men.

"_Whau!_ The spider must be growing hungry again. It is long since he has drunk blood."