Tom Burnaby Part 33

"Very well. Go back to the village and keep a watch over him. Don't let him escape."

The katikiro returned, with a very crestfallen look, to the village.

Tom then gave orders that the Arab camp should be destroyed after everything of any value had been removed. By and by his three hundred returned in twos and threes, bringing with them prisoners captured on the confines of the forest. From one of these, an Arab, Tom succeeded with some trouble in extracting information about the previous movements of the force to which he belonged. He found that, about a week before the main body of the Arabs had left their stronghold, a smaller force of one thousand picked men had started under the leadership of De Castro, all armed with firearms. Their destination was not known when they set out, but they had approached the village by a circuitous route through the forest, some thirty miles to the west of the route adopted by the main force. Their object was to surprise the village after its defenders had been decoyed away. De Castro had not reckoned on finding any force in the village, believing that its full strength would, by the time he arrived, have been drawn into the forest. What had happened after his messenger failed to return, this prisoner did not know.

Questioning him further, Tom was rewarded with information of the greatest interest and importance. The Arab stronghold lay many marches to the north-west, on an island in the middle of a lake. It was strongly fortified, and so cleverly concealed that no one could suspect from the sh.o.r.e that the island was anything but a wilderness of bush and trees. The forest surrounding the lake was dense, broken here and there by clearings where slaves were kept. The officials of the Congo State had never once made their appearance there. No path led through the forest to the sh.o.r.e. The Arabs reached the lake by a river, their canoes being kept on the island and paddled out and in when required. No white man had ever seen this fortress--stay, one white man was probably there now. On the way towards the village De Castro's force had met a big red-faced man with brown hair all over his face, four eyes, two of them stuck on wires of gold, and a stomach like a tub. They had captured with him several bags containing all sorts of curious and useful things, and four donkeys. He had bl.u.s.tered and stormed, saying many things in a strange tongue, but De Castro had ordered him to be carried in bonds to the fortress, to be kept there until the return of the expedition.

Tom could not help smiling as he thought of Herr Schwab, so full of confidence and cheerful a.s.surance, kept a prisoner in the Arab stronghold.

"And who is your leader?" he asked the man.

It was Rumaliza himself, he replied. He was an old man, much broken since his last great fight with the Belgians, but retaining still all his indomitable spirit. He was actually accompanying the force through the forest; for he seemed persuaded that the final crisis of his life had come, and he wished to superintend the inevitable fight and match his known skill and craft against the white man, who, rumour said, was pitting himself against him. With Rumaliza came his tried lieutenant, Ahmed. Mustapha would probably have come also, but for the failure of his ambush against the British force, which had somewhat shaken the old chief's confidence in him. He had been left in charge of the island fortress. There were not many men left with him, but an expedition which had been sent out several months before to the north was long overdue when De Castro's column started, and Rumaliza would probably leave these men behind to strengthen Mustapha's garrison.

All this acted like wine upon Tom's spirit. Rumaliza himself, the chief whose name was everywhere held in horror as a synonym for cruelty, fraud, cunning, and barbarous valour, was leading his host forth on an enterprise on which he staked all! Tom's imagination was stirred at the prospect of meeting the redoubtable chief, and still more at the news of the mysterious island fortress.

From another prisoner, an Arab of higher rank, he obtained, later in the day, particulars which enabled him to piece together a coherent story of the attempted ruse. De Castro had waited and waited for his messenger to return, fuming at his delay, and vowing to teach him a lesson. At length a Muiro appeared, who explained that the man was dead, but brought an offer from the medicine-man to treat. De Castro had gone forward after dark and met Mabruki. This, Tom conjectured, was the time when the katikiro had supposed him to be gathering herbs. The prisoner had himself accompanied the Portuguese to the rendezvous, ten miles from the village, and had heard the terms of the compact. Mabruki had promised to get rid by a trick of the greater part of the katikiro's force. The Portuguese would find it easy then to enter the village.

The katikiro would be cut in pieces, after which the white man was to be inveigled back and handed to De Castro. In return for these services Mabruki was to receive a present of ivory, and to be allowed to make himself chief in Mwonga's stead, thus getting possession (Tom supplied the detail from his own knowledge) of the store of ivory and treasure which lay beneath the chief's hut. It was evident that only the katikiro's after-thought, to send a second messenger into the forest, had foiled the plot.

There were still two points that puzzled Tom. The first was, why had not De Castro gone direct to the village instead of camping within a mile of it, three hours before sunset? The Arab explained that his chief had acted in the teeth of the advice of his lieutenants. They were all for proceeding without delay. It was sheer indolence, so characteristic of the Portuguese, and overweening self-confidence, that had determined De Castro to rest after his march and enjoy his evening meal in peace, deferring the attack until dawn. The other point was: How had the medicine-man got possession of the paper? The Arab knew nothing about this, Msala was equally in the dark, and Tom resolved to question Mabruki himself and probe the plot to the bottom.

Having now a pretty clear idea of the course of events, Tom returned to the village, where the people were holding high festivities in honour of the great victory. Tom did not check the mirth of the non-combatants, but he gathered the fighting-men together and told them gravely that the hardest fight of all was still before them. A few minutes after his return Msala came to him boiling with rage.

"Mabruki is gone!" he said. "While I was away he gathered his basket and bell and piles of charms and fetish-gra.s.s, and went away towards the setting sun. Many men saw him go, but they feared his evil eye and the might of his magic, and none dared to stay him."

"Well, we are rid of a villain, and I am spared the necessity of employing a hangman."

"A hangman!" cried the indignant katikiro. "I would myself have cut off his head, though all his devils plagued me for ever after."

"Msala," said Tom gravely, "that sort of thing will not do. Have I been with you so long, and yet you are ignorant of the true way of justice?

You will think better of it when your anger has pa.s.sed away, my friend."

Msala was silent.

"Now, we have no time to waste," Tom went on. "We have had a little rest, and there is the great fight before us in the forest. We must have the men back from the burning mountain. Mbutu, I will send your brother for them. He will go to the volcano and bring back the eight hundred men there. On reaching the village they must rest for a short time; then, Msala, you will send six hundred of them on with all speed northwards, along with two hundred fresh men. The rest will remain with you to defend the village."

This having been arranged, soon after twelve o'clock Tom led his men out towards the north. He had expected a messenger to come in with news from the force he had left in the forest, and he could not but regard his non-arrival as an indication that the men were at least holding their own. After a march of nearly five hours he reached the largest block-house, which stood two miles from the edge of the forest. He found that, though firing had been heard in the distance, no message had been received from the front, and after his troops had made a rapid meal he hurried on.

He had not gone far before he heard irregular firing ahead. Hastening his pace he soon saw, amid the scrub and thin copses at the extreme edge of the forest, scattered bodies of men approaching in the direction of the block-house. Keen as his eyesight was, he could not distinguish whether the men were friends or foes, but some of his own troops at once exclaimed that they were Bahima. The men he had left in the forest were evidently, then, retreating, but the firing showed that they were retiring slowly, fighting, as he had commanded them, every inch of the way. He at once made dispositions to prevent a rout, and to give his men a strong position to retire upon. Sending out a small body of picked men to rally the retreating troops, he ordered the seventy spademen he had with him to throw up a rough breastwork behind which the musketeers might take secure aim. The work was only half-completed when loud shouts, with the boom-boom of trade guns and the sharper crack of rifles, showed that the Arabs were pressing hard upon the retreating Bahima. Suddenly a larger body of men emerged in confusion from the dense scrub, followed closely by another body evidently in hot pursuit.

The retreat would soon have become a rout, for the Bahima were outflanked and outnumbered, and the Arabs, a.s.sured of victory, were pressing hard upon them, with exultant cries, and the manifest determination, as soon as the whole of their force had debouched, to finish the struggle with a crushing charge. But the opportune arrival of the small rallying force sent forward by Tom enabled the retreating troops to draw off in comparatively good order. The reinforcements occupied a small copse on the extreme right of the Arab advance, and from this place of vantage they poured in so hara.s.sing a fire that the enemy, taken by surprise and fearing a trap, halted, undecided whether to press forward or retire, in the meantime taking what cover the ground afforded. The few minutes' respite was all that was needed to enable Tom to withdraw his discomfited troops behind the breastwork, and when the Arabs made up their minds to clear the copse they found it deserted.

They then showed some disposition to advance against Tom's main position, but, meeting a sharp musketry fire, they changed their minds and prepared to form a camp, from which Tom concluded that they had decided to postpone their attack in force until they had surveyed the ground and taken a rest.

It was now past five o'clock, and little more than half an hour of daylight was left. The Arabs had had a hard day's work. They had found the ford so stoutly defended that a pa.s.sage at that point was impossible, and they had had to march for some miles before they found another fordable place, and then to cut their way through dense forest, hara.s.sed all along by the persistent Bahima. Thus they were much in need of rest. To attack by night, moreover, is foreign to all the Arab's habits and traditions, and Tom recognized thankfully that he had the whole night in which to prepare for the fateful conflict.

Obviously, with a force so largely outnumbered by the enemy, he could not afford to risk a fight in the open. The questions occurred to him: Suppose he took up a strong defensive position, could he tempt the Arabs to attack him directly? was there no danger of their creeping round on his right and overwhelming the village? The first question he easily answered. The Arabs had come purposely to attack him, and all that he had ever seen or heard about them warranted the belief that they would waste no time in tactics, but would come on in a furious onslaught, trusting to sheer weight of numbers to carry them through. The second question gave him more difficulty; but when he remembered that in order to reach the village without fighting him the Arabs would have to make a detour of nearly twenty miles, through a country already stripped of food and waterless, with the danger of their rear being hara.s.sed all the way, he regarded such a movement as very improbable, and decided that the approaching battle would in all likelihood be fought on ground of his own choosing.

He had already marked what seemed to him an ideal spot for such an encounter. Extending for nearly a mile into the plain, there lay, to the west of the path into the forest, an extensive swamp, fringed with thick reeds, and so much swollen by the recent rains that it was bound to present great difficulty to an advancing enemy. He resolved to form during the night a strong zariba, resting one side of it upon this swamp. He ordered his men, therefore, to remove all the ammunition and provisions from the block-house to the edge of the swamp, and to obtain a good supply of water from a stream running across the plain half a mile in his rear, and then to set fire to the block-house, which could not be held if seriously attacked, and yet might prove a source of danger if left as a means of cover for the enemy. Collecting, then, his whole force, he led them to the swamp, and set a large number digging a trench and erecting an earthwork around three sides of a square, each face being about one-fifth of a mile in length. Another body he ordered to collect mimosa-scrub and cactus from the clumps in the neighbourhood, to plant these in the earthwork, and to weave among them all kinds of thorn-plants, so as to make a thick hedge, almost impervious to bullets.

It was dark before the task was weir begun, but posting a number of pickets and sentries round his position, to prevent any interference on the part of the enemy, he got some thirty of his men to light the workers with torches, which, being seen extended over a large area, would no doubt also serve to give the Arabs an exaggerated notion of his strength. Soon after the torches were lit, shouts from the Arab camp more than a mile away apprised him that they had noted his movements, and the beating of drums at first suggested that an attack was imminent; but Mbutu explained that the Arab drummers were merely amusing themselves by signalling the terrible deeds that were to be done on the following day, and how the Bahima force was to be scattered to the four winds.

Tom merely smiled, and pressed on the work, allowing his men short spells of rest, until about eleven o'clock, by which time the zariba was complete. He would have liked to protect his position still further, by means of pointed stakes planted all round it, driven deep into the ground, and projecting only four inches above the surface. In the half-light, when he expected the attack to be made, these would be invisible to the enemy. But, walking round in the moonlight among his men, he saw that their work on the entrenchments had told heavily upon those he had brought from the village, while those who had been fighting all day in the forest were obviously incapable of further exertion. It was absolutely essential that they should regain their strength and freshness for the morrow's combat. He therefore contented himself with protecting only the two exposed corners of the zariba, knowing that these are always the most vulnerable points, and the first to be attacked.

Soon after eleven he turned in himself for a short nap, taking every precaution against surprise by posting pickets and maintaining a regular series of patrols, of which Mwonda was left in charge. At two he was up again, going the round of the sentries, and he ordered Mwonda to get what sleep he could before dawn. He had expected that by this time the eight hundred men from the village would have joined him, but when at three o'clock there was still no sign of them he called Mbutu to him.

"You must go and hurry on the advance of those eight hundred men," he said. "We have tremendous odds against us, and it may make all the difference in the world to have those men. If, when you return, you find us fighting, take them round the swamp and fall on the rear of the enemy. I depend on you, Mbutu."

Tom had spoken in Mbutu's own tongue, and was somewhat surprised to miss the bright eager look with which the boy usually received his commands.

Mbutu's face was expressionless, and he made no remark.

"What is it, Mbutu? You are not afraid?"

"I am not afraid. I am never afraid."

"Tell me, then, why you look so strangely solemn?"

Mbutu was silent for a few seconds. Then he said:

"I vowed never to leave you, master, to stay always by your side, to be your right arm. You send me from you; I obey. But if any harm comes to you, if a spear pierces you, or a bullet plunges into your flesh, I shall not be there. It is not well, master."

Tom was touched by the boy's devotion.

"I am proud of you, Mbutu," he said. "It is because I trust you that I give this task to you. Do not fear for me; you will do me the best service by leading the eight hundred faithfully to my support. It is my command, Mbutu."

"I will do as you say, master," said Mbutu, and hastened away.

Tom employed the two hours before dawn in still further strengthening his position. He got his men to throw up a semicircular entrenchment inside the zariba and resting on the swamp, as a protection for his reserve. Near the middle of this was a boulder from which he could survey the whole battlefield. For the safe-keeping of his ammunition and hand-grenades he directed his men to make a number of bullet-proof shelters--holes about a yard deep, dug near the earthwork, roofed with wood, and covered with the earth excavated. These shelters were ample protection except against powerful artillery, which Tom knew that the Arabs did rot possess, and he was no longer in any anxiety lest an unlucky shot should explode his reserve ammunition.

At one point on each face of the zariba he so arranged the screen of mimosa and cactus that it formed a rough gateway opening outwards, thus allowing, if opportunity should arise, of a rapid sally by the defenders. On the northern and southern faces the gateways were at the extremity resting on the swamp; on the third face the opening was at the south-east corner, clear of the stakes.

While a small force of workers was carrying out these operations, Tom sat down to take a final cool review of the whole situation. His own advantages were: a strong position, ample supplies of food and water, a certain number of disciplined troops, and some novelty of armament in the shape of pikes and hand-grenades. On the other hand, he was weaker in numbers than the Arabs, and was not nearly so well equipped with firearms. They, on their side, had the larger force and the better weapons, but these advantages were to some extent counterbalanced by the defects of their strategical position. They were bound to attack, for their supplies were limited. They could only safely obtain water from a stream five miles in their rear; while in regard to food, the whole region for a hundred miles was so spa.r.s.ely peopled, and had been so thoroughly scoured during their advance, that it could not now maintain a t.i.the of their number for a week. To a.s.sault the village would be, as he had already decided, to court disaster, and after their previous experience, they must themselves feel that they had very little chance of capturing it with a rush. It was quite possible--indeed, more than probable--that they had already heard of the crushing blow suffered by De Castro. Many of the fugitives from his force had no doubt sought safety in the forest until their friends came in sight, and then had joined them. Tom thought it not unlikely that De Castro himself was in the neighbourhood, and he at any rate would stimulate the Arabs to attack, and seize what opportunity there might be of crushing their enemy at a single blow. Weighing all these points, Tom saw that a task of great difficulty and tremendous import lay before him, but he did not quail; his courage and determination rose to meet the manifest danger, and it was with a feeling of confidence, a consciousness that every faculty was nerved to the encounter, that he quietly, about five o'clock, gave the order for the camp to be aroused.

"Breakfast!" he said, for he well knew the fighting value of a good square meal. The natives were wildly excited, and no amount of discipline would suffice to make them hold their tongues. All the time that the food was being prepared, and throughout the meal, their tongues clacked and chattered with unchecked volubility. Soon responsive sounds came from the Arab camp, and the drummers on both sides started a tempestuous duel of threats and malediction. Tom, however, put a stop to this on his side, and when the meal was finished he collected the men, and in a few quiet and earnest words impressed upon them the gravity and moment of the impending conflict. Then he ordered them to their posts.

On each of the three exposed sides of the zariba he placed a front rank of musketeers and a rear rank of pikemen, the double line accounting for two thousand seven hundred men. The six hundred trade guns and rifles captured from De Castro's force had been distributed among the allies.

These included a fair percentage of hunters who knew how to use firearms, although only one in a hundred was the happy possessor of a flint-lock. At each of the corners of the zariba Tom posted fifty additional pikemen, forming thus a double line. The pikemen were supplied with three hand-grenades apiece. The remainder of the force, consisting of four hundred picked men, was stationed in reserve within the inner entrenchment, ready to be thrown towards any threatened point.

This reserve was under the command of Mwonda. Tom himself took up his position on the boulder, whence he looked through the gray dawn towards the Arab camp.

It was a cold morning, and a thin mist lay clammy over the plain, wrapping the scattered bushes and trees in a fleecy garment of white.

The scouts whom Tom sent out soon vanished, but a breeze was springing up, and pale streaks of light struggled through the haze. Half an hour went by, a period of anxious expectancy. The noises from the Arab camp were hushed, and Tom's three thousand men stood to their arms, and strained eyes and ears towards the enemy. The mist was rolling towards the swamp, and suddenly, as it were behind it, two of the scouts reappeared, with the news that the enemy was on the move. Soon afterwards shots were heard, the remaining scouts came hastening back, and in the distance, dimly through the wisps of vapour, appeared the Arab host, a compact ma.s.s, moving directly and rapidly towards the north-east corner of the zariba. It advanced in dead silence. The zariba was still partially curtained by mist; but the Arabs could not have expected to surprise the camp, for the shots fired by the scouts as they were driven in must have shown that Tom's troops were on the alert.

From his post of observation on the boulder Tom saw that behind the main body, which he judged roughly to be about four thousand strong, a smaller body was advancing at an interval of a hundred and fifty yards.

A few white burnouses were dotted among the serried ma.s.s of Manyema in the van, but the reserve force was Arab throughout.

The light was growing, and the mist hanging over the zariba was gradually rolled by the breeze back on to the swamp. Shouts arose from the foremost ranks of the Manyema as they saw their enemy, who responded with a bellowing roar. On came the hostile host, and Tom marked every foot of their progress, ready at the right moment to give the word to his eager troops. The Manyema would charge, he knew; he made up his mind that the force of their charge must be broken ere they came too near, so that they might have less energy for hand-to-hand fighting.

The effective range of his muskets was no more than three hundred yards, but he had a few Winchesters, captured after the siege and in the rout of De Castro's force. When the enemy was within about a third of a mile of the zariba, Tom ordered twenty picked riflemen to open fire. A sharp volley rang across the plain; several men in the front ranks of the Manyema dropped, and there was an instant reply.

"Down, men!" shouted Tom, immediately after his men had fired. Not a head was visible above the parapet, and the enemy's scattered volley pa.s.sed harmlessly over the camp. Many of the bullets, indeed, were nearly spent when they struck the earthwork; and Tom concluded that the best-armed among the Arabs were certainly not in the van.

He threw a hasty glance at the Arab reserve, now about half a mile away.

It was advancing leisurely to the support of the main force, as though the leader expected the zariba to be carried easily at the first shock of the huge ma.s.s. Only two faces of the zariba were threatened, and Tom, seeing that there was no immediate danger of an attack from the south, ordered the musketeers on that face to issue from their gateway and post themselves behind the stakes at the corner, whence they could bring a flanking fire to bear on the dense crowd approaching. At the same time he moved the pikemen-grenadiers on this face to the eastern front, to a.s.sist in meeting the expected rush, and ordered part of his reserve to sally out by the north gate, and, lining the edge of the swamp, to threaten the flank of the attack.

Rapidly as these movements were carried out, they were barely completed when the Manyema broke into a run, and with fierce exultant yells surged forward, firing as they came. Their fire was wild and unsteady, while Tom's riflemen, taking careful aim from their position behind the earthwork, did much execution among them. The remainder of the musketeers, stooping behind their shelter, eagerly expected the order to fire, but Tom stood silent and watchful, waiting until the enemy were well within range. Even in that tense moment he felt proud of his men's self-restraint. Then, when the shouting negroes were within two hundred yards of the zariba, the long-awaited order was given. A sheet of flame burst from the two sides of the zariba on which the attack was directed.