Tween Snow and Fire Part 30

Dare you try it!"

"What is this _indaba_?" interrupted Kreli sternly. "This white man has a very long tongue. Perhaps it may be shortened with advantage." A hum of applause greeted this remark, and the chief went on. "You are asked a question, _umlungu_, and instead of answering you rave and bellow and throw yourself about like a cow that has lost her calf. And now what have you to say? You have invaded our country and shot our people with your own hand. If a man thrusts his head into a hornet's nest, whom shall he blame but himself if he gets stung--if he treads upon a serpent, how shall he complain if made to feel the reptile's fangs?"

"Well, you see, it's war-time," answered Carhayes bluntly, beginning to think he might just as well say something to save his life, if words could save it, that is. "I have met your people in fair fight, and I challenge any man, black or white, to deny that I have acted fair, square, and above board. And when we do take prisoners we don't treat them as I have been treated since I was brought here. They are taken care of by the doctors if wounded, as I am; not tied up and starved and kicked, as I have been."

"Their doctors are the Fingo dogs," interrupted the chief darkly, "their medicine a sharp a.s.segai. Freeborn men of the House of Gcaleka to die at the hand of a Fingo slave! _Hau_!"

A roar of execration went up at this. .h.i.t. "To the fire with him!"

howled the savage crowd. "Give him to us, Great Chief, that we may make him die a hundred deaths!"

"That is the sort of healing my children get when they fall into the hands of Amanglezi. And you, _umlungu_, you have offered an insult to the House of Gcaleka in the person of Hlangani, my herald, a man of the House of Hintza, my father. Was it war-time when you shed his blood?

Did you meet in fair fight when you shot him suddenly and at close-quarters, he having no gun?"

"Was it war-time when Hlangani entered the Gaika location to stir up strife? Was it right that he should bring his dogs on to my farm to hunt my bucks?" answered Carhayes fearlessly. "Again, was it fair play for four men, armed with a.s.segais, to attack one, who had but two shots?

Or was it self-defence? Listen to my words, Kreli, and you chiefs and _amapakati_ of the House of Gcaleka," he went on, raising his voice till it was audible to the whole a.s.semblage. "In the presence of you all I proclaim Hlangani a coward. He has struck and insulted me because I am bound. He dare not meet me free. I challenge him to do so. Loosen these bonds. I am weak and wounded. I cannot escape--you need not fear--and let him meet me if he dares, with any weapon he chooses. I challenge him. If he refuses he is nothing but a cowardly dog, and worse than the meanest Fingo. If you, Kreli, refuse my request, it is because you _know_ this bragging herald of yours to be a coward."

The fierce rapidity of this harangue, the audacity of the request embodied within it, took away the auditors' breath. Yet the idea appealed to them--appealed powerfully to their ardently martial sympathies. The very novelty of such a duel as that proposed invested it with a rare attractiveness.

"What does Hlangani say?" observed Kreli, with a partly amused glance at his subordinate.

"This, O Great Chief of my father's house," replied the warrior, the light of battle springing into his eyes. "Of what man living was Hlangani ever afraid? What man ever had to call him twice? Yet, O Great Chief, the head of my father's house, I would ask a boon. When I have whipped this miserable white dog, I would claim possession of his wretched carcase absolutely, alive or dead."

"It is granted, Hlangani," said the chief.

"And I?" cried Carhayes. "What shall be given to me when I have sent this cur, who strikes helpless men, howling to his hut? My liberty, of course?"

"No," replied Kreli, shortly.

"No?" echoed the prisoner. "My life then?"

"No," answered the chief again. "Be content, _umlungu_. If you conquer you shall have a swift and merciful death. If you fail, Hlangani claims you."

Carhayes stared at the chief for a moment, then, as he realised that he had nothing to hope for, whether he won in the combat or not--an expression of such deadly ferocity, such fell and murderous purpose swept across his face, that many of those who witnessed it realised that their countryman was going to s.n.a.t.c.h no easy victory.

The stout rawhide _reims_ which bound his hands behind him were loosened--and that which secured his feet was removed. He stood swinging his arms and stamping to hasten the circulation--then he asked for some water, which was brought him.

"_Ha, umlungu_!" jeered Ngcenika, addressing Eustace, as the two white men stood talking together. "Give this valiant fighter some white magic to strengthen him. He will need it."

"Well, Eustace, I'm going to kill that dog," said Carhayes. "I'm going to die fighting anyway, so that's all right. Now--I'm ready. What are we going to fight with?"

"This," said one of the bystanders, handing him a pair of hard-wood kerries.

Hlangani now made his appearance similarly armed. The crescent formation of warriors had narrowed their ranks, the chiefs and councillors and Eustace and his guards composing the upper arc of the circle. The prisoner could not have broken through that dense array of armed men which hemmed him in on every side, had he entertained the idea.

Both the princ.i.p.als in that strange impromptu duel were men of splendid physique. The Kafir, nearly naked, looked like a bronze giant, towering above his adversary in his magnificent height and straight and perfect proportions. The Englishman, thick-set, deep-chested, concentrated a vast amount of muscular power within his five-foot-eight. He had thrown off his ragged shirt, and the muscles of his chest and arms stood out like ropes. He looked a terribly awkward antagonist, and moreover on his side the conflict would be fought with all the ferocity of despair.

He was a man bent on selling his life dearly.

Hlangani, for his part, was confident and smiling. He was going to fight with his natural weapons, a pair of good, trusty kerries. This blundering white man, though he had the strength and ferocity of an enraged bull, had more than that quadruped's stupidity. He would knock him out of shape in no time.

When blood is up, the spirit of Donnybrook is very strong among Kafirs.

The next best thing to taking part in a fight is to witness one--and now, accordingly, every head was bent forward with the most eager interest as the two combatants advanced towards each other in the open s.p.a.ce. There was no "ring" proper, nor were there any recognised rules; no "time" either. Each man's business was to kill or disable the other--as effectually as possible, and by any means in his power.

Now a smart Kafir, armed with two good kerries whose use he thoroughly understands, is about as tough a customer to tackle as is a professional pugilist to the average Briton who knows how to use his hands but indifferently. Of this Carhayes was perfectly aware. Consequently his plan was to meet his antagonist with extreme wariness; in fact, to stand rather on the defensive, at any rate at first. He was a fair single stick player, which tended not a little to equalise the chances.

As they drew near each other and reached striking distance, they looked straight into each other's eyes like a pair of skilful fencers. The savage, with one kerrie raised in the air, the other held horizontally before his breast, but both with a nervous, supple grasp, ready to turn any way with lightning rapidity--his glance upon that of his foe--his active, muscular frame poised lightly on one foot, then on another, with feline readiness, would have furnished a perfect subject for an instantaneous photograph representing strength and address combined.

The Englishman, his bearded lips compressed, his blue eyes sparkling and alert, shining with suppressed eagerness to come to close-quarters with his crafty and formidable foe, was none the less a fine specimen of courage and undaunted resolution.

Hlangani, a sneering laugh upon his thick lips, opened the ball by making a judicious feint. But his adversary never moved. He followed it up by another, then a series of them, whirling his striking kerrie round the Englishman's head in the most startling proximity, now on this side, now on that, holding his parrying one ready for any attack the other might make upon him. Still Carhayes stood strictly on the defensive. He knew the Kafir was trying to "draw him"--knew that his enemy's quick eye was prepared for any opportunity. He was not going to waste energy gratuitously.

Suddenly, and with lightning-like celerity, Hlangani made a sweep at the lower part of his adversary's leg. It would have been the ruin of a less experienced combatant, but Carhayes' kerrie, lowered just two inches, met that of his opponent with a sounding crash just in time to save his skull somewhere in the region of the ear. It was a clever feint, and a dexterous follow-up, but it had failed. Hlangani began to realise that he had met a foeman worthy of his steel--or, rather, of his wood. Still he knew the other's impetuous temper, and by wearing out his patience reckoned on obtaining a sure and tolerably easy victory.

And it seemed as if he would gain the result of his reasoning even sooner than he expected. Bristling with rage, literally smarting with the indignity recently put upon him, Carhayes abandoned the defensive.

With a sudden rush, he charged his antagonist, and for a few moments nothing was heard but the clash of hard-wood in strike and parry.

Hlangani was touched on the shoulder, while Carhayes got a rap on the knuckles, which in cold blood would have turned him almost sick with pain. But his blood was at boiling point now, and he was fighting with the despairing ferocity of one who has no hope left in life. He pressed his gigantic adversary with such vigour and determination that the other had no alternative but to give way.

The fun was waxing fast and furious now. The warriors crowding in nearer and nearer, pressed forward in breathless attention, encouraging their champion with many a deep-toned hum of applause when he scored or seemed likely to score a point. The few women then in the kraal stood on tiptoe, trying to peer over the heads and shoulders of the armed men.

Even the chiefs and councillors condescended to show considerable interest in this impromptu tournament, while Eustace Milne, animated by various motives, watched its progress narrowly.

For a few moments it really seemed that the white man would prove the victor. Before the impetuosity of his furious attacks Hlangani was constrained to give way more and more. A Beserk ferocity seemed to have taken possession of Carhayes. His eyes glared through the blood and dust which clung to his unwashen visage. Every hair of his beard seemed to bristle and stand upright, like the mane of a wild boar. His chest heaved, and the dexterity with which he whirled his kerrie around his adversary's ears--always quick to ward the latter's blows from himself-- was wonderful to behold.

Crash--scroosh! The blow told. A sound as of the crunching of bone.

Hlangani staggered back half a dozen paces, the blood pouring from a wound in his skull. It was a blow that would probably have shattered the skull of a white man.

But before Carhayes could follow it up, the wily savage adopted a different plan. By a series of astonishing leaps and bounds, now backward, now from side to side, he endeavoured to bewilder his enemy, and very nearly succeeded. Mad with rage, desperation, and a consciousness of failing strength, Carhayes was fast losing control over himself. He roared like a wild animal. He began to strike out wildly, leaving his guard open. This the cunning barbarian saw and encouraged.

Those looking on had no doubt now as to who held the winning cards; even Eustace could see it, but his cousin was too far off now to hear a word of warning or advice, which, however, was just as well for himself.

Again the combatants closed. The splinters began to fly in all directions as the hard-wood sticks whirled and crashed. Then suddenly a crushing blow on the wrist sent Carhayes' kerrie flying from his grasp and almost simultaneously with it came a sickening "scrunch." The white man dropped like an ox at the shambles, the blood pouring from his head.

Echoing the mighty roar of exultation that went up from the spectators, Hlangani stood with his foot on the chest of his prostrate adversary, his kerrie raised to strike again. But there was no necessity. Poor Tom lay like a corpse, stunned and motionless. The ferocious triumph depicted on the countenance of the savage was horrible to behold.

"He is mine," he cried, his chest heaving, his eyes blazing, "mine absolutely. The Great Chief has said it. Bring _reims_."

In a trice a few stout rawhide thongs were procured, and Carhayes was once more bound hand and foot. Then acting under the directions of his fierce conqueror--three or four stalwart Kafirs raised the insensible form of the unfortunate settler and bore it away.

"He has only begun to taste the fury of Hlangani's revenge," said a voice at Eustace's side. Turning he beheld the witch-doctress, Ngcenika. The hag pointed to the retreating group with a mocking leer.

"He will wake," she went on. "But he will never be seen again, Ixeshane--never. _Hau_!"

"Where will he wake, Ngcenika?" asked Eustace, in a voice which he strove to render unconcerned.

"_Kwa, Zinyoka_," [At the Home of the Serpents] replied the hag with a brutal laugh.

"And where is that?"

"Where is it? Ha, ha!" mocked the witch-doctress. "Thou art a magician, too, Ixeshane. Wouldst thou indeed like to know?"

"Perhaps."

"Invoke thy magic then, and see if it will tell thee. But better not.