Tween Snow and Fire Part 6

The slight emphasis on the "you" did not escape Eustace's quick ear, coming as it did so close upon his recent train of thought.

"Why should I fear?" he said. "I see before me Ncanduku, the brother of Nteya, my friend--both my friends, both chiefs of the House of Gaika. I see before me, I say, Ncanduku, my friend, whom I know. I see before me also a number of men, fully armed, whom I do not know."

"_Hau_!" exclaimed the whole body of Kafirs, who, bending forwards, had been eagerly taking in every word of this address.

"These armed men," he continued, "have just threatened my life. Yet, I fear nothing. Look!"

He raised the revolver, which he now held by the barrel. In a twinkling he threw open the breech and emptied the cartridges into his hand.

Another emphatic murmur rose from the Kafirs at this strange move.

"Look!" he went on, holding out the empty weapon towards them in one hand, and the half dozen cartridges in the other. "You are more than twenty men--armed. I am but one man--unarmed. Do I fear anything?"

Again a hum went round the party--this time of admiration--respect.

Eustace had played a bold--a foolhardy stroke. But he knew his men.

"_Whau_, Ixeshane!" exclaimed Ncanduku. "You are a bold man. It is good that I have seen you this morning. Now, if you are going home, n.o.body will interfere with you."

"I am in no hurry, Ncanduku," replied Eustace, who, for purposes of his own, chose to ignore this hint. "It is a long while since I have seen you, and many things have happened in that time. We will sit down and hold a little _indaba_." [Talk.]

So saying, he dismounted, and flinging his bridle over a bush, he walked at least a dozen yards from the horse and deliberately seated himself in the shade, thus completely placing himself in the power of the savages.

He was joined by Ncanduku and two or three more. The other Kafirs sank down into a squatting posture where they were.

"First we will smoke," he said, handing his pouch to the Gaika chief.

"Though I fear the contents won't go very far among all our friends here."

CHAPTER TEN.

A MUTUAL WARNING.

It may not here be out of place to offer a word of explanation as to the extraordinarily cordial relations existing between Eustace Milne and his barbarian neighbours. A student of nature all the world over, he had rejoiced in finding ready to his hand so promising a subject as this fine race of savages, dwelling in close proximity to, and indeed in and among, the abodes of the white colonists, and instead of learning to look upon the Kafirs as so many more or less troublesome and indifferent farm servants, actual stock-lifters and potential foemen, he had started by recognising their many good qualities and resolving to make a complete study of the race and its characteristics. And this he had effected, with the thoroughness which marked everything he undertook. A quick linguist, he soon mastered the rather difficult, but melodious and expressive Xosa tongue, in which long and frequent conversations with its speakers had by this time rendered him nearly perfect; a man of keen intellect, he could hold his own in argument with any of these people, who, on subjects within the scope of their acquaintance, are about the shrewdest debaters in the world. His cool deliberation of speech and soundness of judgment commanded their abundant respect, and the friendly and disinterested feeling which he invariably evinced towards them being once understood and appreciated, a very genuine liking sprang up on both sides.

Of course all this did not pa.s.s unnoticed by his white acquaintances and neighbours--who were wont to look upon him as an eccentricity in consequence, and to chaff him a good deal about his "blanket friends,"

or ask him when he expected to be in the Cabinet as Secretary for Native Affairs. A few of the more ill-natured would sneer occasionally, his cousin among the latter. But Eustace Milne could take chaff with perfect equanimity, and as for the approval or disapproval of anybody he regarded it not one whit.

Stay--of anybody? Yes--of one.

And that approval he had gained to the full. Eanswyth, watching her cousin during the year that he had been living with them, had felt her regard and respect for him deepen more and more. Many a time had his judgment and tact availed to settle matters of serious difficulty and, of late, actual peril, brought about by the hot-headed imperiousness of her husband in his dealings with the natives. Living a year beneath the same roof with anybody in ordinary work-a-day intercourse affords the best possible opportunity of studying the character of that person.

Eanswyth, we say, had so studied the character of her husband's cousin and had p.r.o.nounced it well-nigh flawless. But of this more elsewhere.

"Who are those people, Ncanduku?" said Eustace, after a few preliminary puffs in silence. "Except yourself and Sikuni here, they are all strangers to me. I do not seem to know one of their faces."

The chief shrugged his shoulders, emitting a thick puff of smoke from his bearded lips.

"They are strangers," he answered. "They are Ama-Gcaleka, and are returning to their own country across the Kei. They have been visiting some of their friends at Nteya's kraal."

"But why are they all so heavily armed? We are not at war."

"_Whau_, Ixeshane! You know there is trouble just now with the Amafengu [Fingoes]. These men might be molested on their way back to their own country. They are afraid, so they go armed."

"Who are they afraid of? Not the Amafengu, their dogs? Why should they go armed and travel in such strength?"

The chief fixed his glance upon his interlocutor's face, and there was a merry twinkle in his eye as he turned away again.

"A man is not afraid of one dog, Ixeshane, nor yet of two," he replied.

"But if a hundred set upon him, he must kill them or be killed himself."

Eustace uttered a murmur of a.s.sent. Then after a pause he said:

"To travel in a strong party like that in these times is not wise. What if these Gcalekas were to fall in with a Police patrol--would there not surely be a fight? That might bring on a war. I am a peaceable man.

Everybody is not. What if they had met a less peaceable man than myself, and threatened him as they did me? There would have been a fight and the white man might have been killed--for what can one man do against twenty?"

"He need not have been killed--only frightened," struck in the other Kafir, Sikuni.

"Some men are easier killed than frightened," rejoined Eustace. "Last night some people from Nteya's kraal attacked my brother, [The term `brother' is often colloquially used among Kafirs to designate other degrees of relationship] stole his gun, and tried to kill him. But they did not frighten him."

In spite of the conventional exclamation of astonishment which arose from his hearers, Eustace was perfectly well aware that this was no news to them.

"That is bad news," said Ncanduku, with well-feigned concern. "But it may not have been done by any of our people, Ixeshane. There may have been some Fingo dogs wandering about the land, who have done this thing in order that the English may blame us for it."

It was now Eustace's turn to smile.

"Does a dog wander to the mouth of a den of lions?" he said, keenly enjoying the notion of turning the tables. "Will a few Fingoes attack a guest of Nteya's within the very light of the fires of the Gaika location?"

"Your brother, Umlilwane, is too hot-headed," answered the chief, forced to shift his ground. "Yet he is not a young man. Our young men, too, are hot-headed at times and escape from under the controlling eye of the chiefs. But Nteya will surely punish those who have done this thing."

"Let your friends proceed on their way, Ncanduku," said Eustace suddenly, and in a low tone. "I would speak with you alone."

The chief a.s.sented, and at a word from him the Gcalekas rose to their feet and gathered up their weapons. With a respectful salute to the white man they filed off into the bush, and soon the faint rattle of a.s.segai hafts and the deep ba.s.s hum of their voices faded into silence.

"Now we are alone," began Eustace after a pause. "We are friends, Ncanduku, and can talk freely. If there is trouble between the Gcalekas and the Fingoes, surely Kreli is able to take care of his own interests.

Why, then, should the Gaikas have lighted the war-fires, have danced the war-dance? The quarrel is not theirs."

"The wrongs of the Paramount Chief are the wrongs of the whole Xosa race," answered the Kafir. "See now. We love not your brother, Umlilwane. Yet, tell him to collect his flocks and his herds and to leave, to depart into a quieter country, and that speedily; for the land will soon be dead." [Native idiom for war.]

"And what if he refuses?"

"Then he, too, will soon be dead."

For some minutes Eustace kept silence. The Kafir's remark had added fuel to the fire which was burning within his heart. It seemed a direct answer to lurid unspoken thoughts which had been surging through his mind at the time of his surprise by the at first hostile party.

"Umlilwane is an obstinate man," he said at length. "What if he laughs at the warning?"

"When a man sits inside his house and laughs while his house is burning, what happens to him, Ixeshane?"