Tween Snow and Fire Part 9

"Eanswyth, darling--my darling. What is it? Do not give way so! There is nothing to be alarmed about now--nothing."

His tones had sunk to a murmur of thrilling tenderness. He was showering kisses upon her lips, her brow, her eyes--upon stray tresses of soft hair which escaped beneath her hat. What had become of their att.i.tude of guarded self-control now? Broken down, swept away at one stroke as the swollen mountain stream sweeps away the frail barricade of timber and stones which thought to dam its course--broken down before the pa.s.sionate outburst of a strong nature awakened to the knowledge of itself--startled into life by the magic touch, by the full force and fury of a consciousness of real love.

"You are right," she said at last. "We must go away from here. I cannot bear that you should be exposed to such frightful peril. O Eustace! Why did we ever meet!"

Why, indeed! he thought. And the fierce, wild thrill of exultation which fan through him at the consciousness that her love was his--that for good or for ill she belonged to him--belonged to him absolutely--was dashed by the thought: How was it going to end? His clear-sighted, disciplined nature could not altogether get rid of that consideration.

But clear-sighted, disciplined as it was, he could not forego that which const.i.tuted the whole joy and sweetness of living. "Sufficient for the day" must be his motto. Let the morrow take care of itself.

"Why did we ever meet?" he echoed. "Ah, does not that precisely exemplify what I was saying just now? Life is full of surprises.

Surprise Number 1, when I first found _you_ here at all. Number 2, when I awoke to the fact that you were stealing away my very self. And I soon did awake to that consciousness."

"You did?"

"I did. And I have been battling hard against it--against myself-- against you--and your insidiously enthralling influence ever since."

His tone had become indescribably sweet and winning. If the power of the man invariably made itself felt by all with whom he was brought into contact in the affairs of everyday life, how much more was it manifested now as he poured the revelation of his long pent-up love--the love of a strong, self-contained nature which had broken bounds at last--into the ears of this woman whom he had subjugated--yes, subjugated, utterly, completely.

And what of her?

It was as though all heaven had opened before her eyes. She stood there tightly clasped in that embrace, drinking in the entrancing tenderness of those tones--hungrily devouring the straight glance of those magnetic eyes, glowing into hers. She had yielded--utterly, completely, for she was not one to do things by halves. Ah, the rapture of it!

But every medal has its obverse side. Like the stab of a sword it came home to Eanswyth. This wonderful, enthralling, beautiful love which had thrown a mystic glamour as of a radiant Paradise upon her life, had come just a trifle too late.

"O Eustace," she cried, tearing herself away from him, and yet keeping his hands clenched tightly in hers as though she would hold him at arm's length but could not. "O Eustace! my darling! How is it going to end?

How?"

The very thought which had pa.s.sed unspoken through his own mind.

"Dearest, think only of the present. For the future--who knows! Did we not agree just now--life is full of surprises?"

"_Au_!"

Both started. Eanswyth could not repress a little scream, while even Eustace realised that he was taken at a disadvantage, as he turned to confront the owner of the deep ba.s.s voice which had fired off the above e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

It proceeded from a tall, athletic Kafir, who, barely ten yards off, stood calmly surveying the pair. His grim and ma.s.sive countenance was wreathed into an amused smile. His nearly naked body was anointed with the usual red ochre, and round the upper part of his left arm he wore a splendid ivory ring. He carried a heavy k.n.o.b-kerrie and several a.s.segais, one of which he was twisting about in easy, listless fashion in his right hand.

At sight of this extremely unwelcome, not to say formidable, apparition, Eustace's hand instinctively and with a quick movement sought the back of his hip--a movement which a Western man would thoroughly have understood. But he withdrew it--empty. For his eye, familiar with every change of the native countenance, noted that the expression of this man's face was good-humoured rather than aggressive. And withal it seemed partly familiar to him.

"Who are you--and what do you want?" he said shortly. Then as his glance fell upon a bandage wrapped round the barbarian's shoulder: "Ah.

I know you--Hlangani."

"Keep your `little gun' in your pocket, Ixeshane," said the Kafir, speaking in a tone of good-humoured banter. "I am not the man to be shot at twice. Besides, I am not _your_ enemy. If I were, I could have killed you many times over already, before you saw me; could have killed you both, you and the _Inkosikazi_."

This was self-evident. Eustace, recognising it, felt rather small. He to be taken thus at a disadvantage, he, who had const.i.tuted himself Eanswyth's special protector against this very man! Yes. He felt decidedly small, but he was not going to show it.

"You speak the truth, Hlangani," he answered calmly. "You are not my enemy. No man of the race of Xosa is. But why do you come here? There is bad blood between you and the owner of this place. Surely the land is wide enough for both. Why should your pathways cross?"

"Ha! _You_ say truly, Ixeshane. There _is_ blood between me and the man of whom you speak. Blood--the blood of a chief of the House of Gcaleka. Ha!"

The eyes of the savage glared, and his countenance underwent a transformation almost magical in its suddenness. The smiling, good-humoured expression gave way to one of deadly hate, of a ruthless ferocity that was almost appalling to contemplate. So effective was it upon Eustace that carelessly, and as if by accident, he interposed his body between Eanswyth and the speaker, and though he made no movement, his every sense was on the alert. He was ready to draw his revolver with lightning-like rapidity at the first aggressive indication. But no such indication was manifested.

"No. You have no enemies among our people--neither you nor the _Inkosikazi_"--went on Hlangani as his countenance resumed its normal calm. "You have always been friends to us. Why are _you_ not living here together as our friends and neighbours--you two, without the poison of our deadly enemy to cause ill-blood between us and you--you alone together? I would speak with you apart, Ixeshane."

Now, Eanswyth, though living side by side with the natives, was, like most colonial people, but poorly versed in the Xosa tongue. She knew a smattering of it, just sufficient for kitchen purposes, and that was all; consequently, but for a word here and there, the above dialogue was unintelligible to her. But it was otherwise with her companion. His familiarity with the language was all but complete, and not only with the language, but with all its tricks. He knew that the other was "talking dark," and his quick perception readily grasped the meaning which was intended to be conveyed. With the lurid thoughts indulged in that morning as regarded his cousin still fresh in his mind, it could hardly have been otherwise.

He hated the man: he loved the man's wife. "How is it going to end?"

had been his unuttered cry just now. "How is it going to end!" she had re-echoed. Well, here was a short and easy solution ready to hand. A flush of blood surged to his face, and his heart beat fiercely under the terrible temptation thus thrown in his way. Yet so fleeting was it as scarcely to const.i.tute a temptation at all. Now that it was put nakedly to him he could not do this thing. He could not consent to a murder--a cold-blooded, treacherous murder.

"I cannot talk with you apart, Hlangani," he answered. "I cannot leave the _Inkosikazi_ standing here alone even for a few minutes."

The piercing glance of the shrewd savage had been scrutinising his face--had been reading it like a book. Upon him the terrible struggle within had not been lost.

"Consider, Ixeshane," he pursued. "What is the gift of a few dozen cows, of _two hundred cows_, when compared with the happiness of a man's lifetime? Nothing. _Is it to be? Say the word. Is it to be_?"

The barbarian's fiery eyes were fixed upon his with deep and terrible meaning. To Eustace it seemed as if the blasting glare of the Arch fiend himself shone forth from their cruel depths.

"It is _not_ to be. The `word' is No! Unmistakably and distinctly No.

You understand, Hlangani?"

"_Au_! As you will, Ixeshane," replied the Kafir, with an expressive shrug of his shoulders. "See. You wear a `charm'," referring to a curious coin which Eustace wore hanging from his watch-chain. "If you change your mind send over the `charm' to me at Nteya's kraal this night--it shall be returned. But after to-night it may be too late.

Farewell."

And flinging his blanket over his shoulder the savage turned and strode away into the _veldt_--Eustace purposely omitting to offer him a little tobacco, lest this ordinary token of good will should be construed into a sort of earnest of the dark and terrible bargain which Hlangani had proposed to him--by mere hints it is true--but still had none the less surely proposed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"...AND THE WORLD IS CHANGED."

They stood for some moments watching the receding figure of the Kafir in silence. Eanswyth was the first to break it.

"What have you been talking about all this time, Eustace? Is it any new danger that threatens us?"

"N-no. Rather the reverse if anything," and his features cleared up as if to bear out the truth of his words. "I don't see, though, why you shouldn't know it. That's the man we fell foul of in the _veldt_ yesterday--you remember the affair of the white dog?"

"Oh!" and Eanswyth turned very pale.

"Now don't be alarmed, dearest. I believe he only loafed round here to try and collect some compensation."

"Is that really all, Eustace?" she went on anxiously. "You seemed very much disturbed, dear. I don't think I ever saw you look so thoroughly disturbed."

There was no perturbation left in his glance now. He took her face lovingly between his hands and kissed it again and again.

"Did you not, my sweet? Well, perhaps there has never existed such ground for it. Perhaps I have never met with so inopportune an interruption. But now, cheer up. We must make the most of this day, for a sort of instinct tells me that it is the last we shall have to ourselves, at any rate for some time to come. And now what shall we do with ourselves? Shall we go back to the house or sit here a little while and talk?"