Maiwa's Revenge

CHAPTER V. THE MESSAGE OP MAIWA. On the following evening we once more dined together, and Quatermain, af ter some pressure, for Good's remark still rankled in hls breast, was persuaded to continue nis story. "At last," he went on, "a tew minutes before sunset tho task was finished. We had labored at it all day, stopping only once for d inner; for it is no easy matter to hew out five snch tusks as those which now lay before me n a white and gleaming line. It was a dinner worth eating, too, I can teil you, for we dined off the heart of the great one tusked buil, which was so big that the man whom I sent inside the elephant to look tor his heart had to remove it in two pieces. We cut it into slices and fried ifc with fat, and I never tasted heart to eqnal it, f or the meat seemed to melt in one's mouth. By the way, I axamined the jaw of the elephant; it had never had but one tusk; the other had aot been broken off, nor was it present in a rudimentary form. "Well, there lay the 8ve beauties, or rather, four of them, for Gobo and another man were engaged in sawing the grand ons in two. I had at lst, with many sighs, ordered them to do this, but not until I had by practical experiment proved that it was impossible to earry it in any other way. One hundred and sixty pounds of solid ivory, or rather more in its green state, is two great a weignc tor two men to carry for long across a broken country. I sat watching the job and smoking the pipe of contentinent, when raddenly the bush opened, and a very handsome and dignified native girl, apparently about 20 years of age, stood before me, carrying a basket of green inealies upon her head. "Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way frora any kraal, tho matter dld not attract my particular notioe; I merely caüed to one of the men and told him to bargain with the woman for the mealies and ask her if there were any more to behad m the. ntighborhood. Then I turn'sd my head and continued to superintend the cufting of the tusk. Presently a shadow feil upon m X looked up and saw that the girZ was standing before me, the basket of mealies Ktill on her head. , Mareme, Mareme,' she said, gently clapping her hands together. Tbe word 'mL reme' among theso Matuku (tbough she was no Matuku) answers to the Zalu 'Koos,' and the clapping of hands is aform of salutatioa very Mmmwi among the tribes of the Basutu race. " 'What ís it, girl? I asked her in Sisutu Are those medies for sale?' ' 'No, great whito hunter,' sha answered In Zulú; 'I bring them as a gift.' : "'Good!' I replied. 'Put them down.' " 'A gift for a gift, white man.' " 'Ah!' I grumbled, 'the oíd story-nothing for nothing in this wicked world. What do you want- beads?' " 'Sho uodded, and I was about to teil one of the men to go and fetch some from one of packs, when sho checked me. " 'A gift from tho giver's own hand is twice a gift,'shesaid; and I thought that Bhe gpoke meaningly. " 'Yoa mean that you want me to gire them to you myself ?' "'Surely.' "I rose to go with her. 'How is that, being of the Matuku, vou sreak in lh Znln tongue?' I asked, suspicionsly. " 'I am not of the Matuku,' she answered, as soon as we were out of hearing of the men. 'I am of the people of Nala, whose tribe is the Butiana tribe, and who lires there,' and the pointed over the mountain. 'Also, I am one of the wives of Wambe,' and her eyes flashed as she said the name. i," 'And how did you come here?' t " 'On my feet,' she answered, laoonically. "We reached the packs, and, undoing one of them, I extracted a handful of beads. 'Now,' said I, 'a gift for a gift. Hand orer themealies.' "She took tho beads without even looking at them, which struek me as ourious, and, putting the basket of mealies on the ground emptied it. "At the bottom of the basket were soms curiously shaped green leaves, something uke the leaves of the gutta percha tree in sliape, only somewhat thicker, and of a more neshy substanee. As though by hazard, the girl picked oue of these leaves out of the basket and smelt at it; then she .hauded it to ne. I took the leaf , and, supposing that ehe wished me to smell it also, was about to wlige her by doing so, when my eye feil uPon some curious red scrAtches ou the green Urface of the leaf. i "'Ah!' said the girl (whose name, by tho ay, was Slaiwa), speaking beneath her reath; 'read the signs, white man.' 'The largest elephant tusk of which tho editor Km "o 7 certilil1 knowle3ff3 scaled ISO iounds.- "TVithcrat answering her l continued to stare at the leaf. It had been scratched, or rather vrritteu upon, with something sharp such as a nail, and wherever this instrument ha touched it the acid juice oozing through the outer skin had turned a rusty blood color. 1 found the beginning of the sera wl, and read this, written in English, and covering the surface of the leaf and of two others that ere in the basket: " 'I hear that a white man is hiinting in the Matukn country. This is to warn him to fly orer the mountain to Nala. Wambe sends an Impi at daybreak to pat hira ap because he has hunted beforii briuging hongo. For Qod's sake, whoever you are, try to help mei I have been the slave of this devil Wambe for nearly seven years, and am beaten and tortured oontinually. He murdered all the r of us, but kept me because I oould work iron. Maiwa, his wife, takes this; she is flying to Nala, her father, because Wambe killed her child. Try and get Nala to attack Wambe. Jlaiwa can guide them over the mountain. You won't come for nothing, for the stockade of Wambe's private kraal is made of elephants' tusks. For Qod's sake don't desert me or I shall kiU myself 1 I can bear this no longer. " 'JOHM EVERT.' " 'Great heaTens!' I gasped. 'Every- why, it must be my oíd friend.' The girl, or rather the woman, Mahva, pointed to the other side of the leaf where there was some more writing. It ran thus: 'I have just heard that the white man is called Macumazahn. If so, it must be my old friend Quatermain. Pray God it is, for I know he won't desert an old chum in such a fix as I am. It isn't that I'm afraid of dying; I don't care if I die; but I want to get a chance at Wambe flrst.' " 'No, old boy,1 thought I to myself, 'it isn't likely that I am going to leave you there while there is a chance of getting you out. I have played fox before now- there's süll a doublé or two lef t in me. I must make a plan, that's all. And then there's that etockade of tusks. lam not going to leave that either.' Then I spoke to the womaa " 'You are called Maiwa ' " 'It is so.' " 'You are the daughter of Nala and the vrife of Wambe.' " 'It is so.' " 'You fly from Wambe to Nala ' "'Ido.' " 'Why do 70U fly? Stay, I would give an order,' and, calling to Gobo, I ordered him to get the men ready for instant doparture The woman, who, as I have said, was quité young and very handsome, put her hand into a kind of little pouch made of antelope hide which she wore fastened round the waist and to my horror drew from it the withered' hand of a child which had evidently been carefully dried in the smoke, " 'I fly for this cause,' she answered, holding the poor little hand towards me. 'See now, I bore a child. Wambe was its father and for eighteen months the child lived, and' I loved it. But Wambe loves not nis children; he kills them all; he fears lest they should grow upto slay one so and he would nave killed this child also, but I beeged ira me. une day soms soldiere passing the hut saw the child and saJuted him, ealling himthe "chief whosoon shall be." Wambe heard and was mad. He smote the babe and it wept. Then be said that it should weep for good cause. Among the things that he had stolen from the white men whom he slew is a trap that will hold lions. gestreng is the trap that four men must stand on it, two on either side, before it can be opened.'" Here old Quatermain broke off suddenly "Look here, you fellows," he said, "I can't bear to go on with this part of the story, because I never could stand either seeing or talking of the sufferings of children. You can guess what that devil did and what the poor mother was forced to witness. Would you believe it, she told me the tale without a tremor, in the most matter of fact way. Only I noticed that her eyelid quivered all the time. " 'Well,' I said, as unconcernedly'as though I had been talking of the death of a iamb tbough inwardly 1 was sick with horror and boihng with rage, 'and what do you mean to doabout the matter, Maiwa, wife of Wambe?1 " 'I mean to do this, white man,' she answered, drawing herself up to her full height and speakiug in tones as hard as steel and as oool as ice. 'I mean to work and work and work, to bring this to pass, and to bring that to pass, until at length it oomes to pass that with these living eyesl behold Wambe dyin the death that he gave to bis chüd and my child.' J " 'Well said,' I answered. " 'Ay, well said, Macumazahn; well said and not easily forgotten. Whocould forget? beewherethis dead hand rests against my side ; so once it rested when ali ve. And now though it is dead, now every night it creeps trom its nest, and strokes my hair, and clasps my fmgers iu its tiny palm. Every night it does this, fearing lest I should forget Oh mychildlmy child! ten days ago I held thee to my breast, and now this alone remains of theel' and ene kissed the dead band and Jt ered, but never a tear did she weep. 'Seo T now,' she went on, 'the white man, the prisonerat VVambe's kraal, he was kind tome He loved the child that is dead; yes, he wept when its father slew it, and at the risk of hisöwn lifo told Wambe, my husband- ah yes myhusbandl- that whieh he is! He, too it was who made a plan. He said to me, "Go, Maiwa, after the custom of thy people, go puriíy th3self in the bush alone, having touched a dead oue. Say to Wambo tüou goest to puriíy thyself alone for fifteen days accordmg to the custom of the people Then fly to thy father Nala, and stir him up i to war agamst Wambe for the sake of the child that is dead." This then he said, and his words seemed good to me, and that same night ere I left to purif y myself came news that a white inan hunted in the country, and Wambe, being mad with drink, grew very wrath, and gave orders that an Impi should be gathered to slay the white man and his people and seize his goods. Then did the "Smiter of Iron" [Every] write the message on the green loares, and bid me seek thee out and show forth the matter, that thou miVh W: nave-tuyself by flight; and behold, this thing have I done, Macumazahn, the hunter the Slayer of Elephante.' " 'Ah,' I said, 'I thank thee. And how many men be there in the Impi of Wambe? " 'A hundred of men and half a hundred.' " 'And where is the Impi?1 " 'There to the north. It f ollows on thy spoor. I saw it pass yesterday, but myself I guessed that thou wouldst bo nigher to the mountain and carne this way and found thee. To-morrow at the daybrealc will the slayers be here.' '"Very possibly,' I thought to myself: 'but they won't find Macumazan. I have half a mind to put some strychnine into the carcasses of those elephants for their especial benefit, though.' I knew that thcy would stop to eat the elephants, as indeed they did, to our groat gain, but I abandoned tho idea of poisoning them, because I was rather short of strychnine." "Or because you did not like to play the trick, Quatermain," I suggested, with a laugh. "I said because I had not enough of strychnine. It would take a great deal of strychvineto effectually poison three elephants," aswered the old gentleman, testily. I said nothing further, but I sniiled, knowing that old Alian could never have resorted to such an artiüce, however severe bis strait But that was his way; he always made him8elf out to be a most unmercifol person. "Well,' he went on, "at that moment Gobo came up and announced that we were ready to march. 'I am glad that you are ready,' I said; 'because ii you don't march, and march quick, you will never march again, that is all. VVambe has an Impi out to kill us, and it will be here presently.' " Gobo turned positively green, and his knees knocked together. 'Ah, what did I sayf he exclaimed. 'Fate walks about loose in Wambe's country.' " 'Very good; novr all you have got to do is to walk a Httle quicker than ho does. No, no; you don"t leave those elephant tusks behind. I am not going to part with them, I can teil you.' "Gobo said no more, but hastily directed the men to take up their loads, and then asked whieh way we were to run. " 'Ah,' I said to Maiwa, 'which way?' " 'There,' she answered, pointing towards the great mountain spur which towered up into the sky sonie forty miles away, separating the territories of Nala and Wambe. 'There, below th small peak, is one place where men may pass, and one only. Alüo, it can easiiy De DIocked from above. If men pass not there, thn they must go round tha great peak of the mountain two days' journey and half a day.' " 'And how far is the peak frorn us?' " 'All to-night shall you walk and all tomorrow, and if you walkjfast, at sunset shall you stand on the peak.' "I whistled, for thatmeant a five-and-forty miles' tradge without sleep. Then I calle J to the men to take each of them as much cooked elephant's meat as he could conveniently carry. I did the same myself, and forced the woman Maiwa to eat some as we went This I did with difflculty, for at that time she seemed neither to sleep, nor eat, nor rest, so fieroely was she set on vengeance. "Then we started, Maiwa guiding us. After going some half hour over gradually rising ground we found ourselves on the fartheredge of a great bush ciad depression something like the bottom of a lake. Thiá depression through which we had been traveling was to a very great extent covered with bush; indeed, alraost altogether so, except where it was pitted with glades euch as that wherein I had shot the elephants. "At the top of this slope Maiwa halted, and, putting her hand over her eyes, looked' back. Presently she touched me on the arm and pointed over the sea of forest toward a coraparatively vacant space of country some six or seren miles away. I looked, and suddenly I saw something flash in the red rays of the setting sun. A pause, and then another quiek flash. " 'What is it? I asked. " 'It is the spears of Wambe's Impi, and they travel fast,' she answered. coolly. "I suppose my face showed how little I liked the news, for she went on: " 'Fear not; they will stay to teast upon the elephants, and while they feast we shall joumey. We may yet escape.' "After that we turaed and pushed on again, till at length it grew so dark that ve hadto wait for the rising of the moon, which lost us time, though it gave us rest Fortunately, none of the men had seen that ominous flashing of thespears; if they had I doubt if I could have kept control of them. As it was, they traveled f aster than I had ever known loaded natives go before eo thorough paced was their desire to see the last of Wambe's country. I, however, took the precaution to march last of all, fearing lest they should throw away their loads to lighten themselves, or, worse still, the tusksfor these kind of fellows would be capable' of throwing anything away if their own skins were at stake. If the pious Mneas, whose story you were reading to me thó other night, had been a mongrel Delagoa bay native, Anchises would have had a poor chance of gettiug out of Troy, that is, if he was already known to have made a wry wili. "At the moonrise we startod on again, and, with short oocasional halte traveled till dawnj when we were torced to rest and eat. Starting once more, about half past 5, we crossed the river at noon. Then began the long, toilsome ascent through thick bush, the same in which I shot the buil buffalo, only some twenty miles to the west of the spot, and not more than twenty-five miles on the hither side of Wambe's kraal. There weresix or seren miles of this dense bush, and hard work it was to get through it. Next carne a belt of scattered forest, which was easier to pass though in revenge the ground was steeper.' This was about two miles wido, and we passed it by about 4 in the afternoon. Above this scattered bush lay a long steep slope of bowlder strown frmmrl uphiih ■ - u - ■ - - -j "uiu lUli Uu tU tij foot of the little peak some throe miles away As footsore and weary we emerged on to thi inhospitable plain, some of the men, lookin round, caught sight of the speara o Wambe's Iinpi coming rapidly along no more than a mile behind us. "At flrst there was a panic, and the bearers tried to throw off their loads and run, but ; harangued them, calling out to them that ] would certainly shoot the ftrstman who dii so, and that if they would but trust in me 1 would bring them through the mess. Now ever sinco I had killed those three elephants single handed I had gained great influenca over these men, and they listened to ma 80 off we went as hard as ever we could go; tho members of the Alpine club would not hava been in it with us. We made the bowlders bura, as a Frenclunan would saj. When we had done about a mile, the spears began to emerge from the belt of scattered bush, and tne wuoop of their bearers as they viewed us broke upon our ears. Quick as our pace had been before, it grew muoh quicker now, for terror lent wings to my gallant crew. But they were sorely tired, and the loada wera heavy, so that run, or rather climb, as we would, Wanibe's soldiere, a scrubby looking lot of men with big spears, small shields, but without plumes, climbed considerably faster. The last inile of that pleasing chase was lika a fox hunt, we being the fox, aud always ia view. What istonished me was the extraordinai-y eaduran. and activity shown by Maiwa. Shd never even üagged. 1 think that girl's muscles must have been mado of iron, or perhaps it was the strength of her will that supportod her. At any rate sho reached the foot of the peak second, poor üobo, who was on excellent hand at running away, bo"Presently I eame panting np, and glanced at the ascent. Bef ore us was a wall of rock about one hundred and fifty feet in height upan whieh the strata was so laid as to form a series of projections sufflciently resembling steps to make th& ascent, comparatively speaking, easy, except at one spot, where it was necessaryto climb over a projecting angle of cliff and bear a little to the left It was not a really difficult place, but what made it awkward was that immediately beneath this projection was a deep flssure or donga. on the brink of which we now stood originally dug out, no doubt, by the rush of water frora the peak and cliff. This gulf baneath would, at the critica! point, be trying to the nerves of a weak hoaded climber and so it proved in the result. After the projecting angle was passed ths remainder of the ascent was very simple. At the summit, however, the brow of tho cliff hung over, and was pierced by a single narrow path cut through it by water in such fashion that a single bowlder rolled intolit at the top .. .. .nujvu luo cuii quite unpassaule to people without ropes. "Wambe's soldiere were at this moment about a thonsand yards from us, so it was evident that we had no time to lose. I at once ordered the men to commecce the ascent, the girl Maiwa, who was familiar with the pass, going first to show them the way Aecordingly they begaa to mount with alacnty, pustóng and iifting their loads in front of them. When the first of them, led by Maiwa, reached the projecting angle, they put down their loads upon ledge of rock andclambered orer. Once up, by going on their stomachs on a bowlder they could reach tae loads which were held up to them by the men beneath, and in this way drag them up orer the awkward place, whence they were easUy carried to the top. But all of this took tune, and meanwhile the soldiere were coming up fast, screamine and th,.,-. big spears. They were noir within about four hundred yards, and ereral loads, together with all the tusks, had yet to be got over the rock. I weg stiü standing at the bottom of the diff, shouting out directions to the men above, but it oceurred to me that it would soon ba time to move. Befare doing so, however, Í thought that it might be well to try and prodace a moral effect upon the advancing enemy. In my hand I held a Winchester repeating carbine, but the diatance was too great for me to usa it with effect, so I turned to Gobo who was shivering with terror at my side and, handing him the carbine took írom him my expresa. The enemy was now about 350 yards away and the express was only sighted to 300. Still I knew that it eould be (a-usted for the extra fifty yards. Running in front of Wambe's soldiere were two men-captains, I suppose-oue of them v?ry taU. I put up the m yard fla and atting down with my back against the rock u. a iong Dreatb to steady niyself and covered the taU man, giving him fullasight Feeling that I was on him Í pulled, and befare the sound of the striking bullet could reach my eare I saw the man throw Up his arms and pitch forward on to his head. His companion stopped dead, giring mo a fair chance. I rapidly corered him and öred the left barreL He turned round once oud then sank down in a heap. "Thiscaused the enemy to hesitate; they had never seen men killed at such a distance before, and thought that there was sometnmg uncanny about the performance Takingadyantageofthelull.I gaya the expresa bact to Gobo, and, slinging the Winchester chff Whenwei-eachedtheprojectingangle aUtheloadswere orer, but the tusks stUl bad to be passed ud. aml t.hia nm-nn. .i.-,. weight and the smoothness of their surface was a very difflcult task. Of course I ought to have abandoned the tusks; ofton and often have I anee reproached inyself fur not doing so. indeed, I think that my obstinacy about them was downright sinfu], but I always was obstínate about things, and I could not bear i ■ 'u ta f leaTlnS those splendid tusks which had cost me so much pains and danmr to come by. Wel], it uearly cost m. my We also, and did cost poor Gobo hls, as wiU shortly be seen, to say nothing of the loss inflicted by my rifle on the enemy. Whea I reached the projection I found that the men were trying, with their usual stupidity, to hand up the tusks point first. Now the resu]t ,1 of this was that those ebove had nothin-to grip except the round, polished surface of the ivory, and this, in the pospon in which they were, did not give sufficient hold to enable them to lift the weight. I told them to reverse uio tusks and push them up, so that the rough and hollow ends oamo to the hands of the men above. This they did, and the first two were got up in safety. "At this point, looking behind me I saw he Matukus streaming up the slope in a rongh xtended order, and not more than a hundred yards away. Coeking the Winchester, I opened fire on them. I don't quite :now how many I missed, but I do know that i never shot better in my lifa It was exotly like pJieasant shooting at a hot corner had to keep shifting mysejf from one to th9 ther, firing almost without getting a sight- I hat is, by tbe eye alone, af ter the fashion of the experts who break glass balls. But quick as the work was, men feil thick and' by the time that I harf emr,Ho,i .„ -_u. I of lts twelve cartridees the advanoe was for the moment eheeked. I rapidJy pushed in some more cartridges, and hardly had I done so when tha enemy, seeing that we were about to escape them altogether, oaine on once more with a tremendous yelt By this time the two halves of the single tusk of the great buil olone remained to be passed up I flred, and fired as effeetively as before but notwithstanding all that I oould do some men escaped my hail of bulletsand begantoasoend the cliff. Presently my rifle was again empty. I slung it over my back and, drawing my revolver, turned to make a bolt of it theattackers being now quite close. Aa I did so a spear struck the cliff close to my head. The last half of the tusk was now vanishins over the rock, and I sung oud to Gobo and the other man who had been pushing it up to vanish after it Gobo, poor fellow, required no seoond invitation; indeed nis nasto was tus undoing. Ho went at the projecting rook with a bound. Theond of tha tusk was still projecting over, and insteadof grasping the rock he caughtatit Ittwisted in his hand; ha alipped, he felL With one wild shriek he ranished into the abysa beneath, his ialUng body brushing me as it passed. "Por a moment we stood aghast, and presently the dull thud of his fall smote heaYily n our ears. Poor fellow, he had met tha ?ate whieh, aa ho had declared, walked about loose ia Wambe's country. Then, with an oath, the remaiuing man sprang at the rock, and clainbered over it in safety. Aghast at the awfulness of what had hapened, I stood stil], till I saw the great blade f a Itatuku spear pass np between my feet 'bat brought me to my senses, and I began o damber up the rock like a cat. I was lalf way rouud it AJready I had clasped he hand of that brave girl Maiwa, who had ome dowu to help me, the men having crambled forward with the ivory, when I elt a hand seize my ankle. "'Pull, Maiwa, pulll' I gasped; and she ertainly did pull. Maiwa was a very musulr woman, and never betore did 1 so eenly appi-jjciate the advantages of the ■ . (deal developmsnt oí females. She tugged at my left arm, the savage below tugged at my nght leg, tiU I began to realize that eomething must ere long give way Luckily I retained my presence of mind, lite the man who, when a fire broke out in h3 house, threw hls mother-inlaw out of the window aud carried the mattress dovn staira. My right hand was still tree, and in it was my revolver, whieh was ecured to my wiist by a leather thong. It was cocked, and I simply held it downward nd fired. Ttio result was iastantaneous and, so far as I was concerned, most satisf oetory. The bullet hit the man beneath me somewhere, I am sure I don't know where. At any rata, he let go of my leg, and plunged headlong iuto the gulf beneath to join Gobo. In another momeut I was on the top of the rock and going up the remaining steps like a lampZighter. A single other soldier appeared in pursuit, but one of my boys at the top fired my elephant gun at him. 1 don't know if he hit him or onJy frightened him; at .-ny rate, he ranished whenoe he carne. I do know, however, that ha very nearly hit me. for I feit the wind of the bullet Anjther thirty seoonds and I and the woman Maiwa were at the top of the cJiff, panting but safe. "My men, bemg directed thereto by Maiwa, had most fortunately rolled up some big bowlders which lay about, and with these we soon managed to block the passage through the overhanging ridge of rock in suoh fashion that the soldiere below eould not poesibly climb over it Indeed, so far as l could see, they did not even try to do so; the heart was out of thera, as the Zulus say."J "Then, having rested for a few moments, we took up the loada, inciuding the tusks of ivory that had cost us so dear, and in silence marched on for a couple of milea or more, till we reached a patch of dense buah. And bere, being utterly eihausted, we camped for the night, taking the precaution, however, of setting a guard to watch against any attempt at surprise. [TO BK CONTI.xrED.]