| Show t THESTR6NGESTOr OP W Ti r f f x > A LbAH H QUA WI f WRirHrfr lo U2FOALJANt1UATERtAN3flEOJESS11 My ankle pains me my brother he said Co think will go back to Zululand for there is the only kraal I wish to see even if I creep about it like a snake k = It is well my brother said the chief Rest softly and having shaken hands with him he gave an order to one of the indunas and turned away Then men came and supporting the wounded man helped him down to the banks of the stream Here at his request I re-quest they tied a heavy stone round his neck and then threw him into a deep pool I saw the whole sad scene and the victim never even winced It was impossible not to admire the courage of the man or to avoid being struck with the coldblooded cruelty of his brother the chief And yet the act waA necessary neces-sary from his point of view The man must eitherdie swiftly be left to perish per-ish of starvation for no Zulu force will encumber itself with wounded men Years of merciless warfare had so hardened = t har-dened these people that they looked on death as nothing and were to do them justice as willing to meet it themselves as to inflict it on others When this very impi had been sent by the Zulu King Dingaan it consisted of some nine thousand thou-sand men Now it numbered about three all the rest were dead They too ould probably soon be dead What did it matter They lived by war to die in blood It was their natural eiM Kill till von are killed That is the motto of the Zulu soldier It has the merit of simplicity Meanwhile the warriors were looting the wagons including my own having 1kfirst thrown all the dead Boers into a heap I looked at the heap all of them were there including the two stout frauS poor things But I missed one body that of the Hans Bothas daughter little Tota A wild hope came into my heart that she might have escaped but no it was not possible I could only pray that she was already at rest Just then the great Zulu Bombyane who had left my side to indulge in the congenial occupation of looting came out cf a wagon crying that he had got the little white one I looked he was carrying the child Tota gripping her frock in one of his huge black hands I He stalked up to where we were and held the child before the chief Is it dead father he said Now as I could well see the child was not dead but had been hiddenuway and fainted with fear The chief glanced at it carelessly and said saidFind Find out with your kerrie Acting on this hint the black devil held up the child and was about to kill it with his knobstick This was more than I could bear I sprang at him and struck him with all my force in the face little caring if I was speared or not He dropped Tota on the ground 1 S Oh he said putting his hand to his V nose the white spirit has a hard fist t Come spirit I will fight you for the child The soldiers cheered and laughed Yes yes they said let Bombyane fight the white spirit for the child Let them fight with assegais For a moment I hesitated What chance had I against this black giant But I had promised poor Hans to save the child if I could and what did it matter mat-ter A well die now a later However How-ever I had wit enough left to make a favor of it and intimated to the chief c through Indabazimbi that I was quite Wfwilliug to condescend to kill Bombyane 4 condition that if I did so the childs life should be given t me Indabazimbi interpreted my words but I noticed that Jie would not look on me as he spoka ynt covered his face with his hands and spoke of me a the ghost or the son of the spirit For some reason that I have never quite understood the chief consented t the duel I fancy it was because he believed me t be more than mortal and was anxious to see the last of Bombyane Let them fight he said Give them assegais and no shields the child shall be to him who conquers Yes yes cried the soldiers Let them fight Dont be afraid Bom byane if he is a spirit hes a very small oneI I never was frightened of man or fk beast and I am not going to run away from a white ghost answered the redoubtable re-doubtable Bombyane as he examined the blade of his great bangwanar stabbing stab-bing assegai Then they made a ring round us gave me a similar assegai and set us some ten paces apart I kept my face as calm as I could and tried to show no signs offer of-fer though in my heart I was terribly afraid Humanly speaking my doom was on me The giant warrior before me had used the assegai from a child I had no experience of the weapon Moreover though I was quick and active he must I have been at least twice as strong as I I was However there was no help fort I fc setting my teeth I grasped the great spear breathed a prayer and waited The giant stood awhile looking at me and as he stood Indabazimbi walked across the ring behind me muttering a he passed Keep cool Macumazahn and wait for him As I had not the slightest intention of j commencing the fray I thought this I good advice Heavens how long that hal minute seemed It happened many years ago but the whole scene rises up before my eyes as Iwrite There behind u was the bloodstained laager and near it lay ft the piles of dead round us was rank Vupon rank of plumed savages standing J in silence to wait the issue of the duel WI Li and in the center stood the gray haired chief and general Sususa in all his war finery a cloak of leopard skin upon his shoulders At his feet lay the senseless sense-less form of little Tota to my left squatted squat-ted Indabazimbi nodding his white lock and muttering something probably proba-bly spells while in front was my giant I antagonist his spear aloft and his plumes bending in the gentle breeze I Then over all over grassy slope river and koppie over the wagons of the 1 laager the piles of dead the dense ranks I of the living the swooning child overall over-all shone the bright impartial sun looking I look-ing down like the great indifferent eye of heaven upon the loveliness of nature I and the cruelty of man Down by the river grew thorn trees and from them ryer I floated the sweet scent of the mimosa flower and came the sound of cooing turtle doves I never smell the one or hear the other without tho scene flashing flash-ing into my mind again complete in its every detail Suddenly without a sound Bombyane shook his assegai and rushed straight at me I saw his huge form come like a man in a dream I saw the broad spear flash on high now he was on me Then prompted to it by some providential impulse im-pulse I dropped to my knee and quick a light stretched out my spear He drove at me the blade passed over my head I felt a weight on my assegai it was wrenched from my hand his great limbs knocked against me I glanced round Bombyane was staggering along with head thrown back and outstretched arms from which his spear had fallen His spear had fallen but the blade of mine stood out between his shouldersI had transfixed him He stopped swung round slowly as though to look at me then with a sigh the giant sank down dead For a moment there was silence then a great cry rosea cry of Bombyane is dead The white spirit has slain Bomb yane Kill the wizard kill the ghost who has slain Bombyane by witchcraft Instantly I was surrounded by fierce faces and spears flashed before my eyes I folded my arms and stood calmly waiting wait-ing the end I 4 moment it would have come for the warriors were mad at seeing their champion overthrown thus easily But presently through the tumult I heard the high cracked voice of Indabazimbi Stand back you fools it cried can a spirit then be killed Spear him spear him they roared in fury Let lus see if he is a spirit How did a spirit slay Bombyane with an assegai Spear him rain maker and we shall see Stand back cried Indabazimbi again and I will show you i he can be killed I will kill him myself and call him back to life again before your eyes Macumazahn trust me he whispered in my ear in the Sisutu tongue which the Zulus did not understand Trust me kneel on the grass before me and when I strike at you with the spear roll over like one dead then when you hear my voice again get up Trust meit is your only hope Having no choice I nodded my head in assent though I had not the faintest idea of what he was about to do The tumult lessened somewhat and once more the warriors drew back warrors Great white spirit spirit of victory said Indabazimbi addressing me aloud and covering his eyes with his hand hear mo and forgive me These children dren are blind with folly and think thee mortal because thou hast dealt death upon a mortal who dared to stand against thee Deign to kneel down before me and let me pierce thy heart with this unhurt spear then when I call upon thee arise I knelt down not because I wished to but because must I had not overmuch faith in Indabazimbi and thought it probable that he was in truth about to make an end of me But really I was so worn with fears and the horrors of the night and day had so shaken my nerves that I did not greatly care what I befell me When I had been kneeling thus for about half a minute Indaba zimbi spoke People of the Umtetwa children of TChaka ho said draw back a little space lest an evil fall on you for now the air is thick with ghosts They drew back a space leaving us in a circle about twelve yards in diameter Look on him who kneels before you went on Indabazimba and listen to I I my words to the words of the witch I finder the words of the rainmaker Indabazimbi whose fame is known to you He seems to be a man does he I not I tell you children of the Umtet I wa he is no man He is the spirit who gives victory to the white men he it is who gave them assegais that thunder I and taught them how to slay Why were the impis of Dingan rolled back at the Blood river Because he was there Why did the Amaboona slay the people of Mosilikaaye by the thousand Because Be-cause he was there And so I say to you that had I not drawn him from the laager by my magic but three hours ago you would have been conqueredyes you would have been blown away like the dust before the wind you would have been burned up like the dry grass in the winter when the fire is awake among it Aye because be-cause he had but been there many of your bravest were slam in overcoming a fewa pinch of men who could be counted on the fingers But because I loved you because your chief Sususa is my hah brother for had we not one fatherI came t you I warned you Then you prayed me and I drew the = 1t a lC spirit fort But you were not satisfied when the victory was yours when the spirit of all you had taken asked but one little thinga white child to take away and sacrifice to himself to make the medicine of his magic of Hero I could hardly restrain myself from interrupting but thought better of it itYou You said him nay you said Let him fight with our bravest man let him fight with Boinbyaue the giant for the child And he deigned to slay Bombyane as you have seen and now you say Slay him he is no spirit Now I will show you if he is a spirit for I will slay him before your eyes and call him to life again But you have brought this upon yourselves your-selves Had you believed had you offered of-fered no insult to the spirit he would have stayed with you and you should have become unconquerable Now he will arise and leave you and woe be on you if you try to stay him Now all men he went on look for a space upon this assegai that I hold up and he lifted the bangwan of the deceased Bombyane high above his head so that all the multitude could see it Every eye vas fixed upon the broad bright spear For a while he held it still then he moved it round and round in a circle muttering as he did so and still their gaze followed it For my part I followed follow-ed his movements with the greatest anxiety That assegai had already been nearer my person than I found at all pleasant and I had no desire to make a further acquaintance with iu Nor indeed in-deed was I sure that Indabazimbi was not really going to kill me I could not understand his proceedings at all and at the best I did not relish playing the corpus vile to his magical experiments Look look look he screamed Then suddenly the great spear flashed down towards my breast I felt nothing but it seemed as though it had passed through me See roared the Zulus Indaba zimbi has speared him the red assegai stands out behind his back Roll over Macumazahn Inclaba zimbi hissed in my ear roll over and pretend to die quick quick I lost no time in following these strange instructions but falling on my side threw my arms wide kicked my legs about and died as artistically a I could Presently I gave a stage shiver and lay still See said the Zulus he is dead the spirit is dead Look at the blood upon the ssfri Stand back stand back cried Inda bazimbi or the ghost will haunt you Yes he is deul and now I will call him back to life again Look and putting own his hand he plucked the spear from wherever it was fixed and held it aloft I The spear is red is it not Watch men watch it grows white I Yes it grows white they said Oh it grows white It grows white because the blood returns re-turns to whence it came said Indaba zirnbi Now great spirit hear me Thou art dead the breath has gone out of thy mouth Yet hear me and arise Awake white spirit awake and show thy power Awake arise unhurt I began to respond cheerfully to this imposing invocation Not so fast Macumazahn whispered Indabazimbi I took the hint and first held up my arm then lifted my head and let it fall arain xnen slowly and with the greatest dignity dig-nity I gradually arose stretched my arms yawned like one awaking from heavy sleep turned and looked upon them unconcernedly As I did so I noticed no-ticed that old Indabazimbi was almost fainting from exhaustion Beads of perspiration per-spiration stood upon his brow his limb trembled and his breast heaved As for the Zulus they waited for no more With a howl of terror the whole regiment turned and fled across the rise so that presently we were left alone with the dead and the swooning child How on earth did you do that Indaba zimbi I asked in amaze Dont ask me Macumazahn he gasped You white men are very clever but dont know you quite everything There are men in the world who can make people believe they see things which they do not see Let u be going while we may for when these Umtetwa have got over their fright they will come back to loot the wagons and then perhaps per-haps they will begin to ask questions thaI tha-I cant answer And here I may as well state that 1 never got any further information on this matter from old Indabazimbi But I have my theory and here it is for whatever it may be worth I believe that Indabazimbi mesmerized the whole I crowd of onlookers making them believe that they saw the assegai in my heart and the blood upon the blade The reader may smile and say Impossible but I would ask him how the Indian jugglers I do their tricks unless it is by mesmerism The spectators seem to see the 11 1 go under the basket and there pierced with daggers they seem to see women in a trance supported in mid air upon the point cf a single sword In themselves these things are not possible they violate vio-late the laws of nature and therefore must be illusion And so through the glamor thrown upon them by Indaba zimbis will the Zulu impi seemed to see me transfixed with an assegai that never touched me At least that is my theory if any one has a better let him adopt it The explanation lies between illusion and magic of a most imposing character and I prefer to accept the first alternative CHAPTER V I t l Ji1 WAS not slow to 41 take Indabazini f J 1 bis hint About a hundred and td 1 fifty yards to theO the-O I left of the laager I was a little del where I had hid z t den my horse together ayj 1 gether with one r belonging to the Z Boers and my saddle and bridleS bridle-S Thither we went I carrying the I j swooning Tota in my arms To our joy we found the I t horses safe for the Zulus had not seen I I o nem NOW or course they were our only means of locomotion for the oxen had been sent away and even had they been there we could not have found time to inspan them I laid Tota down caught my horse undid his knee halter and saddled up As 1 was doing so a thought struck me and I told Indabazimbi to run to the laager and see if he could find my double barreled gun and some powder and shot for I had only my elephant roer and a few charges of powder and ball with me He went and while he was away poor little Tota came to herself and began tory to-ry till she saw my face Ah I have had such a bad dream she said in Dutch I dreamed that the black Kaffirs were going to kill me Where is my papa I winced at the question Your papa has gone on a journey dear I said and left me to look after you Wo hall find him one day You dont mind going with Heer Allan do you1 No she said a little doubtfully and began to cry again Presently she remembered re-membered that she was thirsty and asked for water I led her to the river rver and she drank Why is my hand red Heel Allan she asked pointing to the smear of Bouibyanes blood stained lingers At that moment I felt very glad that I I i had killed Bombyane It is only paint dear I said see we will wash it and your face As I was doing this Indabazimbi returned re-turned The guns were all gone he said the Zulus had taken them and the powder But he had found some things and brought them in a sack There was a thick blanket about twenty pounds weight of biltong or sun dried meat a few double handfuls of ships biscuits two water bottles a tin pannikin some matches and sundries And now Macumazahn he said we had best be going for those Umtet was are coming back I saw one of them on the brow of the rise That was enough for me lifted little Tota on to the bow of my saddle climbed into it and rode off holding her in front of me Indabazimbi slipped a rein into the mouth of the best of the Boer horses threw the sack of sundries on to its back and mounted also holding the elephant gun in his haul We went eight or nine hundred yards in silence till we were quite out of range of sight from the wagons wag-ons which were in a hollow Then r pulled up with such a feeiingof thankfulness thank-fulness in my heart as cannot be told in words for now I knew that mounted as we were those black demons could never catch us But where were ve to steer for I put the question to Indabazimbi asking him if he thought that we had better trv and follow the oajjbn that we had sent away with the Kaffirs and women wo-men on the preceding night He shook his head The Umtetwas will go after the oxen presently he answered and we have seen enough of them Quite enough I answered with enthusiasm en-thusiasm I never want to see another but where are we t go Here we are with one gun and a little girl in the vat and lonely veldt Which way shall we turnOur Our faces were towards the north before be-fore we met the Zulus answered Indaba zimbi let us still keep them towards the north Ride on Macumazahn tonight to-night when we offsaddle I will look into the matter So all that long afternoon wo rode on following the course of the river From the nature of the ground we could only go slowly but before sunset I had the satisfaction of knowing that there must be at least twentyfive miles between U and those accursed Zulus Little iota 1 C4i 41 I 1 Biepii LUUSU ui nio WiLy uiu uiutiuii ui uiu horse was easy and she was worn out At last the sunset came and we off saddled in a dell by the river There was not much to eat but I soaked some biscuit in water for Tota and Indaba zimbi and I made a scanty meal off biltong tong When we had done I took off Totas frock wrapped her up in the blanket near the fire we had made and lit a pipe I sat there by the side of the orphaned child and from my heart thanked Providence for saving her life and mine from the slaughter of that day What a horrible experience it had been I I seemed like a nightmare to I look back upon And yet it was sober fact one among thoeo many tragedies which dotted the paths of the emigrant Boers with the bones of men women and children These horrors are almost forgotten now people living in Natal for instance can scarcely realize that some forty years ago GOO white people many of them women and children I were thus massacred by the impis at Dingaan But it was so and the name I of the district Weeneu or the Place of Weeping will commemorate them forever for-ever Then I fell to reflecting on the extraordinary ex-traordinary adroitness old Indabazimbi had shown in saving my life I appeared that he himself had lived peared lved among the Umtetwa Zulus in his earlier the earler manhood man-hood and was a noted rain doctor and witch finder But when TChaka Din gaan brother ordered a general massacre massa-cre of the witch finders he had fled south and so saved his life When he heard therefore that the regiment was an Um tetwa regiment which leaving their wives and children had broken away from Zululand to escape the cruelties of Dingaan he under pretense of spying on them took the bold course of cromcr straight up to the chief Sususa and addressing ad-dressing him as his brother which he was The chief knew him at once and so did the soldiers for his fame was still great among them Then he told him his cock and bull story about my being a white spirit whose presence in the laager would render it invincible and with the object of saving my life in the slaughter which he knew must ensue agreed to charm me out of the laager and deliver me into their keeping How the plan worked has already been told it was a risky one still but for it my troubles would have been done with these many days So I lay and thought with a heart fu of gratitude and as I did so saw old I dabazimbi sitting by the fire and going through some mysterious performance I ltmn m kI cl with bones which lie produced from his bag and ashes mixed with water I spoke to him and asked what he was about He replied that he was tracing I I out the route that we should follow I i felt inclined to answer bosh but remembering re-membering the very remarkable instances in-stances which he had given of his I prowess in occult matters I held my tongue and taking little Tota into my arms worn out with toil and danger and emotion went to sleep I woke just as the dawn > was beginning to flame across the sky in sheets of primrose prim-rose and of gold or rather it was little Tota who woke me by kissing me as she lay between sleep and waking and call Ing me Papa It wrung my heart to hear her 1 got up washed mid dressed he child as best I could and then we Breakfasted as we had supped on biltong and biscuit Tota asked for milk but I had none to give her Then we caught the horses gve saddled mine Well Indabazimbi I said now what path do your bones point to Straight north he said The journey jour-ney will be hard but in four days we shall come to the kraal of a white man an Englishman not a Boer His kraal is in a beautiful place and there is a great peak behind it where there arc many baboons I looked at him This is all nonsense Indabazimbi I said Whoever heard of an Englishman building a house in these wilds and how do you know anything any-thing about it 1 think that we had better strike east towards Port Natal As you like Macumazahn he answered an-swered but it will take us three months journey to get to Port Natal i we ever get there and the child will die on the road Say Macumazahn have my words come true heretofore or have they not Did I not tell you not to hunt the elephants ele-phants on horseback Did I not tell you to take one wagon with you instead of two as it is better to lose one than two You told me all these things I answered an-swered And so I t l you now to ride north Macumazahn for there you will find great happinessyes and great sorrow But no man should run away from happiness hap-piness because of sorrow A you will as you will Again I looked at him In his divinations divina-tions I did not believe but yet I came to the conclusion that he was speaking what lie knew to be the truth It struck mea me-a possible that he might have heard of some white man living like a hermit in ii ill hnf r 4 1 U4 u ULU lC 6 LV iej Up his prophetic character would not say GO Very well Indabazimbi I said let us ride north Shortly after we started the river we had followed hitherto turned off in a westerly direction so we left it All that day we rode across rolling uplands and about an hour before sunset halted at a little stream which ran down from a range of hills in front of u By this time I was heartily tired of the biltong so taking my elephant rifle for I had nothing elseI left Tota with Indaba zimbi and started to see if I could shoot something Oddly enough we had seen no game all the day nor did we see any on the subsequent days For some mysterious reason they had temporarily tempo-rarily left the district I crossed the little streamlet in order to enter ltle the belt of thorns which grew upon the hillside beyond for there I hoped to find buck A I did so I was rather disturbed to see the spoor of two lions in the soft sandy edge of a pool Breathing a hope that they might not still be in the neighborhood I went on into the belt of scattered thorns For along a-long while I hunted about without seeing anything except one dinker buck which bounded off with a crash from the other I side of a stone without giving me a chance At Ifinfrth iiistns it rrrpw rlnslr I spied a Petie buck a graceful little creature scarcely bigger than a large hare standing on a stone about forty I yards from me Under ordinary circumstances cr cumstances I should never have dreamed of firing at such a thing especially with an elephant gun but we were hungry So I sat down with back inst wih my against a rock and aimed steadily at its head I did this because if I struck it in the body the threeounce ball would have knocked it to bits At last I pulled the trigger tho gun went off with the report of a small cannon and the buck disappeared I inn to the spot with more anxiety than I should have felt in an ordinary way over a koodoo or an eland To my delight hero the little creature laythe huge bullet had decapitated it Considering all the circumstances I do not think I have often made a better shot than this but i any one doubts let him try his hand at a rabbits head fifty yards away with an elephant gun and threeounce ball I picked up the petie in triumph and returned to the camp There we skinned him and toasted him over the fire He just made a good meal for us keeping tho hind legs for breakfast There was mi moon that night and so it chanced that when I suddenly remembered remem-bered about the lion spoor and suggested that we had better tie upthe horses quite close to us we could not find them though we knew that they were grazing within fifty yards This being so we could only make up the fire and take our chance Shortly afterwards I went to sleep with little Tota in my arms Suddenly Sud-denly I was awakened by hearing that peculiarly paiuful sound the scream of a horse quite close to the fire which was still burning brightly Next second there came a noise of galloping hoofs and before I could even rise my poor I horse appeared in the ring of firelight I I As in a flash of lightning I saw his staring star-ing eyes and wide stretched nostrils and the broken rein with which he had been knee haltered flying in the air Also I saw something else for on his back was a great dark form with glowing eyes and from the form came a growling sound It was a lion The horse dashed on He galloped right through the fire for which he had run i his terror fortunately however without treading on us and vanished into the night Wo heard his hoofs for a hundred yards or more then there was silence broken now and again by distant growls As may be imagined we did not sleep any more that night but waited anxiously till two hours later the dawn J hroi > O 1 i I As soon a there was sufficient light we rose and leaving Tota still asleep crept cautiously the direction in which the horse had vanished When we had gone fifty yards or so we made out its I remains lying a the veldt and caught j sighfcof two great cat forms slinking away in the gray 1 ht To go any further was useless we knew all about it knov and we turned to lool for the other horse But our cup of misfortune was not yet full it was nowhere to bo found Soon we came upon its spoor and then we saw what had happened Terrified by the sight and smell of the lions it had with a desperate o des-perate effort also burst tho rein with which it had been knee haltered and II galloped far away For now we were i left alone in these vast solitudes without a horse to carry us and with as chad who was not old enough to walk for more than a little way at a time Well it was no use giving inso with a few words we went back to our camp I where I found Tota crying because she had woke to find herself alone and ate a little food Then we prepared to start First we divided such articles we must take with us into two equal parts rejecting reject-ing everything that we could possibly do without Then by an afterthought we fled our water bottles though the tie I was rather against doing so because of the extra weight But Indabazimbi overruled me in the matter fortunately for all three of us 1 settled to look after Tota for the first march and gave the elephant gun to Indabazimbi At length all was ready and we set out on foot By the help of occasional lifts over rough places Tota managed towalk up the slope on the hillside where had shot the Petit buck At length we reached it and looking at the country beyond I gave an exclamation of dismay To say that it was desert would be saying too much it was more like the Barroo in the Capea vast sandy waste studded stud-ded here and there with low shrubs and cattered rocks But it was a great expanse ex-panse of desolate land stretching as far as the eye could reach and bordered faraway far-away by a line of purple hills in the center of which a great solitary peak soared high into the air Indabazimbi I said we can ntver cross this if we take six days As you will Macumazahn he answered an-swered but I tell you that thereand he pointed to the peaktbere the white man lives Turn which way you like out it you turn you will perish I reflected for a moment Our case was humanly speaking almost hopeless It mattered little which way we went We were alone almost without food with no means of transport and a child to carry As well perish in the sandy waste as on the rolling veldt or among tho trees of the hillside Providence alone could save us and wo must trust to providence Come on I said lifting Tota on to my back for she was already tired All roads lead to rest How am I to describe the misery of the next four days How am I to tell how we stumbled on through that awful desert almost without food and quite without water for there were no streams and we saw no springs We soon found how the case was and saved almost all the water in our bottles for the child To look back on it is like a nightmare I can scarcely bear to dwell on it Day after day by turns carrying the child through the heavy sand night after night lying down in the scrub chewing the leaves and licking such dew as there was from the scanty grass Not a spring not a pool not a head of game It was the third night we were nearly mad with thirst Tota was in a comatose condition Indabazimbi still had a lit fln tAn IYIQ Tariff < nArhnn o Tm tA V y 4u glassful We moistened her lips and our blackened tongues with it Then we gave the rest to the child It revived her She awoke from her swoon to sink into sleep See the dawn was breaking The hills were not more than eight miles or so away now and they were green There must be water there Come I said Indabazimbi lifted Tota into the kind of sling that we had made out of the blanket in which to carry her on our backs and we staggered on for an hour through the sand She woke crying for water and alas we had none to give her our tongues were hanging from our lips we could scarcely speak We rested awhile and Tota mercifully swooned away Then Indabazimbi took her Though he was so thin the old mans strength was wonderful Another hour the slope of the great peak could not be more than two miles away now A couple of hundred yards off grew a large baobalo tree Could we reach its shade We had done half the distance when Indabazimbi fell from Cel exhaustion haustion We were now so weak that neither of us could lift the child on to our backs We each took one of her hands and dragged her along the road Fifty yardsthey seemed to be fifty miles Ah the tree was reached at last compared with the heat outside the shade of its dense foliage seemed like the dusk and cool of a vault I remember thinking think-ing that it was a good place t die in Then I remember no more I woke with a feeling as though the blessed rain were falling on my face and head Slowly and with great difficulty I opened my eyes then slut them again having seen a vision For a space I lay thus while the rain continued to fall I saw now that I must be asleep or off my head with thirst or fever I I were not off my head how came I to imagine that a lovely dark eyed girl was bending over me sprinkling water on my face A white girl too not a Kaffir woman However the dream went on Hendrika said a voice in English the sweetest voice that I had ever heard somehow it reminded mo of wind whispering pering in tho trees at night Hen i drika I fear he dies there is a flask of brandy in my saddle bag get it Ah all grunted a harsh voice in answer let him die Miss Stella He will bring you bad lucklet him die I say I felt a movement of air above me as though the woman of my vision turned swiftly and once again I opened my I eyes She had risen this dream woman I Now I saw that shewas tall and grace c fu aSia reed She was angry too her dark eTes flashed and she poicted with her han ai 3 female who stood5 before her dresse in nondescript kind of clothes strain as might be worn by either a man or 3 woman The woman was young of white blood very short with bowed legs and enormous shoulders I face she was not bad looking but the brew receded the chin and ears ware prominent short she reminded me of nothing so much as a very handsonca monkey She mht > have ben the miss lag link The italy was pointing athor with her hand How dare you she said Are you going to disobey me again Have you forgotten what > told yon Babyan baboon All all r grunted the woman who seemed literally to curl and shrivel up beneath her anger Dont b angry with mo Mis Stella because cant bear it I only said it because it was true I will fetch the brandy Then dream or no dream I determined to speak Not brandy I gasped English a well a my swollen tongue would allow give me water Ah he lives cried tho beautiful girl and he talks English See sir here is water in your own bottle you I no f In fr n Hn + l 1 u4V v vu lu VWta side of the tree I smuggled to a sitting position lifted the bottle to my lips and drained it Oh that drink of cool pure water neverhad I tasted anything so delicious At the first gulp I felt life flow back into me But wisely enough she would not let me havemuch No more no more she said and dragged the bottle from mea most by force dead The child I saidis the child deadI I do not know yet she answered We have only just found you and I tried to revive you first I turned and crept to where Tota lay by the side of Indabazimbi I was imp im-p 5siblo to say if they were dead or swooning The lady sprinkled Tolas face with the water which I watched greedily for my thirst was still awtur while the woman Hendrika did the same office for Indabazimbi Presently my vast delight Tota opened her eyes and tried to cry but could not poor little thing because her tongue and lips were so swollen But the lady got some water into her mouth and as in my case the effect 1 was magical We c allowed her 1 to urmii uuuui u quiuiui UL n pmu auu 110 more though she cried bitterly for it Just then old Indabazimbi came to with a groan He opened his eyes glanced round and took in the situation What did I tell you Macumazahn7 and he seized the bottle and took along pull at it Meanwhile I sat with my back against the trunk of the great tree and tried to realize the situation Looking to my left I saw two good horses one bare backed and one with a ladys rude saddle on it By the side of the horses were two dogs of a stout greyhound breed that sat watching us and near the dogs lay a dead Airlie buck which they had evidently been coursing Hendrika said the lady presently they must not eat meat just yet Go and look up the tree and see if there i any ripe fruit on it Tho woman ran swiftly into the plain and she returned obeyed Presently retured I see some ripe fruit she said but i is high quite at the top Fetch it said thelady Easier said than done I thought to myself but I was much mistaken Suddenly Sud-denly the woman bounded at least three feet into the air and caught one of the spreading boughs in her large flat hands a swing that would have filled an acrobat acro-bat with enw and she was on it Now there is an end I thought for the next bough was beyond her reach But again I was mistaken Sho stood upon up-on the bough gripping it with her bare feet and once more sprang at the one it above caught it and swung herself into I suppose that the lady saw my lookof astonishment Do not wonder sir she said Hendrika is not like otherpeo pIe She will not fall I made no answer but watched the progress of this extraordinary person with the most breathless interest On she went swinging herself from bough to bough and running along them like a monkey At last she got to the top and began to swarm along a thin branch towards the ripe fruit When she was near enough she shook tho branch violently vio-lently There was a crack a crash it broke I shut my eyes expecting to see her crushed on the ground before me Dont be afraid said the lady again laughing safe gently Look she is quite I looked and so sho was She had caught a bough as she fell clung to it and was now calmly dropping to another an-other Old Indabazirabi had also watched this performance with interest but it did not seem to astonish him overmuch over-much Baboon woman he said as though such people were common and then turned his attention to soothing Tota who was moaning for more water Meanwhile Hendrika came down the tree with extraordinary rapidity and swinging by one hand from a bough dropped about ten feet to the ground In another two minutes we were all 1 three sucking the pulpy fruit I an ordinary or-dinary way we should have found it J tasteless enough as it was I thought it the most delicious L thing I had n ever tasteci alter tnree uays spent wunouE food or water in the desert one is not particular While we were still eating the fruit the lady of my vision set her companion to work to partially fay the oribe which her dogs had killed and busied herself in making a fire of fallen 1 boughs As soon as it burned brightly 1 she took strips of the oribe flesh toasted them and gave them to us on leaves We ate and now we were allowed a little lit-tle more water After that she took little lit-tle Tota to the spring and washed her which she sadly needed poor child Next came our turn to wash and oh the iov of it This story was commenced i THE SuNDAY HERALD January 5th Back numbers can be obtained at this offlcel TO BIT CO TED NEXT SUNDAT |
