CHAPTER XXI. THE FUGITIVE MOTHER
As I hastened along, a cloud came over the moon, and from the gray darksuddenly emerged a white figure, clasping a child to her bosom, andstooping as she ran. She was on a line parallel with my own, but did notperceive me as she hurried along, terror and anxiety in every movementof her driven speed.
"She is chased!" I said to myself. "Some prowler of this terrible nightis after her!"
To follow would have added to her fright: I stepped into her track tostop her pursuer.
As I stood for a moment looking after her through the dusk, behind mecame a swift, soft-footed rush, and ere I could turn, something sprangover my head, struck me sharply on the forehead, and knocked me down.I was up in an instant, but all I saw of my assailant was a vanishingwhiteness. I ran after the beast, with the blood trickling from myforehead; but had run only a few steps, when a shriek of despair torethe quivering night. I ran the faster, though I could not but fear itmust already be too late.
In a minute or two I spied a low white shape approaching me through thevapour-dusted moonlight. It must be another beast, I thought at first,for it came slowly, almost crawling, with strange, floundering leaps,as of a creature in agony! I drew aside from its path, and waited. As itneared me, I saw it was going on three legs, carrying its left fore-pawhigh from the ground. It had many dark, oval spots on a shining whiteskin, and was attended by a low rushing sound, as of water falling upongrass. As it went by me, I saw something streaming from the lifted paw.
"It is blood!" I said to myself, "some readier champion than I haswounded the beast!" But, strange to tell, such a pity seized me at sightof the suffering creature, that, though an axe had been in my hand Icould not have struck at it. In a broken succession of hobbling leapsit went out of sight, its blood, as it seemed, still issuing in a smalltorrent, which kept flowing back softly through the grass beside me. "Ifit go on bleeding like that," I thought, "it will soon be hurtless!"
I went on, for I might yet be useful to the woman, and hoped also to seeher deliverer.
I descried her a little way off, seated on the grass, with her child inher lap.
"Can I do anything for you?" I asked.
At the sound of my voice she started violently, and would have risen. Ithrew myself on the ground.
"You need not be frightened," I said. "I was following the beast whenhappily you found a nearer protector! It passed me now with its footbleeding so much that by this time it must be all but dead!"
"There is little hope of that!" she answered, trembling. "Do you notknow whose beast she is?"
Now I had certain strange suspicions, but I answered that I knew nothingof the brute, and asked what had become of her champion.
"What champion?" she rejoined. "I have seen no one."
"Then how came the monster to grief?"
"I pounded her foot with a stone--as hard as I could strike. Did you nothear her cry?"
"Well, you are a brave woman!" I answered. "I thought it was you gavethe cry!"
"It was the leopardess."
"I never heard such a sound from the throat of an animal! it was likethe scream of a woman in torture!"
"My voice was gone; I could not have shrieked to save my baby! When Isaw the horrid mouth at my darling's little white neck, I caught up astone and mashed her lame foot."
"Tell me about the creature," I said; "I am a stranger in these parts."
"You will soon know about her if you are going to Bulika!" she answered."Now, I must never go back there!"
"Yes, I am going to Bulika," I said, "--to see the princess."
"Have a care; you had better not go!--But perhaps you are--! Theprincess is a very good, kind woman!"
I heard a little movement. Clouds had by this time gathered so thickover the moon that I could scarcely see my companion: I feared she wasrising to run from me.
"You are in no danger of any sort from me," I said. "What oath would youlike me to take?"
"I know by your speech that you are not of the people of Bulika," shereplied; "I will trust you!--I am not of them, either, else I should notbe able: they never trust any one--If only I could see you! But I likeyour voice!--There, my darling is asleep! The foul beast has not hurther!--Yes: it was my baby she was after!" she went on, caressing thechild. "And then she would have torn her mother to pieces for carryingher off!--Some say the princess has two white leopardesses," shecontinued: "I know only one--with spots. Everybody knows HER! If theprincess hear of a baby, she sends her immediately to suck its blood,and then it either dies or grows up an idiot. I would have gone awaywith my baby, but the princess was from home, and I thought I might waituntil I was a little stronger. But she must have taken the beast withher, and been on her way home when I left, and come across my track. Iheard the SNIFF-SNUFF of the leopardess behind me, and ran;--oh, how Iran!--But my darling will not die! There is no mark on her!"
"Where are you taking her?"
"Where no one ever tells!"
"Why is the princess so cruel?"
"There is an old prophecy that a child will be the death of her. That iswhy she will listen to no offer of marriage, they say."
"But what will become of her country if she kill all the babies?"
"She does not care about her country. She sends witches around to teachthe women spells that keep babies away, and give them horrible thingsto eat. Some say she is in league with the Shadows to put an end to therace. At night we hear the questing beast, and lie awake and shiver. Shecan tell at once the house where a baby is coming, and lies down at thedoor, watching to get in. There are words that have power to shoo heraway, only they do not always work--But here I sit talking, and thebeast may by this time have got home, and her mistress be sending theother after us!"
As thus she ended, she rose in haste.
"I do not think she will ever get home.--Let me carry the baby for you!"I said, as I rose also.
She returned me no answer, and when I would have taken it, only claspedit the closer.
"I cannot think," I said, walking by her side, "how the brute could bebleeding so much!"
"Take my advice, and don't go near the palace," she answered. "There aresounds in it at night as if the dead were trying to shriek, but couldnot open their mouths!"
She bade me an abrupt farewell. Plainly she did not want more of mycompany; so I stood still, and heard her footsteps die away on thegrass.