In due course and without accident, for the weather, which had beenso wet, had now turned beautifully fine and dry, we came to the great,flat-topped hill that I have mentioned, trekking thither over high,sparsely-timbered veld that offered few difficulties to the waggon. Thispeculiar hill, known to such natives as lived in those parts by a longword that means "Hut-with-a-flat-roof," is surrounded by forest, forhere trees grow wonderfully well, perhaps because of the water thatflows from its slopes. Forcing our way through this forest, which wasfull of game, I reached its eastern foot and there camped, fivedays before that night of full moon on which I had arranged to meetUmslopogaas.
That I should meet him I did not in the least believe, firstly becauseI thought it very probable that he would have changed his mind aboutcoming, and secondly for the excellent reason that I expected he hadgone to call upon the King against his will, as I had been asked to do.It was evident to me that he was up to his eyes in some serious plotagainst Cetywayo, in which he was the old dwarf Zikali's partner, orrather, tool; also that his plot had been betrayed, with the result thathe was "wanted" and would have little chance of passing safely throughZululand. So taking one thing with another I imagined that I had seenhis grim face and his peculiar, ancient-looking axe for the last time.
To tell the truth I was glad. Although at first the idea had appealed tome a little, I did not want to make this wild-goose, or wild-witch chasethrough unknown lands to seek for a totally fabulous person who dweltfar across the Zambesi. I had, as it were, been forced into the thing,but if Umslopogaas did not appear, my obligations would be at an endand I should return to Natal at my leisure. First, however, I would doa little shooting since I found that a large herd of elephants hauntedthis forest. Indeed I was tempted to attack them at once, but did notdo so since, as Hans pointed out, if we were going north it would bedifficult to carry the ivory, especially if we had to leave the waggon,and I was too old a hunter to desire to kill the great beasts for thefun of the thing.
So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout thehours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-mostslopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not morethan a hundred yards above the timber line.
At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for Ifound human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, thecattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by pilingup a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrowentrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxenat night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though Ihad neither seen nor heard them.
So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since wheneverwe wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at aspot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came thetime of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the truth, Ihad begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has always led anactive life too much of it is very bad, for then he begins to think andthought in large doses is depressing.
Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mindthat on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I hadshot--or failed to shoot--some of them, return to Natal. I felt unableto remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhapswhy I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down suchreminiscences as these.
Well, the full moon came up in silver glory and after I had taken a goodlook at her for luck, also at all the veld within sight, I turned in. Anhour or two later some noise from the direction of the cattle-kraal wokeme up. As it did not recur, I thought that I would go to sleep again.Then an uneasy thought came to me that I could not remember havinglooked to see whether the entrance was properly closed, as it wasmy habit to do. It was the same sort of troublesome doubt which ina civilised house makes a man get out of bed and go along the coldpassages to the sitting-room to see whether he has put out the lamp.It always proves that he _has_ put it out, but that does not prevent arepetition of the performance next time the perplexity arises.
I reflected that perhaps the noise was caused by the oxen pushing theirway through the carelessly-closed entrance, and at any rate that I hadbetter go to see. So I slipped on my boots and a coat and went withoutwaking Hans or the boys, only taking with me a loaded, single-barrelledrifle which I used for shooting small buck, but no spare cartridges.
Now in front of the gateway of the cattle-kraal, shading it, grew asingle big tree of the wild fig order. Passing under this tree I lookedand saw that the gateway was quite securely closed, as now I rememberedI had noted at sunset. Then I started to go back but had not steppedmore than two or three paces when, in the bright moonlight, I saw thehead of my smallest ox, a beast of the Zulu breed, suddenly appearover the top of the wall. About this there would have been nothingparticularly astonishing, had it not been for the fact that this headbelonged to a dead animal, as I could tell from the closed eyes and thehanging tongue.
"What in the name of goodness----" I began to myself, when myreflections were cut short by the appearance of another head, that ofone of the biggest lions I ever saw, which had the ox by the throat, andwith the enormous strength that is given to these creatures, by gettingits back beneath the body, was deliberately hoisting it over the wall,to drag it away to devour at its leisure.
There was the brute within twelve feet of me, and what is more, it sawme as I saw it, and stopped, still holding the ox by the throat.
"What a chance for Allan Quatermain! Of course he shot it dead," one canfancy anyone saying who knows me by repute, also that by the gift ofGod I am handy with a rifle. Well, indeed, it should have been, for evenwith the small-bore piece that I carried, a bullet ought to have piercedthrough the soft parts of its throat to the brain and to have killedthat lion as dead as Julius Caesar. Theoretically the thing was easyenough; indeed, although I was startled for a moment, by the time thatI had the rifle to my shoulder I had little fear of the issue, unlessthere was a miss-fire, especially as the beast seemed so astonished thatit remained quite still.
Then the unexpected happened as generally it does in life, particularlyin hunting, which, in my case, is a part of life. I fired, but bymisfortune the bullet struck the tip of the horn of that confounded ox,which tip either was or at that moment fell in front of the spot on thelion's throat whereat half-unconsciously I had aimed. Result: the ballwas turned and, departing at an angle, just cut the skin of the lion'sneck deeply enough to hurt it very much and to make it madder than allthe hatters in the world.
Dropping the ox, with a most terrific roar it came over the wall atme--I remember that there seemed to be yards of it--I mean of thelion--in front of which appeared a cavernous mouth full of gleamingteeth.
I skipped back with much agility, also a little to one side, becausethere was nothing else to do, reflecting in a kind of inconsequent way,that after all Zikali's Great Medicine was not worth a curse. The lionlanded on my side of the wall and reared itself upon its hind legsbefore getting to business, towering high above me but slightly to myleft.
Then I saw a strange thing. A shadow thrown by the moon flitted pastme--all I noted of it was the distorted shape of a great, lifted axe,probably because the axe came first. The shadow fell and with it anothershadow, that of a lion's paw dropping to the ground. Next there was amost awful noise of roaring, and wheeling round I saw such a fray asnever I shall see again. A tall, grim, black man was fighting the greatlion, that now lacked one paw, but still stood upon its hind legs,striking at him with the other.
The man, who was absolutely silent, dodged the blow and hit back withthe axe, catching the beast upon the breast with such weight that itcame to the ground in a lopsided fashion, since now it had only onefore-foot on which to light.
The axe flashed up again and before the lion could recover itself, or doanything else, fell with a crash upon its skull, sinking deep into thehead.
After this all was over, for the beast's brain was cut in two.
"I am here at the appointed time, Macumazahn," said Umslopogaas, for itwas he, as with difficulty he dragged his axe from the lion's severedskull, "to find you watching by night as it is reported that you alwaysdo."
"No," I retorted, for his tone irritated me, "you are late, Bulalio, themoon has been up some hours."
"I said, O Macumazahn, that I would meet you on the _night_ of the fullmoon, not at the rising of the moon."
"That is true," I replied, mollified, "and at any rate you came at agood moment."
"Yes," he answered, "though as it happens in this clear light the thingwas easy to anyone who can handle an axe. Had it been darker the endmight have been different. But, Macumazahn, you are not so clever as Ithought, since otherwise you would not have come out against a lion witha toy like that," and he pointed to the little rifle in my hand.
"I did not know that there was a lion, Umslopogaas."
"That is why you are not so clever as I thought, since of one sort oranother there is always a lion which wise men should be prepared tomeet, Macumazahn."
"You are right again," I replied.
At that moment Hans arrived upon the scene, followed at a discreetdistance by the waggon boys, and took in the situation at a glance.
"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads has worked well," was all hesaid.
"The great medicine of the Opener-of-Heads has worked better," remarkedUmslopogaas with a little laugh and pointing to his red axe."Never before since she came into my keeping has _Inkosikaas_ (i.e.'Chieftainess,' for so was this famous weapon named) sunk so low as todrink the blood of beasts. Still, the stroke was a good one so she neednot be ashamed. But, Yellow Man, how comes it that you who, I have beentold, are cunning, watch your master so ill?"
"I was asleep," stuttered Hans indignantly.
"Those who serve should never sleep," replied Umslopogaas sternly. Thenhe turned and whistled, and behold! out of the long grass that grew at alittle distance, emerged twelve great men, all of them bearing axes andwearing cloaks of hyena skins, who saluted me by raising their axes.
"Set a watch and skin me this beast by dawn. It will make us a mat,"said Umslopogaas, whereon again they saluted silently and melted away.
"Who are these?" I asked.
"A few picked warriors whom I brought with me, Macumazahn. There wereone or two more, but they got lost on the way."
Then we went to the waggon and spoke no more that night.