CHAPTER XXIV
UMSLOPOGAAS WEARS THE GREAT MEDICINE
A little while later we started, some of us in litters, including thewounded Zulus, who I insisted should be carried for a day or two, andsome on foot. Inez I caused to be borne immediately in front of myselfso that I could keep an eye upon her. Moreover I put her in the especialcharge of Hans, to whom fortunately she took a great fancy at once,perhaps because she remembered subconsciously that she knew him and thathe had been kind to her, although when they met after her long sleep, asin my own case, she did not recognise him in the least.
Soon, however, they were again the fastest of friends, so much so thatwithin a day or two the little Hottentot practically filled the place ofa maid to her, attending to her every want and looking after herexactly as a nurse does after a child, with the result that it was quitetouching to see how she came to depend upon him, "her monkey," as shecalled him, and how fond he grew of her.
Once, indeed, there was trouble, since hearing a noise, I came up tofind Hans bristling with fury and threatening to shoot one of the Zulus,who stupidly, or perhaps rudely, had knocked against the litter of Inezand nearly turned it over. For the rest, the Lady Sad-Eyes, as theycalled her, had for the time became the Lady Glad-Eyes, since she wasmerry as the day was long, laughing and singing and playing just as ahealthy happy child should do.
Only once did I see her wretched and weep. It was when a kitten whichshe had insisted on bringing with her, sprang out of the litter andvanished into some bush where it could not be found. Even when shewas soon consoled and dried her tears, when Hans explained to her in amixture of bad English and worse Portuguese, that it had only run awaybecause it wished to get back to its mother which it loved, and that itwas cruel to separate it from its mother.
We made good progress and by the evening of the first day were over thecrest of the cliff or volcano lip that encircles the great plain of Kor,and descending rapidly to a sheltered spot on the outer slope where ourcamp was to be set for the night.
Not very far from this place, as I think I have mentioned, stood, and Isuppose still stands, a very curious pinnacle of rock, which, doubtlessbeing of some harder sort, had remained when, hundreds of thousands ormillions of years before, the surrounding lava had been washed or hadcorroded away. This rock pillar was perhaps fifty feet high and assmooth as though it had been worked by man; indeed, I remembered havingremarked to Hans, or Umslopogaas--I forget which--when we passed it onour inward journey, that there was a column which no monkey could climb.
As we went by it for the second time, the sun had already disappearedbehind the western cliff, but a fierce ray from its sinking orb, struckupon a storm-cloud that hung over us, and thence was reflected in aglow of angry light of which the focus or centre seemed to fall upon thesummit of this strange and obelisk-like pinnacle of rock.
At the moment I was out of my litter and walking with Umslopogaas atthe end of the line, to make sure that no one straggled in the oncomingdarkness. When we had passed the column by some forty or fifty yards,something caused Umslopogaas to turn and look back. He uttered anexclamation which made me follow his example, with the result that I sawa very wonderful thing. For there on the point of the pillar, like St.Simeon Stylites on his famous column, glowing in the sunset rays asthough she were on fire, stood Ayesha herself!
It was a strange and in a way a glorious sight, for poised thus betweenearth and heaven, she looked like some glowing angel rather thana woman, standing as she seemed to do upon the darkness; since theshadows, save for the faintest outline, had swallowed up the column thatsupported her. Moreover, in the intense, rich light that was focussedon her, we could see every detail of her form and face, for she wasunveiled, and even her large and tender eyes which gazed upwards emptily(at this moment they seemed very tender), yes, and the little gold studsthat glittered on her sandals and the shine of the snake girdle she woreabout her waist.
We stared and stared till I said inconsequently,
"Learn, Umslopogaas, what a liar is that old Billali, who told me thatShe-who-commands had departed from Kor to her own place."
"Perhaps this rock edge is her own place, if she be there at all,Macumazahn."
"If she be there," I answered angrily, for my nerves were at oncethrilled and torn. "Speak not empty words, Umslopogaas, for where elsecan she be when we see her with our eyes?"
"Who am I that I should know the ways of witches who, like the winds,are able to go and come as they will? Can a woman run up a wall of rocklike a lizard, Macumazahn?"
"Doubtless----" and I began some explanation which I have forgotten,when a passing cloud, or I know not what, cut off the light so that boththe pinnacle and she who stood on it became invisible. A minute laterit returned for a little while, and there was the point of theneedle-shaped rock, but it was empty, as, save for the birds that restedon it, it had been since the beginning of the world.
Then Umslopogaas and I shook our heads and pursued our way in silence.