CHAPTER XV
GOOD FALLS SICK
After the fight was ended, Sir Henry and Good were carried into Twala'shut, where I joined them. They were both utterly exhausted by exertionand loss of blood, and, indeed, my own condition was little better. Iam very wiry, and can stand more fatigue than most men, probably onaccount of my light weight and long training; but that night I wasquite done up, and, as is always the case with me when exhausted, thatold wound which the lion gave me began to pain. Also my head was achingviolently from the blow I had received in the morning, when I wasknocked senseless. Altogether, a more miserable trio than we were thatevening it would have been difficult to discover; and our only comfortlay in the reflection that we were exceedingly fortunate to be there tofeel miserable, instead of being stretched dead upon the plain, as somany thousands of brave men were that night, who had risen well andstrong in the morning.
Somehow, with the assistance of the beautiful Foulata, who, since wehad been the means of saving her life, had constituted herself ourhandmaiden, and especially Good's, we managed to get off the chainshirts, which had certainly saved the lives of two of us that day. As Iexpected, we found that the flesh underneath was terribly contused, forthough the steel links had kept the weapons from entering, they had notprevented them from bruising. Both Sir Henry and Good were a mass ofcontusions, and I was by no means free. As a remedy Foulata brought ussome pounded green leaves, with an aromatic odour, which, when appliedas a plaster, gave us considerable relief.
But though the bruises were painful, they did not give us such anxietyas Sir Henry's and Good's wounds. Good had a hole right through thefleshy part of his "beautiful white leg," from which he had lost agreat deal of blood; and Sir Henry, with other hurts, had a deep cutover the jaw, inflicted by Twala's battle-axe. Luckily Good is a verydecent surgeon, and so soon as his small box of medicines wasforthcoming, having thoroughly cleansed the wounds, he managed tostitch up first Sir Henry's and then his own pretty satisfactorily,considering the imperfect light given by the primitive Kukuana lamp inthe hut. Afterwards he plentifully smeared the injured places with someantiseptic ointment, of which there was a pot in the little box, and wecovered them with the remains of a pocket-handkerchief which wepossessed.
Meanwhile Foulata had prepared us some strong broth, for we were tooweary to eat. This we swallowed, and then threw ourselves down on thepiles of magnificent karrosses, or fur rugs, which were scattered aboutthe dead king's great hut. By a very strange instance of the irony offate, it was on Twala's own couch, and wrapped in Twala's ownparticular karross, that Sir Henry, the man who had slain him, sleptthat night.
I say slept; but after that day's work, sleep was indeed difficult. Tobegin with, in very truth the air was full
"Of farewells to the dying And mournings for the dead."
From every direction came the sound of the wailing of women whosehusbands, sons, and brothers had perished in the battle. No wonder thatthey wailed, for over twelve thousand men, or nearly a fifth of theKukuana army, had been destroyed in that awful struggle. It washeart-rending to lie and listen to their cries for those who neverwould return; and it made me understand the full horror of the workdone that day to further man's ambition. Towards midnight, however, theceaseless crying of the women grew less frequent, till at length thesilence was only broken at intervals of a few minutes by a longpiercing howl that came from a hut in our immediate rear, which, as Iafterwards discovered, proceeded from Gagool "keening" over the deadking Twala.
After that I got a little fitful sleep, only to wake from time to timewith a start, thinking that I was once more an actor in the terribleevents of the last twenty-four hours. Now I seemed to see that warriorwhom my hand had sent to his last account charging at me on themountain-top; now I was once more in that glorious ring of Greys, whichmade its immortal stand against all Twala's regiments upon the littlemound; and now again I saw Twala's plumed and gory head roll past myfeet with gnashing teeth and glaring eye.
At last, somehow or other, the night passed away; but when dawn broke Ifound that my companions had slept no better than myself. Good, indeed,was in a high fever, and very soon afterwards began to growlight-headed, and also, to my alarm, to spit blood, the result, nodoubt, of some internal injury, inflicted during the desperate effortsmade by the Kukuana warrior on the previous day to force his big spearthrough the chain armour. Sir Henry, however, seemed pretty fresh,notwithstanding his wound on the face, which made eating difficult andlaughter an impossibility, though he was so sore and stiff that hecould scarcely stir.
About eight o'clock we had a visit from Infadoos, who appeared butlittle the worse--tough old warrior that he was--for his exertions inthe battle, although he informed us that he had been up all night. Hewas delighted to see us, but much grieved at Good's condition, andshook our hands cordially. I noticed, however, that he addressed SirHenry with a kind of reverence, as though he were something more thanman; and, indeed, as we afterwards found out, the great Englishman waslooked on throughout Kukuanaland as a supernatural being. No man, thesoldiers said, could have fought as he fought or, at the end of a dayof such toil and bloodshed, could have slain Twala, who, in addition tobeing the king, was supposed to be the strongest warrior in thecountry, in single combat, shearing through his bull-neck at a stroke.Indeed, that stroke became proverbial in Kukuanaland, and anyextraordinary blow or feat of strength was henceforth known as"Incubu's blow."
Infadoos told us also that all Twala's regiments had submitted toIgnosi, and that like submissions were beginning to arrive from chiefsin the outlying country. Twala's death at the hands of Sir Henry hadput an end to all further chance of disturbance; for Scragga had beenhis only legitimate son, so there was no rival claimant to the throneleft alive.
I remarked that Ignosi had swum to power through blood. The old chiefshrugged his shoulders. "Yes," he answered; "but the Kukuana people canonly be kept cool by letting their blood flow sometimes. Many arekilled, indeed, but the women are left, and others must soon grow up totake the places of the fallen. After this the land would be quiet for awhile."
Afterwards, in the course of the morning, we had a short visit fromIgnosi, on whose brows the royal diadem was now bound. As Icontemplated him advancing with kingly dignity, an obsequious guardfollowing his steps, I could not help recalling to my mind the tallZulu who had presented himself to us at Durban some few months back,asking to be taken into our service, and reflecting on the strangerevolutions of the wheel of fortune.
"Hail, O king!" I said, rising.
"Yes, Macumazahn. King at last, by the might of your three righthands," was the ready answer.
All was, he said, going well; and he hoped to arrange a great feast intwo weeks' time in order to show himself to the people.
I asked him what he had settled to do with Gagool.
"She is the evil genius of the land," he answered, "and I shall killher, and all the witch doctors with her! She has lived so long thatnone can remember when she was not very old, and she it is who hasalways trained the witch-hunters, and made the land wicked in the sightof the heavens above."
"Yet she knows much," I replied; "it is easier to destroy knowledge,Ignosi, than to gather it."
"That is so," he said thoughtfully. "She, and she only, knows thesecret of the 'Three Witches,' yonder, whither the great road runs,where the kings are buried, and the Silent Ones sit."
"Yes, and the diamonds are. Forget not thy promise, Ignosi; thou mustlead us to the mines, even if thou hast to spare Gagool alive to showthe way."
"I will not forget, Macumazahn, and I will think on what thou sayest."
After Ignosi's visit I went to see Good, and found him quite delirious.The fever set up by his wound seemed to have taken a firm hold of hissystem, and to be complicated with an internal injury. For four or fivedays his condition was most critical; indeed, I believe firmly that hadit not been for Foulata's indefatigable nursing he must have died.
Women are women, all the world over, wha
tever their colour. Yet somehowit seemed curious to watch this dusky beauty bending night and day overthe fevered man's couch, and performing all the merciful errands of asick-room swiftly, gently, and with as fine an instinct as that of atrained hospital nurse. For the first night or two I tried to help her,and so did Sir Henry as soon as his stiffness allowed him to move, butFoulata bore our interference with impatience, and finally insistedupon our leaving him to her, saying that our movements made himrestless, which I think was true. Day and night she watched him andtended him, giving him his only medicine, a native cooling drink madeof milk, in which was infused juice from the bulb of a species oftulip, and keeping the flies from settling on him. I can see the wholepicture now as it appeared night after night by the light of ourprimitive lamp; Good tossing to and fro, his features emaciated, hiseyes shining large and luminous, and jabbering nonsense by the yard;and seated on the ground by his side, her back resting against the wallof the hut, the soft-eyed, shapely Kukuana beauty, her face, weary asit was with her long vigil, animated by a look of infinitecompassion--or was it something more than compassion?
For two days we thought that he must die, and crept about with heavyhearts.
Only Foulata would not believe it.
"He will live," she said.
For three hundred yards or more around Twala's chief hut, where thesufferer lay, there was silence; for by the king's order all who livedin the habitations behind it, except Sir Henry and myself, had beenremoved, lest any noise should come to the sick man's ears. One night,it was the fifth of Good's illness, as was my habit, I went across tosee how he was doing before turning in for a few hours.
I entered the hut carefully. The lamp placed upon the floor showed thefigure of Good tossing no more, but lying quite still.
So it had come at last! In the bitterness of my heart I gave somethinglike a sob.
"Hush--h--h!" came from the patch of dark shadow behind Good's head.
Then, creeping closer, I saw that he was not dead, but sleepingsoundly, with Foulata's taper fingers clasped tightly in his poor whitehand. The crisis had passed, and he would live. He slept like that foreighteen hours; and I scarcely like to say it, for fear I should not bebelieved, but during the entire period did this devoted girl sit byhim, fearing that if she moved and drew away her hand it would wakehim. What she must have suffered from cramp and weariness, to saynothing of want of food, nobody will ever know; but it is the factthat, when at last he woke, she had to be carried away--her limbs wereso stiff that she could not move them.
After the turn had once been taken, Good's recovery was rapid andcomplete. It was not till he was nearly well that Sir Henry told him ofall he owed to Foulata; and when he came to the story of how she sat byhis side for eighteen hours, fearing lest by moving she should wakehim, the honest sailor's eyes filled with tears. He turned and wentstraight to the hut where Foulata was preparing the mid-day meal, forwe were back in our old quarters now, taking me with him to interpretin case he could not make his meaning clear to her, though I am boundto say that she understood him marvellously as a rule, considering howextremely limited was his foreign vocabulary.
"Tell her," said Good, "that I owe her my life, and that I will neverforget her kindness to my dying day."
I interpreted, and under her dark skin she actually seemed to blush.
Turning to him with one of those swift and graceful motions that in heralways reminded me of the flight of a wild bird, Foulata answeredsoftly, glancing at him with her large brown eyes--
"Nay, my lord; my lord forgets! Did he not save _my_ life, and am I notmy lord's handmaiden?"
It will be observed that the young lady appeared entirely to haveforgotten the share which Sir Henry and myself had taken in herpreservation from Twala's clutches. But that is the way of women! Iremember my dear wife was just the same. Well, I retired from thatlittle interview sad at heart. I did not like Miss Foulata's softglances, for I knew the fatal amorous propensities of sailors ingeneral, and of Good in particular.
There are two things in the world, as I have found out, which cannot beprevented: you cannot keep a Zulu from fighting, or a sailor fromfalling in love upon the slightest provocation!
It was a few days after this last occurrence that Ignosi held his great"indaba," or council, and was formally recognised as king by the"indunas," or head men, of Kukuanaland. The spectacle was a mostimposing one, including as it did a grand review of troops. On this daythe remaining fragments of the Greys were formally paraded, and in theface of the army thanked for their splendid conduct in the battle. Toeach man the king made a large present of cattle, promoting them oneand all to the rank of officers in the new corps of Greys which was inprocess of formation. An order was also promulgated throughout thelength and breadth of Kukuanaland that, whilst we honoured the countryby our presence, we three were to be greeted with the royal salute, andto be treated with the same ceremony and respect that was by customaccorded to the king. Also the power of life and death was publiclyconferred upon us. Ignosi, too, in the presence of his people,reaffirmed the promises which he had made, to the effect that no man'sblood should be shed without trial, and that witch-hunting should ceasein the land.
When the ceremony was over we waited upon Ignosi, and informed him thatwe were now anxious to investigate the mystery of the mines to whichSolomon's Road ran, asking him if he had discovered anything about them.
"My friends," he answered, "I have discovered this. It is there thatthe three great figures sit, who here are called the 'Silent Ones,' andto whom Twala would have offered the girl Foulata as a sacrifice. It isthere, too, in a great cave deep in the mountain, that the kings of theland are buried; there ye shall find Twala's body, sitting with thosewho went before him. There, also, is a deep pit, which, at some time,long-dead men dug out, mayhap for the stones ye speak of, such as Ihave heard men in Natal tell of at Kimberley. There, too, in the Placeof Death is a secret chamber, known to none but the king and Gagool.But Twala, who knew it, is dead, and I know it not, nor know I what isin it. Yet there is a legend in the land that once, many generationsgone, a white man crossed the mountains, and was led by a woman to thesecret chamber and shown the wealth hidden in it. But before he couldtake it she betrayed him, and he was driven by the king of that dayback to the mountains, and since then no man has entered the place."
"The story is surely true, Ignosi, for on the mountains we found thewhite man," I said.
"Yes, we found him. And now I have promised you that if ye can come tothat chamber, and the stones are there--"
"The gem upon thy forehead proves that they are there," I put in,pointing to the great diamond I had taken from Twala's dead brows.
"Mayhap; if they are there," he said, "ye shall have as many as ye cantake hence--if indeed ye would leave me, my brothers."
"First we must find the chamber," said I.
"There is but one who can show it to thee--Gagool."
"And if she will not?"
"Then she must die," said Ignosi sternly. "I have saved her alive butfor this. Stay, she shall choose," and calling to a messenger heordered Gagool to be brought before him.
In a few minutes she came, hurried along by two guards, whom she wascursing as she walked.
"Leave her," said the king to the guards.
So soon as their support was withdrawn, the withered old bundle--forshe looked more like a bundle than anything else, out of which her twobright and wicked eyes gleamed like those of a snake--sank in a heap onto the floor.
"What will ye with me, Ignosi?" she piped. "Ye dare not touch me. If yetouch me I will slay you as ye sit. Beware of my magic."
"Thy magic could not save Twala, old she-wolf, and it cannot hurt me,"was the answer. "Listen; I will this of thee, that thou reveal to usthe chamber where are the shining stones."
"Ha! ha!" she piped, "none know its secret but I, and I will never tellthee. The white devils shall go hence empty-handed."
"Thou shalt tell me. I will make thee tell me."
/> "How, O king? Thou art great, but can thy power wring the truth from awoman?"
"It is difficult, yet will I do so."
"How, O king?"
"Nay, thus; if thou tellest not thou shalt slowly die."
"Die!" she shrieked in terror and fury; "ye dare not touch me--man, yeknow not who I am. How old think ye am I? I knew your fathers, and yourfathers' fathers' fathers. When the country was young I was here; whenthe country grows old I shall still be here. I cannot die unless I bekilled by chance, for none dare slay me."
"Yet will I slay thee. See, Gagool, mother of evil, thou art so oldthat thou canst no longer love thy life. What can life be to such a hagas thou, who hast no shape, nor form, nor hair, nor teeth--hast naught,save wickedness and evil eyes? It will be mercy to make an end of thee,Gagool."
"Thou fool," shrieked the old fiend, "thou accursed fool, deemest thouthat life is sweet only to the young? It is not so, and naught thouknowest of the heart of man to think it. To the young, indeed, death issometimes welcome, for the young can feel. They love and suffer, and itwrings them to see their beloved pass to the land of shadows. But theold feel not, they love not, and, _ha! ha!_ they laugh to see anothergo out into the dark; _ha! ha!_ they laugh to see the evil that is doneunder the stars. All they love is life, the warm, warm sun, and thesweet, sweet air. They are afraid of the cold, afraid of the cold andthe dark, _ha! ha! ha!_" and the old hag writhed in ghastly merrimenton the ground.
"Cease thine evil talk and answer me," said Ignosi angrily. "Wilt thoushow the place where the stones are, or wilt thou not? If thou wilt notthou diest, even now," and he seized a spear and held it over her.
"I will not show it; thou darest not kill me, darest not! He who slaysme will be accursed for ever."
Slowly Ignosi brought down the spear till it pricked the prostrate heapof rags.
With a wild yell Gagool sprang to her feet, then fell again and rolledupon the floor.
"Nay, I will show thee. Only let me live, let me sit in the sun andhave a bit of meat to suck, and I will show thee."
"It is well. I thought that I should find a way to reason with thee.To-morrow shalt thou go with Infadoos and my white brothers to theplace, and beware how thou failest, for if thou showest it not, thenthou shalt slowly die. I have spoken."
"I will not fail, Ignosi. I always keep my word--_ha! ha! ha!_ Oncebefore a woman showed the chamber to a white man, and behold! evilbefell him," and here her wicked eyes glinted. "Her name was Gagoolalso. Perchance I was that woman."
"Thou liest," I said, "that was ten generations gone."
"Mayhap, mayhap; when one lives long one forgets. Perhaps it was mymother's mother who told me; surely her name was Gagool also. But mark,ye will find in the place where the bright things are a bag of hidefull of stones. The man filled that bag, but he never took it away.Evil befell him, I say, evil befell him! Perhaps it was my mother'smother who told me. It will be a merry journey--we can see the bodiesof those who died in the battle as we go. Their eyes will be gone bynow, and their ribs will be hollow. _Ha! ha! ha!_"