Into the Unknown: A Romance of South Africa

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  IN DURANCE VILE.

  As Leigh and his betrothed sat talking by the fire that night, andkeeping watch until Amaxosa's return, they were surprised to see the skysuddenly lighten in the distance, and finally to observe great sheets offlame springing up in the direction of East Utah. These, however, soondied out, for, as it happened, the Mormon prophet's house stood entirelyapart from the other buildings in the town, and so burnt itself outharmlessly in a very short space of time.

  In due course the Zulu arrived, and gave them in detail the events ofthe night, cheering the heavy hearts of Grenville's friends by a fullaccount of his every word and action, and delighting poor little Rose,who had joined the party, by his recital of the scene in the Trinitarianroom, where the man she secretly adored, had so courageously insistedupon her own hereditary rights, and then, though heavily ironed, hadslain her pet abomination in the shape of Ishmael Warden.

  A greater surprise was, however, in store for the young girl whenAmaxosa coolly handed over to her the bundle of papers, telling how hehad disposed of "the ancient and cunning man of the witch-finders," andbrought away the property which he knew belonged to his "little sister,the Flower of East Utah."

  The papers in question, which Rose perfectly recollected as having beenher father's, consisted of a memorandum of contents, in which was foldedwhat proved to be an immense bundle of paper money of almost allnations, the bulk, however, being Bank of England notes; and if thestatement of account which enveloped these was correct, the entire valueamounted to something like 150,000 pounds sterling.

  The young girl received the congratulations of her friends veryindifferently, being of course wholly ignorant of the value of money,only saying that if she thought the Mormons would give Grenville up inexchange for the papers, she would send them back at once, but that sheknew that with the exception of the Holy Three, no one in East Utah everappeared to attach the slightest importance to the valuable documents.

  After Leigh had consigned Rose's fortune to a safe place all retired torest, with the exception of Myzukulwa, who kept guard until daybreak.When breakfast had been disposed of, a council was called, into whichthe girls were, for once, admitted, and Amaxosa submitted a plan whichhe had formed, and which had for its object the release of Grenvillethat very night.

  Dangerous it certainly was, and superbly audacious, but, nevertheless,extremely simple. All the Zulu proposed to do was to obtain access tothe town in the usual way--by the river-bed, that is--and leavingMyzukulwa to watch outside the walls, he himself would steal in and killthe guard, unlock his friend's prison, and spirit him away, and so by aforced march to the plateau. With regard to arms, he declined to takeany except his own and his brother's; the risk of their falling intoMormon hands was too great; but it was agreed that the pair should carryhalf a dozen of the Mormons' guns ready loaded, and hide these in thebush on their way down, so as to be handy at about half distance ifrequired. It was, of course, very desirable that Grenville should beprovided with his own weapons; but still, should these fall into thehands of the enemy, the destruction of the little band on the rock wouldbecome a mere question of time, and Leigh well knew that his cousinwould be the very last to counsel him to run such a fearful risk on hisaccount.

  The plan, which seemed feasible enough, was discussed in every detail,and all, with apparently one exception, felt sanguine of its success.That exception was the Zulu Myzukulwa. Not that he had anything to urgeagainst the scheme, but he seemed dull, distrait, and cautious, andwould only express his _hope_ that it might succeed, and that "the sightof the great chief, his father, might make his heart glad before hedied."

  In the afternoon the brothers lay down to sleep, and as Leigh sat andwatched them, and smoked his pipe, he could not help thinking that anyof the miserable Mormons who got in their way that night would have arough time of it. At sunset he awoke the pair, and after they hadindulged in a hearty meal, hands were shaken all round, and the Zulus,slipping down from the plateau, were instantly swallowed up in the eerieshadows of the veldt and mountain, and proceeded on their way to EastUtah, followed by the prayers and good wishes of their friends upon therock.

  We must now return to poor Grenville, who had spent the day, as usual,surrounded by his guards, and occupied with the all-absorbing topicprovided by the death of two members of their Trinity. Our friendlearned that the Mormons would have been very awkwardly placed had theprophet before he died not given instructions to issue the necessaryproclamation of the death of his colleague Warden, and the consequentneed for the appointment of some member of the community in his place.Had this not happened, it was more than probable that the last survivingrepresentative of the Trinity would have arrogated supreme power tohimself, and declined to co-operate with anyone else, and he being asuniversally despised, as his father had been respected and as IshmaelWarden had been hated, a revolution would in all probability haveresulted, by which the remnant of the latter day Saints would havesuffered more severely than ever. To his friend the officer Grenvillecould not help remarking that he was surprised to find a people sointelligent as the Saints allowing themselves to be guided and led bythe nose by their false prophets through the medium of theirsuperstitious fancies.

  The officer, however, grew quite stern, and ordered him not toblaspheme; then unbending again, "Come," said he, "you are to die, so Idon't mind convincing you before you go of the genuineness of the powerconferred upon our Holy Three;" and leading Grenville along, still inchains, he brought him to the top of the hill overlooking the city, andupon which stood the signal of the Fiery Cross, fixed above a curiouspepper-box-shaped wooden house.

  Entering the door, the Mormon signed to Grenville to follow him, whichour hero did, wondering to find himself in a darkened room containing atables surrounded by wooden seats, upon one of which last his guide,whispering in awe-struck tones, instructed him to place himself.

  This done, the Mormon gave muttered utterance to a doggerel rhyme ofsome kind, the words of which Grenville could not catch, but which wasevidently supposed to act the part of a spell or incantation; he thenpressed a knob in the woodwork, which admitted a dim religious sort oflight through some aperture apparently in the roof, and reverentlywithdrawing a cloth from the table, motioned to Grenville to lookthereon. This he did, and had much ado to restrain his laughter at theutter simplicity of the fraud thus foisted--as a holy revelation--upongrown and intelligent men.

  The place our friend sat in was _neither more nor less than a verypoorly contrived "camera obscura_," such as can be seen in so manyseaside and other places of holiday resort any day of the week.

  Here it was that the Mormon rulers sat, carefully watching and notingall that went on in East Utah during the day, returning to the town atnight-time and oracularly relating to their superstitious subjects allthat had taken place in their absence. This, however, was not quitesufficient to satisfy some of the more inquiring spirits among thesaints, and the Mormons found themselves obliged to resort to _prophecy_concerning men and things in general; and however awful thesepredictions were--and awful they certainly became when Ishmael Wardenwas elected a member of the triumvirate--_they never failed to provecorrect_, the prophets took good care of that.

  The guard soon withdrew his "holy wonders" from the unhallowed gaze ofthe Gentile before him, and when outside again heaved a breath ofrelief, asking our friend in solemn yet triumphant tones what he thoughtof that. This was really too much for Grenville, and he burst outlaughing in his companion's face.

  The Mormon eyed him with evident doubt as to his sanity, but Grenvillenoticed that he was careful to drink in every word of the explanation ofthe "mystery" subsequently given to him by this strange andwell-informed prisoner.

  Our friend really began to like the man, and could not refrain fromlooking sadly at him, knowing but too well that the Mormon was soclosely involved in his own fate that he would be the first to fall whenthe attempt, which he felt certain his own friends would make to rel
easehim, came off.

  The officer, noticing these looks of his prisoner, asked him if he werethinking of the near approach of his death.

  "No," replied he in a melancholy tone, "I was but regretting thecertainty that you yourself would die before I should."

  "What," said the other mockingly, "are you too a false prophet?"

  "Would to God I might be in this case," said Grenville, holding out hishand to his jailer; "but I fear it is truth I speak. Never mind; youare a brave man--and what is written, is written for you and for me; sodon't let us trouble our heads about it till the time comes."

  The pair soon gained the town, and Grenville heard his friend the guardcall a number of his companions together and detail all the prisoner hadsaid with respect to their "holy wonder;" and after that first one andthen another would ask him, himself, leading questions on the governmentof his own country, England, and so forth; and it struck our heroforcibly that had he but a week or two before him he might, in spite ofthe old prophet's precaution, get up a very pretty little insurrectionagainst the mystic Holy Three.

  He did go so far as to say that if the Mormons were men they had onlyone course open to them, and that was to dethrone the wretched impostorwho was now at their head, and re-instate their beautiful queen, the"Rose of Sharon," the Flower of East Utah, in her hereditary rights; andhe noticed that these words seemed to find favour among the guards,though no reply was made to the remark.

  Grenville next endeavoured to find out if the community had someconcealed way out of their secret territory. This end he attained bychaffing them about knocking down with their own hands their only ladderof communication with the outside world. The men, however, wereperfectly frank, and at once admitted that they had done so, giving himlikewise details of the work of reconstructing the stairway, which wasto be commenced as soon as the invaders were satisfactorily disposed of.

  Asked how they accounted for the continued supply of game, the Mormonssaid they could not account for it at all; but their prophets had toldthem that the good gifts of Heaven should be thankfully accepted, andnot refused simply because the eyes of blinded mortals could not detectthe precise manner of their arrival. A very strict inquiry hadnevertheless been made into the matter, and a body of men appointed toscour the country in every direction, with the view of ascertaining ifthere were any other way of ingress into the territory; but after twomonths of careful searching the band had returned with the news thatthey were absolutely walled in on every side by impenetrable andinaccessible rocks and mountains.

  Grenville was, however, by no means satisfied with this statement, as,all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, his common-sense told himthat the herds of game must have some way of getting in at certainseasons of the year or the animals would long ago have beenexterminated. Still, cudgel his brains as he would, no solution of thedifficulty presented itself to him.