V
THE MESSAGE OF MAIWA
On the following evening we once more dined together, and Quatermain,
after some pressure, was persuaded to continue his story--for Good's
remark still rankled in his breast.
"At last," he went on, "a few minutes before sunset, the task was
finished. We had laboured at it all day, stopping only once for
dinner, for it is no easy matter to hew out five such tusks as those
which now lay before me in a white and gleaming line. It was a dinner
worth eating, too, I can tell you, for we dined off the heart of the
great one-tusked bull, which was so big that the man whom I sent
inside the elephant to look for his heart was forced to remove it in
two pieces. We cut it into slices and fried it with fat, and I never
tasted heart to equal it, for the meat seemed to melt in one's mouth.
By the way, I examined the jaw of the elephant; it never grew but one
tusk; the other had not been broken off, nor was it present in a
rudimentary form.
"Well, there lay the five beauties, or rather four of them, for Gobo
and another man were engaged in sawing the grand one in two. At last
with many sighs I ordered them to do this, but not until by practical
experiment I had proved that it was impossible to carry it in any
other way. One hundred and sixty pounds of solid ivory, or rather more
in its green state, is too great a weight for two men to bear for long
across a broken country. I sat watching the job and smoking the pipe
of contentment, when suddenly the bush opened, and a very handsome and
dignified native girl, apparently about twenty years of age, stood
before me, carrying a basket of green mealies upon her head.
"Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild
spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way from any kraal, the matter did
not attract my particular notice; I merely called to one of the men,
and told him to bargain with the woman for the mealies, and ask her if
there were any more to be bought in the neighbourhood. Then I turned
my head and continued to superintend the cutting of the tusk.
Presently a shadow fell upon me. I looked up, and saw that the girl
was standing before me, the basket of mealies still on her head.
"'Marême, Marême,' she said, gently clapping her hands together. The
word Marême among these Matuku (though she was no Matuku) answers to
the Zulu 'Koos,' and the clapping of hands is a form of salutation
very common among the tribes of the Basutu race.
"'What is it, girl?' I asked her in Sisutu. 'Are those mealies for
sale?'
"'No, great white hunter,' she answered in Zulu, 'I bring them as a
gift.'
"'Good,' I replied; 'set them down.'
"'A gift for a gift, white man.'
"'Ah,' I grumbled, 'the old story--nothing for nothing in this wicked
world. What do you want--beads?'
"She nodded, and I was about to tell one of the men to go and fetch
some from one of the packs, when she checked me.
"'A gift from the giver's own hand is twice a gift,' she said, and I
thought that she spoke meaningly.
"'You mean that you want me to give them to you myself?'
"'Surely.'
"I rose to go with her. 'How is it that, being of the Matuku, you
speak in the Zulu tongue?' I asked suspiciously.
"'I am not of the Matuku,' she answered as soon as we were out of
hearing of the men. 'I am of the people of Nala, whose tribe is the
Butiana tribe, and who lives there,' and she pointed over the
mountain. 'Also I am one of the wives of Wambe,' and her eyes flashed
as she said the name.
"'And how did you come here?'
"'On my feet,' she answered laconically.
"We reached the packs, and undoing one of them, I extracted a handful
of beads. 'Now,' I said, 'a gift for a gift. Hand over the mealies.'
"She took the beads without even looking at them, which struck me as
curious, and setting the basket of mealies on the ground, emptied it.
"At the bottom of the basket were some curiously-shaped green leaves,
rather like the leaves of the gutta-percha tree in shape, only
somewhat thicker and of a more fleshy substance. As though by hazard,
the girl picked one of these leaves out of the basket and smelt it.
Then she handed it to me. I took the leaf, and supposing that she
wished me to smell it also, was about to oblige her by doing so, when
my eye fell upon some curious red scratches on the green surface of
the leaf.
"'Ah,' said the girl (whose name, by the way, was Maiwa), speaking
beneath her breath, 'read the signs, white man.'
"Without answering her I continued to stare at the leaf. It had been
scratched or rather written upon with a sharp tool, such as a nail,
and wherever this instrument had touched it, the acid juice oozing
through the outer skin had turned a rusty blood colour. Presently I
found the beginning of the scrawl, and read this in English, and
covering the surface of the leaf and of two others that were in the
basket.
"'I hear that a white man is hunting in the Matuku country. This is
to warn him to fly over the mountain to Nala. Wambe sends an impi
at daybreak to eat him up, because he has hunted before bringing
hongo. For God's sake, whoever you are, try to help me. I have
been the slave of this devil Wambe for nearly seven years, and am
beaten and tortured continually. He murdered all the rest of us,
but kept me because I could work iron. Maiwa, his wife, takes
this; she is flying to Nala her father because Wambe killed her
child. Try to get Nala to attack Wambe; Maiwa can guide them over
the mountain. You won't come for nothing, for the stockade of
Wambe's private kraal is made of elephants' tusks. For God's sake,
don't desert me, or I shall kill myself. I can bear this no
longer.
"'John Every.'
"'Great heavens!' I gasped. 'Every!--why, it must be my old friend.'
The girl, or rather the woman Maiwa, pointed to the other side of the
leaf, where there was more writing. It ran thus--'I have just heard
that the white man is called Macumazahn. If so, it must be my friend
Quatermain. Pray Heaven it is, for I know he won't desert an old chum
in such a fix as I am. It isn't that I'm afraid of dying, I don't care
if I die, but I want to get a chance at Wambe first.'
"'No, old boy,' thought I to myself, 'it isn't likely that I am going
to leave you there while there is a chance of getting you out. I have
played fox before now--there's still a double or two left in me. I
must make a plan, that's all. And then there's that stockade of tusks.
I am not going to leave that either.' Then I spoke to the woman.
"'You are called Maiwa?'
"'It is so.'
"'You are the daughter of Nala and the wife of Wambe?'
"'It is so.'
"'You fly from Wambe to Nala?'
"'I do.'
"'Why do you fly? Stay, I would give an order,'--and calling to Gobo,
I ordered him to get the men ready for instant departure. The woman,
who, as I have said, was quite young and very handsome, put her hand
into a little pouch made of antelope hide which she wore fastened
round the waist, and to my horror drew from it the withered hand of a
child, which evidently had been carefully dried in the smoke.
"'I fly for this cause,' she answered, holding the poor little hand
towards me. 'See now, I bore a child. Wambe was its father, and for
eighteen months the child lived and I loved it. But Wambe loves not
his children; he kills them all. He fears lest they should grow up to
slay one so wicked, and he would have killed this child also, but I
begged its life. One day, some soldiers passing the hut saw the child
and saluted him, calling him the "chief who soon shall be." Wambe
heard, and was mad. He smote the babe, and it wept. Then he said that
it should weep for good cause. Among the things that he had stolen
from the white men whom he slew is a trap that will hold lions. So
strong is the trap that four men must stand on it, two on either side,
before it can be opened.'"
Here old Quatermain broke off suddenly.
"Look here, you fellows," he said, "I can't bear to go on with this
part of the story, because I never could stand either seeing or
talking of the sufferings of children. You can guess what that devil
did, and what the poor mother was forced to witness. Would you believe
it, she told me the tale without a tremor, in the most matter-of-fact
way. Only I noticed that her eyelid quivered all the time.
"'Well,' I said, as unconcernedly as though I had been talking of the
death of a lamb, though inwardly I was sick with horror and boiling
with rage, 'and what do you mean to do about the matter, Maiwa, wife
of Wambe?'
"'I mean to do this, white man,' she answered, drawing herself up to
her full height, and speaking in tones as hard as steel and cold as
ice--'I mean to work, and work, and work, to bring this to pass, and
to bring that to pass, until at length it comes to pass that with
these living eyes I behold Wambe dying the death that he gave to his
child and my child.'
"'Well said,' I answered.
"'Ay, well said, Macumazahn, well said, and not easily forgotten. Who
could forget, oh, who could forget? See where this dead hand rests
against my side; so once it rested when alive. And now, though it is
dead, now every night it creeps from its nest and strokes my hair and
clasps my fingers in its tiny palm. Every night it does this, fearing
lest I should forget. Oh, my child! my child! ten days ago I held thee
to my breast, and now this alone remains of thee,' and she kissed the
dead hand and shivered, but never a tear did she weep.
"'See now,' she went on, 'the white man, the prisoner at Wambe's
kraal, he was kind to me. He loved the child that is dead, yes, he
wept when its father slew it, and at the risk of his life told Wambe,
my husband--ah, yes, my husband!--that which he is! He too it was who
made a plan. He said to me, "Go, Maiwa, after the custom of thy
people, go purify thyself in the bush alone, having touched a dead
one. Say to Wambe thou goest to purify thyself alone for fifteen days,
according to the custom of thy people. Then fly to thy father, Nala,
and stir him up to war against Wambe for the sake of the child that is
dead." This then he said, and his words seemed good to me, and that
same night ere I left to purify myself came news that a white man
hunted in the country, and Wambe, being mad with drink, grew very
wrath, and gave orders that an impi should be gathered to slay the
white man and his people and seize his goods. Then did the "Smiter of
Iron" (Every) write the message on the green leaves, and bid me seek
thee out, and show forth the matter, that thou mightest save thyself
by flight; and behold, this thing have I done, Macumazahn, the hunter,
the Slayer of Elephants.'
"'Ah,' I said, 'I thank you. And how many men be there in the impi of
Wambe?'
"'A hundred of men and half a hundred.'
"'And where is the impi?'
"'There to the north. It follows on thy spoor. I saw it pass
yesterday, but myself I guessed that thou wouldst be nigher to the
mountain, and came this way, and found thee. To-morrow at the daybreak
the slayers will be here.'
"'Very possibly,' I thought to myself; 'but they won't find
Macumazahn. I have half a mind to put some strychnine into the
carcases of those elephants for their especial benefit though.' I knew
that they would stop to eat the elephants, as indeed they did, to our
great gain, but I abandoned the idea of poisoning them, because I was
rather short of strychnine."
"Or because you did not like to play the trick, Quatermain?" I
suggested with a laugh.
"I said because I had not enough strychnine. It would take a great
deal of strychnine to poison three elephants effectually," answered
the old gentleman testily.
I said nothing further, but I smiled, knowing that old Allan could
never have resorted to such an artifice, however severe his strait.
But that was his way; he always made himself out to be a most
unmerciful person.
"Well," he went on, "at that moment Gobo came up and announced that we
were ready to march. 'I am glad that you are ready,' I said, 'because
if you don't march, and march quick, you will never march again, that
is all. Wambe has an impi out to kill us, and it will be here
presently.'
"Gobo turned positively green, and his knees knocked together. 'Ah,
what did I say?' he exclaimed. 'Fate walks about loose in Wambe's
country.'
"'Very good; now all you have to do is to walk a little quicker than
he does. No, no, you don't leave those elephant tusks behind--I am not
going to part with them I can tell you.'
"Gobo said no more, but hastily directed the men to take up their
loads, and then asked which way we were to run.
"'Ah,' I said to Maiwa, 'which way?'
"'There,' she answered, pointing towards the great mountain spur which
towered up into the sky some forty miles away, separating the
territories of Nala and Wambe--'there, below that small peak, is one
place where men may pass, and one only. Also it can easily be blocked
from above. If men pass not there, then they must go round the great
peak of the mountain, two days' journey and half a day.'
"'And how far is the peak from us?'
"'All to-night shall you walk and all to-morrow, and if you walk fast,
at sunset you shall stand on the peak.'
"I whistled, for that meant a five-and-forty miles trudge without
sleep. Then I called to the men to take each of them as much cooked
elephant's meat as he could carry conveniently. I did the same myself,
and forced the woman Maiwa to eat some as we went. This I did with
difficulty, for at that time she seemed neither to sleep nor eat nor
rest, so fiercely was she set on vengeance.
"Then we started, Maiwa guiding us. After going for a half-hour over
gradually rising ground, we found ourselves on the further edge of a
great bush-clad depression something like the bottom of a lake. This
depression, through which we had been travelling, was covered with
bush to a very great extent, indeed almost altogether so, except where
it was pitted with glades such as that wherein I had shot the
elephants.
"At the top of this slope Maiwa halted, and putting her hand over her
eyes looked back. Presently she touched me on the arm and pointed
across the sea of forest towards a comparatively vacant space of
country some six or seven miles away. I looked, and suddenly I saw
something flash in the red rays of the setting sun. A pause, and then
another quick flash.
"'What is it?' I asked.
"'It is the spears of Wambe's impi, and they travel fast,' she
answered coolly.
"I suppose that my face showed how little I liked the news, for she
went on--
"'Fear not; they will stay to feast upon the elephants, and while they
feast we shall journey. We may yet escape.'
"After that we turned and pushed on again, till at length it grew so
dark that we had to wait for the rising of the moon, which lost us
time, though it gave us rest. Fortunately none of the men had seen
that ominous flashing of the spears; if they had, I doubt if even I
could have kept control of them. As it was, they travelled faster than
I had ever known loaded natives to go before, so thorough-paced was
their desire to see the last of Wambe's country. I, however, took the
precaution to march last of all, fearing lest they should throw away
their loads to lighten themselves, or, worse still, the tusks; for
these kind of fellows would be capable of throwing anything away if
their own skins were at stake. If the pious Æneas, whose story you
were reading to me the other night, had been a mongrel Delagoa Bay
native, Anchises would have had a poor chance of getting out of Troy,
that is, if he was known to have made a satisfactory will.
"At moonrise we set out again, and with short occasional halts
travelled till dawn, when we were forced to rest and eat. Starting
once more, about half-past five, we crossed the river at noon. Then
began the long toilsome ascent through thick bush, the same in which I
shot the bull buffalo, only some twenty miles to the west of that
spot, and not more than twenty-five miles on the hither side of
Wambe's kraal. There were six or seven miles of this dense bush, and
hard work it was to get through it. Next came a belt of scattered
forest which was easier to pass, though, in revenge, the ground was
steeper. This was about two miles wide, and we passed it by about four
in the afternoon. Above this scattered bush lay a long steep slope of
boulder-strewn ground, which ran up to the foot of the little peak
some three miles away. As we emerged, footsore and weary, on to this
inhospitable plain, some of the men looking round caught sight of the
spears of Wambe's impi advancing rapidly not more than a mile behind
us.
"At first there was a panic, and the bearers tried to throw off their
loads and run, but I harangued them, calling out to them that
certainly I would shoot the first man who did so and that if they
would but trust in me I would bring them through the mess. Now, ever
since I had killed those three elephants single-handed, I had gained
great influence over these men, and they listened to me. So off we
went as hard as ever we could go--the members of the Alpine Club would
not have been in it with us. We made the boulders burn, as a Frenchman
would say.
"When we had done about a mile the spears began to emerge from the
belt of scattered bush, and the whoop of their bearers as they viewed
us broke upon our ears. Quick as our pace had been before, it grew
much quicker now, for terror lent wings to my gallant crew. But they
were sorely tired, and the loads were heavy, so that run, or rather
climb, as we would, Wambe's soldiers, a scrubby-looking lot of men
armed with big spears and small shields, but without plumes, climbed
considerably faster. The last mile of that pleasing chase was like a
fox hunt, we being the fox, and always in view. What astonished me was
the extraordinary endurance and activity shown by Maiwa. She never
even flagged. I think that girl's muscles must have been made of iron,
or perhaps it was the strength of her will that supported her. At any
rate she reached the foot of the peak second, poor Gobo, who was an
excellent hand at running away, being first.
"Presently I came up panting, and glanced at the ascent. Before us was
a wall of rock about one hundred and fifty feet in height, upon which
the strata were laid so as to form a series of projections
sufficiently resembling steps to make the ascent easy, comparatively
speaking, except at one spot, where it was necessary to climb over a
projecting angle of cliff and bear a little to the left. It was not a
really difficult place, but what made it awkward was, that immediately
beneath this projection gaped a deep fissure or donga, on the brink of
which we now stood, originally dug out, no doubt, by the rush of water
from the peak and cliff. This gulf beneath would be trying to the
nerves of a weak-headed climber at the critical point, and so it
proved in the result. The projecting angle once passed, the remainder
of the ascent was very simple. At the summit, however, the brow of the
cliff hung over and was pierced by a single narrow path cut through it
by water, in such fashion that a single boulder rolled into it at the
top would make the cliff quite impassable to men without ropes.
"At this moment Wambe's soldiers were about a thousand yards from us,
so it was evident that we had no time to lose. I at once ordered the
men to commence the ascent, the girl Maiwa, who was familiar with the
pass, going first to show them the way. Accordingly they began to
mount with alacrity, pushing and lifting their loads in front of them.
When the first of them, led by Maiwa, reached the projecting angle,
they put down their loads upon a ledge of rock and clambered over.
Once there, by lying on their stomachs upon a boulder, they could
reach the loads which were held to them by the men beneath, and in
this way drag them over the awkward place, whence they were carried
easily to the top.
"But all of this took time, and meanwhile the soldiers were coming up
fast, screaming and brandishing their big spears. They were now within
about four hundred yards, and several loads, together with all the
tusks, had yet to be got over the rock. I was still standing at the
bottom of the cliff, shouting directions to the men above, but it
occurred to me that it would soon be time to move. Before doing so,
however, I thought that it might be well to try and produce a moral
effect upon the advancing enemy. In my hand I held a Winchester
repeating carbine, but the distance was too great for me to use it
with effect, so I turned to Gobo, who was shivering with terror at my
side, and handing him the carbine, took my express from him.
"The enemy was now about three hundred and fifty yards away, and the
express was only sighted to three hundred. Still I knew that it could
be trusted for the extra fifty yards. Running in front of Wambe's
soldiers were two men--captains, I suppose--one of them very tall. I
put up the three hundred yard flap, and sitting down with my back
against the rock, I drew a long breath to steady myself, and covered
the tall man, giving him a full sight. Feeling that I was on him, I
pulled, and before the sound of the striking bullet could reach my
ears, I saw the man throw up his arms and pitch forward on to his
head. His companion stopped dead, giving me a fair chance. I rapidly
covered him, and fired the left barrel. He turned round once, and then
sank down in a heap. This caused the enemy to hesitate--they had never
seen men killed at such a distance before, and thought that there was
something uncanny about the performance. Taking advantage of the lull,
I gave the express back to Gobo, and slinging the Winchester repeater
over my back I began to climb the cliff.
"When we reached the projecting angle all the loads were over, but the
tusks still had to be passed up, and owing to their weight and the
smoothness of their surface, this was a very difficult task. Of course
I ought to have abandoned the tusks; often and often have I since
reproached myself for not doing so. Indeed, I think that my obstinacy
about them was downright sinful, but I was always obstinate about such
things, and I could not bear the idea of leaving those splendid tusks
which had cost me so much pains and danger to come by. Well, it nearly
cost me my life also, and did cost poor Gobo his, as will be seen
shortly, to say nothing of the loss inflicted by my rifle on the
enemy. When I reached the projection I found that the men, with their
usual stupidity, were trying to hand up the tusks point first. Now the
result of this was that those above had nothing to grip except the
round polished surface of the ivory, and in the position in which they
were, this did not give them sufficient hold to enable them to lift
the weight. I told them to reverse the tusks and push them up, so that
the rough and hollow ends came to the hands of the men above. This
they did, and the first two were dragged up in safety.
"At this point, looking behind me, I saw the Matukus streaming up the
slope in a rough extended order, and not more than a hundred yards
away. Cocking the Winchester I turned and opened fire on them. I don't
quite know how many I missed, but I do know that I never shot better
in my life. I had to keep shifting myself from one enemy to the other,
firing almost without getting a sight, that is, by the eye alone,
after the fashion of the experts who break glass balls. But quick as
the work was, men fell thick, and by the time that I had emptied the
carbine of its twelve cartridges, for the moment the advance was
checked. I rapidly pushed in some more cartridges, and hardly had I
done so when the enemy, seeing that we were about to escape them
altogether, came on once more with a tremendous yell. By this time the
two halves of the single tusk of the great bull alone remained to be
passed up. I fired and fired as effectively as before, but
notwithstanding all that I could do, some men escaped my hail of
bullets and began to ascend the cliff. Presently my rifle was again
empty. I slung it over my back, and, drawing my revolver, turned to
run for it, the attackers being now quite close. As I did so, a spear
struck the cliff close to my head.
"The last half of the tusk was now vanishing over the rock, and I sung
out to Gobo and the other man who had been pushing it up to vanish
after it. Gobo, poor fellow, required no second invitation; indeed,
his haste was his undoing. He went at the projecting rock with a
bound. The end of the tusk was still hanging over, and instead of
grasping the rock he caught at it. It twisted in his hand--he slipped
--he fell; with one wild shriek he vanished into the abyss beneath,
his falling body brushing me as it passed. For a moment we stood
aghast, and presently the dull thud of his fall smote heavily upon our
ears. Poor fellow, he had met the Fate which, as he declared, walked
about loose in Wambe's country. Then with an oath the remaining man
sprung at the rock and clambered over it in safety. Aghast at the
awfulness of what had happened, I stood still, till I saw the great
blade of a Matuku spear pass up between my feet. That brought me to my
senses, and I began to clamber up the rock like a cat. I was half way
round it. Already I had clasped the hand of that brave girl Maiwa, who
came down to help me, the men having scrambled forward with the ivory,
when I felt some one seize my ankle.
"'Pull, Maiwa, pull,' I gasped, and she certainly did pull. Maiwa was
a very muscular woman, and never before did I appreciate the
advantages of the physical development of females so keenly. She
tugged at my left arm, the savage below tugged at my right leg, till I
began to realize that something must give way ere long. Luckily I
retained my presence of mind, like the man who threw his mother-in-law
out of the window, and carried the mattress down-stairs, when a fire
broke out in his house. My right hand was still free, and in it I held
my revolver, which was secured to my wrist by a leather thong. The
pistol was cocked, and I simply pointed it downwards and fired. The
result was instantaneous--and so far as I am concerned, most
satisfactory. The bullet hit the man beneath me somewhere, I am sure I
don't know where; at any rate, he let go of my leg and plunged
headlong into the gulf beneath to join Gobo. In another moment I was
on the top of the rock, and going up the remaining steps like a
lamplighter. A single other soldier appeared in pursuit, but one of my
boys at the top fired my elephant gun at him. I don't know if he hit
him or only frightened him; at any rate, he vanished whence he came. I
do know, however, that he very nearly hit /me/, for I felt the wind of
the bullet.
"Another thirty seconds, and I and the woman Maiwa were at the top of
the cliff panting, but safe.
"My men, being directed thereto by Maiwa, had most fortunately rolled
up some big boulders which lay about, and with these we soon managed
to block the passage through the overhanging ridge of rock in such
fashion that the soldiers below could not possibly climb over it.
Indeed, so far as I could see, they did not even try to do so--their
heart was turned to fat, as the Zulus say.
"Then having rested a few moments we took up the loads, including the
tusks of ivory that had cost us so dear, and in silence marched on for
a couple of miles or more, till we reached a patch of dense bush. And
here, being utterly exhausted, we camped for the night, taking the
precaution, however, of setting a guard to watch against any attempt
at surprise.
