CHAPTER X
HENDRIKA PLOTS EVIL
On the following morning I had a conversation with Indaba-zimbi. First
of all I told him that I was going to marry Stella.
"Oh!" he said, "I thought so, Macumazahn. Did I not tell you that you
would find happiness on this journey? Most men must be content to
watch the Star from a long way off, to you it is given to wear her on
your heart. But remember, Macumazahn, remember that stars set."
"Can you not stop your croaking even for a day?" I answered, angrily,
for his words sent a thrill of fear through me.
"A true prophet must tell the ill as well as the good, Macumazahn. I
only speak what is on my mind. But what of it? What is life but loss,
loss upon loss, till life itself be lost? But in death we may find all
the things that we have lost. So your father taught, Macumazahn, and
there was wisdom in his gentleness. Ou! I do not believe in death; it
is change, that is all, Macumazahn. Look now, the rain falls, the
drops of rain that were one water in the clouds fall side by side.
They sink into the ground; presently the sun will come out, the earth
will be dry, the drops will be gone. A fool looks and says the drops
are dead, they will never be one again, they will never again fall
side by side. But I am a rain-maker, and I know the ways of rain. It
is not true. The drops will drain by many paths into the river, and
will be one water there. They will go up to the clouds again in the
mists of morning, and there will again be as they have been. We are
the drops of rain, Macumazahn. When we fall that is our life. When we
sink into the ground that is death, and when we are drawn up again to
the sky, what is that, Macumazahn? No! no! when we find we lose, and
when we seem to lose, then we shall really find. I am not a Christian,
Macumazahn, but I am old, and have watched and seen things that
perhaps Christians do not see. There, I have spoken. Be happy with
your star, and if it sets, wait, Macumazahn, wait till it rises again.
It will not be long; one day you will go to sleep, then your eyes will
open on another sky, and there your star will be shining, Macumazahn."
I made no answer at the time. I could not bear to talk of such a
thing. But often and often in the after years I have thought of
Indaba-zimbi and his beautiful simile and gathered comfort from it. He
was a strange man, this old rain-making savage, and there was more
wisdom in him than in many learned atheists--those spiritual
destroyers who, in the name of progress and humanity, would divorce
hope from life, and leave us wandering in a lonesome, self-consecrated
hell.
"Indaba-zimbi," I said, changing the subject, "I have something to
say," and I told him of the threats of Hendrika.
He listened with an unmoved face, nodding his white lock at intervals
as the narrative went on. But I saw that he was disturbed by it.
"Macumazahn," he said at length, "I have told you that this is an evil
woman. She was nourished on baboon milk, and the baboon nature is in
her veins. Such creatures should be killed, not kept. She will make
you mischief if she can. But I will watch her, Macumazahn. Look, the
Star is waiting for you; go, or she will hate me as Hendrika hates
you."
So I went, nothing loth, for attractive as was the wisdom of Indaba-
zimbi, I found a deeper meaning in Stella's simplest word. All the
rest of that day I passed in her company, and the greater part of the
two following days. At last came Saturday night, the eve of our
marriage. It rained that night, so we did not go out, but spent the
evening in the hut. We sat hand in hand, saying little, but Mr. Carson
talked a good deal, telling us tales of his youth, and of countries
that he had visited. Then he read aloud from the Bible, and bade us
goodnight. I also kissed Stella and went to bed. I reached my hut by
the covered way, and before I undressed opened the door to see what
the night was like. It was very dark, and rain was still falling, but
as the light streamed out into the gloom I fancied that I caught sight
of a dusky form gliding away. The thought of Hendrika flashed into my
mind; could she be skulking about outside there? Now I had said
nothing of Hendrika and her threats either to Mr. Carson or Stella,
because I did not wish to alarm them. Also I knew that Stella was
attached to this strange person, and I did not wish to shake her
confidence in her unless it was absolutely necessary. For a minute or
two I stood hesitating, then, reflecting that if it was Hendrika,
there she should stop, I went in and put up the stout wooden bar that
was used to secure the door. For the last few nights old Indaba-zimbi
had made a habit of sleeping in the covered passage, which was the
only other possible way of access. As I came to bed I had stepped over
him rolled up in his blanket, and to all appearances fast asleep. So
it being evident that I had nothing to fear, I promptly dismissed the
matter from my mind, which, as may be imagined, was indeed fully
occupied with other thoughts.
I got into bed, and for awhile lay awake thinking of the great
happiness in store for me, and of the providential course of events
that had brought it within my reach. A few weeks since and I was
wandering in the desert a dying man, bearing a dying child, and with
scarcely a possession left in the world except a store of buried ivory
that I never expected to see again. And now I was about to wed one of
the sweetest and loveliest women on the whole earth--a woman whom I
loved more than I could have thought possible, and who loved me back
again. Also, as though that were not good fortune enough, I was to
acquire with her very considerable possessions, quite sufficiently
large to enable us to follow any plan of life we found agreeable. As I
lay and reflected on all this I grew afraid of my good fortune. Old
Indaba-zimbi's melancholy prophecies came into my mind. Hitherto he
had always prophesied truly. What if these should be true also? I
turned cold as I thought of it, and prayed to the Power above to
preserve us both to live and love together. Never was prayer more
needed. While its words were still upon my lips I dropped asleep and
dreamed a most dreadful dream.
I dreamed that Stella and I were standing together to be married. She
was dressed in white, and radiant with beauty, but it was a wild,
spiritual beauty which frightened me. Her eyes shone like stars, a
pale flame played about her features, and the wind that blew did not
stir her hair. Nor was this all, for her white robes were death
wrappings, and the altar at which we stood was formed of the piled-up
earth from an open grave that yawned between us. So we stood waiting
for one to wed us, but no one came. Presently from the open grave
sprang the form of Hendrika. In her hand was a knife, with which she
stabbed at me, but pierced the heart of Stella, who, without a cry,
fell backwards into the grave, still looking at me as she fell. Then
Hendrika leaped after her into the grave. I heard her feet strike
heavily.
"/Awake, Macumazahn! awake!/" cried the voice of Indaba-zimbi.
I awoke and bounded from the bed, a cold perspiration pouring from me.
In the darkness on the other side of the hut I heard sounds of furious
struggling. Luckily I kept my head. Just by me was a chair on which
were matches and a rush taper. I struck a match and held it to the
taper. Now in the growing light I could see two forms rolling one over
the other on the floor, and from between them came the flash of steel.
The fat melted and the light burnt up. It was Indaba-zimbi and the
woman Hendrika who were struggling, and, what is more, the woman was
getting the better of the man, strong as he was. I rushed towards
them. Now she was uppermost, now she had wrenched herself from his
fierce grip, and now the great knife she had in her hand flashed up.
But I was behind her, and, placing my hands beneath her arms, jerked
with all my strength. She fell backwards, and, in her effort to save
herself, most fortunately dropped the knife. Then we flung ourselves
upon her. Heavens! the strength of that she-devil! Nobody who has not
experienced it could believe it. She fought and scratched and bit, and
at one time nearly mastered the two of us. As it was she did break
loose. She rushed at the bed, sprung on it, and bounded thence
straight up at the roof of the hut. I never saw such a jump, and could
not conceive what she meant to do. In the roof were the peculiar holes
which I have described. They were designed to admit light, and covered
with overhanging eaves. She sprung straight and true like a monkey,
and, catching the edge of the hole with her hands, strove to draw
herself through it. But here her strength, exhausted with the long
struggle, failed her. For a moment she swung, then dropped to the
ground and fell senseless.
"Ou!" gasped Indaba-zimbi. "Let us tie the devil up before she comes
to life again."
I thought this a good counsel, so we took a reim that lay in the
corner of the room, and lashed her hands and feet in such a fashion
that even she could scarcely escape. Then we carried her into the
passage, and Indaba-zimbi sat over her, the knife in his hand, for I
did not wish to raise an alarm at that hour of the night.
"Do you know how I caught her, Macumazahn?" he said. "For several
nights I have slept here with one eye open, for I thought she had made
a plan. To-night I kept wide awake, though I pretended to be asleep.
An hour after you got into the blankets the moon rose, and I saw a
beam of light come into the hut through the hole in the roof.
Presently I saw the beam of light vanish. At first I thought that a
cloud was passing over the moon, but I listened and heard a noise as
though some one was squeezing himself through a narrow space.
Presently he was through, and hanging by his hands. Then the light
came in again, and in the middle of it I saw the Babyan-frau swinging
from the roof, and about to drop into the hut. She clung by both
hands, and in her mouth was a great knife. She dropped, and I ran
forward to seize her as she dropped, and gripped her round the middle.
But she heard me come, and, seizing the knife, struck at me in the
dark and missed me. Then we struggled, and you know the rest. You were
very nearly dead to-night, Macumazahn."
"Very nearly indeed," I answered, still panting, and arranging the
rags of my night-dress round me as best I might. Then the memory of my
horrid dream flashed into my mind. Doubtless it had been conjured up
by the sound of Hendrika dropping to the floor--in my dream it had
been a grave that she dropped into. All of it, then, had been
experienced in that second of time. Well, dreams are swift; perhaps
Time itself is nothing but a dream, and events that seem far apart
really occur simultaneously.
We passed the rest of the night watching Hendrika. Presently she came
to herself and struggled furiously to break the reim. But the untanned
buffalo hide was too strong even for her, and, moreover, Indaba-zimbi
unceremoniously sat upon her to keep her quiet. At last she gave it
up.
In due course the day broke--my marriage day. Leaving Indaba-zimbi to
watch my would-be murderess, I went and fetched some natives from the
stables, and with their aid bore Hendrika to the prison hut--that same
hut in which she had been confined when she had been brought a baboon-
child from the rocks. Here we shut her up, and, leaving Indaba-zimbi
to watch outside, I returned to my sleeping-place and dressed in the
best garments that the Babyan Kraals could furnish. But when I looked
at the reflection of my face, I was horrified. It was covered with
scratches inflicted by the nails of Hendrika. I doctored them up as
best I could, then went out for a walk to calm my nerves, which, what
between the events of the past night, and of those pending that day,
were not a little disturbed.
When I returned it was breakfast time. I went into the dining hut, and
there Stella was waiting to greet me, dressed in simple white and with
orange flowers on her breast. She came forward to me shyly enough;
then, seeing the condition of my face, started back.
"Why, Allan! what have you been doing to yourself?" she asked.
As I was about to answer, her father came in leaning on his stick,
and, catching sight of me, instantly asked the same question.
Then I told them everything, both of Hendrika's threats and of her
fierce attempt to carry them into execution. But I did not tell my
horrid dream.
Stella's face grew white as the flowers on her breast, but that of her
father became very stern.
"You should have spoken of this before, Allan," he said. "I now see
that I did wrong to attempt to civilize this wicked and revengeful
creature, who, if she is human, has all the evil passions of the
brutes that reared her. Well, I will make an end of it this very day."
"Oh, father," said Stella, "don't have her killed. It is all dreadful
enough, but that would be more dreadful still. I have been very fond
of her, and, bad as she is, she has loved me. Do not have her killed
on my marriage day."
"No," her father answered, "she shall not be killed, for though she
deserves to die, I will not have her blood upon our hands. She is a
brute, and has followed the nature of brutes. She shall go back whence
she came."
No more was said on the matter at the time, but when breakfast--which
was rather a farce--was done, Mr. Carson sent for his headman and gave
him certain orders.
We were to be married after the service which Mr. Carson held every
Sunday morning in the large marble hut set apart for that purpose. The
service began at ten o'clock, but long before that hour all the
natives on the place came up in troops, singing as they came, to be
present at the wedding of the "Star." It was a pretty sight to see
them, the men dressed in all their finery, and carrying shields and
sticks in their hands, and the women and children bearing green
branches of trees, ferns, and flowers. At length, about half-past
nine, Stella rose, pressed my hand, and left me to my reflections. A
few minutes to ten she reappeared again with her father, dressed in a
white veil, a wreath of orange flowers on her dark curling hair, a
bouquet of orange flowers in her hand. To me she seemed like a dream
of loveliness. With her came little Tota in a high state of glee and
excitement. She was Stella's only bridesmaid. Then we all passed out
towards the church hut. The bare space in front of it was filled with
hundreds of natives, who set up a song as we came. But we went on into
the hut, which was crowded with such of the natives as usually
worshipped there. Here Mr. Carson, as usual, read the service, though
he was obliged to sit down in order to do so. When it was done--and to
me it seemed interminable--Mr. Carson whispered that he meant to marry
us outside the hut in sight of all the people. So we went out and took
our stand under the shade of a large tree that grew near the hut
facing the bare space where the natives were gathered.
Mr. Carson held up his hand to enjoin silence. Then, speaking in the
native dialect, he told them that he was about to make us man and wife
after the Christian fashion and in the sight of all men. This done, he
proceeded to read the marriage service over us, and very solemnly and
beautifully he did it. We said the words, I placed the ring--it was
her father's signet ring, for we had no other--upon Stella's finger,
and it was done.
Then Mr. Carson spoke. "Allan and Stella," he said, "I believe that
the ceremony which has been performed makes you man and wife in the
sight of God and man, for all that is necessary to make a marriage
binding is, that it should be celebrated according to the custom of
the country where the parties to it reside. It is according to the
custom that has been in force here for fifteen years or more that you
have been married in the face of all the people, and in token of it
you will both sign the register that I have kept of such marriages,
among those of my people who have adopted the Christian Faith. Still,
in case there should be any legal flaw I again demand the solemn
promise of you both that on the first opportunity you will cause this
marriage to be re-celebrated in some civilized land. Do you promise?"
"We do," we answered.
Then the book was brought out and we signed our names. At first my
wife signed hers "Stella" only, but her father bade her write it
Stella Carson for the first and last time in her life. Then several of
the indunas, or headmen, including old Indaba-zimbi, put their marks
in witness. Indaba-zimbi drew his mark in the shape of a little star,
in humorous allusion to Stella's native name. That register is before
me now as I write. That, with a lock of my darling's hair which lies
between its leaves, is my dearest possession. There are all the names
and marks as they were written many years ago beneath the shadow of
the tree at Babyan Kraals in the wilderness, but alas! and alas! where
are those who wrote them?
"My people," said Mr. Carson, when the signing was done, and we had
kissed each other before them all--"My people, Macumazahn and the
Star, my daughter, are now man and wife, to live in one kraal, to eat
of one bowl, to share one fortune till they reach the grave. Hear now,
my people, you know this woman," and turning he pointed to Hendrika,
who, unseen by us, had been led out of the prison hut.
"Yes, yes, we know her," said a little ring of headmen, who formed the
primitive court of justice, and after the fashion of natives had
squatted themselves in a circle on the ground in front of us. "We know
her, she is the white Babyan-woman, she is Hendrika, the body servant
of the Star."
"You know her," said Mr. Carson, "but you do not know her altogether.
Stand forward, Indaba-zimbi, and tell the people what came about last
night in the hut of Macumazahn."
Accordingly old Indaba-zimbi came forward, and, squatting down, told
his moving tale with much descriptive force and many gestures,
finishing up by producing the great knife from which his watchfulness
had saved me.
Then I was called upon, and in a few brief words substantiated his
story: indeed my face did that in the sight of all men.
Then Mr. Carson turned to Hendrika, who stood in sullen silence, her
eyes fixed upon the ground, and asked her if she had anything to say.
She looked up boldly and answered--
"Macumazahn has robbed me of the love of my mistress. I would have
robbed him of his life, which is a little thing compared to that which
I have lost at his hands. I have failed, and I am sorry for it, for
had I killed him and left no trace the Star would have forgotten him
and shone on me again."
"Never," murmured Stella in my ear; but Mr. Carson turned white with
wrath.
"My people," he said, "you hear the words of this woman. You hear how
she pays me back, me and my daughter whom she swears she loves. She
says that she would have murdered a man who has done her no evil, the
man who is the husband of her mistress. We saved her from the babyans,
we tamed her, we fed her, we taught her, and this is how she pays us
back. Say, my people, what reward should be given to her?"
"Death," said the circle of indunas, pointing their thumbs downwards,
and all the multitude beyond echoed the word "Death."
"Death," repeated the head induna, adding, "If you save her, my
father, we will slay her with our own hands. She is a Babyan-woman, a
devil-woman; ah, yes, we have heard of such before; let her be slain
before she works more evil."
Then it was that Stella stepped forward and begged for Hendrika's life
in moving terms. She pleaded the savagery of the woman's nature, her
long service, and the affection that she had always shown towards
herself. She said that I, whose life had been attempted, forgave her,
and she, my wife, who had nearly been left a widow before she was made
a bride, forgave her; let them forgive her also, let her be sent away,
not slain, let not her marriage day be stained with blood.
Now her father listened readily enough, for he had no intention of
killing Hendrika--indeed, he had already promised not to do so. But
the people were in a different humour, they looked upon Hendrika as a
devil, and would have torn her to pieces there and then, could they
have had their way. Nor were matters mended by Indaba-zimbi, who had
already gained a great reputation for wisdom and magic in the place.
Suddenly the old man rose and made quite an impassioned speech, urging
them to kill Hendrika at once or mischief would come of it.
At last matters got very bad, for two of the Indunas came forward to
drag her off to execution, and it was not until Stella burst into
tears that the sight of her grief, backed by Mr. Carson's orders and
my own remonstrances, carried the day.
All this while Hendrika had been standing quite unmoved. At last the
tumult ceased, and the leading induna called to her to go, promising
that if ever she showed her face near the kraals again she should be
stabbed like a jackal. Then Hendrika spoke to Stella in a low voice
and in English--
"Better let them kill me, mistress, better for all. Without you to
love I shall go mad and become a babyan again."
Stella did not answer, and they loosed her. She stepped forward and
looked at the natives with a stare of hate. Then she turned and walked
past me, and as she passed whispered a native phrase in my ear, that,
being literally translated, means, "Till another moon," but which has
the same significance as the French "au revoir."
It frightened me, for I knew she meant that she had not done with me,
and saw that our mercy was misplaced. Seeing my face change she ran
swiftly from me, and as she passed Indaba-zimbi, with a sudden
movement snatched her great knife from his hand. When she had gone
about twenty paces she halted, looked long and earnestly on Stella,
gave one loud cry of anguish, and fled. A few minutes later we saw her
far away, bounding up the face of an almost perpendicular cliff--a
cliff that nobody except herself and the baboons could possibly climb.
"Look," said Indaba-zimbi in my ear--"Look, Macumazahn, there goes the
Babyan-frau. But, Macumazahn, /she will come back again/. Ah, why will
you not listen to my words. Have they not always been true words,
Macumazahn?" and he shrugged his shoulders and turned away.
For a while I was much disturbed, but at any rate Hendrika was gone
for the present, and Stella, my dear and lovely wife, was there at my
side, and in her smiles I forgot my fears.
For the rest of that day, why should I write of it?--there are things
too happy and too sacred to be written of.
At last I had, if only for a little while, found that rest, that
perfect joy which we seek so continually and so rarely clasp.
