CHAPTER XIII
WHAT HAPPENED TO STELLA
The fight was over. In all we had lost seven men killed, and severalmore severely bitten, while but few had escaped without some tokenswhereby he might remember what a baboon's teeth and claws are like. Howmany of the brutes we killed I never knew, because we did not count, butit was a vast number. I should think that the stock must have been lowabout Babyan's Peak for many years afterwards. From that day to this,however, I have always avoided baboons, feeling more afraid of them thanany beast that lives.
The path was clear, and we rushed forward along the water-course. Butfirst we picked up little Tota. The child was not in a swoon, as I hadthought, but paralyzed by terror, so that she could scarcely speak.Otherwise she was unhurt, though it took her many a week to recover hernerve. Had she been older, and had she not remembered Hendrika, I doubtif she would have recovered it. She knew me again, and flung her littlearms about my neck, clinging to me so closely that I did not dare togive her to any one else to carry lest I should add to her terrors. So Iwent on with her in my arms. The fears that pierced my heart may well beimagined. Should I find Stella living or dead? Should I find her at all?Well, we should soon know now. We stumbled on up the stony watercourse;notwithstanding the weight of Tota I led the way, for suspense lent mewings. Now we were through, and an extraordinary scene lay before us. Wewere in a great natural amphitheatre, only it was three times the sizeof any amphitheatre ever shaped by man, and the walls were formed ofprecipitous cliffs, ranging from one to two hundred feet in height.For the rest, the space thus enclosed was level, studded with park-liketrees, brilliant with flowers, and having a stream running throughthe centre of it, that, as I afterwards discovered, welled up from theground at the head of the open space.
We spread ourselves out in a line, searching everywhere, for Tota wastoo overcome to be able to tell us where Stella was hidden away. Fornearly half an hour we searched and searched, scanning the walls ofrock for any possible openings to a cave. In vain, we could find none. Iapplied to old Indaba-zimbi, but his foresight was at fault here. Allhe could say was that this was the place, and that the "Star" was hiddensomewhere in a cave, but where the cave was he could not tell. At lastwe came to the top of the amphitheatre. There before us was a wall ofrock, of which the lower parts were here and there clothed in grasses,lichens, and creepers. I walked along it, calling at the top of myvoice.
Presently my heart stood still, for I thought I heard a faint answer. Idrew nearer to the place from which the sound seemed to come, and againcalled. Yes, there was an answer in my wife's voice. It seemed to comefrom the rock. I went up to it and searched among the creepers, butstill could find no opening.
"Move the stone," cried Stella's voice, "the cave is shut with a stone."
I took a spear and prodded at the cliff whence the sound came. Suddenlythe spear sunk in through a mass of lichen. I swept the lichen aside,revealing a boulder that had been rolled into the mouth of an opening inthe rock, which it fitted so accurately that, covered as it was bythe overhanging lichen, it might well have escaped the keenest eye. Wedragged the boulder out; it was two men's work to do it. Beyond wasa narrow, water-worn passage, which I followed with a beating heart.Presently the passage opened into a small cave, shaped like a picklebottle, and coming to a neck at the top end. We passed through and foundourselves in a second, much larger cave, that I at once recognized asthe one of which Indaba-zimbi had shown me a vision in the water. Lightreached it from above--how I know not--and by it I could see a formhalf-sitting, half lying on some skins at the top end of the cave. Irushed to it. It was Stella! Stella bound with strips of hide, bruised,torn, but still Stella, and alive.
She saw me, she gave one cry, then, as I caught her in my arms, shefainted. It was happy indeed that she did not faint before, for had itnot been for the sound of her voice I do not believe we should ever havefound that cunningly hidden cave, unless, indeed, Indaba-zimbi's magic(on which be blessings) had come to our assistance.
We bore her to the open air, laid her beneath the shade of a tree, andcut the bonds loose from her ankles. As we went I glanced at the cave.It was exactly as I had seen it in the vision. There burnt the fire,there were the rude wooden vessels, one of them still half full of thewater which I had seen the baboon bring. I felt awed as I looked, andmarvelled at the power wielded by a savage who could not even read andwrite.
Now I could see Stella clearly. Her face was scratched, and haggardwith fear and weeping, her clothes were almost torn off her, and herbeautiful hair was loose and tangled. I sent for water, and we sprinkledher face. Then I forced a little of the brandy which we distilled frompeaches at the kraals between her lips, and she opened her eyes, andthrowing her arms about me clung to me as little Tota had done, sobbing,"Thank God! thank God!"
After a while she grew quieter, and I made her and Tota eat some foodfrom the store that we had brought with us. I too ate and was thankful,for with the exception of the mealie cobs I had tasted nothing fornearly four-and-twenty hours. Then she washed her face and hands, andtidied her rags of dress as well as she was able. As she did so bydegrees I drew her story from her.
It seemed that on the previous afternoon, being wearied with packing,she went out to visit her father's grave, taking Tota with her, and wasfollowed there by the two dogs. She wished to lay some flowers on thegrave and take farewell of the dust it covered, for as we had expectedto trek early on the morrow she did not know if she would find a lateropportunity. They passed up the garden, and gathering some flowers fromthe orange trees and elsewhere, went on to the little graveyard. Hereshe laid them on the grave as we had found them, and then sitting down,fell into a deep and sad reverie, such as the occasion would naturallyinduce. While she sat thus, Tota, who was a lively child and active asa kitten, strayed away without Stella observing it. With her went thedogs, who also had grown tired of inaction; a while passed, and suddenlyshe heard the dogs barking furiously about a hundred and fifty yardsaway. Then she heard Tota scream, and the dogs also yelling with fearand pain. She rose and ran as swiftly as she could towards the spotwhence the sound came. Presently she was there. Before her in theglade, holding the screaming Tota in her arms, was a figure in which,notwithstanding the rough disguise of baboon skins and colouring matter,she had no difficulty in recognizing Hendrika, and all about her werenumbers of baboons, rolling over and over in two hideous heaps, of whichthe centres were the unfortunate dogs now in process of being rent tofragments.
"Hendrika," Stella cried, "what does this mean? What are you doing withTota and those brutes?"
The woman heard her and looked up. Then Stella saw that she was mad;madness stared from her eyes. She dropped the child, which instantlyflew to Stella for protection. Stella clasped it, only to be herselfclasped by Hendrika. She struggled fiercely, but it was of no use--theBabyan-frau had the strength of ten. She lifted her and Tota as thoughthey were nothing, and ran off with them, following the bed of thestream in order to avoid leaving a spoor. Only the baboons who came withher, minus the one the dogs had killed, would not take to the water, butkept pace with them on the bank.
Stella said that the night which followed was more like a hideousnightmare than a reality. She was never able to tell me all thatoccurred in it. She had a vague recollection of being borne over rocksand along kloofs, while around her echoed the horrible grunts and clicksof the baboons. She spoke to Hendrika in English and Kaffir, imploringher to let them go; but the woman, if I may call her so, seemed in hermadness to have entirely forgotten these tongues. When Stella spoke shewould kiss her and stroke her hair, but she did not seem to understandwhat it was she said. On the other hand, she could, and did, talk tothe baboons, that seemed to obey her implicitly. Moreover, she would notallow them to touch either Stella or the child in her arms. Once oneof them tried to do so, and she seized a dead stick and struck itso heavily on the head that it fell senseless. Thrice Stella made anattempt to escape, for sometimes even Hendrika's giant strength wanedand she h
ad to set them down. But on each occasion she caught them, andit was in these struggles that Stella's clothes were so torn. At lengthbefore daylight they reached the cliff, and with the first break oflight the ascent began. Hendrika dragged them up the first stages, butwhen they came to the precipitous place she tied the strips of hide,of which she had a supply wound round her waist, beneath Stella's arms.Steep as the place was the baboons ascended it easily enough, springingfrom a knock of rock to the trunk of the tree that grew on the edge ofthe crevasse. Hendrika followed them, holding the end of the hide reimin her teeth, one of the baboons hanging down from the tree to assisther ascent. It was while she was ascending that Stella bethought ofletting fall her handkerchief in the faint hope that some searcher mightsee it.
By this time Hendrika was on the tree, and grunting out orders to thebaboons which clustered about Stella below. Suddenly these seized herand little Tota who was in her arms, and lifted her from the ground.Then Hendrika above, aided by other baboons, put out all her greatstrength and pulled the two of them up the rock. Twice Stella swungheavily against the cliff. After the second blow she felt her sensesgoing, and was consumed with terror lest she should drop Tota. But shemanaged to cling to her, and together they reached the cleft.
"From that time," Stella went on, "I remember no more till I woke tofind myself in a gloomy cave resting on a bed of skins. My legs werebound, and Hendrika sat near me watching me, while round the edge of thecave peered the heads of those horrible baboons. Tota was still in myarms, and half dead from terror; her moans were pitiful to hear. I spoketo Hendrika, imploring her to release us; but either she has lost allunderstanding of human speech, or she pretends to have done so. Allshe would do was to caress me, and even kiss my hands and dress withextravagant signs of affection. As she did so, Tota shrunk closer to me.This Hendrika saw and glared so savagely at the child that I feared lestshe was going to kill her. I diverted her attention by making signs thatI wanted water, and this she gave me in a wooden bowl. As you saw, thecave was evidently Hendrika's dwelling-place. There are stores of fruitin it and some strips of dried flesh. She gave me some of the fruit andTota a little, and I made Tota eat some. You can never know what I wentthrough, Allan. I saw now that Hendrika was quite mad, and but littleremoved from the brutes to which she is akin, and over which she hassuch unholy power. The only trace of humanity left about her was heraffection for me. Evidently her idea was to keep me here with her, tokeep me away from you, and to carry out this idea she was capable of theexercise of every artifice and cunning. In this way she was sane enough,but in every other way she was mad. Moreover, she had not forgotten herhorrible jealousy. Already I saw her glaring at Tota, and knew that thechild's murder was only a matter of time. Probably within a few hoursshe would be killed before my eyes. Of escape, even if I had thestrength, there was absolutely no chance, and little enough of our everbeing found. No, we should be kept here guarded by a mad thing, halfape, half woman, till we perished miserably. Then I thought of you,dear, and of all that you must be suffering, and my heart nearly broke.I could only pray to God that I might either be rescued or die swiftly.
"As I prayed I dropped into a kind of doze from utter weariness, andthen I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that Indaba-zimbi stood overme nodding his white lock, and spoke to me in Kaffir, telling me not tobe frightened, for you would soon be with me, and that meanwhile I musthumour Hendrika, pretending to be pleased to have her near me. The dreamwas so vivid that I actually seemed to see and hear him, as I see andhear him now."
Here I looked up and glanced at old Indaba-zimbi, who was sitting near.But it was not till afterwards that I told Stella of how her vision wasbrought about.
"At any rate," she went on, "when I awoke I determined to act on mydream. I took Hendrika's hand, and pressed it. She actually laughed in awild kind of way with happiness, and laid her head upon my knee. Then Imade signs that I wanted food, and she threw wood on the fire, which Iforgot to tell you was burning in the cave, and began to make some ofthe broth that she used to cook very well, and she did not seem tohave forgotten all about it. At any rate the broth was not bad, thoughneither Tota nor I could drink much of it. Fright and weariness hadtaken away our appetites.
"After the meal was done--and I prolonged it as much as possible--I sawHendrika was beginning to get jealous of Tota again. She glared at herand then at the big knife which was tied round her own body. I knewthe knife again, it was the one with which she had tried to murder you,dear. At last she went so far as to draw the knife. I was paralyzed withfear, then suddenly I remembered that when she was our servant, and usedto get out of temper and sulk, I could always calm her by singing toher. So I began to sing hymns. Instantly she forgot her jealousy and putthe knife back into its sheath. She knew the sound of the singing, andsat listening to it with a rapt face; the baboons, too, crowded in atthe entrance of the cave to listen. I must have sung for an hour ormore, all the hymns that I could remember. It was so very strangeand dreadful sitting there singing to mad Hendrika and those hideousman-like apes that shut their eyes and nodded their great heads as Isang. It was a horrible nightmare; but I believe that the baboons arealmost as human as the Bushmen.
"Well, this went on for a long time till my voice was getting exhausted.Then suddenly I heard the baboons outside raise a loud noise, as they dowhen they are angry. Then, dear, I heard the boom of your elephantgun, and I think it was the sweetest sound that ever came to my ears.Hendrika heard it too. She sprang up, stood for a moment, then, to myhorror, swept Tota into her arms and rushed down the cave. Of courseI could not stir to follow her, for my feet were tied. Next instant Iheard the sound of a rock being moved, and presently the lessening ofthe light in the cave told me that I was shut in. Now the sound evenof the elephant gun only reached me very faintly, and presently I couldhear nothing more, straining my ears as I would.
"At last I heard a faint shouting that reached me through the wall ofrock. I answered as loud as I could. You know the rest; and oh, my dearhusband, thank God! thank God!" and she fell weeping into my arms.