CHAPTER XV
MORNING IN THE BERG
I was perhaps half a mile the nearer to the glen, and was likely to getthere first. And after that? I could see the track winding by thewaterside and then crossing a hill-shoulder which diverted the stream.It was a road a man could scarcely ride, and a tired man would have ahard job to climb. I do not think that I had any hope. Myexhilaration had died as suddenly as it had been born. I saw myselfcaught and carried off to Laputa, who must now be close on therendezvous at Inanda's Kraal. I had no weapon to make a fight for it.My foemen were many and untired. It must be only a matter of minutestill I was in their hands.
More in a dogged fury of disappointment than with any hope of escape Iforced my sore legs up the glen. Ten minutes ago I had been exultingin the glories of the morning, and now the sun was not less bright orthe colours less fair, but the heart had gone out of the spectator. Atfirst I managed to get some pace out of myself, partly from fear andpartly from anger. But I soon found that my body had been tried toofar. I could plod along, but to save my life I could not have hurried.Any healthy savage could have caught me in a hundred yards.
The track, I remember, was overhung with creepers, and often I had tosqueeze through thickets of tree-ferns. Countless little brooks randown from the hillside, threads of silver among the green pastures.Soon I left the stream and climbed up on the shoulder, where the roadwas not much better than a precipice. Every step was a weariness. Icould hardly drag one foot after the other, and my heart was beatinglike the fanners of a mill, I had spasms of acute sickness, and it tookall my resolution to keep me from lying down by the roadside.
At last I was at the top of the shoulder and could look back. There wasno sign of anybody on the road so far as I could see. Could I haveescaped them? I had been in the shadow of the trees for the firstpart, and they might have lost sight of me and concluded that I hadavoided the glen or tried one of the faces. Before me, I remember,there stretched the upper glen, a green cup-shaped hollow with thesides scarred by ravines. There was a high waterfall in one of themwhich was white as snow against the red rocks. My wits must have beenshaky, for I took the fall for a snowdrift, and wondered sillily whythe Berg had grown so Alpine.
A faint spasm of hope took me into that green cup. The bracken was asthick as on the Pentlands, and there was a multitude of small lovelyflowers in the grass. It was like a water-meadow at home, such a placeas I had often in boyhood searched for moss-cheepers' and corncrakes'eggs. Birds were crying round me as I broke this solitude, and onesmall buck--a klipspringer--rose from my feet and dashed up one of thegullies. Before me was a steep green wall with the sky blue above it.Beyond it was safety, but as my sweat-dimmed eyes looked at it I knewthat I could never reach it.
Then I saw my pursuers. High up on the left side, and rounding the rimof the cup, were little black figures. They had not followed my trail,but, certain of my purpose, had gone forward to intercept me. Iremember feeling a puny weakling compared with those lusty natives whocould make such good going on steep mountains. They were certainly nomen of the plains, but hillmen, probably some remnants of old Machudi'stribe who still squatted in the glen. Machudi was a blackguard chiefwhom the Boers long ago smashed in one of their native wars. He was afierce old warrior and had put up a good fight to the last, till ahired impi of Swazis had surrounded his hiding-place in the forest anddestroyed him. A Boer farmer on the plateau had his skull, and used todrink whisky out of it when he was merry.
The sight of the pursuit was the last straw. I gave up hope, and myintentions were narrowed to one frantic desire--to hide the jewels.Patriotism, which I had almost forgotten, flickered up in that crisis.At any rate Laputa should not have the Snake. If he drove out thewhite man, he should not clasp the Prester's rubies on his great neck.
There was no cover in the green cup, so I turned up the ravine on theright side. The enemy, so far as I could judge, were on the left andin front, and in the gully I might find a pot-hole to bury the neckletin. Only a desperate resolution took me through the tangle of juniperbushes into the red screes of the gully. At first I could not findwhat I sought. The stream in the ravine slid down a long slope like amill-race, and the sides were bare and stony. Still I plodded on,helping myself with a hand on Colin's back, for my legs were numb withfatigue. By-and-by the gully narrowed, and I came to a flat place witha long pool. Beyond was a little fall, and up this I climbed into anetwork of tiny cascades. Over one pool hung a dead tree-fern, and abay from it ran into a hole of the rock. I slipped the jewels far intothe hole, where they lay on the firm sand, showing odd lights throughthe dim blue water. Then I scrambled down again to the flat space andthe pool, and looked round to see if any one had reached the edge ofthe ravine. There was no sign as yet of the pursuit, so I droppedlimply on the shingle and waited. For I had suddenly conceived a plan.
As my breath came back to me my wits came back from their wandering.These men were not there to kill me, but to capture me. They couldknow nothing of the jewels, for Laputa would never have dared to makethe loss of the sacred Snake public. Therefore they would not suspectwhat I had done, and would simply lead me to Laputa at Inanda's Kraal.I began to see the glimmerings of a plan for saving my life, and byGod's grace, for saving my country from the horrors of rebellion. Themore I thought the better I liked it. It demanded a bold front, and itmight well miscarry, but I had taken such desperate hazards during thepast days that I was less afraid of fortune. Anyhow, the choice laybetween certain death and a slender chance of life, and it was easy todecide.
Playing football, I used to notice how towards the end of a game Imight be sore and weary, without a kick in my body; but when I had astraight job of tackling a man my strength miraculously returned. Itwas even so now. I lay on my side, luxuriating in being still, andslowly a sort of vigour crept back into my limbs. Perhaps a half-hourof rest was given me before, on the lip of the gully, I saw figuresappear. Looking down I saw several men who had come across from theopposite side of the valley, scrambling up the stream. I got to myfeet, with Colin bristling beside me, and awaited them with thestiffest face I could muster.
As I expected, they were Machudi's men. I recognized them by the redochre in their hair and their copper-wire necklets. Big fellows theywere, long-legged and deep in the chest, the true breed ofmountaineers. I admired their light tread on the slippery rock. Itwas hopeless to think of evading such men in their own hills.
The men from the side joined the men in front, and they stood lookingat me from about twelve yards off. They were armed only withknobkerries, and very clearly were no part of Laputa's army. This madetheir errand plain to me.
'Halt!' I said in Kaffir, as one of them made a hesitating step toadvance. 'Who are you and what do you seek?'
There was no answer, but they looked at me curiously. Then one made amotion with his stick. Colin gave a growl, and would have been on himif I had not kept a hand on his collar. The rash man drew back, and allstood stiff and perplexed.
'Keep your hands by your side,' I said, 'or the dog, who has a devil,will devour you. One of you speak for the rest and tell me yourpurpose.'
For a moment I had a wild notion that they might be friends, some ofArcoll's scouts, and out to help me. But the first words shattered thefancy.
'We are sent by Inkulu,' the biggest of them said. 'He bade us bringyou to him.'
'And what if I refuse to go?'
'Then, Baas, we must take you to him. We are under the vow of theSnake.'
'Vow of fiddlestick!' I cried. 'Who do you think is the bigger chief,the Inkulu or Ratitswan? I tell you Ratitswan is now driving Inkulubefore him as a wind drives rotten leaves. It will be well for you,men of Machudi, to make peace with Ratitswan and take me to him on theBerg. If you bring me to him, I and he will reward you; but if you doInkulu's bidding you will soon be hunted like buck out of your hills.'
They grinned at one another, but I could see that my words had noeffect.
Laputa had done his business too well.
The spokesman shrugged his shoulders in the way the Kaffirs have. 'Wewish you no ill, Baas, but we have been bidden to take you to Inkulu.We cannot disobey the command of the Snake.'
My weakness was coming on me again, and I could talk no more. I satdown plump on the ground, almost falling into the pool. 'Take me toInkulu,' I stammered with a dry throat, 'I do not fear him;' and Irolled half-fainting on my back.
These clansmen of Machudi were decent fellows. One of them had someKaffir beer in a calabash, which he gave me to drink. The stuff wasthin and sickly, but the fermentation in it did me good. I had thesense to remember my need of sleep. 'The day is young,' I said, 'and Ihave come far. I ask to be allowed to sleep for an hour.'
The men made no difficulty, and with my head between Colin's paws Islipped into dreamless slumber.
When they wakened me the sun was beginning to climb the sky, I judgedit to be about eight o'clock. They had made a little fire and roastedmealies. Some of the food they gave me, and I ate it thankfully. Iwas feeling better, and I think a pipe would have almost completed mycure.
But when I stood up I found that I was worse than I had thought. Thetruth is, I was leg-weary, which you often see in horses, but rarely inmen. What the proper explanation is I do not know, but the musclessimply refuse to answer the direction of the will. I found my legssprawling like a child's who is learning to walk.
'If you want me to go to the Inkulu, you must carry me,' I said, as Idropped once more on the ground.
The men nodded, and set to work to make a kind of litter out of theirknobkerries and some old ropes they carried. As they worked andchattered I looked idly at the left bank of the ravine--that is, theleft as you ascend it. Some of Machudi's men had come down there, and,though the place looked sheer and perilous, I saw how they had managedit. I followed out bit by bit the track upwards, not with any thoughtof escape, but merely to keep my mind under control. The right roadwas from the foot of the pool up a long shelf to a clump of juniper.Then there was an easy chimney; then a piece of good hand-and-footclimbing; and last, another ledge which led by an easy gradient to thetop. I figured all this out as I have heard a condemned man will countthe windows of the houses on his way to the scaffold.
Presently the litter was ready, and the men made signs to me to getinto it. They carried me down the ravine and up the Machudi burn tothe green walls at its head. I admired their bodily fitness, for theybore me up those steep slopes with never a halt, zigzagging in theproper style of mountain transport. In less than an hour we had toppedthe ridge, and the plateau was before me.
It looked very homelike and gracious, rolling in gentle undulations tothe western horizon, with clumps of wood in its hollows. Far away Isaw smoke rising from what should be the village of the Iron Kranz. Itwas the country of my own people, and my captors behoved to gocautiously. They were old hands at veld-craft, and it was wonderfulthe way in which they kept out of sight even on the bare ridges.Arcoll could have taught them nothing in the art of scouting. At anincredible pace they hurried me along, now in a meadow by a streamside, now through a patch of forest, and now skirting a green shoulderof hill.
Once they clapped down suddenly, and crawled into the lee of some thickbracken. Then very quietly they tied my hands and feet, and, noturgently, wound a dirty length of cotton over my mouth. Colin wasmeantime held tight and muzzled with a kind of bag strapped over hishead. To get this over his snapping jaws took the whole strength ofthe party. I guessed that we were nearing the highroad which runs fromthe plateau down the Great Letaba valley to the mining township ofWesselsburg, away out on the plain. The police patrols must be on thisroad, and there was risk in crossing. Sure enough I seemed to catch ajingle of bridles as if from some company of men riding in haste.
We lay still for a little till the scouts came back and reported thecoast clear. Then we made a dart for the road, crossed it, and gotinto cover on the other side, where the ground sloped down to theLetaba glen. I noticed in crossing that the dust of the highway wasthick with the marks of shod horses. I was very near and yet very farfrom my own people.
Once in the rocky gorge of the Letaba we advanced with less care. Wescrambled up a steep side gorge and came on to the small plateau fromwhich the Cloud Mountains rise. After that I was so tired that Idrowsed away, heedless of the bumping of the litter. We went up andup, and when I next opened my eyes we had gone through a pass into ahollow of the hills. There was a flat space a mile or two square, andall round it stern black ramparts of rock. This must be Inanda'sKraal, a strong place if ever one existed, for a few men could defendall the approaches. Considering that I had warned Arcoll of thisrendezvous, I marvelled that no attempt had been made to hold theentrance. The place was impregnable unless guns were brought up to theheights. I remember thinking of a story I had heard--how in the warBeyers took his guns into the Wolkberg, and thereby saved them from ourtroops. Could Arcoll be meditating the same exploit?
Suddenly I heard the sound of loud voices, and my litter was droppedroughly on the ground. I woke to clear consciousness in the midst ofpandemonium.