CHAPTER XVIII
HOW A MAN MAY SOMETIMES PUT HIS TRUST IN A HORSE
I had long passed the limit of my strength. Only constant fear andwild alternations of hope had kept me going so long, and now that I wassafe I became light-headed in earnest. The wonder is that I did notfall off. Happily the horse was good and the ground easy, for I waspowerless to do any guiding. I simply sat on his back in a silly glowof comfort, keeping a line for the dying sun, which I saw in a nick ofthe Iron Crown Mountain. A sort of childish happiness possessed me.After three days of imminent peril, to be free was to be in fairyland.To be swishing through the long bracken or plunging among thebreast-high flowers of the meadowlands in a world of essential lightsand fragrances, seemed scarcely part of mortal experience. Rememberthat I was little more than a lad, and that I had faced death so oftenof late that my mind was all adrift. To be able to hope once more,nay, to be allowed to cease both from hope and fear, was like a deepand happy opiate to my senses. Spent and frail as I was, my soul swamin blessed waters of ease.
The mood did not last long. I came back to earth with a shock, as the_schimmel_ stumbled at the crossing of a stream. I saw that the darknesswas fast falling, and with the sight panic returned to me. Behind me Iseemed to hear the sound of pursuit. The noise was in my ears, butwhen I turned it ceased, and I saw only the dusky shoulders of hills.
I tried to remember what Arcoll had told me about his headquarters, butmy memory was wiped clean. I thought they were on or near the highway,but I could not remember where the highway was. Besides, he was closeto the enemy, and I wanted to get back into the towns, far away fromthe battle-line. If I rode west I must come in time to villages, whereI could hide myself. These were unworthy thoughts, but my excuse mustbe my tattered nerves. When a man comes out of great danger, he is aptto be a little deaf to the call of duty.
Suddenly I became ashamed. God had preserved me from deadly perils,but not that I might cower in some shelter. I had a mission as clearas Laputa's. For the first time I became conscious to what a littlething I owed my salvation. That matter of the broken halter was likethe finger of Divine Providence. I had been saved for a purpose, andunless I fulfilled that purpose I should again be lost. I was always afatalist, and in that hour of strained body and soul I became somethingof a mystic. My panic ceased, my lethargy departed, and a more manlyresolution took their place. I gripped the _schimmel_ by the head andturned him due left. Now I remembered where the highroad ran, and Iremembered something else.
For it was borne in on me that Laputa had fallen into my hands.Without any subtle purpose I had played a master game. He was cut offfrom his people, without a horse, on the wrong side of the highroadwhich Arcoll's men patrolled. Without him the rising would crumble.There might be war, even desperate war, but we should fight against aleaderless foe. If he could only be shepherded to the north, his gamewas over, and at our leisure we could mop up the scatteredconcentrations.
I was now as eager to get back into danger as I had been to get intosafety. Arcoll must be found and warned, and that at once, or Laputawould slip over to Inanda's Kraal under cover of dark. It was a matterof minutes, and on these minutes depended the lives of thousands. Itwas also a matter of ebbing strength, for with my return to commonsense I saw very clearly how near my capital was spent. If I couldreach the highroad, find Arcoll or Arcoll's men, and give them my news,I would do my countrymen a service such as no man in Africa couldrender. But I felt my head swimming, I was swaying crazily in thesaddle, and my hands had scarcely the force of a child's. I could onlylie limply on the horse's back, clutching at his mane with tremblingfingers. I remember that my head was full of a text from the Psalmsabout not putting one's trust in horses. I prayed that this one horsemight be an exception, for he carried more than Caesar and his fortunes.
My mind is a blank about those last minutes. In less than an hourafter my escape I struck the highway, but it was an hour which in theretrospect unrolls itself into unquiet years. I was dimly conscious ofscrambling through a ditch and coming to a ghostly white road. The_schimmel_ swung to the right, and the next I knew some one had taken mybridle and was speaking to me.
At first I thought it was Laputa and screamed. Then I must havetottered in the saddle, for I felt an arm slip round my middle. Therider uncorked a bottle with his teeth and forced some brandy down mythroat. I choked and coughed, and then looked up to see a whitepoliceman staring at me. I knew the police by the greenshoulder-straps.
'Arcoll,' I managed to croak. 'For God's sake take me to Arcoll.'
The man whistled shrilly on his fingers, and a second rider camecantering down the road. As he came up I recognized his face, butcould not put a name to it. 'Losh, it's the lad Crawfurd,' I heard avoice say. 'Crawfurd, man, d'ye no mind me at Lourenco Marques?Aitken?'
The Scotch tongue worked a spell with me. It cleared my wits andopened the gates of my past life. At last I knew I was among my ownfolk.
'I must see Arcoll. I have news for him--tremendous news. O man, takeme to Arcoll and ask me no questions. Where is he? Where is he?'
'As it happens, he's about two hundred yards off,' Aitken said. 'Thatlight ye see at the top of the brae is his camp.'
They helped me up the road, a man on each side of me, for I could neverhave kept in the saddle without their support. My message to Arcollkept humming in my head as I tried to put it into words, for I had ahorrid fear that my wits would fail me and I should be dumb when thetime came. Also I was in a fever of haste. Every minute I wastedincreased Laputa's chance of getting back to the kraal. He had menwith him every bit as skilful as Arcoll's trackers. Unless Arcoll hada big force and the best horses there was no hope. Often in lookingback at this hour I have marvelled at the strangeness of my behaviour.Here was I just set free from the certainty of a hideous death, and yetI had lost all joy in my security. I was more fevered at the thoughtof Laputa's escape than I had been at the prospect of David Crawfurd'send.
The next thing I knew I was being lifted off the _schimmel_ by whatseemed to me a thousand hands. Then came a glow of light, a greatmoon, in the centre of which I stood blinking. I was forced to sitdown on a bed, while I was given a cup of hot tea, far more revivingthan any spirits. I became conscious that some one was holding myhands, and speaking very slowly and gently.
'Davie,' the voice said, 'you're back among friends, my lad. Tell me,where have you been?'
'I want Arcoll,' I moaned. 'Where is Ratitswan?' There were tears ofweakness running down my cheeks.
'Arcoll is here,' said the voice; 'he is holding your hands, Davie.Quiet, lad, quiet. Your troubles are all over now.'
I made a great effort, found the eyes to which the voice belonged, andspoke to them.
'Listen. I stole the collar of Prester John at Dupree's Drift. I wascaught in the Berg and taken to the kraal--I forget its name--but I hadhid the rubies.'
'Yes,' the voice said, 'you hid the rubies,--and then?'
'Inkulu wanted them back, so I made a deal with him. I took him toMachudi's and gave him the collar, and then he fired at me and Iclimbed and climbed ... I climbed on a horse,' I concluded childishly.
I heard the voice say 'Yes?' again inquiringly, but my mind ran off ata tangent.
'Beyers took guns up into the Wolkberg,' I cried shrilly. 'Why thedevil don't you do the same? You have the whole Kaffir army in a trap.'
I saw a smiling face before me.
'Good lad. Colles told me you weren't wanting in intelligence. What ifwe have done that very thing, Davie?'
But I was not listening. I was trying to remember the thing I mostwanted to say, and that was not about Beyers and his guns. Those werenightmare minutes. A speaker who has lost the thread of his discourse,a soldier who with a bayonet at his throat has forgotten thepassword--I felt like them, and worse. And to crown all I felt myfaintness coming back, and my head dropping with heaviness. I was in atorment of impotence.
Arcoll, stil
l holding my hands, brought his face close to mine, so thathis clear eyes mastered and constrained me.
'Look at me, Davie,' I heard him say. 'You have something to tell me,and it is very important. It is about Laputa, isn't it? Think, man.You took him to Machudi's and gave him the collar. He has gone backwith it to Inanda's Kraal. Very well, my guns will hold him there.'
I shook my head. 'You can't. You may split the army, but you can'thold Laputa. He will be over the Olifants before you fire a shot.' 'Wewill hunt him down before he crosses. And if not, we will catch him atthe railway.'
'For God's sake, hurry then,' I cried. 'In an hour he will be over itand back in the kraal.'
'But the river is a long way.'
'River?' I repeated hazily. 'What river? The Letaba is not the place.It is the road I mean.'
Arcoll's hands closed firmly on my wrists.
'You left Laputa at Machudi's and rode here without stopping. Thatwould take you an hour. Had Laputa a horse?'
'Yes; but I took it,' I stammered. 'You can see it behind me.' Arcolldropped my hands and stood up straight.
'By God, we've got him!' he said, and he spoke to his companions. Aman turned and ran out of the tent.
Then I remembered what I wanted to say. I struggled from the bed andput my hands on his shoulders.
'Laputa is our side of the highroad. Cut him off from his men, anddrive him north--north--away up to the Rooirand. Never mind theWolkberg and the guns, for they can wait. I tell you Laputa is theRising, and he has the collar. Without him you can mop up the Kaffirsat your leisure. Line the high-road with every man you have, for hemust cross it or perish. Oh, hurry, man, hurry; never mind me. We'resaved if we can chivy Laputa till morning. Quick, or I'll have to gomyself.'
The tent emptied, and I lay back on the bed with a dim feeling that myduty was done and I could rest. Henceforth the affair was in strongerhands than mine. I was so weak that I could not lift my legs up to thebed, but sprawled half on and half off.
Utter exhaustion defeats sleep. I was in a fever, and my eyes wouldnot close. I lay and drowsed while it seemed to me that the outsideworld was full of men and horses. I heard voices and the sound ofhoofs and the jingle of bridles, but above all I heard the solid trampof an army. The whole earth seemed to be full of war. Before my mindwas spread the ribbon of the great highway. I saw it run white throughthe meadows of the plateau, then in a dark corkscrew down the glen ofthe Letaba, then white again through the vast moonlit bush of theplains, till the shanties of Wesselsburg rose at the end of it. Itseemed to me to be less a road than a rampart, built of shining marble,the Great Wall of Africa. I saw Laputa come out of the shadows and tryto climb it, and always there was the sound of a rifle-breech clicking,a summons, and a flight. I began to take a keen interest in the game.Down in the bush were the dark figures of the hunted, and on the whitewall were my own people--horse, foot, and artillery, the squadrons ofour defence. What a general Arcoll was, and how great a matter hadDavid Crawfurd kindled!
A man came in--I suppose a doctor. He took off my leggings and boots,cutting them from my bleeding feet, but I knew no pain. He felt mypulse and listened to my heart. Then he washed my face and gave me abowl of hot milk. There must have been a drug in the milk, for I hadscarcely drunk it before a tide of sleep seemed to flow over my brain.The white rampart faded from my eyes and I slept.