CHAPTER SEVEN.
IN THE LION'S DEN.
Every eye was bent upon the new arrival. With a quick, instinctivemovement the savages closed around the foolhardy Englishman. There wasa scowl of deadly import upon each grim face. Hundreds of assegais werepoised with a quiver of suppressed eagerness. The man's life seemed notworth a moment's purchase.
"Out of my way, you _schepsels_!" he cried roughly, urging his horsethrough the sullen and threatening crowd, as though so many hundreds ofarmed and excited barbarians worked up to the highest pitch ofblood-thirstiness were just that number of cowering and subservientslaves. "Out of my way, do you hear? Where is Nteya? I want Nteya,the chief. Where is he?"
"Here I am, _umlungu_ [White man]. What do you want with me?" answeredNteya--making a rapid and peremptory signal to restrain the imminentresentment of his followers. "Am I not always here, that you shouldbreak in upon me in this violent manner? Do _I_ go to _your_ house, andride up to the door and shout for you as though you were stricken withsudden deafness?"
The chief's rebuke, quiet and dignified, might have carried some tingeof humiliation to any man less overbearing and hot-headed than TomCarhayes, even as the low growl of hardly contained exasperation whicharose from the throng might have conveyed an ominous warning. But uponthis man both were alike thrown away. Yet it may be that the veryinsanity of his fool-hardiness constituted his safety. Had he quailedbut a moment his doom was sealed.
"I didn't come here to hold an _indaba_," [Talk--palaver] he shouted."I want my sheep. Look here, Nteya. You have put me off very cleverlytime after time with one excuse or another. But this time you are_pagadi_ [Cornered]. I've run you to earth--or rather some of those_schepsels_ of yours. That young villain Goniwe has driven offthirty-seven of my sheep, and two of your fellows have helped him. I'vespoored them right into your location as straight as a line. Now?"
"When was this, Umlilwane?" said Nteya, imperturbably.
"When? When? To-night, man. This very night, do you hear?" roared theother.
"_Hau_! The white man has the eyes of twenty vultures that he can seeto follow the spoor of thirty-seven sheep on a dark night," cried amocking voice--and a great shout of derisive laughter went up from thewhole savage crowd. The old chief, however, preserved his dignified andcalm demeanour.
"You are excited, Umlilwane," he said--a faint smile lurking round thecorners of his mouth. "Had you not better go home and return in themorning and talk things over quietly? Surely you would not forgetyourself like a boy or a quarrelsome old woman."
If a soft answer turneth away wrath, assuredly an injunction to keepcool to an angry man conduceth to a precisely opposite result. IfCarhayes had been enraged before, his fury now rose to white heat.
"You infernal old scoundrel!" he roared. "Don't I tell you I havespoored the sheep right bang into your kraal? They are here now, I tellyou; here now. And you try to put me off with your usual Kafir lies andshuffling." And shaking with fury he darted forth his hand, which stillheld the heavy rhinoceros hide _sjambok_, as though he would have struckthe chief then and there. But Nteya did not move.
"_Hau_!" cried Hlangani, who had been a silent but attentive witness tothis scene. "_Hau_! Thus it is that the chiefs of the Amaxosa aretrampled on by these _abelungu_ (whites). Are we men, I say? Are wemen?" And the eyes of the savage flashed with terrible meaning as hewaved his hand in the direction of the foolhardy Englishman.
Thus was the spark applied to the dry tinder. The crowd surged forward.A dozen sinewy hands gripped the bridle, and in a moment Carhayes wasflung violently to the earth.
Stunned, half-senseless he lay. Assegais flashed in the firelight. Itseemed that the unfortunate settler's hours were numbered. Anothermoment and a score of bright blades would be buried in his body.
But a stern and peremptory mandate from the chief arrested eachimpending stroke.
"Stop, my children!" cried Nteya, standing over the prostrate man andextending his arms as though to ward off the deadly blows. "Stop, mychildren! I, your chief; I, your father, command it. Would you playinto the hands of your enemies? Be wise, I say. Be wise in time."
Sullenly the crowd fell back. With weapons still uplifted, with eyeshanging hungrily upon their chief's face, like tigers balked momentarilyof their prey, the warriors paused. And the dull, brooding glare of thesignal fire flashing aloft upon the hilltop fell redly upon that fierceand threatening sea of figures standing over the prostrate body of theirhated and now helpless enemy. But the word of a Kafir chief is law tohis followers. There was no disputing that decisive mandate.
"Rise, Umlilwane," went on Nteya. "Rise, and go in peace. In theevening, when the blood is heated, it is not well to provoke strife byangry words. In the morning, when heads are cool, return here and talk.If your sheep are here, they shall be restored to you. Now go, whileit is yet safe."
Carhayes, still half-stunned by the violence of his fall, staggered tohis feet.
"If they are here!" he repeated sullenly. "Damn it, they _are_ here!"he blazed forth in a fresh access of wrath. Then catching themalevolent glance of Hlangani, and becoming alive to the very sinisterand menacing expression on the countenances of the other Kafirs, even hebegan to realise that some degree of prudence was desirable, not to sayessential. "Well, well, it's the old trick again, but I suppose ourturn will come soon," he growled, as he proceeded to mount his horse.
The crowd parted to make way for him, and amid ominous mutterings and anunpleasantly suggestive shaking of weapons towards him, he rode away ashe had come. None followed him. The chief's eye was upon his recedingfigure. The chief's "word" had been given. But even protected by thatsafe conduct, he would be wise to put as much space as possible betweenhimself and that sullen and warlike gathering, and that, too, with thegreatest despatch.
None followed him--at the moment. But Hlangani mixed unperceived amongthe crowd, whispering a word here and a word there. And soon, by twosand threes, a number of armed savages stole silently forth into thenight, moving swiftly upon the retreating horseman's track.
'Tween Snow and Fire: A Tale of the Last Kafir War Page 7