Zero the Slaver: A Romance of Equatorial Africa

by Lawrence Fletcher

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  "JUST IN TIME."

  For quite a quarter of a mile our friends found that the road providedvery rough travelling indeed. This was the more annoying, as the moonwas fast going down, and it was a matter of vital importance that thelittle band should progress quickly and secure a strong position beforedaylight revealed their movements to the enemy.

  Their only difficulty would be with regard to water, as the party had anabundant supply of stores and ammunition; for, having, of course, noidea as to how long the expedition might be detained in the Interior,Leigh had provisioned it most lavishly, and as game had hitherto beenplentiful, the stores had been very lightly dealt with.

  In an hour's time all had, as they thought, reached level ground, forthe road, after the first half-mile had been negotiated, proved fairlygood, and finding a lofty cavern in the rock, Kenyon drew his wholeparty into it, cast anchor, and wished for the day.

  The darkness had now become positively opaque, for the moon had entirelydisappeared behind the mountains, and a film of mist seemed everywhereto hang over the lower lands, and had their enemies been absolutelywithin arm's length, our friends would have been utterly unable todistinguish them.

  Soon, however, the "darkest hour" was over, and the eastern mountainsbecame dimly outlined through the gauze-like curtain of mist, as theglad light of another brilliant day came speeding in upon the wings ofthe morning, heralding the advent of the sun himself with all theattendant splendour of an equatorial African day.

  Our friends at once perceived that, so far from having reached the levelof the country, they were at present posted on a ridgy platform upon themountain side, whilst far below them, the land which lay considerablylower than that on the other side of the kloof, was stretched out beforethem in wonderfully beautiful panorama.

  On one hand a limpid stream glided peacefully along its course, makingdreamland music in the sunshine, and watering mile after mile of verdantpasture land, which was dotted hero and there with moving herds of game,whilst on the other was a mighty belt of giant forest trees, backed tothe eastward by the everlasting mountains, which appeared absolutely toring-in the country in that direction, though towards the west, as faras the eye could reach, only grass land could be seen, the rolling veldtsweeping clear away to the skyline unrelieved by even a single clump oftrees or bush, and broken only here and there by the silvery tracery oftiny streamlets; whilst to the south, blue in the far distance andfaintly relieved against the azure setting of the sky, could be tracedthe dim outline of a giant mountain-peak, probably fifteen thousand feetin height, its snow-capped crest flashing back in many-coloured radianceeach glorious spear of light cast by the rising sun.

  Kenyon and Leigh were about to give the word to their men (all of whomwere busily gazing at the inviting prospect before them) to get underweigh, when both were fairly electrified by hearing a voice raised inthe cavern just behind them.

  "Greeting!" it said; "greeting to ye strangers." Then as our friendsturned quickly round, and their white personality became evident to thespeaker, "Greeting, white strangers, who come from the northern landsbeyond the distant seas. What seek ye here in this foul place, whereall things that are good live but to die, and where only evil prospers,and the arch-fiend himself bears rule? What seek ye here with MuziZimba the old? and ye black ones, are ye tired of life, and of thatfreedom which alone makes life worth living, that ye venture your headsinside the lion's mouth? Go I go, all of ye, white and black. Go! inGod's name, while the life is yet whole in ye. Why tarry ye here?Escape for your lives, my sons, and peace go with ye."

  Our friends had been closely watching the individual who delivered thisstrange yet forcible appeal, and looks of commiseration passed from oneto the other. The man was as white-skinned as themselves, and judgingfrom the purity of his English must have been at one time a Britishsubject. He was, however, extremely old, probably eighty-five orninety, and his face, which was benign and gentle, was shrouded by hislong, silvery locks, and muffled, as it were, in an immense snow-whitebeard, which reached down to his very waist, and gave him an altogethervenerable and striking appearance; his voice was strong and resonant,his manner quiet and peaceful, _but the man was obviously mad_. He hadevidently become so accustomed to the native metaphor that he hadunconsciously adopted it as his own language, and his diction at besthalted somewhat, as if he were unused, indeed, to exercising his tonguein framing speech of any kind.

  Whilst Kenyon hesitated what to do, Leigh went frankly forward and heldbut his hand to the old fellow, who shook it heartily; then, humouringhim, Leigh spoke, and as the full, rich voice struck upon his ear, theold man bent his head and seemed as if the familiar accents had broughtback to him some signs or memories of the long-forgotten past.

  "Greeting, my father, greeting," answered Leigh. "Thy sons havewandered hither on a long and very weary path, seeking for a lost onewho left them many moons ago. In face he was even as I am, and in formwas somewhat less, and spoke to his people with an English tongue. Tellme, hast thou seen such an one, my father?"

  The old man gazed steadily at Leigh for some moments, then, changing hiswrapt manner, he spoke sadly, "My son, I have, indeed, met with him, andthy living image he was; but never, alas! wilt thou see him in theflesh, for to-day he dies--ay! dies a dog's death, and does it for hisfaith, like a gallant Christian man."

  "Dies?" thundered Leigh; "he shall not die, he must not die--oh! Dick,Dick, have I come right across the world to arrive one day too late?"

  Eagerly the pair tried to question the old man, but he at once grewconfused and his weak mind evidently failed to realise their anxiety orto grasp the drift of their questions, and at last he turned upon themwith quiet dignity. "Leave me now, my sons," he said, "for I go tooffer prayers for him who dies when yonder sun reaches the zenith.Return whence ye came, so shall ye live and not die--go, and God go withye--farewell!" and this strange individual moved slowly away down thecavern and disappeared in the inner gloom.

  Hastily directing their men to lie hidden in the cave until theirreturn, Leigh and Kenyon armed themselves to the teeth, and quicklyslipping down the rocky path, were soon speeding across the open, anddirecting their hurried steps towards the forest.

  Each was equipped with a repeating-rifle, four Smith and Wesson'srevolver-pistols, and as much ammunition as he could well carry, so thatthe pace, in spite of the best endeavours of the pair, was somewhatslow, and when, after two hours of continued effort, they entered thebelt of wood, both judged it expedient to sit down and eat some foodwhilst enjoying a short rest. Soon, however, getting on their legsagain, our friends struck into a forest path, which they followed asfast as they could travel, instinct, or else the promptings of despairleading them in the right direction.

  For another hour the pair ascended gradually through the forest, thepath leading steadily upwards, and ultimately terminating in a sharpclimb; but, just as they were about to negotiate this piece of woodedrock, they heard a burst of music [_sic_] evidently proceeding fromtom-toms, horns, and other instruments of abomination, dear to the heartof the aboriginal African.

  Cautiously ascending the rock, our friends concealed themselves in abush, and then a curious sight met their eyes. Some thirty feet belowthem lay a sort of hollow in the mountains, which looked as if it had atone time formed the base of a vast quarry, being perhaps a thousandyards across its widest part, and shaped somewhat in the form of ahorseshoe, but now carpeted everywhere with short, smooth turf. At thefarther side of this mighty enclosure was a narrow gap or pass in themountains, which clearly gave access to the spot, and through thisstriking natural gateway some thousands of ebony-skinned Africans werenow pouring, accompanying their march with all sorts of horrible andear-splitting native music.

  Quickly the black fellows filed in, to the number of, probably, threethousand, and squatted themselves down on the rocks, which, as on theside occupied by Leigh and his comrade, formed a solid barrier somethirty feet high round the ring
of level turf.

  Following upon the heels of this riff-raff appeared a mixed mob of somethree to four hundred white men and women, escorting a native who wasevidently a King, or, at least, a "Big Chief," judging from theattentions they lavished upon him, and from his striking "get up." Thislast consisted of a stove-pipe hat, a scarlet coat adorned with goldbraid, and a pair of bright yellow stockings of unusual length, reachingwell up the thigh; round his waist was buckled an enormously longcavalry sword, which trailed upon the ground as he walked, and in hishand he carried a "gun" considerably taller than himself; it was, infact, one of those fearfully and wonderfully made specimens of the genusgas-pipe with which England and Germany delight to arm the whole ofAfrica at about eight shillings per head.

  "Solomon in all his glory, by Jove," whispered Leigh to the observantand attentive Kenyon. All disposition to laugh was, however, quicklystifled by the appearance of a man carrying a flag, which was promptlyplanted in the very centre of the open space, and welcomed by theassembled thousands with a positive frenzy of enthusiasm, but wasgreeted by Leigh with a groan of horror and dismay, for upon a deadblack ground it bore a white circle, and in the centre of this ring werethree horrible basilisk-looking eyes.

  Kenyon on his part whistled quietly. "So!" he said, "Zero and theMormon Trinity--birds of a feather, by all that's holy! Well, we mustwatch and wait, and somehow I don't think our patience will be tried forvery much longer."

  Just then a hammock was borne in, and from this there alighted a whitewoman, a Spaniard or an Italian by her looks; this female beinginstantly accommodated with a seat, and approached with much deferenceby the white men in the crowd.

  Leigh thought he had never seen a more wicked, yet withal a morehandsome, face. Her complexion was beautifully clear, her hair blackand glossy as the raven's wing, and her figure simply superb; but theeyes looked like coals of living fire, and the mouth, as Kenyon--who wasbusy sketching her in his notebook--remarked, was more like a springrat-trap than anything else.

  A wait of half an hour next ensued, during which the native banddiscoursed sweet (?) music, and then there went up a mighty shout fromthe motley throng which thickly lined the farther side of the greatenclosure, as a small crowd of men, white and black, were driven in atthe spear's point; all had their hands tied behind them, but had theirlegs left perfectly free to enable them to run at will, the slaversknowing well, that deprived as the captives were of the use of theirhands and arms, they could not escape by climbing up the rocks.

  A moment later the friends, to their utter horror, beheld a barrierlifted, and through the opening thus made there immediately charged acolossal-looking bull-elephant. For a full minute the great brute gazedwickedly about him, as if debating the possibility of getting at theblock fellows who were rapidly angering him with their infernaltom-toms; next he trumpeted until the welkin rang again, and then all ofa sudden threw up his trunk, and hurled his vast bulk blindly at thewretched band of captives, who fled incontinently in every direction,whilst the air resounded with yells of laughter from the spectators,black and white, across the wide enclosure. These wretches wereevidently enjoying to the full this intensely Roman spectacle, and Leighfelt his blood boil at the thought that the lives of human beings--whitemen, moreover--were to be deliberately sacrificed in this trulydiabolical manner to provide an hour's amusement for an ignorant savageand his greasy, yelping retinue of semi-monkeyfied followers. By andby, however, a great black man fleeted--with the speed of light--pastthe rock where our friends lay hid, the enraged elephant following closeupon his heels; and brief though the glimpse was, in an instant Leighknew his man, and blew a peculiar little reed whistle which Kenyon hadoften noticed attached to his friend's watch-chain.

  Once! twice! thrice! he sounded the signal, and then, lo! and behold,every captive on the ground, both white and black, was seen to turnshort in his tracks and speed madly across the wide stretch of open, ina wild endeavour to reach the distant rock; close behind the crowdthundered the giant mammal, screaming with rage, and gaining upon theluckless wights at every step, the tip of his snake-like trunk almostseeming to touch the hindmost runner. It was an altogetherextraordinary, yet at the same time a very dreadful, sight; and asLeigh's rifle leaped to his shoulder, he seemed, by one of those curioustricks which fancy sometimes plays us, to see the Colosseum spread outbefore him, its benches packed to suffocation with the pleasure-seekersof an ancient Roman holiday, and its arena peopled by the noble martyrsfalling beneath the claws of Nero's ravening beasts.

  History ever repeats itself, and at this very instant, whilst theeasy-going people of the nineteenth Christian century were sittingquietly in their peaceful homes, thanking God that such acts and deedswere for ever at an end, here was the horrid self-same spectacle beingre-enacted in darkest Africa, without any of the added refinements ofmodern cruelty, upon the living bodies of their own fellow-men, bothwhite and black.

  Thought, however, is swift, and Leigh's thought delayed him never aninstant, and even as he pressed the trigger and saw the deadly bullet gohomo, and the mighty elephant pitch forward upon his knees, he sprangupright upon the ledge of rock, to show the captives where their friendslay hid; then, as his rifle thundered out again, backed up by the echoof Kenyon's heavy piece, and the discomfited elephant wallowed on theground with three shell bullets in his ugly carcass, Leigh was consciousthat Kenyon was slipping down the rock, and quickly following hisfriend, both were in an instant busy with their hunting-knives upon thethongs which held the prisoners, who, twenty-five in number, six whiteand the rest black, were all at liberty and eagerly scrambling up therock before the mixed assemblage beyond the great enclosure hadthoroughly realised what was going on, less than a thousand yards away,under cover of the smoke and the rapid discharges of strange rifles.

  Just as a crowd of white men came streaming across the ground, and asLeigh was about to raise his rifle with the view of checking theiradvance, a voice behind him said, "Give me a turn at that, Alf; I longto get even with yonder blasphemous slaving hound. He tarred andfeathered me one day."

  Leigh knew the voice, and turning quickly, confronted his long-lostCousin Dick. One warm hand-grasp was all, then the tears started to hiseyes, as he relinquished his gun and strode away.

  Dick Grenville! But alas! how changed--feeble, emaciated, andhollow-eyed, covered with filth, and clad in the skin of a leopard.Leigh had actually taken his own cousin for a very ordinary-lookingblack man, but the old spirit, unbroken by Mormons or slavers, was stillthere--the eye as true, and the hand firm as a grip of steel. Springingforward, he shook the weapon over his head, and his voice went ringingacross the rock-bound stretch of veldt, as he called to the leader ofthe advancing crowd, "Crewdson Walworth, I promised you this a year ago,and here it is--a Grenville ever keeps his word." The rifle vomited itsdeadly contents, and the man, who was none other than Kenyon's quondamacquaintance, the "Swell" of Durban, went down, with a bullet throughhis heart, and pitched head over heels like a shot rabbit.

  Kenyon coolly followed up the shot, and the repeaters fairly opened alane in the approaching crowd, who fired wildly into the bush withoutdoing any serious damage, and in another moment, to the number of abouttwenty, were busy scrambling up the rock, whilst Leigh, Grenville andKenyon emptied rifle and revolver into their ranks at point-blank range.Suddenly Leigh heard another well-remembered voice. "Let my father,"it said, "give Amaxosa a little space, that the child of the Undi mayrevenge himself, and slay these evil-minded men;" and moving to oneside, Leigh saw his oft-tried comrade-in-arms, the proud young Zuluchief, walk coolly to the very verge of the platform, with a mighty massof rock poised in his powerful arms. For one brief instant he stoodthus, while his keen eye played over the hated forms of his latemasters; then with a wild, earth-shaking shout he plunged the enormousmissile right into the midst of the enemy where they were most closelymassed together, bearing them backwards to the ground a bleeding,senseless pulp of human flesh and bones.

  The revolver
s quickly accounted for the few men who were left alive, anda minute later the re-united cousins, led by Kenyon, and followed bytheir triumphant "Impi," were descending the rock on its outer side, andmaking for the friendly cover of the forest, their only loss being oneZulu, who was shot through the body, and whom necessity compelled themto leave behind at the point of dissolution.

  A hasty consultation ensued when the whole party had reached the forest,and both Leigh and Kenyon heard, with unmixed satisfaction, that theenemy would be under the necessity of following directly upon theirtrail, there being absolutely no path by which he could get round or cutoff the retreat of the fugitives. Grenville also added that his friendshad come in a fortunate hour, for had Zero himself been present, or hadCrewdson Walworth not fallen so early in the fray, all would have hadtheir work cut out to get away from the enclosure with whole skins. Soweak were the late captives, that travelling was of necessity very slowindeed, or at least it seemed so to men fleeing with the knowledge thatre-capture meant prompt and certain death.

  Owing to the villainous treatment he had received, poor Grenville was ina pitiable state, but after a twenty minutes' rest, during which hiscousin fed him with biscuits steeped in brandy, he made another effort,and Kenyon having speeded on ahead, and chased down their bearers with ahammock, the party soon had Grenville safely and comfortably housed intheir temporary lodging on the mountain side.

  Here the rescued one assured them that the whole band might safely liehidden for a day or two during Zero's absence, as both white and blackslavers held the spot in superstitious veneration on account of thepresence of the old hermit--for some such thing Grenville declared theirmad friend of the morning to be. Half priest he was, half doctor, andpartly recluse. Grenville knew naught of him beyond the fact that hehad occupied his present location, and been looked up to by the nativesas a species of god, long years before ever Zero and his following ofscoundrels overran the country side. For his simple necessities hereceived weekly supplies at the hands of the surrounding negro chiefs,who held him to be the greatest fetish in the land, and believed that hecould kill or cure them, ruin their crops, or give them rain andfruitful seasons at his will; not that he, poor old man, had everattempted to inoculate them with any such belief, having, on thecontrary, always treated them as kindly as if they were his ownchildren. To Grenville he had been extremely good, and had seemed muchimpressed with him, because our friend hod once again refused to buy hislife at the prohibitive price of an introduction into the Mormonbrotherhood.

  Kenyon had tried to give Grenville in few words the history of hiscousin's bereavement, fearing that a natural, yet abrupt, inquiry afterLady Drelincourt would greatly distress poor Leigh. The detectivefound, however, to his astonishment, that Grenville was in possession offull particulars of the cowardly double murder, Zero having boasted tohim of the commission of the deed as a meritorious action, performed inrevenge for the doings of their own party in East Utah. Theslaver-chieftain had, it appeared, possessed himself of the persons ofGrenville and of Amaxosa and some thirty of his warriors, by askilfully-executed night attack, in which he was supported by upwards ofthree hundred armed whites and a horde of natives.

  The story of the captives after this date was written in letters oftorture and of blood, and when his cousin, to try him, asked Grenvillehow soon he would be in condition to turn his face homewards, the oldspirit blazed out once more, as he vowed by all he held sacred that hewould never leave the locality until Zero and his villainous followingwere completely wiped out and stamped flat, even did he know that hisown life would in consequence be forfeited.

  Needless to say, both Leigh and Kenyon heard these determinedexpressions with undisguised satisfaction, for these two had alreadycome secretly to a like unanimous decision, and being now assisted byGrenville, with his perfect local knowledge, and backed by several whitemen, in addition to the redoubtable Amaxosa and a score of his pickedwarriors, who only required a few days of rest and good food to fit themfor anything at all in the fighting line, both men felt much moresanguine of accomplishing the end they had in view, and of meting outstern retributive justice to the villainous slavers, and the double-dyedmurderer who acted as their chief.

  Asked to relate how he had executed the hieroglyphic upon the face ofthe rock within the kloof, Grenville explained that he had been bound atthe "tail-end" of a line of half-a-dozen Zulus, and thrown upon theground at the very edge of the cliff, whilst the slavers were bringingup the rest of their wretched captives by moonlight, and getting a sharpstone in his fettered hands, he had hung, head-downwards, suspended overthe gulf in perfect safety, knowing that the weight of the men abovewould be a sheet-anchor for him. To Grenville's dismay, however, hefound, when his work was done, that he could not regain his position onthe rock, and just as he was losing consciousness with the rush of bloodto his head, he was rescued by the slavers, who flogged him soundly forwhat they took to be a deliberate attempt to rob them of his valuedperson by the committal of cold-blooded suicide.

  Cautious as ever, Grenville could not be persuaded to rest or sleepuntil he had seen Leigh and Amaxosa on guard, and had warned Kenyon torelieve the Zulu chief in two or three hours, as the poor fellow hadhad, he said, an uncommonly rough time of it lately, and the diabolicaland senseless ill-usage to which he had been subjected, must have toldits tale upon even his iron constitution.

  The rest of the white men and Zulus, all of whom Leigh had been able toarm out of his ample stores of weapons, were already sleeping such asleep as they had not enjoyed for a full year. To Grenville's delight,he found that his cousin had got a spare Winchester rifle for him, andwith this and a pair of his favourite revolvers, he felt fit and readyfor anything once again.