CHAPTER X--A BREATHING SPACE
On arriving at the entrance to the nullah, Tom found that Mirambo hadalready herded the women and children beyond the first bend, somethingless than a quarter of a mile away, and was superintending the bestowalof the stores still farther up, on natural ledges in the steep bank.
At the southern extremity the nullah was about sixty yards wide. In themiddle a shallow stream rippled over the rocky bottom, disappearing inplaces beneath tangled masses of vegetation. Trees of many kinds grew onthe steep walls, acacias and euphorbias predominating, and on both sidesof the stream there were many patches of scrub, mimosa, and thorn,rendering the passage by no means easy. But these natural obstaclesmust be supplemented by art if the place was to be made even tolerablysecure, and Tom lost no time in putting the necessary works inoperation.
He first posted a score of riflemen in the scrub about two hundred yardssouth of the nullah, putting Mirambo in charge of them, with orders tofire one volley if the enemy appeared, and then to withdraw. Next heset all available men to clear away, with the tools brought from theplantation, all the bush that grew thickly in front of the entrance, inorder to give a field of fire. The negroes, many of whom had beenemployed in clearing the ground for the plantation, were experts at thejob, and when more than a hundred men work with a will the result isalmost magical. In half an hour the space was free from every stump androot.
Allowing them a few minutes for rest, during which the men who hadshared in his delaying action delighted the rest with very tall storiesof their prowess, he set them to fell a number of trees with which toconstruct a barricade across the entrance. While they were thusengaged, Mwesa came to him.
"Haroun say want speak, sah."
"Haroun is one of the overseers, isn't he? Well, bring him down."
Mwesa soon returned with one of the prisoners, whom Tom knew by sight--atall, lean Arab, with strongly marked features and piercing eyes.Addressing Tom very humbly in broken German, he begged to be allowed totake service with him. He had not been long in Reinecke's pay; indeed,he had been reluctant to accept employment with the German; nay more, hehad actually been forced to do so, for he was headman of an Arab villageon the Great Lake, and his village would have been destroyed if he hadnot obeyed the call of the German "big master."
Tom did not much like the look of the man, but, true to Mr. Barkworth'scounsel to "keep an open mind," he decided not to stand on mereprejudice; and after learning from Mwesa that the Wahehe had nothingagainst this latest comer among the overseers, he accepted the Arab'soffer, and instructed him to superintend the erection of the barricade.
Time would not allow of the construction of a regular stockade, withpoles properly cut and trimmed, and deeply planted in the ground. Itseemed to Tom that the most effective barrier that could be quicklyraised would consist of small trees with their foliage, set as closelytogether as might be, with their crowns pointing outwards, in the formof a rough _chevaux de frise_. The men were set to work on those lines.Some felled or uprooted young trees from the slopes of the nullah,others hauled them to the bottom, and a third gang arranged them side byside across the entrance. Meanwhile a party of boys was employed incutting brushwood and piling it here and there among the trees where thefoliage was thin. A single gap was left on the east side as a gatewayfor the scouts.
The work had only just been roughly accomplished when a scattered volleyfrom Mirambo's party apprised Tom that the enemy had at last appeared.Immediately afterwards he saw his men running back from the line ofbushes, and they had no sooner gained the entrance to the nullah than aregular volley flashed from the cover they had just left.
Tom posted his men along the inner side of the barricade, ordered themto kneel, pass the muzzles of their rifles through the brushwood, andfire at the legs of the enemy askaris when he gave the word. Haroun theArab begged to be entrusted with a rifle: but Tom, remembering anotherof Mr. Barkworth's maxims, "Prove all men," refused the request until heshould have tested his new recruit. A turncoat has to win confidence.
The enemy, however, did not repeat their volley. Apparently they weredaunted by the aspect of the barricade which had sprung up sounexpectedly, and which, in the distance, looked formidable enough.Their hesitation to storm it was reasonable, especially if they were inno great strength; and Tom, though he could see nothing of them throughthe screen of bushes, had come to the conclusion that the vast numberhis scouts had reported was a figment of their lively imagination. NoGerman, in command of any considerable body of disciplined men, wouldhave been so sluggish in following up a horde of untrained negroes.
Near the barricade the sides of the nullah sloped up steeply, but wereeasily scalable. It occurred to Tom that the enemy might wait untilnightfall and then attempt to turn his position. That, however, wouldinvolve obvious difficulties and dangers; the German could hardly affordto divide his force, if it were indeed a small one. At any rate such anoperation could be defeated by unremitting vigilance, and meanwhilethere was all the rest of the day, supposing his conjecture were wellfounded, in which to push on with his defensive works. Posting, then,some of the riflemen under cover of the vegetation on either slope, Tomset the other men to fill up the gaps in the barricade. They workedwith the eagerness of those who have faith in their leader, and beforethe sun set Tom had the satisfaction of seeing his wall complete--arough, slight defence, indeed--but likely to be effective againstnothing worse than rifle fire.
By the time darkness fell, he had begun to realise that the position ofa commander-in-chief is not one to be coveted. In his own small spherehe had had, as he frankly put it to himself, quite enough of it. Thephysical and nervous strain of the last few days; the sense ofresponsibility for the welfare of the people who had so readily puttheir trust in him; above all, perhaps, the want of sleep; had almost,in his own words again, knocked him out. Yet he dared not even sleepwhile the enemy was at hand. Without him the Wahehe would be simply anunorganised mob. There was nothing for it but to reconcile himself toanother wakeful night, to ensure that his sentries were alert, and toleave the organisation of the people, in their retreat up the nullah, toa hoped-for leisure.
The night passed undisturbed, except for false alarms. Unaccustomed tonight watching, the negroes more than once declared that they heardfootsteps, and even saw faces. One of them fired off his rifle innervous excitement at the dangers his imagination had conjured up.Their fears proved to be baseless; and in the morning, when Tom warilyclimbed the slope to a point from which he could overlook the groundbeyond the bushes, there was no sign of the enemy. A little suspicious,he sent Mushota out to creep round the position, and, if the enemy hadindeed decamped, to follow them up and see what they were about. In anhour the lad returned, elation beaming from his broad smiling face. Hereported that the askaris were marching swiftly back towards theplantation; in fact, they were running away! Tom did not contradicthim: the belief that the enemy had fled would encourage the people; hehimself thought it likely enough that they had been recalled for moreimportant work than rounding up a gang of mutinous recruits. ButReinecke had escaped, and Reinecke, he felt sure, would never rest untilhe had made a bid for vengeance on the man who had committed the crimethat a rascal never forgives--found him out.
"Pity he's gone, after all," thought Tom.
Now that no immediate danger was to be feared, he allowed himself theindulgence of a couple of hours' sleep, leaving Mirambo in charge.Refreshed by this all too brief rest, he went up the nullah to see howthe greater part of his people were getting on. Not at all to hissurprise, he found that nothing whatever had been done by way oforganisation. The negro at best has little initiative, and theseemancipated slaves, in unfamiliar surroundings, had taken no thoughtexcept to feed themselves, which they had done uncommonly well. Tom wasnot prepared to follow his mother's prescription with a new housemaid:give free run until they made themselves ill. Economy might be vitallynecessary: he saw that his first task must be that of food controller.He c
alled up Reinecke's head servant, a fat negro from one of the coasttribes.
"I want you to listen to me, Moses," he said. "You see what hashappened. I have brought the people away for two reasons: first, tofree them, then to prevent the men from fighting for the Germans. Youare no longer Herr Reinecke's servant, but my prisoner--unless you liketo take service with me. I tell you frankly I can't pay you, atpresent; but the Germans are going to be beaten, you understand; don'tmake any mistake about that; and when I get to Abercorn I will pay youyour full wages, and something extra if you serve me well. Think itover."
Now Moses, like all the other servants, had fallen under the spell ofTom's personality. To put it shortly, Reinecke frowned, Tom smiled.Further, he had been greatly impressed by the stories told him by theArabs and by Mirami: the moral victory over the German sergeant and thehumbling of Reinecke were events that specially struck a negro'simagination. If all Englishmen were like this one, it was not at allincredible to Moses that the Germans would be beaten indeed. Why notserve the Englishman, then--and get extra pay? It seemed worth trying.
Moses thought it over while Tom was counting the rifles and cases ofammunition. His choice was made.
"Very well," said Tom, when the man came to him. "Now I want you totake stock of the provisions, and tell me how long they ought to last ifwe are careful. The people have been helping themselves freely, I see.We can't have that."
Tom's use of the plural flattered the negro's self-importance. He setabout his first task with alacrity, and reported presently that the foodwould last six or eight weeks if the women were kept in order. Tomdelighted him by arranging that each head of a family and eachindependent man should come to Moses once a week for his supply of food.
"We'll see how it works," he thought.
He had made up his mind to release and dismiss the askaris; they wouldonly be so many useless mouths to feed. But when he told them they wereto go they looked by no means pleased. They gazed blankly at him and atone another, then withdrew in a knot and talked among themselves.Presently one of them came back, and said that none of them wished togo. They hated the Germans: they would rather serve the Englishman.
Tom looked at them squarely.
"Don't make any mistake," he said. "You will not have an easy time ifyou stay with me. You will have to work hard."
The man asked if they were to fight.
"I can't tell you that. You will not have rifles, at any rate, untilyou have shown that you are faithful."
Would they have to drill?
Tom smiled. He had watched recruits in barrack-yards in Germany, and hemade a shrewd guess that the African askari did not find the Germandrill-sergeant a very gentle taskmaster.
"You may have to do my drill," he said. "You don't know what that is?Then you had better stay a few days and look on while I drill theWahehe. If you don't like it, you shall be free to go."
The askari's artless question drew Tom's thoughts to a survey of hisposition. He had brought the people away. For the present, apparently,they were safe. What course was he to lay down for them and forhimself? He was handicapped by ignorance of what was happening on theborder forty miles away. From a remark let fall by Reinecke during thatunforgettable dinner in the bungalow he surmised that the British inNorthern Rhodesia were likely to be on the defensive at the opening ofthe campaign. The Germans, he knew, had a much larger military force onthe frontier, and from what Reinecke had said, they were energeticallyraising new levies among the natives. It would be unlike the British,an extraordinary break-away from their traditions, if they were nottaken by surprise, not slow in waking up, not tenacious and successfulwhen fully aroused.
Tom's conclusion was that he must sit tight. He might try to open upcommunications with the British, with a view either to a dash across thefrontier, or to joining them if they should advance into Germanterritory. Meanwhile, though for some reason unknown the small forcethat had followed him up had drawn off, he was virtually besieged. Hisfirst task, then, was to put his position into as thorough a state ofdefence as was possible, and to establish such order among the littlecommunity as would further his ultimate design.
"And I've got all my work cut out," he thought, somewhat drearily. Thenhe smiled as he remembered his brother. "Wouldn't Bob grin! By George,though, if we're at war Bob will want to be in it! Of course he will!The business will go to pot. What a rum world it is!"
Tom Willoughby's Scouts: A Story of the War in German East Africa Page 10