Tom Willoughby's Scouts: A Story of the War in German East Africa

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER XV--THE BACK DOOR

  "Run back and see if the askaris are still there," said Tom to Mwesa.

  The lad darted away through the bush that clothed the top of the bank ofthe defile. Returning in a few minutes, he reported that the enemy hadnot stirred from their position.

  "Then we will go on. Keep close to me."

  They made their way carefully down the slope. At the bottom they peepedover. A narrow cleft zigzagged down the face of a steep cliff, for themost part bare rock, but with trees and bushes growing here and therewhere soil gave them roothold. This vegetation and the windings of thecleft hid Reinecke and the Arab from sight; but several hundred feetbelow they could just discern, through the mist, the still surface of anexpanse of water.

  Mwesa's eyes opened wide with surprise.

  "Don't speak," whispered Tom. "Yes; I think it is our lake."

  Reinecke's purpose was now clear to him. He acquitted his sentries ofnegligence. Haroun had evidently discovered a hitherto unsuspectedmeans of egress from the nullah; on his information Reinecke had broughtup his askaris to take the position in reverse, but before committingthem to the enterprise had gone down to test the Arab's veracity. Itwould take him a long time to climb down the steep and rugged cleft,hampered as he must be by his wounded arm: still longer to climb upagain. What would he do when he returned? Would he at once order theattack? Daylight would last just long enough: a night attack wasimpossible; no sane person would attempt to descend by so precipitous apath in darkness. Would he camp for the night, and attack with thedawn? It seemed to Tom that he would hardly wait unless delay wereunavoidable, for there was the chance that rain would fall again, and atropical storm that might continue for days would render his schemehopeless. No doubt his decision would depend on the result of hisobservations below.

  To what point in the nullah the cleft led, Tom had at present noknowledge. It might descend to the lake side, or wind away to some spotfarther down. He thought rapidly over the courses open to him. Hemight make his way back through the ravine, plunge into the bush, andhurry along parallel with the nullah until he gained the entrance.Thereby he might provide against the threatened attack and perhaps takemeasures for a counterstroke. But one consideration told heavilyagainst this idea. At his best speed he could hardly expect to reachthe barricade before dark, and meanwhile Reinecke, if he found thesecret way so easy as Haroun had apparently declared, might have led hismen into the nullah, taken the people by surprise, and overcome whatresistance they were able to make without their leader.

  What alternative was there? If Reinecke once rejoined the askariswaiting in the defile nothing could avail to check him. It wasimpossible to slip past him on the narrow cleft, and organise thedefence while he returned for his men. Could he be prevented fromreturning? Without him the German lieutenant would probably hesitate torisk a plunge into the unknown. Tom thought that Mwesa and himselfshould be a match for Reinecke and the Arab; but if a cry or a shotreached the ears of the men waiting above, all would end in disaster.

  The only chance of success seemed to lie in following Reinecke down thecleft and lying in wait for him at some spot where he could be taken ata disadvantage. Tom hurriedly whispered his plan to Mwesa, then steppeddown into the cleft and began his careful descent.

  The frequent windings of the narrow gully, the patches of vegetation,the boulders that stood up here and there, rendered detection from belowunlikely; but Tom moved very warily, peering round every corner, everybush and rock, listening for voices or footsteps. The lower he and thenegro descended, the more cautious they were. Once or twice Tomslipped, and had to catch at a tree or a shrub to prevent himself fromslithering down. No such mishaps befell the barefooted negro, and Tomwished that his soles were so hardened as to enable him to discard hisboots. Step by step they crept downward. Presently they caught sightof the opposite side of the nullah, a rugged precipice looming throughthe mist, with a portion of the lake cut off at its base. A littlefarther down Tom stopped suddenly. Twenty or thirty feet below himReinecke and the Arab, side by side, were lying on a big rock thatappeared to jut out from the cliff, and were peering down. No doubtthey were hidden by the rock from the sight of the people below--how farbelow Tom could not tell, for the camp and the lowest stretch of thecleft were invisible to him.

  Mwesa, clutching his knife, looked expectantly at his master. Tom couldhave shot the two men where they lay; but apart from a naturalrepugnance to killing them unawares, he knew that the sound of shotswould rise to the party above and put them on the alert. Whatever hedid must be done without noise.

  Drawing Mwesa back, he led him some little distance up the cleft untilhe came to a shallow recess, partly concealed by a patch of bush. Herethey could wait until the men below reached them in their upward climb.Tom withdrew behind the bush, bidding Mwesa stand a little forward andwatch: his dark body would be less likely to attract the eyes of theclimbers.

  It was some time before they heard slow footsteps on the cleft belowthem, and then ejaculations from Reinecke complaining of the steepnessof the ascent. Then Mwesa reported that the German had rounded a bend;the Arab was just behind him. Tom drew the lad back behind the bush.

  "Deal with Haroun," he whispered, "when I have dealt with Reinecke."

  The two men mounted slowly. Tom waited until the German had come withintwo or three paces of him, then stepped out into the middle of thenarrow path. Reinecke, a foot or two below him, looked up. His facepaled beneath the bronze: he recoiled, and fumbled for his revolver.Before he could grasp it Tom sprang at him, and with one deftly aimedblow on the point of the chin hurled him against the side of the cleft.He fell like a log. At the same moment Mwesa darted past his master,and flung himself on the Arab, who had halted in consternation at thesudden onslaught. He stepped back, warded off Mwesa with his arm, andturned to escape down the cleft. Before he had taken three steps thenegro had recovered himself, and plunged his knife into the Arab's back.

  MWESA FLUNG HIMSELF ON THE ARAB.]

  So swiftly, so silently had things been done that no sound could havereached the ears of any one who had chanced to be within a hundredpaces.

  Tom bent down over the German. He was unconscious. Strange fate, thathad made him for the second time the captive of the man he had wronged!

  "Watch him," said Tom to Mwesa. "Call me if he revives before I comeback."

  He went down the cleft until he reached the rock on which the men hadlain. Climbing it, he looked over upon the huts fifty or sixty feetbelow, the lake near by, and a considerable stretch of the nullah.There were signs of excitement among the people, who were gathered inknots, talking and gesticulating. The German prisoners, standing infront of their hut in the middle of the island, evidently suspected thatsomething had happened, some emergency had arisen, for they wereshouting, beckoning to the men nearest the margin of the lake.

  "I had better reveal myself at once," thought Tom.

  He stood up on the rock, put his whistle to his lips, and blew thesignal for "Fall in." The voices, the movements, of the people ceasedas by magic. They looked around in amazement, facing down the nullah,from which direction numbers of the fighting-men came running. Theseasked eagerly where the m'sungu was: they had heard his whistle; he mustbe among them again. But no one had seen him. Again the whistlesounded. Some of the men glanced upward, and saw Tom standing on therock. For one moment they were transfixed with surprise; then a greatshout broke from their lips; the women and children flocked around them,leaping and screaming with excitement and joy; and Tom wondered whateffect the hubbub would have on the enemy waiting in the ravine.

  Signalling that he would soon be with them, he returned to the spotwhere he had left Reinecke and Mwesa. The German gave signs ofreturning consciousness. In a minute or two he opened his eyes andstared dully up into Tom's face. Recollection came to him gradually; hetried to rise, his hand again seeking his revolver. The holster wasempty; Mwesa had taken that weapon, an
d also his sword.

  "You are my prisoner," said Tom. "We will now go down to my camp."

  Reinecke cursed him.

  "You strike a one-armed, helpless man," he said. "You treacheroushound!"

  Tom was taken aback by this strange accusation. He had had so littleexperience of the German soldier that he did not understand that curiousattitude of mind which views everything a German does as right andproper, but the same thing done by others as infamous and base. Thecharge of treachery from the man who had trapped him, left him to die,and only a few hours before this moment had fired at him when he too hadbeen taken unawares, struck him dumb. Then, curtly, impatiently, hesaid:

  "Come, we will waste no time. You can walk, I think. Mwesa, lead on.Find the way into the nullah. Follow him, Herr Reinecke: I shall be twopaces behind you."

  Mwesa scampered down the steep descent like a young roe: the othersfollowed more prudently. When Tom arrived at the rock from which he hadviewed the camp, Mwesa was not to be seen. But a moment later hislaughing face showed round the base of the rock, like a child playingpeep-bo.

  "Dis way, sah," he cried; "dis way."

  At one side of the rock was the top of a narrow channel that wound downthe face of the cliff. So steep was this latter that not even a mountaingoat could have scaled it safely; but Nature had so carved the channelthat it formed a zigzag pattern, like those paths which the art of manhas cut in precipitous cliffs at popular resorts on our coasts. Downthis rough path the two men followed Mwesa, hidden from the sight ofthose below by the contour of the cliff.

  About twenty feet above the ground the zig-zagging ceased, and thechannel took a sheer drop, almost entirely concealed by bushes. WhileTom, standing on a ledge of rock, wondered how the final descent was tobe achieved, Mwesa had found the way. Clinging to the tough stems andbranches of the bushes, he went down a few feet, then stopped and turnedhis face upward.

  "Ladder here, sah," he called.

  The Arab had, in fact, so bent the branches and stems, and so connectedthem by means of strands of creepers, as to form a light ladder thatspanned the last dozen feet of the descent. Hidden by the overgrowingvegetation, it might have been passed and repassed hundreds of timeswithout being discovered.

  Mwesa clambered down, and bounded among the excited people who hadclustered in expectation of the m'sungu's reappearance. After a minuteor two, Reinecke emerged from the foliage, and stood glowering, an imageof sullen rage, upon the negroes who had once owned him master. Fingerswere pointed at him, yells of derision mocked him: even the childrenstrutted in front of him, as if to vaunt their freedom. One of the eldermen stepped forward with menacing gestures: but he was checked by astern command from Tom, who had just appeared. He was hailed withrenewed shouts of triumph; some of the people threw themselves at hisfeet, as slaves bow to their lord. Tom's lips quivered; he felt a lumprise in his throat. Then he called to Mwesa, who was pouring out aneloquent story to the crowd surrounding him.

  "Go down to the barricade," he said. "See whether the guards are attheir posts, and bring Mirambo to me."

  He signed to the people to fall back to their huts, and beckoned toMoses, who had been hanging on the outskirts of the crowd, looking witha somewhat nervous and sheepish air at his late master.

  "Give Herr Reinecke some food," said Tom. "Herr Reinecke, you willremain where you are for the present. You cannot escape: if you make anattempt you will be shot. I will give you proper quarters presently."

  The German responded with a glare of venomous hate, and turned away.