CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
SAPAZANI "AT HOME."
Ben Halse showed no surprise when Denham broke the news to him; in fact,he felt none. What he did feel was a sharp pang at heart as he realisedthat he must go through the rest of his life alone. Well, it was boundto come some day, and one compensation was that it could not have comeunder more favourable circumstances. He had known the other long enoughto have decided that had Verna searched the world over she could nothave found a more fitting mate.
"Sure you're in earnest about this, Denham?" he said. "Here you twohave been thrown together for days and weeks. You've seen hardlyanybody but ourselves all that time, and no women. I'm a plain man, youknow, and I always speak my mind, so you mustn't be offended."
"Why, of course not. But you won't mind my saying that you are arguingagainst your own argument. If, as you say, Verna and I have been throwntogether all this time and are vastly less tired of each other than theday we first met, isn't that a pretty fair test?"
"M'yes. It cuts both ways, I suppose."
The two were seated in the shade of a wild fig-tree at the back of thehouse, and a little way from it, on the morning after the scene in theforest. Those words, "the first day we met," carried Ben's thoughtsback to that very day when he had sat watching the pair walking down thegarden path at the Nodwengu Hotel, and the possibility of just such adevelopment had crossed his mind.
"If you were a younger man, Denham," he went on, "I should be inclinedto say, go away for a little while so as to make sure of yourself, andtreat this as never having been. Then, if you are, come back again.But you're old enough to know your own mind; at any rate, if you're notnow you never will be, that's sure."
The other laughed, lightly, pleasantly.
"Thanks," he said; "I cordially agree as to the last, but totallydisagree as to the first. Why, Halse, you surprise me. Doesn't itoccur to you that Verna may have feelings to be considered, and that thecourse you hint at might be a little bit rough on her? for I amconceited enough to believe that she has a very decided preference forthe propinquity rather than for the absence of my unworthy self. Howdoes that strike you?"
"I don't know." And the speaker subsided into thoughtful silence, andbegan slowly to cram his pipe. Denham, watching the movement of thegnarled brown hands, the set of the strong, handsome face, thought hecould read what was passing in the other's mind. He, himself, astranger of a few weeks' acquaintance, had come here to rob this man ofthe light of his home, of the pride and joy of his life, to destine himto loneliness thenceforward until his death. Something of this he putinto words, with a rare and tactful sympathy.
"Ah, yes," was the answer. "I might have been thinking something of thekind; in fact, I've often thought of it. The thing was bound to comesome day, of course; but I've always told myself there was plenty oftime, and at the girl's age two or three or four years would make nogreat difference. But there--it doesn't do to be selfish."
Denham, recognising the shake in the voice of this strong man, put forthhis hand, which the other gripped, and for a few moments there wassilence.
"I've never seen any one I would so willingly entrust my Verna to asyourself, Denham," said Ben Halse presently; "so there's compensation inthat."
"You flatter me too much, Halse. But you won't mind my saying you areabout the most imprudent parent-in-law elect I ever heard or read of."
He laughed as he said this. He was glad to throw off the serious vein.
"Why?"
"Because you are taking me so absolutely on trust. You know nothingabout me. I may be a fraud financially. I may be an intendingbigamist; in fact, anything. Now I tell you what. Before you give meVerna entirely you are to write to my solicitors--the two seniorpartners of the firm have known me ever since I was born. Write to themprivately and separately, and make any and every inquiry that may occurto you."
The trader thought a minute, then he said--
"Well, that's fair and square and above-board, Denham. I'm pretty goodat reading men, and I think I've read you accurately. But as youyourself have thrown out the suggestion, you won't be offended if Ifollow it?"
He looked the other full in the face as though with a searching glance.But no trace of hesitation did he read there.
"Why, most emphatically not," came the ready answer. "I'm a man of theworld, Halse, and if I were in your place I should certainly exact asimilar guarantee. You will get answers in a couple of months at theoutside, I'll take care of that. Meanwhile, you will sanction ourengagement provisionally, subject to those answers being satisfactory toyourself?"
"Yes."
And again the two men clasped hands.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then followed a couple of weeks of what was simply a halcyon time. Thesympathy that had existed between them almost from the very first haddeepened now into the most perfect of affinity and trust. Again andagain Alaric Denham blessed the chance that had brought him into thewilderness to find this pearl of great price--the one woman in the wholeworld who seemed born for him, who would stand by him even if the wholeworld were against him--and there might occur the opportunity of puttingeven this test upon her, but that he did not then foresee. Long daysout together, in the sombre forest, or exploring wild, craggy heights inthe clear, exhilarating mountain air; and every one of those days seemedfar too short, and never was there the slightest sign of interestflagging between them. He told her more about himself and his life, butthere was still that one thing he did not tell her. Yet why should he?The load was thrown off, and would remain buried in mystery for ever.Surely this strange, wild country had brought him relief and happinessbeyond measure.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
One day Verna said--
"Let's ride over and pay a surprise visit to Sapazani this afternoon,father. We promised to show him to Alaric, you know, and he hasn't beenhere for a long time."
"All right. But how d'you know he's at home?"
"I got it from some of the people this morning. He has been away a longtime, but he's back now."
"Yes, he has," said the trader meaningly. "He'll get into trouble if hedoesn't watch it. How about the store, though?"
"Oh, we can lock it up for once in a way. Nobody's likely to come, orif they do it'll only be for a tenpenny knife. Trade's too dismallyslack for anything just now."
"That's a grand idea," said Denham. "I had begun to think I was nevergoing to see this `show' chief of yours."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"By Jove! what a beautifully built kraal!" exclaimed Denham, as theycame upon it suddenly, over the lip of the hollow. "Rather differentfrom those wretched, slovenly-looking affairs you see further down."
"Yes; Sapazani is an intense Conservative," said Ben Halse; "whereforehe isn't beloved by those in authority. But the old-time kraals wereall built like this one, except in the open country where there was nobush to make fences of. They used stone walls instead, and still do."
They found the chief sitting in the shade of a dried bullock-skin justagainst the fence of the central open space. He gave them greeting in adignified way, as between equals, but did not rise. That was a Europeancustom, and therefore abhorrent to his conservative soul. But he calledto an attendant to rig up a similar bullock-skin and to spread mats, noteven rugs, for his visitors.
"Case of doing in Zululand as Zulus do, Alaric," laughed Verna. "You'llhave to learn the native art of squatting. It's all right when you getused to it."
"Of course. I say, this is an uncommonly fine-looking chap. Do youthink he'd let me fire the kodak at him? I put it in my pocket onspec."
"We'll try presently, but I doubt it."
Meanwhile Sapazani was asking Halse who his guest was. He knewperfectly, but still he asked. Denham the while was watching him withintense interest. He had seen
two or three chiefs at Ezulwini, lookingthorough "slouches" in waistcoats and shirt-sleeves and ragged smasherhats. But this was a splendid specimen in every way. He looked everyinch a chief, they did not, every inch a king, even. He hardly liked topresent this dignified-looking savage with a superfluous pair ofbinoculars, by no means new, which he had brought along to that end.But Verna, consulted, set his doubts at rest on that score.
"What is he yarning about?" he asked.
"Oh, just commonplaces. He wouldn't talk about anything else in thepresence of a mere woman," laughed Verna. "If father and he were alonetogether it would be different. Would you like to say anything to him?I can translate."
"Yes, dear. Tell him I'm sorry I can't talk to him myself, but that youcan do it much better for me."
"No, I won't put it that way." She put the remark, however, andSapazani smiled, showing his splendid white teeth, his lustrous eyesmoving from the one to the other.
"A splendid-looking chap, by Jingo!" pronounced Denham again. "A realtype of the Zulu I've heard about or read about."
The last remark Verna translated. The chief smiled again.
"I don't know who the strange _Inkosi_ is," he answered. "He looks likeone great in his own country. Perhaps the day will come when he will beable to speak with those who are great in his own country for those whowere once great in ours."
To this Denham answered that he would certainly do so if ever there wasoccasion for it.
Now some women appeared bringing _tywala_. The vessels werescrupulously clean, and the pinkish, hissing brew looked uncommonlyinviting in its black clay bowls. Denham had tried it before, but hadnever been able to take to it. This, however, looked different.
"Try again, Alaric," said Verna. "You'll find this a superior brew. Iknow I'm dying of thirst."
A portion was set before each of them, with the _punga_, or preliminarysip, which custom required on the part of the entertainers. Denham didtry it, and voted it excellent, and then took a very long pull indeed.
"Now you're initiated, dear," said Verna merrily, "once you've learnt todrink _tywala_."
"I call this uncommonly jolly," pronounced Denham, looking around."These chaps must have a good time of it."
The domed huts within their ring fences shone yellow and picturesque inthe sunlight. A few men were seated in groups chatting in a bassundertone, and the red top-knots of women showed above the thorn fence,gazing curiously at the visitors.
"Sapazani would tell you `must have _had_ a good time of it,'" said BenHalse. "He's a man of the past."
"Discontented?"
"Rather."
"Tell him I want to give him this, Halse," producing the binoculars."To remember my visit by."
Sapazani received the gift in the same dignified fashion, and theyinstructed him how to find the focus. He tried it on various objectsand then handed it to an attendant.
"It is good," he said. "I will remember."
But to the proposal to snapshot him he returned a decided negative,polite but firm. Denham was disappointed.
"Couldn't he show us his hut?" he said. "I should like to see what thehut of a big chief is like inside."
This was readily acceded to. Sapazani rose and led the way. ThenDenham was even more struck by the tall, magnificently-proportionedform, the great muscles showing through the brown satiny skin as the manwalked, easily, leisurely, straight as a pine-tree, with head slightlythrown back. Verna could not help noticing that the two men, standingupright together, were of exactly the same height and build, the savagechieftain and the up-to-date English gentleman.
Denham admired the interior of the cool, spacious hut, with its polishedfloor of hard, black clay, and the bowl-like fire-place in the centre,the assegais disposed on pegs around the walls, and the clean, rolled-upmats against one side. The place was a model of coolness andcleanliness, he decided.
When they got outside again several of the chief's wives, convened byVerna, were standing waiting for them. To these she distributed variousthings she had brought, chatting and joking familiarly with them. Theywere fine, merry-faced girls, and here again Denham found a keen bit ofcharacter study. Sapazani accompanied his visitors to the gate of thekraal--he was a stickler for old-time Zulu etiquette, as Ben Halse andVerna, of course, knew, wherefore they had hitched up their horsesoutside and bade them farewell.
"Well, and what do you think of our `show' chief now, Alaric?" saidVerna, as they started on their homeward ride.
"He's a splendid-looking fellow, and his manners are perfect," heanswered. But to himself he was thinking that had Sapazani been a whiteman he would have resented the way in which the chief had looked atVerna more than once. Being a native, of course, any such idea wasabsurd, preposterous, out of the question. But he wondered whether BenHalse had noticed it.
And Sapazani, looking after them, was saying to himself--
"The trap is set, and yonder is the bait--_au_! yonder is thebait--_impela_."
Forging the Blades: A Tale of the Zulu Rebellion Page 21