She and Allan
Page 53
A little while later the messengers returned and this time the captainhimself came with them, as he said to greet me, for I knew him slightlyand once we had dealt together about some cattle. After a friendly chathe turned to the matter of Umslopogaas, explaining the case at somelength. I said that I quite understood his position but that it was a_very_ awkward thing to interfere with a man who was the actual wearerof the Great Medicine of Zikali itself. When the captain heard this hiseyes almost started out of his head.
"The Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads!" he exclaimed. "Oh, nowI understand why this Chief of the People of the Axe isunconquerable--such a wizard that no one is able to kill him."
"Yes," I replied, "and you remember, do you not, that he who offends theGreat Medicine, or offers violence to him who wears it, dies horriblywithin three moons, he and his household and all those with him?"
"I have heard it," he said with a sickly smile.
"And now you are about to learn whether the tale is true," I addedcheerfully.
Then he asked to see Umslopogaas alone.
I did not overhear their conversation, but the end of it was thatUmslopogaas came and said in a loud voice so that no one could miss asingle word, that as resistance was useless and he did not wish me,his friend, to be involved in any trouble, together with his men he hadagreed to accompany this King's captain to the royal kraal where he hadbeen guaranteed a fair trial as to certain false charges which had beenbrought against him. He added that the King's captain had sworn uponthe Great Medicine of the Opener-of-Roads to give him safe conduct andattempt no mischief against him which, as was well known throughoutthe land, was an oath that could not be broken by anyone who wished tocontinue to look upon the sun.
I asked the captain if these things were so, also speaking in a loudvoice. He replied, Yes, since his orders were to take Umslopogaas aliveif he might. He was only to kill him if he would not come.
Afterwards, while pretending to give him certain articles out of thewaggon, I had a few private words with Umslopogaas, who told me that thearrangement was that he should be allowed to escape at night with hispeople.
"Be sure of this, Macumazahn," he said, "that if I do not escape,neither will that captain, since I walk at his side and keep my axe,and at the first sign of treachery the axe will enter the house of thatthick head of his and make friends with the brain inside.
"Macumazahn," he added, "we have made a strange journey together andseen such things as I did not think the world had to show. Also I havefought and killed Rezu in a mad battle of ghosts and men which alonewas worth all the trouble of the journey. Now it has come to an end aseverything must, and we part, but as I believe, not for always. I donot think that I shall die on this journey with the captain, though I dothink that others will die at the end of it," he added grimly, a sayingwhich at the time I did not understand.
"It comes into my heart, Macumazahn, that in yonder land of witches andwizards, the spirit of prophecy got caught in my moocha and crept intomy bowels. Now that spirit tells me that we shall meet again in theafter-years and stand together in a great fray which will be our last,as I believe that the White Witch said. Or perhaps the spirit lives inZikali's Medicine which has gone down my throat and comes out of it inwords. I cannot say, but I pray that it is a true spirit, since althoughyou are white and I am black and you are small and I am big, and you aregentle and cunning, whereas I am fierce and as open as the blade of myown axe, yet I love you as well, Macumazahn, as though we were bornof the same mother and had been brought up in the same kraal. Now thatcaptain waits and grows doubtful of our talk, so farewell. I will returnthe Great Medicine to Zikali, if I live, and if I die he must send oneof the ghosts that serve him, to fetch it from among my bones.
"Farewell to you also, Yellow Man," he went on to Hans, who hadappeared, hovering about like a dog that is doubtful of its welcome;"well are you named Light-in-Darkness, and glad am I to have met you,who have learned from you how a snake moves and strikes, and how ajackal thinks and avoids the snare. Yes, farewell, for the spirit withinme does not tell me that you and I shall meet again."
Then he lifted the great axe, and gave me a formal salute, naming me"Chief and Father, Great Chief and Father, from of old" (_Baba! Koos yumcool! Koos y pagate!_), thereby acknowledging my superiority over him,a thing that he had never done before, and as he did, so did Gorokoand the other Zulus, adding to their salute many titles of praise. Inanother minute he had gone with the King's captain, to whose side Inoted he clung lovingly, his long, thin fingers playing about the hornhandle of the axe that was named _Inkosikaas_ and Groan-maker.
"I am glad we have seen the last of him and his axe, Baas," remarkedHans, spitting reflectively. "It is very well to sleep in the same hutwith a tame lion sometimes, but after you have done so for many moons,you begin to wonder when you will wake up at night to find him pullingthe blankets off you and combing your hair with his claws. Yes, I amvery glad that this half-tame lion is gone, since sometimes I havethought that I should be obliged to poison it that we might sleep inpeace. You know he called me a snake, Baas, and poison is a snake'sonly spear. Shall I tell the boys to inspan the oxen, Baas? I thinkthe further we get from that King's captain and his men, the morecomfortably shall we travel, especially now when we no longer have theGreat Medicine to protect us."
"You suggested giving it to him, Hans," I said.
"Yes, Baas, I had rather that Umslopogaas went away with the GreatMedicine, than that you kept the Great Medicine and he stopped with ushere. Never travel with a traitor, Baas, at any rate in the land of theking whom he wishes to kill. Kings are very selfish people, Baas, and donot like being killed, especially by someone who wants to sit upon theirstool and to take the royal salute. No one gives the royal salute to adead king, Baas, however great he was before he died, and no one thinksthe worse of a king who was a traitor before he became a king."