CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TRIUMPH OF NAM
"Which way are we to go now?" said Juanna; "must we climb down thisgreat gulf?"
"No, Shepherdess," answered Otter; "see, before you is a bridge," and hepointed to the band of ice and rock which traversed the wide ravine.
"A bridge?" gasped Juanna, "why it is as slippery as a slide and steepas the side of a house. A fly could not keep its footing on it."
"Look here, Otter," put in Leonard, "either you are joking or you aremad. How can we cross that place? We should be dashed to pieces beforewe had gone ten yards."
"Thus, Baas: we must sit each of us on one of the flat stones that lieround here, then the stone will take us across of itself. I know, for Ihave tried it."
"Do you mean to tell me that you have been over there on a rock?"
"No, Baas, but I have sent three stones over. Two crossed safely, Iwatched them go the whole way, and one vanished in the middle. I thinkthat there is a hole there, but we must risk that. If the stone is heavyenough it will jump it, if not, then we shall go down the hole and be nomore troubled."
"Great heavens!" said Leonard, wiping his forehead with the back of hishand, "this is practical tobogganing with a vengeance. Is there no otherway?"
"I can see none, Baas, except for the birds, and I think that we hadbetter stop talking and make ready, for the priests are still behind us.If you will watch on the neck here so that we are not surprised, I willseek stones to carry us."
"How about this man?" said Leonard, pointing to Nam, who lay facedownwards on the snow, apparently in a dead faint.
"Oh! we must keep him a while, Baas; he may be useful if those priestscome. If not, I will talk with him before we start. He is asleep andcannot run away."
Then Leonard went to the top of the neck, which was distant some twentyyards, and Otter began to search for stones suitable to his purpose.
As for Juanna, she turned her back to the ice-bridge, at which shescarcely dared to look, and sat herself upon a rock. In doing so thejewels in the bag struck against her knee and jingled, and the thoughtcame into her mind that she would examine them while she waited, partlybecause she desired to distract her thoughts from the vision of this newand terrible ordeal which lay before her, and partly to gratify a notunnatural curiosity.
Opening the mouth of the bag, she thrust her fingers into it, and one byone drew out the biggest gems which were jumbled together there, placingthem on the rock beside her. In less than a minute she was feastingher eyes upon such a collection of priceless jewels as had never beforegladdened the sight of any white woman, even in her wildest dreams;indeed, till now Juanna had not thought it possible that stones sosplendid could exist on the hither side of the walls of heaven.
First there were great sapphires roughly squared, and two enormousround star rubies: these had formed the eyes of the colossus, which wereremoved on the morrow of their arrival, the star rubies representing theblood-red pupils. Then there was a heart-shaped ruby of perfect colourand without flaw, almost as large as a jackdaw's egg, which on the daysof sacrifice had adorned the breasts of the chief priests of the Peopleof the Mist for many generations. Next came the greatest wonders ofthis treasure, two marvellous stones, one a sapphire and one a ruby,fashioned respectively into models of the statue of the Dwarf and of thehideous shape of the Water-Dweller. Then there were others--dozensof them--some rudely cut and polished, and some as they came from theearth, but every one of them singled out for its remarkable size andflawlessness, or its perfect fire and beauty.
Juanna arranged them in rows and stared at them with ecstasy--where isthe woman who would not have done so?--till in contemplating them sheeven forgot the present terrors of her position--forgot everythingexcept the gorgeous loveliness and infinite value of the wealth of gems,which she had been the means of winning for Leonard.
Among other things that passed from her mind at this moment was thepresence of Nam, who, overcome by rage and exhaustion, lay in a seemingfaint upon the snow within twelve paces of her. She never saw him lifthis head and look at her with an expression as cold and cruel as thatwhich Otter had seen in the eyes of the Water-Dweller, when he lifted_his_ head from its bed of rock. She never saw him roll slowly over andover across the snow towards her, pausing a while between each turn ofhis body, for now she was occupied in replacing the jewels one by oneinto their bag of leather.
At last all were in, and with a sigh--for it was sad to lose sightof objects so beautiful--Juanna drew the mouth of the bag tight andprepared to place it round her neck.
At this moment it was that a hand, withered and lean with age, passedbeneath her eyes, and, swiftly as the snatch of an eagle's talon, seizedthe bag and rent it from her grasp. She sprang up with a cry of dismay,and well might she be dismayed, for there, running from her withincredible speed, was Nam, the jewels in his hand.
Otter and Leonard heard her cry, and, thinking that the priest wasescaping, sped to cut him off. But he had no idea of escape, at leastnot of such escape as they expected. Some forty yards from where Juannahad been sitting, a little promontory of rock jutted out over theunclimbable gulf below them and towards this spot Nam directed hissteps. Running along the ridge he halted at its end: indeed he must do,unless he would fall a thousand feet or more to the bottom of the ravinebeneath. Then he turned and faced his pursuers, who by now had reachedthe edge of the cliff.
"Come one step nearer," he cried, "and I let this bag fall whence youshall never recover it, for no foot can tread these walls of rock, andthere is water at the bottom of the gulf."
Leonard and Otter stopped, trembling for the fate of the jewels.
"Listen, Deliverer," cried Nam; "you came to this land to seek thesetrinkets, is it not so? And now you have found them and would be gonewith them? But before you go you wish to kill me for vengeance' sake,because I have shown you to be cheats, and have sought to offer you upto those gods whom you have blasphemed. But the red stones you desireare in my hands, and if I unclasp my fingers they will be lost to youand all the world for ever. Say now, if I bring them back to you insafety, will you swear to give me my life and suffer me to go my ways inpeace?"
"Yes, we will swear it," answered Leonard, who could not conceal theanguish of his anxiety. "Come back, Nam, and you shall depart unharmed;but if you let the stones fall, then you shall follow them."
"You swear it," said the priest contemptuously: "you are come to this,that you will sacrifice your revenge to satisfy your greed, O White Manwith a noble heart! Now I will outdo you, for I, who am not noble, willsacrifice my life to disappoint you of your desires. What! shall theancient holy treasure of the People of the Mist be stolen by two whitethieves and their black hound? Never! I would have killed you all hadtime been granted to me, but in that I failed, and I am glad that I havefailed, for now I will deal you a bitterer blow than any death. May thecurse of Jal and Aca cleave to you, you dogs without a kennel! May youlive outcasts and die in the dirt, and may your fathers and your mothersand your children spit upon your bones as I do! Farewell!"
And shaking his disengaged hand at them he spat towards them; then witha sudden motion Nam hurled himself backwards off the point of rock andvanished into space, bearing the treasure with him.
For a while the three stood aghast and stared at each other and thepoint of rock which had been occupied by the venerable form of the latehigh priest; then Juanna sank upon the snow sobbing.
"It is my fault," she wailed, "all my fault. Just now I was boasting tomyself that I had won wealth for you, and I have lost everything. And wehave suffered for nothing, and, Leonard, you are a beggar. Oh! it is toomuch--too much!"
"Go out there, Otter," said Leonard in a hoarse voice, pointing to theplace where Nam had hurled himself, "and see whether there is any chanceof our being able to climb down into the gulf."
The dwarf obeyed and presently returned shaking his head.
"It is impossible, Baas," he said; "the walls of rock are sheer asthough they had been c
ut with a knife; moreover there is water at thebottom of them, as the old wizard said, for I can hear the sound of it.Oh! Baas, Baas, why did you not kill him at first, or let me kill himafterwards? Surely I told you that he would bring evil on us. Well, theyare gone and we can never find them again, so let us save our lives ifwe may, for after all these are more to us than bright stones. Come nowand help me, Baas, for I have found two flat rocks that will serve ourturn, a big one for you and the Shepherdess, since doubtless she willfear to make this journey alone, and a smaller one for myself."
Leonard followed him without a word; he was too heart-broken to speak,while Juanna rose and returned to the spot where Nam had robbed her.Looking up presently, her eyes still blurred with tears, she saw Leonardand the dwarf laboriously pushing two heavy stones across the snowtowards her.
"Come, do not cry, Juanna," said Leonard, ceasing from his labours andlaying his hand kindly upon her shoulder, "they are gone and there is anend of it. Now we must think of other things."
"Oh!" she answered, "if only you had seen them, you would never stopcrying all your life."
"Then I dare say that the fit will be a short one," replied Leonardgrimly, glancing at the awful bridge which stretched between them andsafety.
"Listen, Juanna, you and I must lie upon this stone, and it will--sosays Otter--carry us across to the other side of the ravine."
"I cannot, I cannot," she gasped, "I shall faint and fall off. I am surethat I shall."
"But you must, Juanna," answered Leonard. "At least you must choosebetween this and returning to the City of the Mist."
"I will come," she said. "I know that I shall be killed, but it isbetter than going back to those horrible priests; and besides, it doesnot matter now that I have lost the jewels."
"Jewels are not everything, Juanna."
"Listen, Shepherdess," put in Otter, "the thing is easy, though it looksdifficult. All that you have to do is to shut your eyes and lie still,then the stone will carry you over. I am not afraid. I will go firstto show you the way, and where a black dwarf can pass, there you whitepeople who are so much braver can follow. But before I start, I willtie you and the Deliverer together with my cord, for so you will feelsafer."
Then Otter dragged both stones to the very verge of the incline, andhaving passed the rope about the waists of Juanna and Leonard, heprepared himself for the journey.
"Now, Deliverer," he said, "when I am safe across, all that you must doit to lie flat upon the stone, both of you, and to push a little withthe spear. Then before you know it, you will be by my side."
"All right," said Leonard doubtfully. "Well, I suppose that you hadbetter start; waiting won't make the matter any easier."
"Yes, Baas, I will go now. Ah! little did I think that I should ever beforced to take such a ride as this. Well, it will be something to makesongs about afterwards."
And Otter laid himself face downwards on the stone with a little laugh,though Leonard noticed that, however brave his spirit might be, hecould not prevent his flesh from revealing its natural weakness, for itquivered pitifully.
"Now, Baas," he said, gripping the edges of the stone with his largehands, "when I give the word do you push gently, and then you will seehow a black bird can fly. Put your head lower, Baas."
Leonard obeyed, and the dwarf whispered in his ear:
"I only want to say, Baas, in case we should not meet again, foraccidents will happen even on the safest roads, that I am sorry that Imade such a pig of myself yonder; it was so dull down there in that holeof a palace, and the fog made me see all things wrong. Moreover, drinkand a wife have corrupted many a better man. Don't answer, Baas, butstart me, for I am growing afraid."
Placing his hand at the back of the stone, Leonard gave it a slightpush. It began to move, very slowly at first, then more fast and fasteryet, till it was rushing over the smooth ice pathway with a whirringsound like that produced by the flight of a bird. Presently it hadreached the bottom of the first long slope and was climbing the gentlerise opposite, but so slowly that for a while Leonard thought that itwas going to stop. It crossed its brow, however, and vanished for a fewseconds into a dip where the watchers could not see it, then it appearedagain at the head of the second and longest slope, of which the anglewas very steep. Down this the stone rushed like an arrow from a bow,till it reached the narrow waist of the bridge, whereof the generalconformation bore some resemblance to that of a dead wasp lying on itsback. Indeed, from where Leonard and Juanna stood, the span of ice atthis point seemed to be no thicker than a silver thread, while Otter andthe stone might have been a fly upon the thread. Now of a sudden Leonarddistinctly saw the rock sledge and its living burden, which just thenwas travelling its swiftest, move upwards as though it had leapedinto the air and then continue its course along the rising place whichrepresented the throat of the wasp, till at length it stopped.
Leonard looked at his watch; the time occupied by the transit was justfifty seconds, and the distance could not have been much less than halfa mile.
"See," he cried to Juanna, who all this while had sat with her handbefore her eyes to shut out the vision of the dwarf's dreadful progress,"he has crossed safely!" and he pointed to a figure that appeared to bedancing with glee upon the breast of the snow slope.
As he spoke a faint sound reached their ears, for in those immensesilences sound can travel far. It was Otter shouting, and his wordsseemed to be, "Come on, Baas; it is easy."
"I am glad he is safe," said Juanna faintly, "but now we must followhim. Take my handkerchief, Leonard, and tie it over my eyes, please, forI cannot bear to look. The idol's head was nothing to this."
Leonard obeyed her, bidding her not to be afraid.
"Oh! but I am terribly afraid," she said. "I never was so muchfrightened in all my life, and I--I have lost the jewels! Leonard, doforgive me for behaving so badly to you. I know that I have behavedbadly in many ways, though I have been too proud to admit it before. Butnow, when I am going to die, I want to beg your pardon. I hope you willthink kindly of me, Leonard, when I am dead, for I do love you withall my heart, indeed I do." And tears began to roll down beneath thebandage.
"Dearest," he answered, kissing her tenderly, "as we are tied together,it seems that if you die I must die too. Do not break down now after youhave borne so much."
"It is the jewels," she sobbed, "the jewels; I feel as though I hadcommitted a murder."
"Oh! bother the jewels!" said Leonard. "We can think about themafterwards." And he advanced towards the flat stone, Juanna feeling thewhile as though they were two of Carrier's victims about to know theMarriage of the Loire.
As they came to the stone Leonard heard a sound behind him, a sound offootsteps muffled by the snow, and glancing round he saw Soa rushingtowards them, almost naked, a spear-wound in her side, and the light ofmadness shining in her eyes.
"Get back," he said sternly, "or----" and he lifted the great spear.
"Oh! Shepherdess," she wailed, "take me with you, Shepherdess, for Icannot live without you."
"Tell her to go away," said Juanna, recognising the voice; "I never wantto see her any more."
"You hear, Soa," answered Leonard. "Stay, how has it gone yonder? Speaktruly."
"I know not, Deliverer; when I left, Olfan and his brother still heldthe mouth of the tunnel and were unhurt, but the captain was dead. Islipped past them and got this as I went," and she pointed to the gashin her side.
"If he can hold out a little longer, help may reach him," mutteredLeonard. Then without more words, he laid himself and Juanna facedownwards on the broad stone.
"Now, Juanna," he said, "we are going to start. Grip fast with yourright hand, and see that you do not leave go of the edge of the stone,or we shall both slip off it."
"Oh! take me with you, Shepherdess, take me with you, and I will bewicked no more, but serve you as of old," shrilled the voice of Soa inso despairing a cry that the rocks rang.
"Hold fast," said Leonard through his set teeth, as, disengagi
ng hisright hand from about Juanna's waist, he seized the handle of the spearand pressed its broad blade against a knob of rock behind them. Now thestone, that was balanced on the very verge of the declivity, trembledbeneath them, and now, slowly and majestically as a vessel starting fromher slips when the launching cord is severed, it began to move down theicy way.
For the first second it scarcely seemed to stir, then the motion grewpalpable, and at that instant Leonard heard a noise behind him and felthis left foot clasped by a human hand. There was a jerk that nearlydragged them off their sledge, but he held fast to the front edge ofthe stone, and though he could still feel the hand upon his ankle, thestrain became almost imperceptible.
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