The Ivory Child

H >> H. Rider Haggard >> The Ivory Child


"Oh! I'm going where you go," I said, "and where I go Hans will go.
Savage must speak for himself."

This he did and to the same effect, being a very honest and faithful
man. It was the more to his credit since, as he informed me in private,
he did not enjoy African adventure and often dreamed at nights of
his comfortable room at Ragnall whence he superintended the social
activities of that great establishment.

So we departed and marched for the matter of a month or more through
every kind of country. After we had passed the head of the great lake
wherein lay the island, if it really was an island, where the Pongo used
to dwell (one clear morning through my glasses I discerned the mountain
top that marked the former residence of the Mother of the Flower, and by
contrast it made me feel quite homesick), we struck up north, following
a route known to Babemba and our guides. After this we steered by the
stars through a land with very few inhabitants, timid and nondescript
folk who dwelt in scattered villages and scarcely understood the art of
cultivating the soil, even in its most primitive form.

A hundred miles or so farther on these villages ceased and thenceforward
we only encountered some nomads, little bushmen who lived on game which
they shot with poisoned arrows. Once they attacked us and killed two
of the Mazitu with those horrid arrows, against the venom of which no
remedy that we had in our medicine chest proved of any avail. On this
occasion Savage exhibited his courage if not his discretion, for rushing
out of our thorn fence, after missing a bushmen with both barrels at a
distance of five yards--he was, I think, the worst shot I ever saw--he
seized the little viper with his hands and dragged him back to camp. How
Savage escaped with his life I do not know, for one poisoned arrow went
through his hat and stuck in his hair and another just grazed his leg
without drawing blood.

This valorous deed was of great service to us, since we were able
through Hans, who knew something of the bushmen's language, to explain
to our prisoner that if we were shot at again he would be hung. This
information he contrived to shout, or rather to squeak and grunt, to
his amiable tribe, of which it appeared he was a kind of chief, with the
result that we were no more molested. Later, when we were clear of the
bushmen country, we let him depart, which he did with great rapidity.

By degrees the land grew more and more barren and utterly devoid of
inhabitants, till at last it merged into desert. At the edge of this
desert which rolled away without apparent limit we came, however, to
a kind of oasis where there was a strong and beautiful spring of water
that formed a stream which soon lost itself in the surrounding sand.
As we could go no farther, for even if we had wished to do so, and were
able to find water there, the Mazitu refused to accompany us into the
desert, not knowing what else to do, we camped in the oasis and waited.

As it happened, the place was a kind of hunter's paradise, since every
kind of game, large and small, came to the water to drink at night, and
in the daytime browsed upon the saltish grass that at this season of the
year grew plentifully upon the edge of the wilderness.

Amongst other creatures there were elephants in plenty that travelled
hither out of the bushlands we had passed, or sometimes emerged from
the desert itself, suggesting that beyond this waste there lay fertile
country. So numerous were these great beasts indeed that for my part I
hoped earnestly that it would prove impossible for us to continue our
journey, since I saw that in a few months I could collect an enormous
amount of ivory, enough to make me comparatively rich, if only I were
able to get it away. As it was we only killed a few of them, ten in all
to be accurate, that we might send back the tusks as presents to Bausi
II. To slaughter the poor animals uselessly was cruel, especially as
being unaccustomed to the sight of man, they were as easy to approach as
cows. Even Savage slew one--by carefully aiming at another five paces to
its left.

For the rest we lived on the fat of the land and, as meat was necessary
to us, had as much sport as we could desire among the various antelope.

For fourteen days or so this went on, till at length we grew thoroughly
tired of the business, as did the Mazitu, who were so gorged with flesh
that they began to desire vegetable food. Twice we rode as far into the
desert as we dared, for our horses remained to us and had grown fresh
again after the rest, but only to return without information. The place
was just a vast wilderness strewn with brown stones beautifully polished
by the wind-driven sand of ages, and quite devoid of water.

After our second trip, on which we suffered severely from thirst, we
held a consultation. Old Babemba said that he could keep his men no
longer, even for us, as they insisted upon returning home, and inquired
what we meant to do and why we sat here "like a stone." I answered that
we were waiting for some of the Kendah who had bid me to shoot game
hereabouts until they arrived to be our guides. He remarked that the
Kendah to the best of his belief lived in a country that was still
hundreds of miles away and that, as they did not know of our presence,
any communication across the desert being impossible, our proceedings
seemed to be foolish.

I retorted that I was not quite so sure of this, since the Kendah seemed
to have remarkable ways of acquiring information.

"Then, Macumazana, I fear that you will have to wait by yourselves until
you discover which of us is right," he said stolidly.

Turning to Ragnall, I asked him what he would do, pointing out that
to journey into the desert meant death, especially as we did not know
whither we were going, and that to return alone, without the stores
which we must abandon, through the country of the bushmen to Mazituland,
would also be a risky proceeding. However, it was for him to decide.

Now he grew much perturbed. Taking me apart again he dwelt earnestly
upon his secret reasons for wishing to visit these Kendah, with which of
course I was already acquainted, as indeed was Savage.

"I desire to stay here," he ended.

"Which means that we must all stay, Ragnall, since Savage will not
desert you. Nor will Hans desert me although he thinks us mad. He points
out that I came to seek ivory and here about is ivory in plenty for the
trouble of taking."

"I might remain alone, Quatermain----" he began, but I looked at him in
such a way that he never finished the sentence.

Ultimately we came to a compromise. Babemba, on behalf of the Mazitu,
agreed to wait three more days. If nothing happened during that period
we on our part agreed to return with them to a stretch of well-watered
bush about fifty miles behind us, which we knew swarmed with elephants,
that by now were growing shy of approaching our oasis where there was so
much noise and shooting. There we would kill as much ivory as we could
carry, an operation in which they were willing to assist for the fun of
it, and then go back with them to Mazituland.

The three days went by and with every hour that passed my spirits rose,
as did those of Savage and Hans, while Lord Ragnall became more and
more depressed. The third afternoon was devoted to a jubilant packing of
loads, for in accordance with the terms of our bargain we were to start
backwards on our spoor at dawn upon the morrow. Most happily did I lay
myself down to sleep in my little bough shelter that night, feeling that
at last I was rid of an uncommonly awkward adventure. If I thought that
we could do any good by staying on, it would have been another matter.
But as I was certain that there was no earthly chance of our finding
among the Kendah--if ever we reached them--the lady who had tumbled in
the Nile in Egypt, well, I was glad that Providence had been so good as
to make it impossible for us to commit suicide by thirst in a desert, or
otherwise. For, notwithstanding my former reasonings to the contrary,
I was now convinced that this was what had happened to poor Ragnall's
wife.

That, however, was just what Providence had not done. In the middle of
the night, to be precise, at exactly two in the morning, I was awakened
by Hans, who slept at the back of my shanty, into which he had crept
through a hole in the faggots, exclaiming in a frightened voice,

"Open your eyes and look, Baas. There are two _spooks_ waiting to see
you outside, Baas."

Very cautiously I lifted myself a little and stared out into the
moonlight. There, seated about five paces from the open end of the hut
were the "spooks" sure enough, two white-robed figures squatting silent
and immovable on the ground. At first I was frightened. Then I bethought
me of thieves and felt for my Colt pistol under the rug that served me
as a pillow. As I got hold of the handle, however, a deep voice said:

"Is it your custom, O Macumazana, Watcher-by-Night, to receive guests
with bullets?"

Now thought I to myself, who is there in the world who could see a man
catch hold of the handle of a pistol in the recesses of a dark place and
under a blanket at night, except the owner of that voice which I seemed
to remember hearing in a certain drawing-room in England?

"Yes, Harut," I answered with an unconcerned yawn, "when the guests come
in such a doubtful fashion and in the middle of the night. But as you
are here at last, will you be so good as to tell us why you have kept us
waiting all this time? Is that your way of fulfilling an engagement?"

"O Lord Macumazana," answered Harut, for of course it was he, in quite a
perturbed tone, "I offer to you our humble apologies. The truth is
that when we heard of your arrival at Beza-Town we started, or tried to
start, from hundreds of miles away to keep our tryst with you here as
we promised we would do. But we are mortal, Macumazana, and accidents
intervened. Thus, when we had ascertained the weight of your baggage,
camels had to be collected to carry it, which were grazing at a
distance. Also it was necessary to send forward to dig out a certain
well in the desert where they must drink. Hence the delay. Still, you
will admit that we have arrived in time, five, or at any rate four hours
before the rising of that sun which was to light you on your homeward
way."

"Yes, you have, O Prophets, or O Liars, whichever you may be," I
exclaimed with pardonable exasperation, for really their knowledge of my
private affairs, however obtained, was enough to anger a saint. "So as
you are here at last, come in and have a drink, for whether you are men
or devils, you must be cold out there in the damp."

In they came accordingly, and, not being Mohammedans, partook of a tot
of square-face from a bottle which I kept locked in a box to put Hans
beyond the reach of temptation.

"To your health, Harut and Marut," I said, drinking a little out of the
pannikin and giving the rest to Hans, who gulped the fiery liquor down
with a smack of his lips. For I will admit that I joined in this unholy
midnight potation to gain time for thought and to steady my nerve.

"To your health, O Lord Macumazana," the pair answered as they swallowed
their tots, which I had made pretty stiff, and set down their pannikins
in front of them with as much reverence as though these had been holy
vessels.

"Now," I said, throwing a blanket over my shoulders, for the air
was chilly, "now let us talk," and taking the lantern which Hans had
thoughtfully lighted, I held it up and contemplated them.

There they were, Harut and Marut without doubt, to all appearance
totally unchanged since some years before I had seen them at Ragnall
in England. "What are you doing here?" I asked in a kind of fiery
indignation inspired by my intense curiosity. "How did you get out of
England after you had tried to steal away the lady to whom you sent the
necklace? What did you do with that lady after you had beguiled her from
the boat at Abu-Simbel? In the name of your Holy Child, or of Shaitan
of the Mohammedans, or of Set of the Egyptians, answer me, lest I should
make an end of both of you, which I can do here without any questions
being asked," and I whipped out my pistol.

"Pardon us," said Harut with a grave smile, "but if you were to do as
you say, Lord Macumazana, many questions would be asked which _you_
might find it hard to answer. So be pleased to put that death-dealer
back into its place, and to tell us before we reply to you, what you
know of Set of the Egyptians."

"As much or as little as you do," I replied.

Both bowed as though this information were of the most satisfactory
order. Then Harut went on: "In reply to your requests, O Macumazana, we
left England by a steamboat and in due course after long journeyings we
reached our own country. We do not understand your allusions to a place
called Abu-Simbel on the Nile, whence, never having been there, we have
taken no lady. Indeed, we never meant to take that lady to whom we sent
a necklace in England. We only meant to ask certain questions of her, as
she had the gift of vision, when you appeared and interrupted us. What
should we want with white ladies, who have already far too many of our
own?"

"I don't know," I replied, "but I do know that you are the biggest liars
I ever met."

At these words, which some might have thought insulting, Harut and Marut
bowed again as though to acknowledge a great compliment. Then Harut
said:

"Let us leave the question of ladies and come to matters that have to do
with men. You are here as we told you that you would be at a time when
you did not believe us, and we here to meet _you_, as we told you that
we would be. How we knew that you were coming and how we came do not
matter at all. Believe what you will. Are you ready to start with us,
O Lord Macumazana, that you may bring to its death the wicked elephant
Jana which ravages our land, and receive the great reward of ivory? If
so, your camel waits."

"One camel cannot carry four men," I answered, avoiding the question.

"In courage and skill you are more than many men, O Macumazana, yet in
body you are but one and not four."

"If you think that I am going with you alone, you are much mistaken,
Harut and Marut," I exclaimed. "Here with me is my servant without whom
I do not stir," and I pointed to Hans, whom they contemplated gravely.
"Also there is the Lord Ragnall, who in this land is named Igeza, and
his servant who here is named Bena, the man out of whom you drew snakes
in the room in England. They also must accompany us."

At this news the impassive countenances of Harut and Marut showed, I
thought, some signs of disturbance. They muttered together in an unknown
tongue. Then Harut said:

"Our secret land is open to you alone, O Macumazana, for one purpose
only--to kill the elephant Jana, for which deed we promise you a great
reward. We do not wish to see the others there."

"Then you can kill your own elephant, Harut and Marut, for not one step
do I go with you. Why should I when there is as much ivory here as I
want, to be had for the shooting?"

"How if we take you, O Macumazana?"

"How if I kill you both, O Harut and Marut? Fools, here are many brave
men at my command, and if you or any with you want fighting it shall be
given you in plenty. Hans, bid the Mazitu stand to their arms and summon
Igeza and Bena."

"Stay, Lord," said Harut, "and put down that weapon," for once more I
had produced the pistol. "We would not begin our fellowship by shedding
blood, though we are safer from you than you think. Your companions
shall accompany you to the land of the Kendah, but let them know that
they do so at their own risk. Learn that it is revealed to us that if
they go in there some of them will pass out again as spirits but not as
men."

"Do you mean that you will murder them?"

"No. We mean that yonder are some stronger than us or any men, who will
take their lives in sacrifice. Not yours, Macumazana, for that, it is
decreed, is safe, but those of two of the others, which two we do not
know."

"Indeed, Harut and Marut, and how am I to be sure that any of us are
safe, or that you do not but trick us to your country, there to kill us
with treachery and steal our goods?"

"Because we swear it by the oath that may not be broken; we swear it by
the Heavenly Child," both of them exclaimed solemnly, speaking with one
voice and bowing till their foreheads almost touched the ground.

I shrugged my shoulders and laughed a little.

"You do not believe us," went on Harut, "who have not heard what happens
to those who break this oath. Come now and see something. Within five
paces of your hut is a tall ant-heap upon which doubtless you have been
accustomed to stand and overlook the desert." (This was true, but how
did they guess it, I wondered.) "Go climb that ant-heap once more."

Perhaps it was rash, but my curiosity led me to accept this invitation.
Out I went, followed by Hans with a loaded double-barrelled rifle, and
scrambled up the ant-heap which, as it was twenty feet high and there
were no trees just here, commanded a very fine view of the desert
beyond.

"Look to the north," said Harut from its foot.

I looked, and there in the bright moonlight five or six hundred yards
away, ranged rank by rank upon a slope of sand and along the crest of
the ridge beyond, I saw quite two hundred kneeling camels, and by each
camel a tall, white-robed figure who held in his hand a long lance to
the shaft of which, not far beneath the blade, was attached a little
flag. For a while I stared to make sure that I was not the victim of an
illusion or a mirage. Then when I had satisfied myself that these were
indeed men and camels I descended from the ant-heap.

"You will admit, Macumazana," said Harut politely, "that if we had meant
you any ill, with such a force it would have been easy for us to take a
sleeping camp at night. But these men come here to be your escort, not
to kill or enslave you or yours. And, Macumazana, we have sworn to
you the oath that may not be broken. Now we go to our people. In the
morning, after you have eaten, we will return again unarmed and alone."

Then like shadows they slipped away.



CHAPTER X

CHARGE!

Ten minutes later the truth was known and every man in the camp was up
and armed. At first there were some signs of panic, but these with the
help of Babemba we managed to control, setting the men to make the
best preparations for defence that circumstances would allow, and thus
occupying their minds. For from the first we saw that, except for the
three of us who had horses, escape was impossible. That great camel
corps could catch us within a mile.

Leaving old Babemba in charge of his soldiers, we three white men and
Hans held a council at which I repeated every word that had passed
between Harut and Marut and myself, including their absolute denial of
their having had anything to do with the disappearance of Lady Ragnall
on the Nile.

"Now," I asked, "what is to be done? My fate is sealed, since for
purposes of their own, of which probably we know nothing, these people
intend to take me with them to their country, as indeed they are
justified in doing, since I have been fool enough to keep a kind of
assignation with them here. But they don't want anybody else. Therefore
there is nothing to prevent you Ragnall, and you Savage, and you Hans,
from returning with the Mazitu."

"Oh! Baas," said Hans, who could understand English well enough
although he seldom spoke it, "why are you always bothering me with such
_praatjes_?"--(that is, chatter). "Whatever you do I will do, and I
don't care what you do, except for your own sake, Baas. If I am going to
die, let me die; it doesn't at all matter how, since I must go soon and
make report to your reverend father, the Predikant. And now, Baas, I
have been awake all night, for I heard those camels coming a long while
before the two spook men appeared, and as I have never heard camels
before, could not make out what they were, for they don't walk like
giraffes. So I am going to sleep, Baas, there in the sun. When you have
settled things, you can wake me up and give me your orders," and he
suited the action to the word, for when I glanced at him again he was,
or appeared to be, slumbering, just like a dog at its master's feet.

I looked at Ragnall in interrogation.

"I am going on," he said briefly.

"Despite the denial of these men of any complicity in your wife's
fate?" I asked. "If their words are true, what have you to gain by this
journey, Ragnall?"

"An interesting experience while it lasts; that is all. Like Hans
there, if what they say _is_ true, my future is a matter of complete
indifference to me. But I do not believe a word of what they say.
Something tells me that they know a great deal which they do not choose
to repeat--about my wife I mean. That is why they are so anxious that I
should not accompany you."

"You must judge for yourself," I answered doubtfully, "and I hope to
Heaven that you are judging right. Now, Savage, what have you decided?
Remember before you reply that these uncanny fellows declare that if we
four go, two of us will never return. It seems impossible that they can
read the future, still, without doubt, they _are_ most uncanny."

"Sir," said Savage, "I will take my chance. Before I left England his
lordship made a provision for my old mother and my widowed sister and
her children, and I have none other dependent upon me. Moreover, I won't
return alone with those Mazitu to become a barbarian, for how could I
find my way back to the coast without anyone to guide me? So I'll go on
and leave the rest to God."

"Which is just what we have all got to do," I remarked. "Well, as that
is settled, let us send for Babemba and tell him."

This we did accordingly. The old fellow received the news with more
resignation than I had anticipated. Fixing his one eye upon me, he said:

"Macumazana, these words are what I expected from you. Had any other man
spoken them I should have declared that he was quite mad. But I remember
that I said this when you determined to visit the Pongo, and that you
came back from their country safe and sound, having done wonderful
things there, and that it was the Pongo who suffered, not you. So I
believe it will be again, so far as you are concerned, Macumazana, for
I think that some devil goes with you who looks after his own. For the
others I do not know. They must settle the matter with their own devils,
or with those of the Kendah people. Now farewell, Macumazana, for it
comes to me that we shall meet no more. Well, that happens to all at
last, and it is good to have known you who are so great in your own way.
Often I shall think of you as you will think of me, and hope that in a
country beyond that of the Kendah I may hear from your lips all that
has befallen you on this and other journeys. Now I go to withdraw my
men before these white-robed Arabs come on their strange beasts to seize
you, lest they should take us also and there should be a fight in which
we, being the fewer, must die. The loads are all in order ready to be
laden on their strange beasts. If they declare that the horses cannot
cross the desert, leave them loose and we will catch them and take them
home with us, and since they are male and female, breed young ones from
them which shall be yours when you send for them, or Bausi the king's
if you never send. Nay, I want no more presents who have the gun and the
powder and the bullets you gave me, and the tusks of ivory for Bausi the
king, and what is best of all, the memory of you and of your courage
and wisdom. May these and the gods you worship befriend you. From
yonder hill we will watch till we see that you have gone. Farewell,"
and waiting for no answer, he departed with the tears running from his
solitary eye.

Ten minutes later the Mazitu bearers had also saluted us and gone,
leaving us seated in that deserted camp surrounded by our baggage, and
so far as I was concerned, feeling most lonely. Another ten minutes went
by which we occupied in packing our personal belongings. Then Hans, who
was now washing out the coffee kettle at a little distance, looked up
and said:

"Here come the spook-men, Baas, the whole regiment of them." We ran and
looked. It was true. Marshalled in orderly squadrons, the camels with
their riders were sweeping towards us, and a fine sight the beasts made
with their swaying necks and long, lurching gait. About fifty yards away
they halted just where the stream from our spring entered the desert,
and there proceeded to water the camels, twenty of them at a time. Two
men, however, in whom I recognized Harut and Marut, walked forward and
presently were standing before us, bowing obsequiously.

"Good morning, Lord," said Harut to Ragnall in his broken English. "So
you come with Macumazana to call at our poor house, as we call at your
fine one in England. You think we got the beautiful lady you marry, she
we give old necklace. That is not so. No white lady ever in Kendahland.
We hear story from Macumazana and believe that lady drowned in Nile, for
you 'member she walk much in her sleep. We very sorry for you, but gods
know their business. They leave when they will leave, and take when they
will take. You find her again some day more beautiful still and with her
soul come back."