The Ivory Child

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Now it will be remembered that, on the chance of their proving useful,
Ragnall, in addition to our own sporting rifles, had brought with him to
Africa fifty Snider rifles with an ample supply of ammunition, the same
that I had trouble in passing through the Customs at Durban, all of
which had arrived safely at the Town of the Child. Clearly our first
duty was to make the best possible use of this invaluable store. To
that end I asked Harut to select seventy-five of the boldest and most
intelligent young men among his people, and to hand them over to me and
Hans for instruction in musketry. We had only fifty rifles but I drilled
seventy-five men, or fifty per cent. more, that some might be ready to
replace any who fell.

From dawn to dark each day Hans and I worked at trying to convert
these Kendah into sharpshooters. It was no easy task with men, however
willing, who till then had never held a gun, especially as I must be
very sparing of the ammunition necessary to practice, of which of course
our supply was limited. Still we taught them how to take cover, how to
fire and to cease from firing at a word of command, also to hold the
rifles low and waste no shot. To make marksmen of them was more than I
could hope to do under the circumstances.

With the exception of these men nearly the entire male population
were working day and night to get in the harvest. This proved a very
difficult business, both because some of the crops were scarcely fit and
because all the grain had to be carried on camels to be stored in and at
the back of the second court of the temple, the only place where it was
likely to be safe. Indeed in the end a great deal was left unreaped.
Then the herds of cattle and breeding camels which grazed on the farther
sides of the Holy Mount must be brought into places of safety, glens in
the forest on its slope, and forage stacked to feed them. Also it was
necessary to provide scouts to keep watch along the river.

Lastly, the fortifications in the mountain pass required unceasing
labour and attention. This was the task of Ragnall, who fortunately in
his youth, before he succeeded unexpectedly to the title, was for
some years an officer in the Royal Engineers and therefore thoroughly
understood that business. Indeed he understood it rather too well, since
the result of his somewhat complicated and scientific scheme of defence
was a little confusing to the simple native mind. However, with the
assistance of all the priests and of all the women and children who
were not engaged in provisioning the Mount, he built wall after wall and
redoubt after redoubt, if that is the right word, to say nothing of the
shelter trenches he dug and many pitfalls, furnished at the bottom with
sharp stakes, which he hollowed out wherever the soil could be easily
moved, to discomfit a charging enemy.

Indeed, when I saw the amount of work he had concluded in ten
days, which was not until I joined him on the mountain, I was quite
astonished.

About this time a dispute arose as to whether we should attempt to
prevent the Black Kendah from crossing the river which was now running
down, a plan that some of the elders favoured. At last the controversy
was referred to me as head general and I decided against anything of the
sort. It seemed to me that our force was too small, and that if I took
the rifle-men a great deal of ammunition might be expended with poor
result. Also in the event of any reverse or when we were finally driven
back, which must happen, there might be difficulty about remounting the
camels, our only means of escape from the horsemen who would possibly
gallop us down. Moreover the Tava had several fords, any one of which
might be selected by the enemy. So it was arranged that we should make
our first and last stand upon the Holy Mount.

On the fourteenth night from new moon our swift camel-scouts who were
posted in relays between the Tava and the Mount reported that the Black
Kendah were gathered in thousands upon the farther side of the river,
where they were engaged in celebrating magical ceremonies. On the
fifteenth night the scouts reported that they were crossing the river,
about five thousand horsemen and fifteen thousand foot soldiers, and
that at the head of them marched the huge god-elephant Jana, on which
rode Simba the King and a lame priest (evidently my friend whose foot
had been injured by the pistol), who acted as a mahout. This part of the
story I confess I did not believe, since it seemed to me impossible that
anyone could ride upon that mad rogue, Jana. Yet, as subsequent events
showed, it was in fact true. I suppose that in certain hands the beast
became tame. Or perhaps it was drugged.

Two nights later, for the Black Kendah advanced but slowly, spreading
themselves over the country in order to collect such crops as had not
been gathered through lack of time or because they were still unripe,
we saw flames and smoke arising from the Town of the Child beneath us,
which they had fired. Now we knew that the time of trial had come and
until near midnight men, women and children worked feverishly finishing
or trying to finish the fortifications and making every preparation in
our power.

Our position was that we held a very strong post, that is, strong
against an enemy unprovided with big guns or even firearms, which, as
all other possible approaches had been blocked, was only assailable by
direct frontal attack from the east. In the pass we had three main lines
of defence, one arranged behind the other and separated by distances of
a few hundred yards. Our last refuge was furnished by the walls of the
temple itself, in the rear of which were camped the whole White Kendah
tribe, save a few hundred who were employed in watching the herds of
camels and stock in almost inaccessible positions on the northern slopes
of the Mount.

There were perhaps five thousand people of both sexes and every age
gathered in this camp, which was so well provided with food and water
that it could have stood a siege of several months. If, however, our
defences should be carried there was no possibility of escape, since
we learned from our scouts that the Black Kendah, who by tradition and
through spies were well acquainted with every feature of the country,
had detached a party of several thousand men to watch the western road
and the slopes of the mountain, in case we should try to break out by
that route. The only one remaining, that which ran through the cave
of the serpent, we had taken the precaution of blocking up with great
stones, lest through it our flank should be turned.

In short, we were rats in a trap and where we were there we must either
conquer or die--unless indeed we chose to surrender, which for most of
us would mean a fate worse than death.



CHAPTER XIX

ALLAN QUATERMAIN MISSES

I had made my last round of the little corps that I facetiously named
"The Sharpshooters," though to tell the truth at shooting they were
anything but sharp, and seen that each man was in his place behind a
wall with a reserve man squatted at the rear of every pair of them,
waiting to take his rifle if either of these should fall. Also I had
made sure that all of them had twenty rounds of ammunition in their skin
pouches. More I would not serve out, fearing lest in excitement or in
panic they might fire away to the last cartridge uselessly, as before
now even disciplined white troops have been known to do. Therefore I had
arranged that certain old men of standing who could be trusted should
wait in a place of comparative safety behind the line, carrying all our
reserve ammunition, which amounted, allowing for what had been expended
in practice, to nearly sixty rounds per rifle. This they were instructed
to deliver from their wallets to the firing line in small lots when they
saw that it was necessary and not before.

It was, I admit, an arrangement apt to miscarry in the heat of desperate
battle, but I could think of none better, since it was absolutely
necessary that no shot should be wasted.

After a few words of exhortation and caution to the natives who acted
as sergeants to the corps, I returned to a bough shelter that had been
built for us behind a rock to get a few hours' sleep, if that were
possible, before the fight began.

Here I found Ragnall, who had just come in from his inspection. This
was of a much more extensive nature than my own, since it involved going
round some furlongs of the rough walls and trenches that he had prepared
with so much thought and care, and seeing that the various companies of
the White Kendah were ready to play their part in the defence of them.

He was tired and rather excited, too much so to sleep at once. So we
talked a little while, first about the prospects of the morrow's battle,
as to which we were, to say the least of it, dubious, and afterwards of
other things. I asked him if during his stay in this place, while I was
below at the town or later, he had heard or seen anything of his wife.

"Nothing," he answered. "These priests never speak of her, and if
they did Harut is the only one of them that I can really understand.
Moreover, I have kept my word strictly and, even when I had occasion
to see to the blocking of the western road, made a circuit on the
mountain-top in order to avoid the neighbourhood of that house where I
suppose she lives Oh! Quatermain, my friend, my case is a hard one, as
you would think if the woman you loved with your whole heart were shut
up within a few hundred yards of you and no communication with her
possible after all this time of separation and agony. What makes it
worse is, as I gathered from what Harut said the other day, that she is
still out of her mind."

"That has some consolations," I replied, "since the mindless do not
suffer. But if such is the case, how do you account for what you
and poor Savage saw that night in the Town of the Child? It was not
altogether a phantasy, for the dress you described was the same we saw
her wearing at the Feast of the First-fruits."

"I don't know what to make of it, Quatermain, except that many strange
things happen in the world which we mock at as insults to our limited
intelligence because we cannot understand them." (Very soon I was to
have another proof of this remark.) "But what are you driving at? You
are keeping something back."

"Only this, Ragnall. If your wife were utterly mad I cannot conceive
how it came about that she searched you out and spoke to you even in
a vision--for the thing was not an individual dream since both you and
Savage saw her. Nor did she actually visit you in the flesh, as the door
never opened and the spider's web across it was not broken. So it comes
to this: either some part of her is not mad but can still exercise
sufficient will to project itself upon your senses, or she is dead and
her disembodied spirit did this thing. Now we know that she is not
dead, for we have seen her and Harut has confessed as much. Therefore
I maintain that, whatever may be her temporary state, she must still
be fundamentally of a reasonable mind, as she is of a natural body. For
instance, she may only be hypnotized, in which case the spell will break
one day."

"Thank you for that thought, old fellow. It never occurred to me and
it gives me new hope. Now listen! If I should come to grief in this
business, which is very likely, and you should survive, you will do your
best to get her home; will you not? Here is a codicil to my will which I
drew up after that night of dream, duly witnessed by Savage and Hans.
It leaves to you whatever sums may be necessary in this connexion
and something over for yourself. Take it, it is best in your keeping,
especially as if you should be killed it has no value."

"Of course I will do my best," I answered as I put away the paper in
my pocket. "And now don't let us take any more thought of being killed,
which may prevent us from getting the sleep we want. I don't mean to be
killed if I can help it. I mean to give those beggars, the Black Kendah,
such a doing as they never had before, and then start for the coast with
you and Lady Ragnall, as, God willing, we shall do. Good night."

After this I slept like a top for some hours, as I believe Ragnall did
also. When I awoke, which happened suddenly and completely, the first
thing that I saw was Hans seated at the entrance to my little shelter
smoking his corn-cob pipe, and nursing the single-barrelled rifle,
Intombi, on his knee. I asked him what the time was, to which he replied
that it lacked two hours to dawn. Then I asked him why he had not been
sleeping. He replied that he had been asleep and dreamed a dream. Idly
enough I inquired what dream, to which he replied:

"Rather a strange one, Baas, for a man who is about to go into battle. I
dreamed that I was in a large place that was full of quiet. It was light
there, but I could not see any sun or moon, and the air was very soft
and tasted like food and drink, so much so, Baas, that if anyone had
offered me a cup quite full of the best 'Cape smoke' I should have told
him to take it away. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend father,
the Predikant, standing beside me and looking just as he used to look,
only younger and stronger and very happy, and so of course knew at once
that I was dead and in hell. Only I wondered where the fire that does
not go out might be, for I could not see it. Presently your reverend
father said to me: 'Good day, Hans. So you have come here at last. Now
tell me, how has it gone with my son, the Baas Allan? Have you looked
after him as I told you to do?'

"I answered: 'I have looked after him as well as I could, O reverend
sir. Little enough have I done; still, not once or twice or three times
only have I offered up my life for him as was my duty, and yet we both
have lived.' And that I might be sure he heard the best of me, as was
but natural, I told him the times, Baas, making a big story out of small
things, although all the while I could see that he knew exactly just
where I began to lie and just where I stopped from lying. Still he did
not scold me, Baas; indeed, when I had finished, he said:

"'Well done, O good and faithful servant,' words that I think I have
heard him use before when he was alive, Baas, and used to preach to us
for such a long time on Sunday afternoons. Then he asked: 'And how goes
it with Baas Allan, my son, now, Hans?' to which I replied:

"'The Baas Allan is going to fight a very great battle in which he may
well fall, and if I could feel sorry here, which I can't, I should
weep, O reverend sir, because I have died before that battle began and
therefore cannot stand at his side in the battle and be killed for him
as a servant should for his master!'

"'You will stand at his side in the battle,' said your [missing line
in printed version--JB] do as it is fitting that you should. And
afterwards, Hans, you will make report to me of how the battle went and
of what honour my son has won therein. Moreover, know this, Hans, that
though while you live in the world you seem to see many other things,
they are but dreams, since in all the world there is but one real
thing, and its name is Love, which if it be but strong enough, the stars
themselves must obey, for it is the king of every one of them, and all
who dwell in them worship it day and night under many names for ever and
for ever, Amen.'

"What he meant by that I am sure I don't know, Baas, seeing that I have
never thought much of women, at least not for many years since my last
old vrouw went and drank herself to death after lying in her sleep on
the baby which I loved much better than I did her, Baas.

"Well, before I could ask him, or about hell either, he was gone like a
whiff of smoke from a rifle mouth in a strong wind."

Hans paused, puffed at his pipe, spat upon the ground in his usual
reflective way and asked:

"Is the Baas tired of the dream or would he like to hear the rest?"

"I should like to hear the rest," I said in a low voice, for I was
strangely moved.

"Well, Baas, while I was standing in that place which was so full of
quiet, turning my hat in my hands and wondering what work they would set
me to there among the devils, I looked up. There I saw coming towards
me two very beautiful women, Baas, who had their arms round each other's
necks. They were dressed in white, with the little hard things that are
found in shells hanging about them, and bright stones in their hair.
And as they came, Baas, wherever they set a foot flowers sprang up, very
pretty flowers, so that all their path across the quiet place was marked
with flowers. Birds too sang as they passed, at least I think they were
birds though I could not see them."

"What were they like, Hans?" I whispered.

"One of them, Baas, the taller I did not know. But the other I knew well
enough; it was she whose name is holy, not to be mentioned. Yet I must
mention that name; it was the Missie Marie herself as last we saw
her alive many, many years ago, only grown a hundred times more
beautiful."[*]

[*] See the book called _Marie_ by H. Rider Haggard.

Now I groaned, and Hans went on:

"The two White Ones came up to me, and stood looking at me with eyes
that were more soft than those of bucks. Then the Missie Marie said to
the other: 'This is Hans of whom I have so often told you, O Star.'"

Here I groaned again, for how did this Hottentot know that name, or
rather its sweet rendering?

"Then she who was called Star asked, 'How goes it with one who is the
heart of all three of us, O Hans?' Yes, Baas, those Shining Ones joined
_me_, the dirty little Hottentot in my old clothes and smelling of
tobacco, with themselves when they spoke of you, for I knew they were
speaking of you, Baas, which made me think I must be drunk, even there
in the quiet place. So I told them all that I had told your reverend
father, and a very great deal more, for they seemed never to be tired of
listening. And once, when I mentioned that sometimes, while pretending
to be asleep, I had heard you praying aloud at night for the Missie
Marie who died for you, and for another who had been your wife whose
name I did not remember but who had also died, they both cried a little,
Baas. Their tears shone like crystals and smelt like that stuff in a
little glass tube which Harut said that he brought from some far land
when he put a drop or two on your handkerchief, after you were faint
from the pain in your leg at the house yonder. Or perhaps it was the
flowers that smelt, for where the tears fell there sprang up white
lilies shaped like two babes' hands held together in prayer."

Hearing this, I hid my face in my hands lest Hans should see human tears
unscented with attar of roses, and bade him continue.

"Baas, the White One who was called Star, asked me of your son, the
young Baas Harry, and I told her that when last I had seen him he was
strong and well and would make a bigger man than you were, whereat she
sighed and shook her head. Then the Missie Marie said: 'Tell the Baas,
Hans, that I also have a child which he will see one day, but it is not
a son.'

"After this they, too, said something about Love, but what it was
I cannot remember, since even as I repeat this dream to you it is
beginning to slip away from me fast as a swallow skimming the water.
Their last words, however, I do remember. They were: 'Say to the Baas
that we who never met in life, but who here are as twin sisters, wait
and count the years and count the months and count the days and count
the hours and count the minutes and count the seconds until once more he
shall hear our voices calling to him across the night.' That's what they
say, Baas. Then they were gone and only the flowers remained to show
that they had been standing there.

"Now I set off to bring you the message and travelled a very long way
at a great rate; if Jana himself had been after me I could not have gone
more fast. At last I got out of that quiet place and among mountains
where there were dark kloofs, and there in the kloofs I heard Zulu impis
singing their war-song; yes, they sang the _ingoma_ or something very
like it. Now suddenly in the pass of the mountains along which I sped,
there appeared before me a very beautiful woman whose skin shone like
the best copper coffee kettle after I have polished it, Baas. She was
dressed in a leopard-like moocha and wore on her shoulders a fur kaross,
and about her neck a circlet of blue beads, and from her hair there rose
one crane's feather tall as a walking-stick, and in her hand she held a
little spear. No flowers sprang beneath her feet when she walked towards
me and no birds sang, only the air was filled with the sound of a royal
salute which rolled among the mountains like the roar of thunder, and
her eyes flashed like summer lightning."

Now I let my hands fall and stared at him, for well I knew what was
coming.

"'Stand, yellow man!' she said, 'and give me the royal salute.'

"So I gave her the _Bayete_, though who she might be I did not know,
since I did not think it wise to stay to ask her if it were hers of
right, although I should have liked to do so. Then she said: 'The Old
Man on the plain yonder and those two pale White Ones have talked to you
of their love for your master, the Lord Macumazana. I tell you, little
Yellow Dog, that they do not know what love can be. There is more love
for him in my eyes alone than they have in all that makes them fair. Say
it to the Lord Macumazana that, as I know well, he goes down to battle
and that the Lady Mameena will be with him in the battle as, though he
saw her not, she has been with him in other battles, and will be with
him till the River of Time has run over the edge of the world and is
lost beyond the sun. Let him remember this when Jana rushes on and death
is very near to him to-day, and let him look--for then perchance he
shall see me. Begone now, Yellow Dog, to the heels of your master, and
play your part well in the battle, for of what you do or leave undone
you shall give account to me. Say that Mameena sends her greetings to
the Lord Macumazana and that she adds this, that when the Old Man and
the White ones told you that Love is the secret blood of the worlds
which makes them to be they did not lie. Love reigns and I, Mameena, am
its priestess, and the heart of Macumazana is my holy house.'

"Then, Baas, I tumbled off a precipice and woke up here; and, Baas, as
we may not light a fire I have kept some coffee hot for you buried in
warm ashes," and without another word he went to fetch that coffee,
leaving me shaken and amazed.

For what kind of a dream was it which revealed to an old Hottentot all
these mysteries and hidden things about persons whom he had never seen
and of whom I had never spoken to him? My father and my wife Marie might
be explained, for with these he had been mixed up, but how about Stella
and above all Mameena, although of course it was possible that he had
heard of the latter, who made some stir in her time? But to hit her off
as he had done in all her pride, splendour, and dominion of desire!

Well, that was his story which, perhaps fortunately, I lacked time to
analyse or brood upon, since there was much in it calculated to unnerve
a man just entering the crisis of a desperate fray. Indeed a minute or
so later, as I was swallowing the last of the coffee, messengers arrived
about some business, I forget what, sent by Ragnall I think, who had
risen before I woke. I turned to give the pannikin to Hans, but he had
vanished in his snake-like fashion, so I threw it down upon the ground
and devoted my mind to the question raised in Ragnall's message.

Next minute scouts came in who had been watching the camp of the Black
Kendah all night.

These were sleeping not more than half a mile away, in an open place on
the slope of the hill with pickets thrown out round them, intending to
advance upon us, it was said, as soon as the sun rose, since because of
their number they feared lest to march at night should throw them into
confusion and, in case of their falling into an ambush, bring about a
disaster. Such at least was the story of two spies whom our people had
captured.

There had been some question as to whether we should not attempt a night
attack upon their camp, of which I was rather in favour. After full
debate, however, the idea had been abandoned, owing to the fewness of
our numbers, the dislike which the White Kendah shared with the Black of
attempting to operate in the dark, and the well chosen position of our
enemy, whom it would be impossible to rush before we were discovered by
their outposts. What I hoped in my heart was that they might try to
rush us, notwithstanding the story of the two captured spies, and in
the gloom, after the moon had sunk low and before the dawn came, become
entangled in our pitfalls and outlying entrenchments, where we should be
able to destroy a great number of them. Only on the previous afternoon
that cunning old fellow, Hans, had pointed out to me how advantageous
such an event would be to our cause and, while agreeing with him, I
suggested that probably the Black Kendah knew this as well as we did, as
the prisoners had told us.