CHAPTER XXIV
LETTING IN THE RIVER
The river was no longer thundering through the underground passage,and as the sudden silence following the stopping of engines on apassenger steamer will awaken every sleeper even more quickly thanthe roaring of a gale, so this lull in the tremendous din arousedVenning.
"What is the matter?" he asked, starting up.
"The river has stopped."
They sat straining their ears for the swift roar of the waters, butout of the slumbering depths below there came only the regularsplash and tinkle of the falling drops.
"I don't understand it," muttered the Hunter.
"I do," said Venning, with a shout. "Hassan has blocked up the mouthof the canon."
"Nonsense, boy; how could he?"
"Look out of the loophole."
Mr. Hume put his face to the hole. "The water has risen, I think,from the noise."
"You remember what Muata said about the drowning of the valley?Well, that is what is happening. The Arab has blocked the mouth byblasting a mass of rock which overhung the river. That's what!"
They pondered over this new phase.
"If we had food, this would be the safest place, after all, then."
"Food, Dick, and a way out."
"Dick, of course. Anyhow, sir, it is a relief to have silence; thenoise made my head throb so, I did not know what I was doing."
Before, they had to shout into each other's ears, now they spoke inlow tones, but even so the echoes seemed to people the dark withwhispers, and they desisted from talk. In the silence they heardpresently the swirl and lapping of waters out in the canon, then thesound of men talking, and, what was strange, a noise as of paddles,These outside sounds were muffled and indistinct, but as the nightwent on they heard a laugh ring out from below, loud and shrill,followed by a confused murmuring, which quickly gained distinctnessin the form of a wild chant. The denizens of the underground worldwere on the move. Looking down over the parapet they saw a spurt offlame, and as the fire made for itself a ring of red light far downin the dark, they could make out dimly the forms of people sittinground in a circle. Then the smell of smoke reached them, and, afteran interval, the strong odour of burning flesh.
"Go to sleep, lad," said Mr. Hume; "they will not disturb us. Theyhave other prey, found, perhaps, on the scene of the fight in thegorge."
Venning shuddered, and sought his mat, while the Hunter continued tolook down on the unholy feast in the bowels of the earth, with anitch to send a bullet smashing into the midst of the circle.
"Come and rest," said Venning. "Don't you ever feel tired?"
"Tired enough, lad; but I don't like this news about the riverrising;" and ha went to the loophole.
"We're safe enough, sir--safe enough for to-night. There are sixmiles at the back of the dam, and it would take a lot of water torise a foot an hour in the canon, and we are more than thirty feetabove the normal level, I dare say. Do rest."
Mr. Hume sat down, and closed his eyes, but when he heard theregular breathing of the tired boy, he was up again. It was thethought of Dick that filled him with sleepless anxiety, and he leanton the parapet, fuming over plans in his mind with wearyingreiteration. He was staring straight before him, when a lightappeared on his own level, accompanied by the ring of metal on rock.Instinctively his rifle was levelled, and, with his finger on thetrigger, he sighted a foot below the light, which was now quitestationary, but, obedient to a sudden overmastering impulse, he asquickly lowered the rifle.
A moment the light remained fixed; then it was raised, lowered, andmoved from side to side as if the holder were examining the ground;then it advanced.
"Stop!" thundered Mr. Hume. "Stand back. There is a chasm at yourfeet."
He had suddenly remembered the platform on which he and Venning hademerged on their first attempt after leaving the Cave of Skulls, andsomehow he felt that the person who held that light had strayed tothat very place in ignorance.
He heard a startled exclamation, saw the light fall from theperson's band, and marked its swift descent, before the flame wasextinguished by the rush of air; then it was his turn to fall back.
"Who are you?"
"It's Dick," shouted Venning, with a sob in his voice.
"Dick," muttered the Hunter, cold to the heart at the thought of thefalling light.
"Hurrah!" There was no mistaking that shout. "Where are you? How canI get to you?"
"For God's sake, don't move!" cried the Hunter, in a shaken voice."Stay where you are. We'll join you."
From below there came a shrill clamour, but the Hunter, neverpausing to give the creatures a thought, lifted Venning in his armsand felt his way to the cave, clambered up through the hole, foundthe other exit hidden by the mat, and crept down the broken passagebeyond. In a turn of the passage they saw Compton's face peering outunder a lighted candle, the one visible object in the darkness, setin a strained expression, in which were blended joy, anxiety, andwonder.
They gripped hands in silence, then--
"We've found the boat," said Venning.
"What is that noise down below?" asked Dick.
"Have you got any food?" This from Mr. Hume.
"A sackful."
"Then let us eat first of all."
They sat down there and then and ate, and when they had eaten theywere silent, because the creatures below were silent too, and Mr.Hume knew that then they were dangerous. He went back to standbehind the mat knife in hand, ready to attack, for now that he hadgot his two boys back, he said to himself grimly that he would standno nonsense. Back in that dark passage Dick sat with his friend'shead on his shoulder, and one limp hand grasped in his, marvellingmuch at the mystery of the place and at the providential meeting. Hehad cause to wonder how Venning had borne the horrors of theunderground as well as he had, for towards the morning it seemed asif those ghouls of darkness vied with each other in producing themost appalling shrieks, howls, and bursts of mirthless laughter.They played ventriloquial tricks in the passages and caverns, makingthe sounds come from different points after varying intervals ofsilence; and all the time, as could be gathered from occasionalwords in the incoherent gabble, uttering threats against the whitemen.
Then, at the very break of dawn, after a couple of hours of silence,the plot they had formed was put into shape.
"Ngonyama!"
Mr. Hume stepped out on to the platform. "Who calls?"
"It is I, the Inkosikase."
She was standing at the very parapet where he himself had leant whenhe saw the light borne by Dick on the spot where he now stood. Shestood up boldly on the canon side of the great cavity, about fiftyyards away.
"Your life was forfeit, Ngonyama, but I spared you--I spared you."
"I hear."
"You are but a mouse in these earth runs, Indhlovu."
The Hunter laughed, and the unseen creatures took up the laugh,flinging it back till the hollow places rang with the wild noise.
"Hear, and take heed. Take heed lest they fall on you. Wow! Ye haveseen my power and the strength of my medicine in the stilling of thewaters."
"It was Hassan who stilled the waters. Say on."
"Yoh!" The woman paused, taken aback. "See, my medicine tells me youcame here to search for the shining canoe. Maybe I can tell youwhere it is hid by the wizards."
"I know, wise woman. Say on."
"Wow! But," she said triumphantly, "ye do not know the way out, andye are helpless till I tell you."
"I know."
"Then why do you stay here?"
"Enough! I know the way out. What is your message to me?"
His confidence staggered her, and it was some moments before shecould speak.
"But there is the young chief. Ye would save him. I will make abargain with you for his life."
"He is here, woman."
Dick stepped out from the shadows, and she threw up her arms with awail.
"Say what you have to say," said Mr. Hume, sternly, "for I see
youwould have some service of me, and had hoped to buy me with news Ihave no want for."
"Ngonyama, great white one, I am but a woman, and ye are too strongfor me."
Mr. Hume nodded.
"I am a woman; only a woman."
"Was it a woman's task to set those ravens upon me and the youngchief?"
"I am a mother, Indhlovu, and a mother's heart is strong for herchild. I feared you because of my son. You were strong, and hetrusted you. He was away, and you were left to do as you wished--totake his place, to destroy him. It is the way of men to use powerfor themselves."
"It is not my way."
"O great white one, give me counsel. The Arab thief has trulystopped the river, and the waters rise in the valley--rise among thegardens; and when Muata returns he will see water where there wasgrass."
"Ay, Muata will ask how this thing happened. And they will answer,because a woman interfered with his plans. The son will know that itwas his mother who brought this evil on the place because shethought she could do better than Ngonyama."
"It is true; it is true," she wailed, beating her breast. "So tellme, great one, how this evil may be put right, but it must be donequickly, for the Arab has brought canoes up, and his men are in thevalley ready to seize the women and children."
This was startling news indeed. "Canoes in the valley?"
"In the valley itself; and our men are scattered here and there onthe ridges at the mercy of these wolves, though they fight hard.Ngonyama, tell me!"
"There is only one thing to do," said Venning, joining in.
"I listen," she cried, leaning forward. "Quick, wise one. You whoplayed with the little ones at the huts, you who talk to the ants,tell me."
"The one thing to do is to let the water in."
"Ye mock me," she cried fiercely.
"Let in the water, and the canoes will be dashed to pieces; thewomen and the little ones saved." "But how can this be done?"
"You know this place and the secrets of it. Those holes behind youthat look out on the valley were made by hands. Is there no placewhere the wall is thin?"
The woman lifted up her hands and shouted a cry of exultation, thenshe ran swiftly, and they saw her presently standing above the V-shaped wedge in the wall, a deep scar in the cliff made by the fallof a portion of the rock. With wonderful agility she climbed down tothe apex and set to work on the face of the rock with a kind ofmaniacal fury. When she climbed out to the top they saw she haddrawn a square, with a mark at each corner plainly visible.
"Ngonyama, for the sake of the little ones and the women, for yourown sakes, if ye wish to live, send a bullet to each mark."
"By Jove!" said Venning, "that's a good notion. The rock must bethin there, and the force of the bullet should crack it."
"Quick, white one. I can hear the death-song of our warriors. Quick,if ye would see the sun again."
Mr. Hume raised his Express. He saw the need as well as she forswift measures, and he planted each smashing shot on the littlewhite mark at each corner of the square.
The square was starred with cracks from side to side, and before theechoes of the reports had ceased to roll and rumble through thevaults, there was a dark stain on the rock.
The water was coming through, but the woman, in her mad impatience,could not bear the delay. Clambering down, she worked feverishly atthe cracks with a spear-head, and with a sharp hiss a stream ofwater like steam shot out.
"Climb up," roared Mr. Hume.
"Another thrust, Indhlovu, and a woman will have won. One blow forthe sake of my child--the chief." Her long sinewy arm flew back, andshe drove the spear-head into the crack.
Then came a tremendous report. The block of loosened stone flew outas if propelled from a big gun, whizzed far out, and after it, witha deafening roar, flashed a white column, that widened as it leaptforward. Spreading his arms, the Hunter threw himself back, bearinghis companions with him, as a mass of water struck the platform onwhich they had stood. As the flood poured through the opening,tearing and screaming like a thousand furies, other fragments ofrock were torn out and sent whirling down, to increase the terribledin rising up from the cauldron below, where the waters once againrushed and boiled through the dark tunnels, after their terrificleap. The whole upper space of the great vault was filled with amist, which condensed and fell in a fine rain upon the threecrouching figures, deafened by the uproar, and expecting everymoment to be involved in one complete break-up of the interior wallsunder the smashing blows of the flood. As they crawled back into thepassage for safety, some solid object crashed against the rock nearthem, and the broken blade of a canoe paddle shot past them into thepassage.
It was sign of the terrible fate that must have overtaken those ofHassan's men who had entered the valley by canoe. It served as aspur to urge them to escape.
They crept into the Cave of Skulls, and there finding some relieffrom the uproar, Mr. Hume asked Compton if he knew the way out.Compton nodded, lit the last of his candles, and, guided by marks hehad made on the wall, led the way out and down to a spot where hepointed to a hole several feet above the ground. They passed throughthat, and after a long and wearying march--during the last part ofwhich the Hunter again carried Venning--they crawled out into theold cave, and through that on to the ledge overlooking the valley.
A glance took in the position. Muata's people were gathered on thetableland where stood the new village, watching the sinking of theriver, as unaccountable to them as had been the swift rising in thenight that had cut them off and marked them out as easy victims tothe men in the canoes, which Hassan, in his great cunning, hadbrought up to complete his plan for the complete destruction of thecommunity. Of Hassan's men, and the canoes, carried up through theforest with so much labour, there was no trace. Men and canoes musthave been sucked into the canon, dashed to pieces, and swept downinto the dark, probably to emerge in the Deadman's Pool.
Mr. Hume gave a hail to the people below. "Bayate!" they shouted,recognizing him. Some of the men swam across and came up.
They made a humble salute to the white men. "Great ones, the peopleare afraid. The earth shook and the water arose, and out of the darkcame men in canoes. We were afraid. It was witchcraft. Again theearth shook, the waters sank, and the canoes were swept away."
"Say to the women they may go about their work in peace, for thewhite chiefs keep watch, and all is well. And say to the headman tosend up food, fruit, milk, and the flesh of a kid."
These orders were promptly obeyed, and the three were soon busy at agood meal, that put life and strength into them, so that when theyfeasted their eyes upon the wonderful beauty of-the garden-valley,the horrors of the underground world swiftly faded into thebackground, phantoms of reality.
And while they rested in the afternoon, Muata came out of the gorgechanting his song of triumph at the head of the picked warriors whohad gone down into the forest to hang on the trail of the wild men.
His song died away as his eye fell upon the still swollen river, onthe sheen of pools gathered where the ground was flat, on the banksof debris showing the highwater mark far up the little side valleys.
"Greeting, Ngonyama!"
"And to you, chief."
"My brothers have not slept." The young chief's eagle-glance dweltswiftly on the three friends. "They have looked on great trouble."
"You have come from victory, chief; your men are fresh."
"Ohe! they are fresh, for the fight was short."
"Then send some of them up the cliff on the other side, so that theymay overlook the place where the river goes under."
Muata looked down into the valley again, and asked the questionwhich he had been burning to ask all the time, but could not forfear of showing anxiety.
"So Hassan has tried to drown out the valley?"
"The river rose and the river fell! While he sent some men to attackthe gorge, he found the river-gate unguarded, and seized it, blockedthe course of the river with a great rock loosened from above, andthen, as the
water rose, lowered canoes on the inside, and sent hismen forward to eat up your village."
"Where was Ngonyama when the gates were unguarded?"
"In the caverns under the cliff."
"Wow!"
"The wise woman led us there. She left us there, fearing I,Ngonyama, would supplant you, her son; and on the second morning,when she found that Hassan was too cunning, she came with an offerof liberty if we would destroy his plan. We told her the way. It wasto let the water in."
"It was a good plan. Haw!"
"She let the water in to save the people of the valley, and Hassan'smen were lost utterly; but the first victim was your mother, Muata."
"It was a good death," said Muata, after a long pause.
"Ay, it was a good death, chief. Now send your men up the cliff, sothat they overlook the river-gates."
"I will see to it, Ngonyama;" and Muata went down with his band tothe village once again, chanting the deep-chested song of victory.
The jackal, who had accompanied Muata on the new trail, remainedwith his white friends. He was thin, he was famished, and he satwith his left front paw lifted. Venning, who had a fellow-feelingfor one in distress, being himself worn out, took the paw,discovered a nasty cut on the pad, washed it out with warm water,treated it with carbolic, bound it up, and gave the animal the potto dean, which he did, polishing it out with his long red tongue.
The boy and the jackal stretched themselves on a kaross to the sun,while Mr. Hume and Compton went away off to make sure about theOkapi; for, as they said, they were in no mind to lose the boat,after all their exertions, just because they were a little tired.
In the drowsy noon the tired boy slept, and through the afternoon,opening his eyes for a moment occasionally as the voices of thewomen rose to a higher pitch in a mournful dirge they were singingover the missing, and at intervals the jackal would raise his sharpmuzzle and sniff the air. There was some note in the dirge thatdisturbed the boy, and there was some taint in the air that made thejackal uneasy. Once it stood up as if to explore, but the sight ofits bandaged foot brought a pucker to his brows, and it curleditself up again after an intent look into the face of his humancompanion.
For the rest of the day the dirge went on, rising and sinking likethe murmur of the sea in its flow and ebb on a still day. At duskthe two came back from their long march to the Deadman's Pool,bringing the report that they had recovered the missing boat, andconcealed it in a place of their own choosing this time. Venningawoke to hear the news, but he heard it without enthusiasm, just asthey had imparted the news in tones of weary indifference.
The sickness of the forest was on them all--its monotony, itsvastness, and its brooding silence--and it caught them when theywere most liable to the attack; that is, when they were tired out,with all the spring gone from mind and sinews.
"My poor father!" muttered Compton, as he sat down with his back tothe rock. "No wonder he looked upon this as a prison, placed as itis in this wilderness of trees."
Mr. Hume nodded, and sat with his arms resting on his knees,smoking, and staring at nothing.
Muata joined them, but his coming did not rouse them.
"I have looked down on the gates, Ngonyama. As you said, the riverwas blocked by Hassan; but there is no sign of the thief, only somecanoes dropped by his men in their flight."
He sat down and smoked, too, with the same listless look on hisface.
The jackal rose at his master's coming, and stood whining andsniffing the air.
No one took any notice of him but Venning, who coaxed him to him,and placed an arm round his yellow neck.
"Why don't they sing something else?" said Compton, irritably, asthe mournful wail dinned its misery into his ears.
Muata looked at the white men. "It is the rains," he said.
"Eh?"
"The rains are coming. Maybe that is why Hassan struck so soon, forwhen the rains come, every warrior is like the bow-string that hasbeen soaked in water. They hide the sun, they breed chills andsickness. I can feel the breath of them in my bones. It is therains."
He shivered, and threw a stick on the fire. "In the morning," hesaid, "we must find a new home, for the rains blow in at the mouthof this cave. The clouds hang low on the hills."
"We have found our boat, chief; we will go on our way," said theHunter, bluntly.
"That way would be the way of death," answered the chief, slowly."It is bad here, but in the woods it is like the spray blown offfrom the rushing waters. Every tree is a rain-cloud, every leafdrops water, and the air you breathe in the woods is wet. If youwould live, great one, you must stay here. Wet when you sleep, whenyou eat, when you sit you sit in wet, when you stand the water runsoff; wet, all wet in the rains down in the woods."
"Ugh!" said Venning, with a shudder; and Compton put on anotherstick.
"We will see," said the Hunter.
They sat in silence, pondering over this new source of worry, thenturned in to sleep. They slept heavily, having taken great carefirst of all to block up the entrance to the underground passage,and as they dropped off to sleep, they heard the women chantingstill in the village below. The fire glowed red in the entrance,making the roof look like beaten gold, but the air blew chill, andthe sleepers were restless. A hand would reach out to the firewoodfor another log, or to tuck the blankets under the body, so that thecold could not sift under.
The jackal was as weary as the rest. Several times he ran to theentrance to look out with pricked ears, then back again to stareinto a sleepy face; but as his human companions gradually sank intoheavy sleep, he crouched on the floor with his sharp nose restingbetween his forepaws, the one sound, the other bandaged.
In Search of the Okapi Page 24
