Samba: A Story of the Rubber Slaves of the Congo

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER XXVII

  The Return of Lokolobolo

  "Lokolobolo! Lokolobolo! Lokolobol'olotsi! Lokolobolo is here!Lokolobolo has come back to us! Bolotsi O! Why do we laugh? Why dowe sing? Samba has found Lokolobolo! Samba has brought him back tous!"

  Ilombekabasi was delirious with joy. Men and women were shouting,laughing, singing; the children were dancing and blowing strident notesupon their little trumpets; Imbono's drummer was banging with all hismight, filling the air with shattering thunder. Jack quivered withfeeling; his lips trembled as he sat once more in his hut, listening tothe jubilant cries his arrival had evoked. It was something, it wasmuch, that he had been able so to win the devoted affection of thesepoor negroes of the Congo.

  Outside, the two chiefs Imbono and Mboyo were talking of the joyfulevent.

  "Yes! wonderful! Lokolobolo is here! and with him two strange whitechiefs. Wonderful! Did you ever see such a big man? I am big," saidImbono, "but I am not so big as Makole the chief of Limpoko, and one ofthe strange white men is bigger than he."

  "It needed two ropes to draw him up from the gully," said Mboyo. "I amstrong, but though I had four men to help me it was hard work. He mustbe a very great chief."

  "And the other must be a great chief too. Did not Samba say thatLokolobolo gave him his last bottle of devil water?"

  "But the big man is hurt. It is the leg. It is not so bad as Ikola's;but Ikola was shot. They have put him in Barnio's hut; the other chiefis with Lokolobolo. It is good that the white chiefs have come. NowLokolobolo will sweep Elobela down the hillside, even as a straw in thestorm."

  "But what of the smoke-boat that Samba says is coming with the whitemen in white, and the black men in cloth the colour of straw, andthings on their heads the colour of fire? Will Lokolobolo be able tobeat them too?"

  "Lokolobolo is able to beat all Bula Matadi; and he has the other whitemen to help. Never fear! Lokolobolo will beat them all. We shallsee. There he is, coming out of his hut with the white chief.Lokolobolo wanda!"[1]

  "You must be a proud man to-day, Mr. Challoner," said the stranger.

  "I am too anxious to be proud," said Jack with a smile. "I haven't theheart to stop them shouting and making a noise, but it's a pity todisturb our enemy in the camp down yonder. I shall have to go and makea speech to them, I suppose; it is more in your line than mine, Mr.Arlington. Luckily I'm not sufficiently fluent in their language to belong-winded."

  They went together into the midst of the throng.

  When within three marches of Ilombekabasi Jack's party had stumbledupon a wretched encampment in the forest which proved to contain twowhite men and three negroes. Samba came upon them first, and, startledto find white men at this spot, he was cocking his rifle, supposingthem to be State officers, when one of them called to him in a Congodialect not to shoot; he was an Inglesa. When Jack came up he foundthat the taller of the two men, the one who had spoken, a huge fellowwith a great black beard, was a missionary named Dathan, the otherbeing the Honourable George Arlington, with whose name Jack wasfamiliar. Mr. Arlington was a man of mark. After a brilliant careerat Cambridge he had entered Parliament, and became an Under-Secretaryof State at a younger age than almost any one before him. When hisparty was out of office he took the opportunity of travelling in manyquarters of the globe, to study at first hand the great problems whichmore and more demand the attention of British statesmen. Now, in hisfortieth year, he was recognized as an authority on the subjects whichhe had so specially made his own. He had come out to make a personalstudy of the Congo question, and in order to secure freedom ofobservation had decided to enter Congo territory, not from Boma, whencehe would be shadowed throughout by officials, but from Britishterritory through Uganda. In Unyoro he had met his old college chumFrank Dathan, now a missionary engaged on a tour of inspection of hisSociety's work in Central Africa. Dathan, having completed his task inUganda, was to make his way into the Congo State and visit severalmission stations there. The two friends thereupon arranged to traveltogether.

  Mr. Arlington being anxious to see a little of what was an almostunexplored part of Africa, they chose as their route the northernfringe of the great forest. But they got into difficulties when theyentered country which, though not yet "administered," or "exploited,"was nominally Free State territory. At the sight of white men thenatives they met with one accord took to the woods. The result wasthat the travellers were once or twice nearly starved; many of theircarriers deserted with their loads; and they both suffered a good dealfrom exposure and privation. To crown their misfortunes, Dathan fellwith a loose rock one day when he was climbing down a steep bank to getwater, and broke his leg. Arlington tried without success to set thebone, and was hurrying on in the hope of finding a Free State outpostand a doctor when Jack came upon them.

  Jack at once frankly explained his position. He did not give detailsof his work at Ilombekabasi, but he saw no reason for concealing thecircumstances which had driven him into antagonism with the officialsof the Concession. He related what had happened to his uncle, and howhe had escaped from the net woven about him by Elbel; he told thestrangers also what he had actually seen of the Congo Government'smethod of dealing with the natives. Then he asked them whether theywould like to place themselves under the care of Elbel, who could, ifhe were disposed, send them under escort to Stanleyville, where themissionary might receive competent treatment. Both were disinclined todo this; they would prefer to keep themselves free from the Congo Stateor its Trusts. The alternative seemed to be to accompany Jack. Thismight certainly give rise to complications; Mr. Dathan especially wasloth to appear to identify himself with an armed revolt against theState. Missionaries, as he told Jack, were already in bad odour withthe authorities; they had told too much of what was going on. In manyparts they had come to be looked upon as the natives' only defenders,and had done a little, a very little, towards mitigating the worstfeatures of their lot. But he was still more loth even to seem tocountenance Elbel's proceedings by seeking his camp; and Mr. Arlingtonthought that his presence in Ilombekabasi, when it became known toElbel, might have a salutary effect on him. Ultimately, then, theydecided to run the blockade with Jack into the fort.

  The augmented party had had no difficulty in reaching theirdestination. The same general course was followed as had been arrangedfor the reception of Mr. Martindale's party. They halted in a copse onan eminence about six miles from the fort and above it. To reach thisspot they had to make a longer circuit than either Mr. Martindale orElbel in his first attempt to surprise Ilola. But before going fartherit was necessary to discover how the land lay. Samba was obviously thebest of the party for this scouting work, but he could hardly be sparedif the fort happened to be too closely invested for the entrance of thewhole party to be made. Jack therefore chose Makoko, a sturdy fellowand an excellent scout, scribbled a brief note to Barney, hid it in thenegro's thick woolly hair, and sent him on alone. If he came safely toIlombekabasi and it seemed to Barney possible to run the blockade, aflag was to be hoisted on one of the blockhouses. The signal would beacted on as soon as possible in the darkness.

  Makoko left at nightfall. Before dawn Samba went on some two milesahead to a place whence he could see the fort. He returned with thewelcome news that a piece of red cloth was flying on the northernblockhouse. Jack waited impatiently throughout the day; as soon as itwas dark Samba led the party forward. They moved slowly, partly toallow time for careful scouting, partly because Mr. Dathan had to becarried, and proved a heavy burden even for six strong Askari. Nodifficulties were met with; Elbel had ceased to patrol the surroundingsof the fort at night, and in the early hours of the morning in pitchdarkness the party marched quietly in at the gate on the north side ofthe fort. Jack put his own hut at Mr. Arlington's disposal. Mr.Dathan was carried to Barney's; and before hearing what had happenedduring his absence Jack insisted on the missionary's having hisinjuries attended to. Barney managed to set the broken li
mb, thoughnot without causing a good deal of pain for which he whimsicallyapologized. Then Jack listened eagerly to his account of what hadhappened.

  Elbel had made two serious attacks. The first was an attempt to carrythe fort by assault, from the place whence he had sent his fire barrelsrolling. But after the capture of Elbel's rifles and ammunition aconsiderable number of Jack's men who had hitherto been spearmen hadbeen trained in the use of the Albini; so that Barney had a force ofnearly ninety riflemen with which to meet the attack, half of them atleast being good shots. One charge was enough for the enemy; the firefrom the wall and blockhouses mowed down the advancing negroes by thescore; they never reached the defences, but turned and fled to cover inthe gully and behind the rocks above.

  Ilombekabasi and Surrounding Country, showing theDiverted Stream and Elbel's Third Camp]

  Then Elbel demolished the dam he had built on the slope, and allowedthe river to flow again in the channel it had cut for itself down thelong incline to the eastward.

  "What would he be doing that for, sorr? Seems to me he has wasted aterrible deal uv good time in putting up and pulling down. Two men Isent out as scouts niver came back, and I wondered to meself whetherthey'd been bagged, sorr, and had let out something that made Elbelwant to play more tricks wid nature. Often did I see Elbel himselfdodging round the fort wid his spyglass in his hand, and 'tis thetruth's truth I let some uv the men have a little rifle practice athim. Sure he must have a cat's nine lives, sorr, for ten uv theniggers said they were sartin sure they'd hit him."

  "Trying to solve our water puzzle, Barney! Go on."

  There was an interval of some days; then, at daybreak one morning,while a strong demonstration, apparently the preliminary of an attack,was observed on the north and east, a body of men crept up the gullyand made a sudden rush with ladders for the hole in the wall by whichthe scouts had been accustomed to go in and out. It was clear thatElbel's best men were engaged in this job, for Barney heard loud criesfor help from the small body he had thought sufficient to leave on thewestern face of the fort. Rushing to the place with a handful of men,he was just in time to prevent the enemy from effecting an entrance.There was a brisk fight for two or three minutes; then the laddersplaced against the wall were hurled into the gully, and with them theforlorn hope of the storming party.

  "That was three days ago, sorr. And two or three uv our men declaredthey saw Mbota among the enemy, pointing out the very spot where thehole is--whin it is a hole. You remember Mbota, sorr--the man whobrought in his wife on his back, her wid the hands cut off. 'Twas he Isent out scouting. Sure the chicotte had been at work wid him; forniver a wan uv our men, I would swear before the Lord Chancellor uvIreland, would turn traitor widout they were in mortal terror for theirlives, or even worse."

  "And you have not been attacked since?"

  "No, sorr. But I've had me throubles all the same. Samba ought to bemade, beggin' your pardon, sorr, high constable uv this fort."

  "Indeed!"

  "Yes, sorr, 'cos it seems 'tis only he that can keep the peace. Wouldyou believe it, sorr, the very next day after you were gone, Imbono'smen and Mboyo's men began to quarrel; 'twas Orange and Green, sorr, anda fine shindy. Whin Samba was here, he'd make 'em laugh, and 'twas allcalm as the Liffey; but widout Samba--bedad! sorr, I didn't know whatin the world to do wid 'em. Sure I wished Elbel would fight all thetime, so that there'd be no time left for the spalpeens here to fightwan another. But at last, sorr, a happy thought struck me; quite anintimation, as one might say. I remimbered the day when themaster--rest his soul!--and you made yourselves blood-brothers uvImbono. That was a mighty fine piece uv work, thinks I. So wanmorning I had a big palaver--likambo the niggers call it, your honour."(Barney's air as he gave this information to Mr. Arlington wasirresistibly laughable.) "I made a spache, and Lepoko turned it intotheir talk as well as he could, poor fellow; and sure they cheered itso powerful hard that I thought 'twas a mimber uv Parlimint I ought tobe. Well, sorr, the end was I made Imbono and Mboyo blood-brothers,and niver a word uv difference have they had since."

  "A plan that might be tried with leaders of parties at home," said Mr.Arlington with a smile.

  "There's wan other thing that throubles me," added Barney. "Our foodis getting low, sorr. We had such a powerful lot that wan would havethought 'twould last for iver. But in a fortnight we shall be on veryshort commons; we've been on half rations this week or more."

  "That's bad news indeed. But we shall know our fate in a fortnight.The State troops are coming at last, Barney."

  Barney pulled a long face when Jack told him about the flotilla he hadseen coming up the river. But the next moment he smiled broadly.

  "Sure 'twill be our salvation, sorr. There'll be a power uv food onthose canoes, and 'twill come in the nick uv time to save us fromfamine."

  "But we've got to capture it first!"

  "And won't it be aisy, sorr? It won't drop into our mouths, to besure, but there's niver a doubt we'll get it by this or that."

  Jack smiled at Barney's confidence, which he could hardly share. Heestimated that he had about a week's grace before the State troopscould arrive, unless they made a forced march ahead of their stores,which was not very likely. He could not look forward withoutmisgiving. Elbel's troops, strongly reinforced and commanded by anexperienced military officer, would prove a very different enemy. Hedoubted whether it would be wise to wait the issue of a fight. Apartfrom the risk of being utterly crushed, there was a strong politicalreason against it, as Mr. Arlington did not fail to point out.Hitherto Jack had been dealing with an officer of the SocieteCosmopolite, and he could argue reasonably that he was only opposingunwarranted interference. But if he resisted an armed force of theState, it became at once open rebellion.

  "You render yourself liable to the punishment of a rebel, Mr.Challoner," said Mr. Arlington, "and your British nationality will nothelp you. You might be shot or hanged. What I suggest to you is this.When the State forces appear, let me open negotiations with them. Theywill probably know my name; I have a certain influence in highquarters; I could probably make terms for you."

  "But the people, Mr. Arlington! You could not make terms for them.What would happen to them? They would fall into the power of theiroppressors, and the old tale would be continued--illegal demands andexactions, floggings, maimings, murders. It was a solemn charge frommy uncle to stand by the defenceless negroes; it is no less the dictateof humanity: we, they and I, are in the same boat, sir, and we mustsink or swim together."

  As it was of supreme importance to Jack to know at what rate thehostile column was moving, he sent out that night Samba, Makoko, andLingombela with orders to report the progress of the expedition fromday to day. By taking the road through the forest they should get intotouch with the enemy by the time they reached the place where Mr.Martindale had left his canoes. If the scouts should find themselvesunable to return to the fort they were to light a large fire on thespot whence Samba had seen Barney's flag flying, as a signal that theexpedition had passed the place in question. If a small column shouldbe coming on in advance they were to light two fires a little apartfrom one another. Samba was even more light-hearted than usual when heleft the fort with his comrades. He seemed to feel that this was amission of special importance, the prelude to a final victory forLokolobolo; for the possibility of defeat for Lokolobolo neversuggested itself to any man in Ilombekabasi. Mboyo and Lukela were atthe wall to bid their son goodbye. He laughed as he slipped down intothe darkness.

  "Ekeke e'afeka!"[2] he whispered gleefully, and hastened to overtakeMakoko and Lingombela, who were already some distance up the gully.

  Shortly after dawn next day the sentries reported a sound as of a largebody of men moving up the hill. Jack instantly called the garrison toarms. There was a good deal of noise in the darkness above the fort.Here and there a dim light showed for a few moments, and was promptlyfired at. When day broke Jack saw that the enemy had built a roughwall o
f stones loosely piled up, some fifty yards long and about fourfeet high, parallel with the north wall of the fort, one end resting onthe edge of the gully. From a convenient spot in the gully, about twohundred yards above the fort, the enemy could creep to the extremity ofthe wall without coming under the fire of the garrison. It hadevidently been erected to screen some operations going on behind it.To guard against a sortie from the fort a covering force had beenplaced on the hill a quarter of a mile farther up; and between theill-fitting stones there were small gaps which would serve as loopholesfor the riflemen.

  During the day the enemy were hard at work digging a trench under coverof the wall. Jack wondered at first whether Elbel was going to makeapproaches to the fort by sap and mine, in the manner he had read of inhistories of the great sieges. But another and still more disturbingthought occurred to him. Would the trench cut across the line of hisconduit? Had Elbel at last fathomed the secret of his water supply?He anxiously examined the landmarks, which had been disturbed somewhatby the construction of the wall. As nearly as he could judge, thespring was a few yards south of the wall, and neither it nor theconduit would be discovered by the men digging the trench. Yet hecould not but feel that Elbel's latest move was not so much an attemptto undermine the defences of the fort as to discover the source of itswater supply. If he should have hit upon the fact that the water wasderived, not from a well inside the walls, but from a spring outside,he would not be long in coming to the conclusion that it must be from aspot opposite the northern face; and by cutting a trench or a series oftrenches across the ground in that direction he must sooner or latercome upon the conduit.

  The work proceeded without intermission during the whole of the day,and apparently without success, for the level of the water in the forttank did not fall. But Elbel's activity was not stopped by thedarkness. When morning dawned Jack saw that during the night anopening about five feet wide had been made in the wall, giving accessto a passage-way of about the same height leading towards the fort androughly covered with logs, no doubt as a protection against rifle fire.Only about twenty yards of this passage-way had been completed. Theend towards the fort was closed by a light screen of timber resting onrollers, and sufficiently thick to be impervious to rifle fire, as Jacksoon found by experiment. Evidently another trench was to be dug nearthe fort. To avoid the labour of building a second covering wall,Elbel had hit on the idea of a passage-way through which his men mightreach the spot where he desired the new trench to be begun. Protectedby the screen, they could dig a hole several feet deep, and then, toolow to be hit by shots from the fort, could proceed with the trench insafety.

  Jack wondered whether Elbel had not yet heard of the approach of theState forces. Such feverish activity was surely unnecessary whenreinforcements were only a few days' march distant. It was Barney whosuggested that Elbel had made such a mess of things hitherto that hewas eager to do something, to gain a success of some kind, before theregular forces should arrive.

  Under cover of the wooden screen the enemy, as Jack had expected,started to dig another trench parallel with the wall. They had no lackof labourers; as soon as one gang was tired another was ready to takeits place; and the work was carried on very rapidly. With growinganxiety Jack watched the progress of the trench towards the gully. Hisconduit was only three feet from the surface of the ground. Judging bythe fact that his marksmen never got an opportunity of taking aim atthe diggers, the trench must be at least five feet deep; and if anopening were made into the gully the conduit was sure to be exposed.There was just one hope that they would fail. Jack remembered theoutcrop of rock which had necessitated the laying of the pipes, for alength of some yards, several feet lower than the general level. Ifthe enemy should happen to have struck this point there was a fairchance of the conduit escaping their search; for, coming upon the layerof rock, they would probably not guess that pipes were carried beneathit. To reassure himself, Jack called up Imbono and Mboyo and askedthem if they could locate the spot where the rock occurred. Theirimpression agreed with his, that it must at any rate be very near theplace where the enemy's trench would issue into the gully.

  But Jack's anxiety was not relieved at the close of the day, for againthe work was carried on all night. He thought of a sortie, butreflected that this would be taken by Elbel as an indication that hewas hot on the scent. And while a sortie might inflict loss on theenemy, it would not prevent Elbel from resuming his excavations as soonas the garrison had retired again within their defences.

  With great relief Jack at last heard the sound of pick-axes striking onrock. It seemed too good to be true that the enemy had come upon theexact dozen yards of rock where alone the conduit was in little dangerof being laid bare. Yet this proved to be the case. In the morningElbel drew off his workmen, apparently satisfied, before the trench hadbeen actually completed to the gully, that he was on the wrong track.A great load was lifted from Jack's mind. If the secret of the watersupply had been discovered, he knew that the end could only be a matterof a few days.

  As soon as the enemy drew off, Jack's men issued forth, demolished thewall, and filled up the trench.

  Three days passed in comparative inactivity. During these days Jackhad much of his time taken up by Mr. Arlington, who required of him ahistory of all that had happened since the first meeting with Elbel.The traveller made copious jottings in his note-book. He asked themost minute questions about the rubber traffic and the methods of theState and the Concessions; he had long interviews with Imbono andMboyo, and endured very patiently Lepoko's expanded versions ofstatements already garrulous; he took many photographs with his kodakof the people who had been maimed by the forest guards, and asked Jackto present him with a chicotte--one of those captured along with theAskari. He said very little, probably thinking the more. Certainly helet nothing escape his observation.

  Meanwhile Mr. Dathan was making friends of all the children. Unable toendure the stuffiness of the hut, he had himself carried on a shelteredlitter into the open, where, propped up on pillows, his burly formmight be seen in the midst of a large circle of little black figures,who looked at him earnestly with their bright intelligent eyes anddrank in the wonderful stories he told them. Many of their eldershovered on the fringe of the crowd; and when the lesson was finished,they went away and talked among themselves of Nzakomba[3] the greatSpirit Father who, as the bont' ok'ota-a-a-li[4] said, had put it intothe heart of Lokolobolo to defend and help them.

  Before the dawn one morning Lingombela came into the fort. He reportedthat the new enemy had only just finished the portage of their canoesand stores. The steamer had been left below the rapids, and the whitemen were embarking on canoes. There were not enough to convey thewhole expedition at one time, although some had been sent down theriver to meet them. Two or three had been lost through attempting tosave time by dragging them up the rapids. Lingombela had himself seenthis, with Samba. Samba had no doubt already told what he had seen,but he did not know about the big gun which could fire as many shots asa hundred men, for the white men had not begun to practise at a mark intheir camp above the rapids until Samba had left.

  "But we have seen nothing of Samba; where is he?"

  "He started to return to Ilombekabasi a day before I did."

  "And Makoko?"

  "Makoko is still watching."

  Lingombela's statement about Samba alarmed Jack. What had become ofthe boy? Had he fallen into the enemy's hands? It was too much to befeared. What else could have delayed him? In threading the forestnone of the scouts could travel so fast as he. If he had started a daybefore Lingombela he should have gained at least five or six hours.

  The news soon flew through the settlement that Samba was missing.Mboyo and his wife came to Jack to ask whether Lingombela had told thetruth. Their troubled looks touched Jack, and he tried to cheer them.

  "Samba has not arrived yet, certainly," he said, "but he may not havecome direct. Something may have taken him out of his course; he w
ouldgo a long way round if he thought it would be of use to us. Don't beworried. He has gone in and out safely so often that surely he willcome by and by."

  The negroes went away somewhat comforted. But Jack felt very anxious,and his feeling was fully shared by Barney.

  "'Tis meself that fears Elbel has got him," he said. "Pat has beenmost uncommon restless for two days. He looks up in the face uv me andbarks, whin he's not wanting anything at all. 'Tis only Samba canrightly understand all Pat says, and seems to me Pat has got an ideathat something has happened to Samba."

  An hour later Pat also had disappeared. He had broken his strap andrun away.

  [1] The highest salutation, given to a person of great dignity.

  [2] The last time.

  [3] God.

  [4] Very tall man.