CHAPTER TEN.
"NO QUARTER."
Hardly had our friends perfected the details of their scheme forsurprising the slavers, than darkness rushed upon them like a tangiblething. All, however, were much too excited to sleep, and, as soon asthe rising moon gave sufficient light, the whole party removed itselfbeyond the steep crest of the northern hill, and impatiently awaiteddevelopments, or, as the Zulus have it, "fought the fight of sit down."
It had been agreed amongst them, that the slavers were to have a clearhour allowed them from the time of entering the pass, to permit of theirsettling down quietly for the night, and this hour would of course, beemployed to advantage by the men in charge of the "water department,"whilst the defenders of the hill had of necessity to take their cue fromthe movements of the enemy as occasion might arise.
For once in a way, matters fell out even better than the most sanguinehad dared to hope. The slavers trooped quietly in, the dogs failing toshow the slightest sign of uneasiness, and as soon as the slaves hadbeen watered at the spring, the wretched creatures, to the number ofabout three hundred, all carefully manacled, were mercilessly driven ontowards Equatoria, guarded by half a score of heavily-armed andpowerful-looking ruffians, whilst Zero and the rest of his followingencamped for the night beside the spring, taking no precautions whateveragainst surprise, and obviously considering themselves perfectly safe intheir own happy hunting-grounds, relying, no doubt, upon the dogs togive them timely notice of any hostile approach. Nothing could havebeen better than this arrangement; for had the miserable slaves beendetained in the hollow of the pass, it would have caused our friendsvery considerable difficulty to separate the poor unoffending creatures,from their sworn vengeance upon Zero and his host of scoundrels, whereasnow, every shot would have a definite and decided aim.
After the dismal procession had filed out of sight, the time hung veryheavily on the hands of the anxious watchers on the hill, and noneseemed to feel it more keenly than did Leigh. He fidgeted first withhis rifle, and then with his revolvers, until Grenville and Kenyon madesure that one or other of the weapons would explode, and prematurelyunmask the whole affair, when matters would in all likelihood getuncomfortably warm for their little party.
Leigh was possessed of but one desire, and that was to get sight ofZero, when none who watched his face as Grenville did, could doubt thatthere would be bloodshed.
Slowly an hour dragged out its weary length. Below all was still asdeath, the slavers were fast asleep round their fire, and as a gentlezephyr was breezing in from the south, there was no scent to disturb therepose of the great dogs, who seemed to appreciate the warmth of thefire, equally with their tired masters.
All at once the death-like silence was rent by a thundering explosion,which seemed to fairly shake the mighty fabric of the mountain, and torend the very vault of heaven itself, whilst in the twinkling of an eye,every man amongst the slavers was on his feet, gun in hand, and gazinginquiringly at his nearest comrade.
Hardly had the Titanic echoes ceased to answer one another amongst themountain fastnesses, than a wild cry went up from the wretched menbeside the spring, as they saw the angry river come foaming and dancingtowards them--a frothing, bubbling sea of glancing foam--as it flewalong down the narrow pass under the weird rays of the ivory moonlight.
But a single look the slavers gave; then, turning as one man, the wholeband rushed blindly for the hill, but scarcely had they commenced toclimb, when the crown of the ascent seemed to fairly open before theirastonished eyes in a glancing sheet of flame, as Grenville gave theword, and two score angry rifles poured their deadly contents into thesurging mob of humanity but fifty yards below, whilst a chorus ofshrieks and imprecations went up to heaven, and men rolled over in everydirection, dead and dying, thus testifying to the fatal results of thedischarge.
The slavers paused aghast; but, with a wild, deep-throated bay, thenoble hounds sprang forward, undaunted by the presence of the foe--useless bravery, for Grenville kept his word: the moonlight was goodenough to shoot by, and three shots from his Winchester accounted forthe three great dogs in much less time than it takes to tell.
Meantime the water was rushing forward like a living thing, and theslavers, forced onwards by it, dashed up the hill in a positive frenzyof fear, paying no attention to their leader, who vainly shouted to themto keep their heads, as the water would take some time to rise theheight of the steep ascent. On they came in spite of another blindingdischarge, which absolutely singed their faces and thinned their ranksby quite one-half, and then, hand to hand, the combatants met with amighty roar. Hither and thither swung the fight in all its ghastlydetails, the crash of the axes, and the rapid detonations of therevolver-pistols, almost drowning the war-cries of the Zulus as theywreaked their righteous vengeance upon their late tormentors. Soon,however, friend and foe were so closely blent together that evenGrenville--who kept out of a scrimmage in which he was yet too weak totake his accustomed part--found it extremely difficult work to get in asingle shot without danger to his own people.
The Slaver-Chief was unquestionably a brave man, and in his fighting crythere was inspiration for his band; but what could he do when three suchmen as Leigh, Kenyon, and Amaxosa would, if they could help it, fightneither with small nor great but with himself only; whilst Grenville,meantime, watched, lynx-eyed, for a chance of putting a bullet throughhim?
Four times did this determined trio charge the slavers, axe in hand, andZero himself at last fell upon a heap of his companions, whose livingbodies had lately been his only rampart against these vindictive andinvincible foes.
Upon the fall of the Slaver-Chief a mighty shout went up from the littleband of friends, and the few remaining slavers immediately threw downtheir arms and begged for mercy. Mercy! Fools! What could theyexpect? _A Zulu shows no mercy to a beaten foe_, and if beaten himselfhe asks none. Moreover, the foe in this case richly deserved all hegot, for he had been guilty of every species of senseless and abominablecruelty under heaven, and merited to the full a far more dreadfullyretributive justice than the sudden and almost painless death which hereceived at the hands of his relentless executioners.
So much for one side, now for the other. Four of the white men rescuedfrom the Mormons by Leigh and Kenyon, were stone dead, as were threeZanzibaris, who had stayed on the spot in an unaccustomed and ill-fatedexcess of valour or curiosity. The remaining white man, a sturdy youngHighlander, named Duncan Ewan, had received a nasty scalp wound, whilstfive of the Zulus were lying about very severely cut up, though allwould recover with careful treatment. Of the three champions, Amaxosawas the only one who had received any hurt, and that was superficial, abullet having grazed and laid open one side of his face. Hastily ourfriends shook hands with one another--and with themselves, so to speak--and then Leigh and Amaxosa, supported by all the available Zulus,started off at speed upon the trail of the departed slave-gang, leavingGrenville and Kenyon (together with the frightened Zanzibaris, who werecautiously returning by twos and threes from the four winds of heaven,whither they had fled when the first shot was fired) to get the woundedinto a place of safety; for the water was still rapidly rising, and onceover the crest of the hill, it would simply sweep the whole plaintowards the north, unless something could be done to stop its wildcareer. Quickly getting the wounded men out of the pass, and somelittle way up the mountain side, Grenville and Kenyon next made acareful examination of the old course, of the river beyond the pass, andfound that if they could blow up one mighty piece of rock, the riverwould immediately descend through the medium of a waterfall into its ownoriginal bed. The pair, accordingly, returned to the scene of the fightin order to collect all the gunpowder belonging to the deceased slavers;but hardly had they reached the spot than Kenyon, to Grenville's utterastonishment, let out a bitter curse. "Fooled," he cried, "as I'm aliving sinner--fooled again by that cursed fox!" and turning quickly, asa mocking laugh grated upon their ears, Zero was seen by the pairstanding upon a rock at the northern o
utlet of the pass, perhaps ahundred yards away, and taking aim at them with his rifle. Grenville'sWinchester went up like a flash, and the two reports blended into one.The slaver's bullet whistled harmlessly past their ears, and at the sameinstant he was seen to drop his gun, and clap his hand upon his leftshoulder, and then, shaking his fist angrily at Grenville, he hurled avile curse at the two friends, and, springing down from the rock, was atonce lost to view amidst the gloomy shadows of the mountain.
Whilst Grenville collected the powder, Kenyon promptly set out inpursuit of the slaver, but could find no trace of his whereabouts. Thefellow's claws were, however, cut for the nonce, as there was blood uponthe rock where he had been standing, and his rifle was still lyingthere, the hammer having been cut clean away by Grenville's bullet. Sothat wounded, unarmed, and unsupported, it was a shrewd count that theywould easily get him when daylight came, and get him they must, for heclearly was a dangerous, as well as a very slippery, villain.
Our friends soon succeeded in blowing up the rock, and preparing a newoutlet for the water, and this was not accomplished any too soon, as bythe time they had collected the arms, which were everywhere strewedabout the confined field of battle, the water was already lapping gentlyagainst the upper edges of the steep ascent, and in another ten minutesit was racing down the track, and shooting clear over the beetling wallof rock, thus returning to its own natural bed in the shape of amagnificent waterfall, whose enormous volume, as it fell, waked a mightyecho, which would henceforward cause a perpetual and thundering murmuramongst the rocky glens of the mountains, as if nature were herselfcomplaining of this irremediable mischief, wrought by the puny hand ofcareless and unthinking man.
Hardly had Grenville and Kenyon regained the mountain side, than thereport of firearms was heard away across the veldt, and the quickflashes of Leigh's repeating-rifle could be distinctly seen. In a fewshort minutes all was again as quiet as death, and the twain lookedanxiously at one another, yearning to know with whom the victory rested,when all at once, through the still night air, and right across therolling veldt was wafted the wild war-cry of the children of the Undi,proclaiming the successful accomplishment of another act of retribution,and the absolutely triumphant success of Amaxosa's daring scheme for thedestruction of the foe--a success which was marred only by the singledetail of the temporary escape from their vengeance, of the Slaver-Chiefhimself.
Grenville and Kenyon next lighted a large fire to apprise the detachmentout upon the veldt, of the exact position of the party upon the mountainside; and this having been done, Kenyon, who never travelled without acomplete surgeon's "kit," proceeded to attend to the injuries of thewounded men, and soon had the poor fellows as comfortable ascircumstances permitted.
Shortly after this, the Zulu, Umbulanzi, in charge of the "waterdepartment," and to whom belonged no small share of the credit of thissuccessful affair, made his appearance, accompanied by all but two ofthe Zanzibaris, who, under his direction, had acted in the capacity ofsappers.
It seemed that Amaxosa had fortunately foreseen the possibility of thisdetachment hitting upon a bed of rock, and thus having their workstopped, and the whole scheme completely ruined, and he had, therefore,supplied his _confrere_ with a 56 pound keg of powder out of Leigh'sample stores, and finding that a great slab of broken ironstone rock wasspoiling his little game, this Zulu had coolly slapped _the whole keg_under the edge of this obstruction, and blown the entire affairsky-high, and along with it two of the Zanzibaris, whose unfortunatecuriosity had prevailed over their accustomed discretion.
"Haow Inkoos," he said, speaking rapidly to Grenville in the Zulutongue, "it was indeed a very great sight, and never will Umbulanzi seethe like again. The rock shot up to the heavens on high, and with itwent the low black fellows. The great stone came down again, my father;but, though I waited long for the low fellows, they came not, and as thecowards must have run away for good, Umbulanzi did not stay."
The moon was waning fast, but the stars still held the curtains of nightover the wide-stretched whispering veldt, when the victorious party ofAmaxosa, accompanied by the slave-gang, was heard approaching from thenorth, and upon their arrival it was found that the little band had notsuffered further in any way, having satisfactorily "rushed" theremaining slavers, and disposed of them every one.
The anger of Leigh and Amaxosa, however, knew no bounds when the cunningescape of the arch-enemy was made known to them, and both bitterlyrepented that they had not made sure of the fox by knocking him on thehead, and registered a solemn vow to commit no further mistakes of thekind, should Zero fall into their hands again. Clearly, however,nothing could be done until dawn of day, and it was decided, therefore,to let the rescued slaves sleep in their irons, and to wait fordaylight, in order that their captors might gain some little insightinto the character of their new charges. So, having set a watch ofZanzibaris, overlooked by Grenville himself, the tired army laid itselfdown, and was soon fast asleep, whilst the rescued slaves, who had beentold the good news that they would be liberated in the morning,chattered to one another throughout the livelong night, like a troop ofmonkeys in the forest. With the first gleam of daylight, Leigh andAmaxosa were afoot, and without even staying to dispatch a mouthful offood, threw themselves upon the bloodstained trail of the Slaver-Chief,and were almost instantly lost to sight amongst the dense fog-bankswhich overhung the surrounding veldt in every direction.
Zero the Slaver: A Romance of Equatorial Africa Page 10
