CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
LOST AND FOUND.
The victorious band marched triumphantly into Equatoria as the shades ofnight were falling; but their joy, alas! was quickly changed to wailing.
Nowhere was there a soul to be seen in or about the town. Leigh wasmissing, with his wife and child, the Atagbondo guards, and the whole ofZero's plunder divisible amongst the three bands--all, everything wasgone.
On carefully searching the public building, however, the whole of the"People of the Stick" were found tightly bound in the condemned cell,which was fastened from outside. The poor creatures were almost deadwith thirst and starvation, having been locked up for over four days.They soon, however, revived under friendly treatment, and then, callingup the interpreter, our anxious friends listened to their moving tale.
As a matter of fact, however, these men had very little to tell beyondsaying that the very night the main body had left Equatoria they hadbeen visited by an ancient man, the biggest Forest Fetish in thoseparts, and called by him to a "great dance" in the common hall, whichwas well lighted by priests holding torches in their hands.
He had delivered a long harangue to the "People of the Stick" regardingthe gifts they were to send him from their own country, and after thisthe unfortunate audience heard no more, their senses gradually leavingthem under the subtle influence of the smoke from the torches, whichmade the air heavy with a curious pungent odour. But though the mencould neither move nor exercise the faculties of sight or hearing, eachrealised that he was being fettered and carried away, whilst hegradually yielded to an overpowering desire to sleep. Naught knew theyof the Fetish beyond the fact that his habitation was somewhere in thedense and tangled forest of the east, into whose dark avenues no mortalman dare venture, for they were the home of ghosts and spirits, and thehaunts of snakes, and wolves, and many evil things.
It was, of course, too late to make any move that night; so, afterroundly cursing the ill-luck which had brought this latest misfortuneupon them, the tired wayfarers ate their supper, set a watch, and thenlay down to snatch a few hours' rest before the dawn.
The earliest gleam of daylight saw Grenville afoot, and with Kenyon, theZulus, and a couple of hundred Mormons, he commenced to quarter theforest in every direction. Fearful work this was, for the place wassimply a tangled and practically impenetrable jungle, upon which eventhe axes of the party made little impression. For three whole days didthe little band prosecute their arduous search, returning to Equatoriaeach night utterly worn out with their fruitless and cruel labour.
On the third night, when Grenville, thinking sadly upon the unknown fateof his much-loved cousin, supposed his friend Kenyon to be asleep, tohis utter astonishment that worthy suddenly shot up to his feet.
"Gods!" he yelled, fairly trembling with excitement. "Gods! I have it.Dick, what cursed fools we've been--how could those priests have takenbound and stupefied people through these thickets, beyond which our axescannot carry us. Ten to one in sovereigns, I take you straight to theirlair at dawn, old man;" and so he did, never making a single mistake,and a mighty queer place they found it, _up amongst the tree-tops_.
Entering confidently a great hollow tree which stood about a mile fromthe town, and on the outskirts of the impenetrable bush, Kenyontriumphantly pointed to _a strong rough ladder run up the inside of thegiant trunk_, and mounting this for near a hundred feet, all foundthemselves in a fair way to enter the abode of the famous Forest Fetishwho dominated the timid natives in those parts, and was had--as isalways the case--in even more repute amongst them, on account of hisabominable extortions and deeds of violence, than was Muzi Zimba, theAncient Fetish of the Hills, in consideration of his uniform kindness ofsoul.
High up upon the interlaced branches of the trees were fastened roughboards, thickly covered with grass matting, and on these, from tree totree, our adventurers followed _for upwards of two miles_, a perfectlysafe and absolutely silent road, of a uniform width of perhaps fivefeet, until they penetrated into the sacred presence of the arch-humbughimself. A mighty uproar there was, and a great seizing and brandishingof sacrificial knives and swords, as the first of our friends enteredthe roomy tree-top, boarded throughout, in which the priests had theirsemi-aerial domicile. But when these rascals, perhaps thirty or fortyin number, saw the whole rescue-party file in, and the grim row offrowning muzzles opening in line with their wretched carcases, theentire band simply flopped down upon their knees, and howled for mercy,the "big man fetish" himself making more noise than anyone.
By great good fortune, poor Leigh, with his wife and child, had beenpreserved for the occasion of a great fetish dance at next new moon, andwere soon found and released, and, as restitution was quickly made ofall the plunder stolen from Equatoria, our friends contented themselveswith giving the rascals what Kenyon called "a jolly good hiding allround," and then drove them out of the forest altogether, and set fireto their abominable nest, the dry matting making a fine blaze amongstthe tree-tops, out of which it scared the monkeys, parrots, and otherlegitimate denizens in very large numbers. The simple "People of theStick" were astonished at the discovery made by their white associates;for the poor fetish-ridden creatures of these parts had been almostharried out of their lives by the priests, who were supposed to dwellinvisibly under a tree, in whose upper branches, however, was locatedtheir real abode. Under this tree, which could be reached only by abridle-path from the rear of the belt of forest, the miserable negrowould devoutly deposit his offering, and when returning upon his way toEquatoria, and passing near the hollow tree, _two miles off_, he wouldprobably find the gift which, not unfrequently, comprised his littleall, thrown contemptuously in his path, whilst hidden voices admonishedthe terror-stricken wretch to hurry off, and bring a better offering,unless he wished to have his heart torn out of his body. This, ofcourse, was "very big fetish" to such a superstitious people, and theywould do almost anything to propitiate the awful Spirit of the Air. Notcontent with these thievish tricks, however, the priests slew very manymen, stole the women, and generally played the "hanky-pankyspiritualist" game to their hearts' content.
Before liberating the "big man fetish" himself, Kenyon closelyquestioned him, through the interpreter, regarding the drug which he hadused for the purpose of stupefying the "People of the Stick," and foundthat the feat was accomplished by steeping torches of fibrous bark in acompound made from bruised herbs, and which closely resembled chloroformin its effect, and of which, he added, he had often made quantities forZero.
Asked if he knew how Zero used the drug, this man at once fullyexplained the whole "death," stupefaction, and abduction of LadyDrelincourt and her child--a miserable aboriginal savage thus calmlyelucidating a mystery which had proved altogether too much for thewisest doctors and keenest detectives in far-away and enlightenedEngland.
Upon Kenyon, however, expressing the most utter disbelief of hisstatement, the "Fetish" boldly offered to exhibit the result of theexperiment in his own proper person, provided the white men would givehim some powder and a gun before they went away; and Kenyon havingundertaken to make him happy with a flint-lock and six feet of superiorEnglish tower-marked "gas-pipe," the man forthwith proceeded todemonstrate the truth of his curious tale.
First obtaining a small gourd of the drug referred to, he then took froma pouch at his side a beautiful _little tame white monkey_. Nextpicking a sharp thorn, he coated the point well with the namelesscompound, and, giving the instrument to the monkey, pointed to himself.The little animal cunningly concealed the thorn within its palm, andthen offered to shake hands with its master, and this ceremony havingbeen performed, the old man held up his hand and exhibited a small redmark in the palm. He then explained that the properties of the drugwere distinctly anaesthetic, and that he could not feel the puncture,which was painlessly made; but he would nevertheless shortly go to sleepfor three or four days, and then wake up again, being quite recovered,and none the worse for the experiment.
The drug had no perc
eptible effect upon the man for several hours, buttowards evening he began palpably to get very drowsy, and no power onearth could keep him awake. The suspicious Kenyon, however, was not tobe "done," and punched and kicked the old man unmercifully--an operationin which he was most ably seconded by Amaxosa, who beat the "cunning manof the witch-finders black and blue" with the handle of his spear,pausing only now and then to take a pinch of snuff. "Ow! my father," hesaid at last, throwing down the spear in disgust--"Ow, my father, whocan beat the life into a dead dog like this? What is gone is gone forever, and the breath will never come again, so we had best throw thislow fellow to the jackals; he is far too cunning to live with men."
Kenyon, however, kept his man safely and watched him keenly; he foundthat during the continuance of the trance there was no perceptiblepulse, nor was there any movement of the heart or respiratory organs; itwas, in point of fact, an astonishing case of absolutely suspendedanimation. Everyone who examined the man insisted that he was anundoubted corpse, and ridiculed the very idea of his returning to life;and, to all appearance, he certainly was stone dead, and even Kenyonbegan to fear that the old fellow, in his eagerness to vindicate hisreputation as a witch-doctor, had overdone the thing and settled himselfonce for all.
On the fifth night, however, the "fetish man" awoke, sat up, coollyasked for his powder and gun, and got both and a double allowance inexchange for his wonderful secret, which he imparted to the delightedKenyon.
Lady Drelincourt confirmed all that the man had said. She perfectlyremembered the pretty pet monkey, which had been brought round by Zero,who was himself disguised as an organ-grinder, and both she and herchild had shaken hands with the little creature, and all the rest, ofcourse, was simple to a man of Zero's capabilities, to whom the work ofa resurrectionist was an unconsidered trifle, and whose devilish cunninghad rightly calculated that the old family doctor would say anything, orsign anything, to protect his friend from the grisly horrors attendantupon a post-mortem examination.
Of her removal by sea poor Dora knew nothing, and her firstrecollections were upon a steamer bound for Madagascar, some days outfrom France; and whenever she began to come out of her trance, MadameZero would promptly renew the dose, and effectually prevent the poorgirl from getting loose or making mischief, whilst she was given out onboard as being a delicate lady with an extremely feeble mind.
Zero's original intention had been to hold her for ransom, and apply toLeigh for an enormous sum of money; but his "wife" stopped this, feelingsure that it would bring upon the community the vengeance of theoutraged English law.
As soon, however, as the slaver knew of Leigh's arrival in his vicinity,he determined upon the devilish plan of forcing Dora to marry one of hisown men, and then promised himself the hellish satisfaction of_presenting her to her own husband as the wife of another man, and thatman, a Mormon_.
Having once disposed of the "fetish palaver," Kenyon became more eagerthan anyone to turn his face homewards, and two days afterwards thewhole party accordingly left Equatoria, and after destroying the Bridgeof Rope, firing the public building, and razing to the ground the laststronghold of Zero the slaver, his conquerors steered a straight coursefor the south-western seaboard.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
FAREWELL.
Months later the whole band reached safely a small Portuguese haven onthe south-west coast, in which there lay at anchor the Mormon's ownsteam-vessel, the _Brigham Young_, and all going on board of her, theold Prophet, who had now become excellent friends with Grenville and hisparty, ordered steam to be got up, and, running comfortably down thecoast, soon landed our friends at Cape Town to wait for the Englishmail-boat, whilst he himself, after revictualling his ship, set sail forhome with the remnant of his victorious army of the "Elect."
Bitter was the final parting between Grenville and Amaxosa, though thegreat Zulu to some extent concealed his true feelings under the mask ofhis accustomed stoicism.
"The light has gone out of my sun, my father," he said; "thestorm-clouds are very heavy, and my heart is split in twain. What canthe chieftain of the Undi say more? Yet, my father, if aught of evilcomes upon thee, then, out of the trackless deserts of the unknown landbeyond, call thou aloud for Amaxosa, thy true and only son, and thyfaithful war-dog will answer, `Here am I, my father!' and willstraightway follow on along the narrow, bloodstained path, even throughthe darksome shadows of the dead, and into the glorious land of thegreat hereafter.
"Fare ye well, Inkoosis, wise and mighty chiefs!
"Adieu, my little sister, who from the shadows of the cruel past hastcome to bless us!
"And to thee, my father--to thee, with whom the spirit of thy son isbound in the bundle of life here and hereafter, to thee the Lion of theZulu gives his greeting last and best. Greeting to thee, bravest of thebrave!
"Greeting and farewell!"
Zero the Slaver: A Romance of Equatorial Africa Page 21
