Long Odds

by Harold Bindloss

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE BONDSWOMAN

  A small fire burned on the edge of the ravine, flinging out pale redflashes and an intolerable smoke, for the wood was green and wet. Ithad been raining heavily, and the whole forest that rolled down theslopes of the plateau was filled with a thick white steam. Filmy wispsof it drifted out of the darkness which hid the towering trunks, andstreamed by the girl who crouched beside the fire cooking her whitelord's evening meal. She was comely, though her face and uncoveredarms were of a warm brown. A wide strip of white cotton fell from oneshoulder, and half revealed the slenderness of her shapely form. Italso covered certain significant discolored bruises on the soft brownskin. The look in her eyes just then, perhaps, accounted for them, forit vaguely suggested intelligence, and a protest against her fate, inplace of the hopeless apathy which, after all, saves the native ofthat country a great deal of trouble. He has been taught drasticallythat any objection he might reasonably make would certainly be futileand very apt to produce unwished-for results.

  A wall of dripping forest rose above the fire, but behind the girl theground sloped sharply to the brink of a swollen river which rose inthe plateaux of the interior, and a little, tattered tent was pitchedon the edge of the declivity. In front of it two somewhat ragged whitemen lay listlessly upon a strip of waterproof ground sheeting. Theywere worn with travel and a long day's labor, for they had beenengaged since sunrise in raft building and ferrying their equipmentand trade goods across the river, and, as it happened, had lost mostof their provisions in the process. They were of widely differentbirth and character, and cordially disliked each other, though theyhad both first seen the light in Africa and community of interest heldthem together.

  Gavin was tall and lean and hard, with an expressionless bronzed face,the son of an English ostrich farmer who had married a Boer woman. Hehad come into that country on foot with one other survivor of theparty he had started with after a difference of opinion with the Boeradministration. The others had died with their oxen during their twoyears' wandering in the wilderness. His companion Herrero passed for aPortuguese, though his hair would curl and his lips were a triflethick. He was spare in form, and his face was of a muddy yellow withthe stamp of sensuality and cruelty in it. He had also been drinkingfreely, though that is not as a rule a Latin vice, and was still verywet from his labors in the river. He had lower legs like broomsticks,and his torn, drenched trousers clung tightly about his protuberantknees.

  "One could fancy that we have been bewitched," he said. "Trouble hasfollowed us all the journey. There was a native woman who looked atus as we left San Roque, and she made a sign."

  Gavin laughed contemptuously. "The loads," he said, "were too heavy.It is not economical to overdrive these cattle. One must remember thetrek-ox's back."

  Herrero blinked at the forest with something that suggestedapprehension in his eyes, and it was not difficult to fancy that itand all it held was hostile to the white man. It seemed to crowd inupon him menacingly as the fire leapt up, vague, black, andimpenetrable, an abode of unformulated terror and everlasting shadow.

  "I have brought up the same loads with fewer boys before," he said."They did not fall lame or die, as some of these have done. It isknown that there is black witchcraft in this bush. There are white menwho have gone into it and did not come out again."

  "They were probably easier with their carriers than is advisable," andGavin smiled grimly as he dropped a big hand on a cartridge in hisbandolier. "This is a certain witchcraft cure. Still, you have to makeyour mind up. We can not go on, and take all the trade goods, withoutprovisions."

  His companion raised one shoulder in protest against the trouble fatehad heaped upon them, for the trade goods were worth a good deal inthe country that lay before them.

  "It takes almost as much to keep a man in strength whether he marcheslight or loaded," he said. "It would ruin me if we left any morebehind. Boys are scarce just now. One could, perhaps, get provisionsin another week's march."

  "The boys can not make it," and it was evident that Gavin waslanguidly contemptuous of his comrade's indecision. "You must leave afew here or you will lose half of them on the way."

  He, at least, could face a crisis resolutely, but it was clear thathe, too, regarded the carriers as chattels that had a commercial valueonly, for he was quite aware that, since that was one of the sterilebelts, those who were left behind would in all probability die. Themen whose fate they were discussing lay among the wet undergrowthapart from them, and Herrero, who appeared to be glancing towardsthem, raised himself a trifle suddenly.

  "Something moves. There in the bush," he said.

  "One of the boys," said Gavin, who saw nothing, though his eyes werekeen. "Lie down. You have been taking more cognac than is wiselately."

  Herrero shrugged his shoulders. "There is always something in thebush. It comes and goes when the boys are asleep," he said. "It is notpleasant that one should see it."

  Gavin scarcely smiled. He was growing a trifle impatient with hiscomrade, who could not recognize when it was necessary to make asacrifice, and he was ready for his meal. By and by Herrero called tothe girl, who filled a calabash from the iron cooking pot hung abovethe fire, and laid it down in front of him with two basins. The traderlifted a portion of the savory preparation in a wooden spoon andsmelled it.

  "The pepper is insufficient. How often must one tell you that?" hesaid, and rising laid a yellow hand upon her arm.

  The girl shrank back from him, but he followed her, still holding herarm, and nipped it deeply between the nails of his thumb andforefinger. He did it slowly, and with a certain relish, while hisface contracted into a malicious grin. For a moment a fierce lightleapt into the girl's eyes, but the torturing grip grew sharper, andit faded again. The man dropped his hand when at last she broke into alittle cry, and stooping for the calabash she went back towards thefire. Gavin, who had looked on with an expressionless face, turned tohis comrade.

  "If you do that too often I think you will be sorry, my friend," hesaid. "She will cut your throat for you some day."

  "No," said Herrero, "it is not a thing that is likely to happen if oneuses the stick sufficiently."

  His companion smiled in a curious fashion, but said nothing. Hismother's people had long ruled the native with a heavy hand, and hehad no hesitation in admitting that leniency is seldom advisable.Still, he recognized that in spite of his apathetic patience one maynow and then drive the negro over hard, so that when life becomesintolerable he somewhat logically grows reckless and turns upon hisoppressors in his desperation, which was a thing that Herreroapparently did not understand.

  In the meanwhile the girl crouched silently by the fire, stirring theblistering peppers into the cooking pot, a huddled figure robed inwhite with meekly bent head and the marks of the white man's brutalityupon her dusky body. Every line of the limp figure was suggestive ofhopelessness. She might have posed for a statue of Africa in bondage.Still, as it happened, she and the boys who lay apart among thedripping undergrowth glanced now and then towards the forest withapathetic curiosity. Gavin's ears were good, but, after all, he hadnot depended upon his hearing for life and liberty, as the others hadoften done, and their keenness of perception was not in him. They knewthat strangers were approaching stealthily through the bush. Indeed,they knew that one had flitted about the camp for some little while,but they said nothing. It was the white man's business, and nothingthat was likely to result from it could matter much to them.

  The fire blazed up a little, but, save for its snapping and the roarof the swollen river, there was silence in the camp, until Gavin roseto one knee with a little exclamation. He had heard nothing, but atlast his trained senses had given him a sub-conscious warning thatthere was something approaching. Just then the girl stirred the fire,and the uncertain radiance flickered upon the towering trunks. Itdrove an elusive track of brightness back into the shadow, and Herreroscrambled to his feet as a man strode into the light.

  He
stopped and stood near the fire, dressed in thorn-rent duck, withthe wet dripping from him and a little grim smile in his face, and itwas significant that although he had nothing in his hands Gavinreached out for the heavy rifle that lay near his side. Strangersare usually received with caution in that part of Africa, and herecognized the man. As it happened, the girl by the fire recognizedhim, too, and ran forward with a little cry. After all, he had beenkind to her while she lived with Lamartine, and it may have been thatsome vague hope of deliverance sprang up in her mind, for she stoppedagain and crouched in mute appeal close at his side. Ormsgill laid ahand reassuringly upon her brown shoulder.

  "Ormsgill laid a hand reassuringly upon her brownshoulder."--See page 103.]

  He had not spoken a word yet, and there was silence for a moment ortwo while the firelight flared up. It showed Gavin watching himmotionless with the rifle that glinted now and then on his knee,Herrero standing with closed hands and an unpleasant scowl on hisyellow face, and the boys clustering waist-deep in the underbrush.Then the trader spoke.

  "What do you want?" he said.

  "This woman," said Ormsgill simply. "I am willing to buy her fromyou."

  Herrero laughed maliciously. "She is not for sale. You should not havelet her slip through your fingers. It is possible you could have madeterms with Lamartine."

  Ormsgill disregarded the gibe. Indeed, it was one he had expected.

  "That," he said, "is not quite the point. Besides, one could hardlyfancy that you are quite correct. Everything is for sale in this partof Africa. It is only a question of the figure. You have not heard myoffer."

  "In this case it would not be a great temptation," and Herrero's grinwas plainer. "The girl is now and then mutinous, and that lends theaffair a certain piquancy. When she has been taught submission I shallprobably grow tired of her and will give her to you. Until then thebreaking of her in will afford me pleasure. In fact, as I have neverbeen defied by a native yet I feel that to fail in this case would bea stain on my self-respect."

  "I almost think my offer would cover that," said Ormsgill dryly. "Itseems to me your self-respect has been sold once or twice before."

  Herrero disregarded him, though his face grew a trifle flushed."Anita," he said, "come here."

  The girl rose when Ormsgill let his hand drop from her shoulder, andgazed at him appealingly. Then as he made no sign she turned away witha little hopeless gesture, moved forward a few paces, and stoppedagain when the trader reached out for a withe that lay on the groundsheet not far from where he stood.

  "It would," he said with a vindictive smile, "have saved her troubleif you had stayed away."

  "Stop," said Ormsgill sharply, and striding forward stood looking athim. "You have shown how far you would go, which was in one way mostunwise of you since you have made it a duty to take the girl from you.What is more to the purpose, it will certainly be done. There are twoways of obtaining anything in this country. One is to buy it, and theother to fight for it. I am willing to use either."

  Herrero who saw the glint in his eyes, backed away from him, andflashed a warning glance at Gavin, who turned to Ormsgill quietly.

  "I am," he said in English, "willing to stand by, and see fair play,since it does not seem to be altogether a question of business. Still,if it seems likely that you will deprive me of my comrade's services Ishall probably feel compelled to take a hand in. He has a few goodpoints though they're not particularly evident, and I can't altogetherafford to lose him."

  Herrero, who glanced round the camp, waved his hand towards the boys."I will call them to beat you back into the bush."

  Ormsgill raised his voice, and there was a sharp crackling ofundergrowth, while here and there a dusky figure materialized out ofthe shadow.

  "As you see, they have guns," he said.

  Gavin smiled and tapped his rifle. "Still, they can't shoot as I can.Hadn't you better send them away again, and if you have any offer tomake Mr. Herrero get on with it? One naturally expected something ofthis kind."

  Ormsgill made a little gesture with his hand, and the men sank intothe gloom again.

  "Well," he said, "for the last week I have been trailing you, and as Idid not know how long I might be coming up with you, I have plenty ofprovisions. Yours, it is evident from one or two things I noticed, arerunning out, and you can't get through the sterile belt without asupply. It was rather a pity the San Roque people burned the villagewhere you expected to get some. I'm open to hand you over all theloads I can spare in return for the girl Anita."

  "How many loads?"

  Ormsgill told him, and Gavin nodded, "It is a reasonable offer," hesaid. "I will engage that our friend makes terms with you. Bring inthe provisions, and you shall have the girl."

  Herrero protested savagely until his companion dryly pointed thatsince his objections had no weight he was wasting his breath. ThenOrmsgill turned away into the bush, and came back with a line ofhalf-naked carrier boys who laid down the loads they carried beforethe tent. After that he touched the girl's shoulder, and pointed tothe hammock two of the boys lowered.

  "You are going back to your own village," he said.

  The girl gazed at him a moment in evident astonishment, and then wavedher little brown hands.

  "I have none," she said. "It was burned several moons ago."

  It was evident that this was something Ormsgill had not expected, andwas troubled at, and Gavin, who watched him, smiled.

  "If she belongs to the Lutanga people, as one would fancy from herlooks, what she says is very likely correct," he said. "One of theplateau tribes came down not long ago and wiped several villages out.Domingo told me, and from what he said the tribe in question iscertainly not one I'd care about handing over a woman to. She wouldprobably have to put up with a good deal of unpleasantness if shewent back there. Besides, it seems to me that what you had in viewwould scarcely be flattering to the lady. It isn't altogether what shewould expect from her rescuer."

  Ormsgill had already an unpleasant suspicion of the latter fact, forwoman's favor is not sought but purchased or commanded in most partsof Africa. Still, he once more pointed to the hammock, and walkedbehind it without a word when the bearers hove the pole to their woolycrowns.

  Then as they flitted into the shadowy bush Gavin turned to Herrerowith a little laugh. "There are a few men like him, men with viewsthat bring them trouble," he said. "My father was one. He threw away abig farm on account of them. He would not make obeisance to his newmasters when his nation turned its back on him. That, however, is athing one could scarcely expect you to understand."

  Then he called one of the boys and sent him to the fire. "And now wewill have supper. After all, I'm not very sorry you lost that girl, myfriend."