The Sign of the Spider

by Bertram Mitford

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  AS FROM THE DEAD.

  "There, there, Holmes. Do you quite intend to maim a chap for life, orwhat?" exclaimed Laurence, liberating, with an effort, his hand from theother's wringing grasp. "And Hazon, too? In truth, life is full ofsurprises. How are you, Hazon?"

  "So so," was the reply, as Hazon, who had been biding the evaporation ofhis younger friend's effusiveness, now came forward. But his handshakewas characteristic of the man, for it was as though they had parted onlylast week, and that but temporarily.

  "And is it really you yourself, old chap?" rattled on Holmes. "It's forall the world as if you had risen from the dead. Why, we never expectedto set eyes on you again in life--did we, Hazon?"

  "Not much," assented that worthy laconically.

  "Well, I can say the same as regards yourselves," rejoined Laurence."What in the world made them give you quarter?"

  "Don't know," answered Hazon. "We managed to get together, back to back,we two, and were fighting like cats. Holmes got a shot on the head witha club that sent him down, and I got stuck full of assegais till Icouldn't see. The next thing I knew was that we were being carted alongin the middle of a big _impi_--Heaven knew where. One thing, we wereboth alive--alive and kicking, too. As soon as we were able to walk theyassegaied our bearers, and--made us walk."

  "Don't you swallow all that, Stanninghame," cut in Holmes. "He fought,standing over me--fought like any devil, the Ba-gcatya say, although hemakes out now it was all playful fun."

  "Well, for the matter of that, we had to fight," rejoined Hazontranquilly. "Where have you been all this time, Stanninghame?"

  "Here, at Imvungayo. And you two?"

  "Shot if I know. They kept us at some place away in the mountains. Onlybrought us here a few days back."

  "They won't let us out in the daytime," chimed in Holmes. "And it'sgetting deadly monotonous. But tell us, old chap, how it is they didn'tstick you?"

  This, however, Laurence, following out a vein of vague instinct, haddecided not to do, wherefore he invented some commonplace solution. Andit was with strange and mingled feelings he sat there listening to hisold confederates. For months he had not heard one word of the Englishtongue, and now these two, risen, as it were, from the very grave,seemed to bring back all the past, which, under novel and strangeconditions, had more and more been fading into the background. He waseven constrained to admit to himself that such feelings were not thoseof unmingled joy. He had almost lost all inclination to escape fromamong this people, and now these two, by the very associations whichtheir presence recalled, were likely to unsettle him again, possibly tohis own peril and undoing. Anyway, he resolved to say nothing as to theincident of "The Sign of the Spider."

  "Well, you seem to have got round them better than we did,Stanninghame," said Hazon, with a glance at the Express rifle andrevolver wherewith the other was armed. "We have hardly been allowed somuch as a stick."

  "So? Well, I've been teaching some of them to shoot. That may have had alittle to do with it. In fact, I've been laying myself out to makethoroughly the best of the situation."

  "That's sound sense everywhere," rejoined Hazon. "You can't get Holmeshere to see it, though. He's wearing out his soul-case wanting to breakaway."

  This was no more than the truth. Laurence, seated there, narrowlywatching his old comrades, was swift to notice that whereas these monthsof captivity and suspense had left Hazon the same cool, saturnine,philosophical being he had first known him, upon Holmes they had hadquite a different effect. There was a restless, eager nervousness aboutthe younger man; a sort of straining to break away even, as the moreseasoned adventurer had described it. The fact was, he was gettingdesperately home-sick.

  "I wish I had never had anything to do with this infernal business," henow bursts forth petulantly. "I swear I'd give all we have made to beback safe and snug in Johannesburg, with white faces around us,--eventhough I were stony broke."

  "Especially one 'white face,'" bantered Laurence. "Well, keep up yourform, Holmes. You may be back there yet, safe and sound, and not stonybroke either."

  "No, no. There is a curse upon us, as I said all along. No good willcome to us through such gains. We shall never return--never."

  And then Laurence looked across at Hazon, and the glance, done intowords, read: "What the mischief _is_ to be made of such a prize fool asthis?"

  The night was spent in talking over past experiences, and making plansfor the future, as to which latter Hazon failed not to note, with faintamusement, blended with complacency, that the disciple had, if anything,surpassed his teacher. In other words, Laurence entered into such planswith a luke-warmness which would have been astonishing to thesuperficial judgment, but was not so to that of his listener.

  Nondwana, the brother of the king, was seated among a group of hisfollowers in the gate as Laurence went forth the next morning to returnto his own quarters. This chief, though older than Tyisandhlu in years,was not the son of the principal wife of their common father, whereforeTyisandhlu, who was, had, in accordance with native custom, succeeded.There had been whisperings that Nondwana had attempted to oppose theaccession, and very nearly with success; but whether from motives ofpolicy or generosity, Tyisandhlu had foreborne to take his life. Theformer motive may have counted, for Nondwana exercised a powerfulinfluence in the nation. In aspect, he was a tall, fine, handsome man,with all the dignity of manner which characterized his royal brother,yet there was a sinister expression ever lurking in his face--a crueldroop in the corner of the mouth.

  "Greeting, Nyonyoba. And is it good once more to behold a white face?"said the chief, a veiled irony lurking beneath the outward geniality ofhis tone.

  "To behold the face of a friend once more is always good, Branch of aRoyal Tree," returned Laurence, sitting down among the group to takesnuff.

  "Even when it is that of one risen from the dead?"

  "But here it was not so, Ndabezita. My 'Spider' told me that these wereall the time alive," rejoined Laurence, with mendacity on a trulygenerous scale.

  "Ha! thy Spider? Yet thou art not of the People of the Spider."

  "But I bear the sign," touching his breast. "There are many things madeclear to me, which may or may not be set forward in the light of all atthe fall of the second moon. Farewell now, Son of the Great."

  The start of astonishment, the murmur which ran round the group, was notlost upon him. It was all confirmatory of what he had heard. And then,as he walked back to his tent in Silawayo's kraal, it occurred toLaurence that he had probably made a false move. Nondwana, who, ofcourse, was not ignorant of his daughter's partiality, would almostcertainly decide that Lindela had betrayed the secret and sinisterintent to its unconscious object; and in that event, how would it farewith her? He felt more than anxious. The king might take long indeciding whether to restore his property or not, and etiquette forbadehim to refer to the matter again--at any rate for some time to come.That Nondwana might demand too much _lobola_, or possibly refuse italtogether as coming from him, was a contingency which, strange to say,completely escaped Laurence's scheming mind.

  "Greeting, Nyonyoba. Thy thoughts are deep--ever deep."

  The voice, soft, rich, bantering, almost made him start as he raised hiseyes, to meet the glad laughing ones of the object of his thoughts atthat moment, the chief's daughter.

  "What do you here, wandering alone, Lindela?" he said.

  "Ha--ha! Now you did well to say my name like that--for--does it notanswer your question, 'to wait, to watch for'? And what is meant for twoears is not meant for four or six. I have news, but it is not good."

  They were standing in the dip of the path, where a little runlet coursedalong between high bush-fringed banks, and the tall, graceful form ofthe girl stood out in splendid relief from its background of foliage.Not only for love had she awaited him here, for her eyes were sad andtroubled as she narrated her discoveries, which amounted to this: It wasnext to impossible for Laurence to escape the ordeal--whatever it mightbe
. All of weight and position in the nation were resolved upon it, andnone more thoroughly so than Nondwana. The king himself would bepowerless to save him, even if he wished, and, indeed, why should he runcounter to the desire of a whole nation, and that on behalf of astranger, some time an enemy?

  Laurence, listening, felt his anxiety deepen. The net was closing inaround him, had indeed already closed, and from it there was no outlet.

  "See now, Lindela," he said gravely, his eyes full upon the troubledface of the girl, "if this thing has got to be, there is no help for it.And, however it turns out, the world will go on just the same--and thesun rise and set as before. Why grieve about it?"

  "Because I love you--love you--do you hear? I know not how it is. Wegirls of the Ba-gcatya do not love--not like this. We like to be marriedto men who are great in the nation--powerful indunas--if not tooold,--or those who have much cattle, or who will name us for theirprincipal wife; but we know not how to love. Yet you have taught me,Nyonyoba. Say now, is it through the magic of the white people you havedone it?"

  "It may be so," replied Laurence, smiling queerly to himself, as hethought how exactly, if unconsciously, this alluring child of nature haddescribed her civilized sisters. Then his face became alert andwatchful. He was listening intently.

  "I, too, heard something," murmured Lindela, scarcely moving her lips."I fear lest we have been overlooked. Now, fare thee well, for I mustreturn. But my ears are ever open to what men say, and my father talksmuch, and talks loud. It may be that I may learn yet more. But,Nyonyoba, delay not in thy first purpose, lest it be too late; andremember, Nondwana has a covetous hand. Fare thee well."

  Left alone, Laurence thought he might just as well make sure that nospy had been watching them. Yet though he examined the banks of thestream for some little distance around, he could find no trace of anyhuman presence, no mark even, however faint, of human foot. Still, as hegained his own quarters in Silawayo's kraal, a presentiment lay heavyupon him--a weird, boding presentiment of evil to come--of evil farnearer at hand than he had hitherto deemed.

  Long and hard he slept, for he was weary with wakefulness and anxiety.And when he awoke at dusk, intending to seek an interview with the king,he beheld that which in no wise tended to allay his fears. For as hedrew nearer to Imvungayo there issued from its gate a crowd offigures--of black, grotesque, horrible figures, and in the midst a man,whom they were dragging along in grim silence, even as they had hauledLutali to his unknown doom, and as they disappeared into the gatheringdarkness, Laurence knew only too well that here was anothervictim--another hideous sacrifice to the grisly and mysteriousdemon-god. No wonder his blood grew chill within him. Would he be thenext?

  "And you would still become one of us, Nyonyoba?"

  "I would, Great Great One; and to this end have I sent much ivory, andmany things the white people prize, including three new guns and muchammunition, to Nondwana."

  "Ha! Nondwana's hand is large, and opens wide," said the king, with ahearty chuckle. "Yet Lindela is a sprig of a mighty tree. And I think,Nyonyoba, you yourself are sprung from such a root."

  "That is no lie, Ruler of the Wise. As a man's whole height is to thelength of half his leg, so is the length of my house to that of thekings of the Ba-gcatya, or even to that of Senzangakona[5] himself."

  "Ha! That may well be. Thou hast a look that way."

  This conversation befell two days after the events just described. Theking had refused him an audience on that evening, and indeed since untilnow. But in the meantime, by royal orders, a great portion of theplunder taken from the slave-hunters' camp had been restored to him,considerably more, indeed, than he had expected. And now he andTyisandhlu were seated once more together in the royal dwelling, thistime alone.

  "But to be sprung from an ancient tree avails a man nothing in mycountry if he is poor," went on Laurence. "Rather is it a disadvantage,and he had better have been born among the meaner sort. That is why Ihave found my way hither, Ndabezita."

  "That is why? And you have gained the desired riches?" said the king,eyeing him narrowly.

  "I had--nearly, when the Ba-gcatya fell upon my camp, and killed mypeople and my slaves. Now, having lost all, I care not to return to myown land."

  "But could you return rich you would care so to return?"

  "That is so, Root of a Royal Tree. With large possessions it is indeeda pleasant land to dwell in--with no possessions a man might often thinklongingly of the restful sleep of death."

  "That may well be," said Tyisandhlu thoughtfully. "The cold and thegloom and the blackness, the fogs and the smoke--the mean andhorrible-looking people who go to make up the larger portion of itsinhabitants. _Whau_, Nyonyoba, I know more of your white people andtheir country than anyone here dreams, and it is as you say. Withoutthat which should raise him above such horrors as this, a man might aswell be dead."

  "Wherefore I prefer to live in the land of the Ba-gcatya rather than diein my own. But whoever brought hither that description of our land tolda wonderfully true tale, Ruler of the Great."

  Tyisandhlu made no reply, but reaching out his hand he took up a whistleand blew a double note upon it. Immediately there entered an _inceku_.

  "Let no man approach until this note shall again sound," said the king."Preserve clear a wide space around, lest the ear that opens too wide beremoved from its owner's head. Go."

  The man saluted humbly and withdrew. And then for long did they sittogether and talk in a low tone, the barbarian monarch and the whiteadventurer--and the subject of their talk seemed fraught with somesurprise to the latter, but with satisfaction to both.

  "See now, Nyonyoba," concluded the king. "They have brought you here,here whence no man ever returned; and you would become one of us. Well,be it so. There is that about you I trust."

  "Whence no man ever returned?" echoed Laurence.

  "Surely. Ha! A white man found his way hither once, but--he was apreacher--and I love not such. He never returned."

  "But what of my two friends? You will not harm them, Ndabezita, becausethey are my friends, and we have fought together many a long year,"urged Laurence.

  "I will spare them for that reason. They shall be led from the countrywith their eyes covered, lest they find the way back again. But--if theydo--they likewise shall never depart from it. And now, Nyonyoba, all Ihave told you is between ourselves alone. Breathe not a whisper of it oranything about me even to your friends. For the present, farewell, andgood fortune be yours."

  FOOTNOTE:

  [5] Founder of the Zulu dynasty, and of course patriarchally greaterthan the royal house of this Zulu-originated tribe.