W pustyni i w puszczy. English
Page 70
commotion, full of cries andterror, ensued. The people were concerned not so much about the slainand the murderers as about the water which soaked into the parchedjungle soil. Some negroes threw themselves upon the ground and, clawingout with their fingers lumps of earth, sucked out the remnants ofmoisture. Others shouted that evil spirits had murdered the guards andslashed the bags. But Stas and Kali knew what it all meant. M'Kunje andM'Pua were missing from those men howling above that grass patch. Inthat which had happened there was something more than the murder of twoguards and the theft of water. The remaining slashed bags were evidencethat it was an act of revenge and at the same time a sentence of deathfor the whole caravan. The priests of the wicked Mzimu revengedthemselves upon the good one. The fetish-men revenged themselves uponthe young king who exposed their frauds and did not permit them todeceive the ignorant Wahimas. Now the wings of death stretched over theentire caravan like a hawk over a flock of doves.
Kali recollected too late that, having his mind troubled and engrossedwith something else, he forgot to have the fetish-men bound, as fromthe time of their flight he had ordered them to be each evening. It wasapparent that both sentinels, watching the water, through inbred negrocarelessness, lay down and fell asleep. This facilitated the work ofthe rogues and permitted them to escape unpunished.
Before the confusion subsided somewhat and the people recovered fromtheir consternation, considerable time elapsed; nevertheless, theassassins could not be far away, as the ground under the cut bags wasmoist and the blood which flowed from both of the slain did not yetcoagulate. Stas issued an order to pursue the runaways not only for thepurpose of punishing them, but also to recover the last two bags ofwater. Kali, mounting a horse and taking with him about thirteenguardsmen, started in pursuit. Stas at first wanted to take part in it,but it occurred to him that he could not leave Nell alone among theexcited and enraged negroes; so he remained. He only directed Kali totake Saba along with him.
He himself remained, for he feared a downright mutiny, particularlyamong the Samburus. But in this he was mistaken. The negroes as a rulebreak out easily, and sometimes for trivial causes, but when crushed bya great calamity and particularly when the inexorable hand of deathweighs upon them, they submit passively; not only those whom Islamteaches that a struggle with destiny is vain, but all others. Thenneither terror nor the moments of torture can arouse them from theirtorpor. It happened thus at this time. The Wahimas, as well as theSamburus, when the first excitement passed away and the idea that theymust die definitely found lodgment in their minds, lay down quietly onthe ground waiting for death; in view of which not a mutiny was to befeared, but rather that on the morrow they would not want to rise andstart upon their further journey. Stas, when he observed this, wasseized by a great pity for them.
Kali returned before daybreak and at once placed before Stas two bagstorn to pieces, in which there was not a drop of water.
"Great Master," he said, "madi apana!"
Stas rubbed his perspiring forehead with his hand; after which he said:
"And M'Kunje and M'Pua?"
"M'Kunje and M'Pua are dead," Kali replied.
"Did you order them to be killed?"
"A lion or 'wobo' killed them."
And he began to relate what happened. The bodies of the two murdererswere found quite far from the camp at the place where they met death.Both lay close to each other, both had skulls crushed from behind,lacerated shoulders, and gnawed spines. Kali assumed that when the"wobo" or lion appeared before them in the moonlight they fell on theirfaces before it and began to entreat it that it should spare theirlives. But the terrible beast killed both, and afterwards, havingappeased its hunger, scented water and tore the bags to pieces.
"God punished them," Stas said, "and the Wahimas should be convincedthat the wicked Mzimu is incapable of rescuing any one."
And Kali added:
"God punished them, but we have no water."
"Far ahead of us in the east I saw mountains. There must be waterthere."
"Kali sees them also, but it is many, many days to them."
A moment of silence followed.
"Master," spoke out Kali, "let the 'Good Mzimu'--let the 'bibi' beg theGreat Spirit for rain or for a river."
Stas left him, making no reply. But before the tent he saw Nell'slittle figure; the shouts and yells had awakened her some time before.
"What has happened, Stas?" she asked, running up to him.
And he placed his hand on her little head and solemnly said:
"Nell, pray to God for water; otherwise we all shall perish."
So the little maiden upraised her pale little face and, fastening hereyes on the moon's silvery shield, began to implore for succor Him whoin heaven causes the stars to revolve and on earth tempers the wind forthe shorn lamb.
After a sleepless, noisy, and anxious night the sun rolled upon thehorizon suddenly, as it always does under the equator, and a bright dayfollowed. On the grass there was not a drop of dew; on the sky not acloudlet. Stas ordered the guards to assemble the men and delivered ashort speech to them. He declared to them that it was impossible toreturn to the river now, for they of course well knew that they wereseparated from it by five days' and nights' journey. But on the otherhand no one knew whether there was not water in the opposite direction.Perhaps even not far away they would find some stream, some rivulet orslough. Trees, indeed, could not be seen, but it often happens uponopen plains where the strong gale carries away the seeds, trees do notgrow even at the water-side. Yesterday they saw some big antelopes anda few ostriches running towards the east, which was a sign that yonderthere must be some watering place, and in view of this whoever is not afool and whoever has in his bosom a heart, not of a hare but of a lionor buffalo, will prefer to move forward, though in thirst and pain,rather than to lie down and wait there for vultures or hyenas.
And saying this, he pointed with his hand at the vultures, a few ofwhich coursed already in an ill-omened circle above the caravan. Afterthese words the Wahimas, whom Stas commanded to rise, stood up almostas one man, for, accustomed to the dreadful power of kings, they didnot dare to resist. But many of the Samburus, in view of the fact thattheir king Faru remained at the lake, did not want to rise, and thesesaid among themselves: "Why should we go to meet death when she herselfwill come to us?" In this manner the caravan proceeded, reduced almostone-half, and it started from the outset in torture. For twenty-fourhours the people had not had a drop of water or any other fluid intheir mouths. Even in a cooler climate this, at labor, would have beenan unendurable suffering; and how much more so in this blazing Africanfurnace in which even those who drink copiously perspire the water soquickly that almost at the same moment they can wipe it off their skinwith their hands. It was also to be foreseen that many of the men woulddrop on the way from exhaustion and sunstroke. Stas protected Nell asbest he could from the sun and did not permit her to lean for even amoment out of the palanquin, whose little roof he covered with a pieceof white percale in order to make it double. With the rest of thewater, which he still had in the rubber bottle, he prepared a strongtea for her and handed it to her when cooled off, without any sugar,for sweets increase thirst. The little girl urged him with tears todrink also; so he placed to his lips the bottle in which there remainedscarcely a few thimblefuls of water, and, moving his throat, pretendedthat he drank it. At the moment when he felt the moisture on his lipsit seemed to him that his breast and stomach were aflame and that if hedid not quench that flame he would drop dead. Before his eyes red spotsbegan to flit, and in his jaws he felt a terrible pain, as if some onestuck a thousand pins in them. His hands shook so that he almost spiltthese last drops. Nevertheless, he caught only two or three in hismouth with his tongue; the rest he saved for Nell.
A day of torture and toil again passed, after which, fortunately, acooler night came. But the following morning the intense heat becameterrible. There was not a breath of air. The sun, like an evil spirit,ravaged with living flame the parched earth. T
he borders of the horizonwhitened. As far as the eyes reached not even euphorbias could be seen.Nothing--only a burnt, desolate plain, covered with tufts of blackenedgrass and heather. From time to time there resounded in theimmeasurable distance light thunder, but this in fair skies proclaimsnot storms but a drought.
About noon, when the heat became the greatest, it was necessary tohalt. The caravan broke ranks in gloomy silence. It appeared that onehorse fell and about thirteen of the guards remained on the road.During the rest nobody thought of eating. The people had sunken eyesand cracked lips and on them dried clots of blood. Nell panted like abird, so Stas surrendered to her the rubber bottle, and exclaiming: "Idrank! I drank!" he ran to the other side of the camp, for he fearedthat if he remained he would snatch that water from her or would demandthat she should