The Adventures of Dick Maitland: A Tale of Unknown Africa

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER EIGHT.

  KING LOBELALATUTU.

  The one thing that, after the spreading, well-tilled fields surroundingevery village, the great herds of cattle, and the general aspect ofprosperity everywhere met with, most impressed the two travellers duringtheir progress through the Makolo country, was the extraordinarycourtesy and deference uniformly extended to them by the natives. Thesepeople were savages, pure and unadulterated, a fierce and warlike race,who had been obliged to fight for their very existence throughoutcountless ages, ignorant and superstitious to a degree, with all thevirtues and most of the vices of the primeval savage, unspeakably crueland relentless as enemies, absolutely fearless in battle, and, aboveall, intensely suspicious of strangers; yet, although white men werepractically unknown to them as a people, they never annoyed thetravellers by any display of undue curiosity, every man deferentiallysaluted them, and all were willing, even eager, to do them service.

  The character of the country, although it could not by any stretch ofthe imagination be described as mountainous, maintained its ruggedcharacter almost to the end of the journey, consisting of a constantsuccession of low hills, or ridges, mostly of granite formation, dividedfrom each other by broad, fertile, well-watered valleys, dotted here andthere with villages which, as the travellers advanced, gradually drewcloser together and increased in importance.

  It was as the travellers surmounted a certain ridge, about an hour and ahalf before the time of their midday halt, that they caught their firstglimpse of the sea since losing sight of it on their departure fromLourenco Marques. It stretched away to right and left and in front ofthem, a narrow, faint, grey streak, softly shimmering under the beams ofthe noontide sun; and between it and the observers lay a wide-stretching, level, grassy plain, in the midst of which appearednumberless irregularities that, viewed through their powerful glasses,assumed the aspect of architectural ruins of enormous massiveness andstrength. But they were some ten miles distant, and through the highlyrarefied atmosphere that intervened it was impossible to obtain any veryclear conception of their character, except that they were undoubtedlyof human origin and of quite unexpected extent. One thing, however, wascertain, in the light of Menzies' story, as recounted to them by his andtheir friend Mitchell, those enormous ruins could be none other than theremains of the ancient Ophir mentioned in Holy Writ; and the two friendssent up a shout of irrepressible exultation at the thought that they hadadvanced thus far upon their difficult journey without mishap of anykind. They were now all eagerness and impatience to reach thosewonderful ruins; but the oxen were tired and hungry, having already beentrekking for more than two hours; moreover, they took no interest inarchaeology, and preferred an acre of rich grass to the finest ruins inthe world, therefore it became imperative to outspan as soon as thewagon had plunged down into the plain far enough to reach the firstwatercourse. But Grosvenor and Maitland were not long in arriving atthe decision to saddle up and ride forward as soon as they had partakenof a hasty tiffin.

  This resolution they duly carried into effect, observing the precautionto slip their loaded revolvers into their belts and to sling theirloaded rifles and fully charged bandoliers over their shoulders, toguard against the possibility of accident, although they had thus farseen nothing to justify the slightest suspicion that either the king orhis people meditated treachery. As they rode they had ample opportunityto observe--as indeed had been the case ever since they entered theMakolo country--the operation of the curious voice-telegraph systempractised by the natives in their communications with each other, thehigh-pitched messages--doubtless reporting their progress-breachingtheir ears at frequent intervals.

  They advanced at an easy canter, heading straight for the ruins, forthere was no semblance of a road, or even of a footpath, and scarcelyany people were to be seen, except in and about the villages which theyoccasionally passed. But when they had arrived within about three milesof the ruins they observed, approaching them round the spur of a lowhill, a troop of about fifty horsemen, which their field glasses enabledthem to perceive were splendidly mounted, and garbed in the full panoplyof war, consisting of shield, war axe, sheaf of broad-bladed spears,plumed head-dress, and--in the case of the leader--leopard-skin mantle,and necklace of leopards' claws. It was a distinctly formidablecavalcade for two men only to meet, even although the latter were armedwith weapons of such deadly precision as the rifle and revolver; and fora minute or two the travellers were just a little uncertain as to how tomeet the situation. Finally they reined in and came to a halt,whereupon the leader of the troop threw up his right hand, as thoughgiving an order, upon which his followers, who had been advancing at agallop, reined their horses back upon their haunches, coming to anabrupt halt, while he, reducing his pace to a hand-gallop, continued hisadvance alone.

  "All right, old chap, come along," exclaimed Grosvenor; "those fellowsmean us no harm, I am sure. I expect it is a detachment sent out by theking to bid us welcome on our approach to his village."

  "Very possibly," assented Dick. "But, having halted, we must now remainwhere we are until that fellow approaches and delivers his message. Toresume our journey at this moment would be tantamount to an admission ofdistrust on our part, which would never do. No, no; let the man come tous, not we go to him. Among savages, you know, first impressions countfor a good deal, and it would never do to let those fellow think that wehalted because we were nervous."

  "No, of course; you are quite right, it would not," agreed Grosvenor;and sitting straight up in their saddles, and assuming an air ofabsolute confidence which somewhat belied their inward feelings, theypatiently awaited the arrival of the solitary horseman.

  In less than a minute he had arrived--a fine, stalwart man, of aboutmiddle age, clean-limbed, broad chested, upright as a dart, of dauntlessaspect; his limbs and body showing many scars of battle. As he reacheda point some ten feet from where the two white travellers awaited him heabruptly reined his horse to a standstill, and threw up his right handin salute.

  "_'Nkosi_," he cried, in a full, deep, resonant tone of voice,"Lobelalatutu, the King of the Makolo, salutes you by the mouth of me,'Mpandula, and bids you welcome to his royal village. Behold a squadronof his royal guard, which he has dispatched, under my command, toconduct you in all honour to his presence. He awaits you now in hispalace. Does it please my lords that the squadron, approach to givethem the salute?"

  Now, this speech was only very imperfectly understood by those to whomit was addressed; a word or two here and there they comprehended becauseof their similarity to those in the language spoken by Mafuta; the nameof the king also they recognised; and 'Mpandula's gestures and the tonesof his voice also told them a little. Thus in one way and another theycontrived to gain a sort of hazy general notion of the gist of thechiefs speech. But how were they to reply to it, and what were they tosay? So early a summons to the king's presence was rather unexpected,and, in the absence of Mafuta, who was behind, with the wagon, would berather embarrassing; for how were they to converse with the king withoutthe assistance of an interpreter? There was but one thing to be done,and that was to reply to the best of their ability, which Dick undertookto do in the only native tongue with which he was familiar, explainingas well as he could the difficulty in which the pair found themselves.

  It was evident at once, by the puzzled expression on the chiefs face,that he understood Dick as little as Dick understood him; and for amoment there seemed to be the possibility of a deadlock. But suddenly'Mpandula's brow cleared, he turned on his horse and shouted a name, inresponse to which one of the guards drove his heels into his horse'sflanks, and dashed forward to his chiefs assistance. The latterappeared to explain the position in a few terse words, and when he hadfinished, the newcomer, at 'Mpandula's dictation, repeated the messageof the king, word for wood, in the language with which Dick wasfamiliar.

  "What do you say, Phil," questioned Dick, when the message wasconcluded; "shall we go? Or shall we excuse ourselves for the present,upo
n the plea that we would prefer to wait until the wagon comes up, inorder that we may take with us the gifts that we have brought for HisMajesty? I am not quite sure that I altogether like this escortbusiness. It may be all right, of course. The king's message soundsall right; but if the chap means treachery it will be exceedinglyawkward for us, will it not?"

  "It certainly will," agreed Grosvenor. "But," he continued, "I fancy itis altogether too late to think of that now. When we determined toenter this country we tacitly decided to take all the risks of so doing;and in any case we cannot now escape, do what we will, therefore I thinkour best policy will be to take everything for granted, and go willinglywith these fellows, since if we refused they have the power to compelus. What has so suddenly put the idea of treachery into your head?"

  "Upon my word I don't know," answered Dick. "Unless it is the sight ofthese armed men. But, as you say, it is too late to hesitate now, and,after all, their presence may merely signify the desire of the king todo us honour. Yes, I suppose we had better go." And, turning to'Mpandula, he said:

  "We are ready to go with you into the presence of the king, thereforelet the squadron approach. But our followers are behind, with thewagon, and it is desirable that they should know what has become of us;therefore I pray you let a message be transmitted to them, informingthem of our whereabouts, and also directing them where to outspan attheir final halt."

  "The will of my lords shall be done," answered the chief, through theinterpreter. And, raising his right hand, he shouted an order,whereupon the squadron of native cavalry, which had remained motionlessas so many statues, at once awakened into life, and, starting forward ata gallop, advanced in as close formation and as perfect line as thefinest civilised troops, halting a horse's length in rear of theircommander. Then, at a signal from the chief, every man tossed his righthand aloft in salute and thundered out the word _'Nkosi_! This saluteDick and Grosvenor acknowledged by placing their hands to their hat-brims, in military fashion, to the evident satisfaction of 'Mpandula andhis followers; and then, as the two whites touched their horse's flankswith the spur and moved forward at a canter, the escort formed up,completely encircling them; one man at the same moment detaching himselfand galloping away in the direction of the wagon, in response to anorder from his commander.

  Some twenty minutes later the party reached the outskirts of the ruinedcity, and found themselves confronted by enormous masses of masonry,consisting of walls, some of which still remained erect, although forthe most part they had sunk into shapeless, overgrown masses of ruin,arches, columns, erect and prostrate, fragmentary pediments, shatteredentablatures, dislodged capitals, crumbling pedestals, and mutilatedstatues of men and animals, all of colossal proportions; the buildingsand portions of buildings all being of an immensely massive yet ornateand imposing style of architecture quite unknown to the travellers.Even the cursory glimpses which were all that Dick and Grosvenor werefor the moment able to obtain, convinced them both that they were faceto face with the remains of a city that must, thousands of years ago,have been of enormous extent and of almost unimaginable opulence andsplendour.

  But they had little time, just then, in which to indulge theircuriosity, for they almost immediately struck into a sort of bridle paththat presently turned away from the ruins and led toward an extensivevillage, which now swept into view as they rounded the spur of a hill.The village consisted of some five hundred huts surrounding a centralstockade, which enclosed a small group of buildings of considerably morepretentious character than the ordinary huts, and which Dick andGrosvenor at once conjectured must be the royal palace and itsdependencies. This conjecture was confirmed upon their arrival at thevillage, for at the gateway of the stockade the cavalcade halted, and'Mpandula, dismounting, requested his charges to do the same, intimatingthat he was about to conduct them forthwith into the presence of theking.

  Of course there was nothing to be done but to obey with a good grace,and the travellers, therefore, swung out of their saddles, and, handingover their horses to a couple of natives who stepped forward to takecharge of them, followed their guide, or custodian, whichever he mighthappen to be, through the gateway, not without certain qualms ofapprehension as to the wisdom of placing themselves thus unreservedly inthe power of a savage king, who, if he should so choose, could send themto a death of unspeakable torment and horror, without the slightest fearof ever being brought to book. But now, more than ever, was it too lateto hesitate; therefore resolutely stifling their apprehensions, andassuming a bearing of the most perfect confidence, they advanced towarda group of several persons whom they now saw arranged in front of theprincipal building within the enclosure.

  Unquestionably the most important personage in this group was a splendidfigure of a savage, attired in a sort of petticoat of leopard-skinreaching to just above the knee, a mantle of lion-skin thrown over hisshoulders, gold bangles on his arms and ankles, a beautifully workedcoronet of gold adorned with crimson feathers of the flamingo, twonecklaces--one composed of lions' teeth and claws, and the other, andlarger, of unpolished stones that seemed to emit a faint glint of ruddyfire--round his neck. He was armed with a sheaf of short, broad-bladedstabbing spears, and was seated on a sort of throne entirely coveredwith an immense kaross of lions' skin. Behind him stood eight savages,as finely built men as himself, whose dress and adornments at onceproclaimed them to be chiefs, and persons of very great importance inthe Makolo nation. The individual upon the throne was of course noneother than the king himself.

  Boldly advancing to within about ten paces of the seated monarch,Grosvenor and Dick halted, and, according to pre-arrangement, gave HisMajesty a military salute. Then Dick, addressing the king in his bestKafir, remarked:

  "Hail! Lobelalatutu, King of the Makolo, we salute you." Which theinterpreter, who had followed them, promptly interpreted.

  "I see you, white men," answered the king, slightly raising his righthand in acknowledgement of the salute. "You are welcome to the countryof the Makolo. When I was informed of your approach I gave certainorders to my people concerning your comfort and welfare. I trust thatthose orders have been obeyed to your satisfaction."

  "Your words, O King! have been most implicitly obeyed, and we thank youfor them, as also for the welcome that you have extended to us,"returned Dick. "The four Spirits of the Winds will be pleased to learn,when we return, that you have not forgotten the injunctions that theylaid upon you."

  "The four Spirits of the Winds!" ejaculated the king, in great surprise,not wholly untinged with trepidation--which emotions were even morestrongly displayed by the chiefs who stood about him. "Know ye thenthose terrible beings?" [Note 1.]

  "Even so," answered Dick composedly. "We know that they twice visitedthe Makolo country; and we also know,"--he added with emphasis--"whathappened upon each of those occasions. We know what happened toM'Bongwele, the former king of the Makolo; and we know why Lobelalatutuwas chosen king in his place."

  "_Wau_!" murmured the assembled chiefs behind their hands, inawestricken tones; "it is wonderful!" while Lobelalatutu shifteduneasily in his seat as he gazed apprehensively in the faces of his twovisitors. For nearly a minute he remained silent, apparently debatingwithin himself some very puzzling question. Then he said:

  "I would that I knew, O white men, all the reasons that have led you tovisit the Makolo country. They must be many and great to have inducedyou to cross the Great Water, and to take so long, so wearisome, and sodangerous a journey afterwards."

  "Listen then, O King Lobelalatutu, and you shall be told," answeredDick. "My friend here is a great hunter; he loves the excitement of thechase, even as do your own young men. But in our own country the peopleare so many that there is little room for game, which is consequentlyvery scarce. Therefore my friend said: `Lo, I will go to Africa, wherethe people are few and game is abundant, and there will I hunt the lion,the leopard, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the buffalo, and all thoseother animals that afford good sport, and are not to
be found inEngland; also I am desirous of seeing the wonderful ruins of that greatand ancient city whereof the four Spirits of the Winds have spoken;therefore will I go to the Makolo country, wherein those ruins are to befound, and become the friend, if I may, of the king, and his people.'And, as for me, I am a healer of all kinds of sickness; I am also aseeker of gold, and the stones that glitter. Therefore said my friendto me: `Come, let us go together, for the journey shall be to our mutualadvantage; we will hunt together, and if sickness overtake me you shallbe my healer, while such gold, or stones, or ivory as we may obtainshall be yours.' Those, O Lobelalatutu! are our sole reasons for cominghither. Are they not good and sufficient?"

  "They may be sufficient in your own eyes; but as for me, I know not,"answered the king. "The thing that I would know is this: Come ye asfriends, or as secret enemies, of me and my people?"

  "Have I not said?" returned Dick. "My friend would be the friend of youand your people; and his friends will also be my friends; his enemies myenemies. If ye should need such help as it is in our power to give, itshall be yours, freely; and all we ask in return is that we may beallowed to examine the ruins at our leisure, and to take away with ussuch gold or stones as we may find."

  "It is well," answered the king. "If that be all ye ask, it is granted.Ye may examine the ruins at your pleasure; ye may remain in my countryas long as ye will, and no man shall molest you; and whatsoever ye mayfind that is valuable in your eyes, that shall ye take with you when yeleave my country. That is my word, the word of the king. Say now, isit good?"

  "It is very good, and the Spirits will be well pleased when they learnthat you have granted our request," answered Dick.

  The king gave vent to a sigh of evident relief; it was clear that hewished to stand well with these two friends of the great and terribleSpirits of the Winds, who by the potency of their magic had been able topunish his predecessor M'Bongwele for his evil-doing, and to placehimself upon the vacant throne. Yet it was apparent that there wasstill something at the back of the king's mind, something that he keenlydesired yet hesitated to speak of. For two or three minutes he satplunged in deep and painful meditation; then he looked up and said:

  "It is well; I am glad that ye have come hither, O white men! for whenye return to your own country ye will be able to tell the Spirits that Ihave faithfully obeyed all the injunctions that they laid upon me. Ha!There is one thing more that I would ask. Ye speak not the tongue ofthe Makolo, yet ye were able to communicate with my people as soon as yeentered my borders. By what means did ye so?"

  "Oh, quite easily!" answered Dick--who, being the better linguist of thetwo, naturally assumed the part of spokesman. "We have with us a manwho speaks the Makolo tongue, and whose language we speak; therefore wecommunicate with your people through him."

  "Good!" exclaimed the king, in accents of extraordinary satisfaction;"it is very good. Go now in peace, O white men! Ye are my friends, andno harm shall befall ye while ye stay in the country of the Makolo; Ithe king say it. And it may be, O healer of sicknesses! that I can helpyou in the matter of the shining stones that ye crave to possess. Seeye these?" And he pointed to the necklace of ruddy, unpolished stonesthat he wore.

  Dick stepped forward to look closer at the stones, and finally took theloop of the necklace into his hands. At first sight the stones appearedto be no more than ordinary red pebbles, about the size of a plover'segg, or perhaps a little larger, the only peculiarity being that theywere exactly alike in colour, and that they all emitted a rich, ruddylight. For a minute or two Dick stood carefully examining the stones;and as he did so a faint, elusive memory came to him in connection withthem. Then suddenly the memory became clear and, carefully suppressinghis excitement, he turned to Grosvenor and said, in quite an ordinarytone of voice:

  "Just come and have a look at these stones, Phil, but be careful not tobetray anything in the nature of astonishment or admiration. Do youremember reading that those four chaps in the _Flying-Fish_ accidentallystumbled upon, first, the king's ruby necklace, and then, through it, aruby mine? Well, this is undoubtedly the necklace; and our friend hereseems to hint that he is willing to show us the spot where similarstones may be found."

  "Looks like it, certainly," answered Grosvenor in carefully modulated,matter-of-fact tones. "Jolly fine stones, aren't they? If you cancontrive to take home a sackful of those stones, old man, you need nolonger fear money troubles, eh? What?"

  "A sackful!" ejaculated Dick, with a laugh. "A peck of them willcompletely satisfy me, my boy." Then, turning to Lobelalatutu, who waskeenly watching them both, he said:

  "These stones, O King! are very good and of some value in my country,though worthless here. Know you where they are to be found?"

  "I know," answered the king; "and it may be that I will show you theplace; I cannot yet say, but I will consider the matter. I have giveninstructions as to the place where your wagon shall outspan; it is nearat hand, between the village and the ruins; and if ye need anything,send word by your servant to me, and I will see to it."

  "We thank you, O Lobelalatutu!" answered Dick. "We go now; but to-morrow we will come again, bearing with us the gifts that we havebrought for thee from England. Until then, farewell!"

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  Shortly after nine o'clock that night, while the two friends, havingdined, were sitting under the raised front flap of their tent, enjoyingthe wonderful view of the ruins, rising gaunt and black in the midst ofthe landscape, flooded by the rays of the newly risen moon, and chattingin desultory fashion over the events of the day, as Grosvenor pulledcontemplatively at his well-charred brier pipe, Mafuta appeared beforethem and, giving the usual salute, said:

  "There is one from the village yonder who would speak with my lords, ifthey be willing."

  "Who is it, Mafuta--a man, or a woman?" demanded Dick.

  "It is a man, _'mlungu_" answered Mafuta. Then, drawing still nearer,and lowering his voice almost to a whisper, he added: "He says he isnamed Lobelalatutu!"

  "The king!" exclaimed Dick, starting to his feet in amazement. "Whatthe dickens is up now, I wonder? Is he armed, Mafuta?"

  "Nay, lord, he is weaponless," answered Mafuta.

  "Bring him hither," commanded Dick; "we will speak with him."

  Saluting again, Mafuta disappeared, and presently returned escorting atall savage, unarmed save for a light switch, such as every nativehabitually carries, in order to defend himself against the attacks ofsnakes. He wore the _keshla_, or head ring, and was naked save for theusual _moucha_ or apron of deerskin. As he stepped within range of therays of the lamp, which Dick had hastily lighted, his eyes rolled andgleamed with something of apprehension in their expression; but despitehis change of garb the white men had no difficulty in recognising theking.

  "We see you, O Lobelalatutu!" said Dick, adopting the ordinary form ofsalutation among the natives, for there was an air of secrecy about thisvisit that seemed to suggest a desire on the part of the king that heshould be regarded as to some extent incognito. "Enter, I pray you, andbe seated,"--pointing to the chair which he had just vacated, anddrawing forward his medicine chest as a seat for himself, thus placingthe king between himself and Grosvenor.

  With a sigh, whether of weariness or of relief was not quite clear, theking sank into the chair indicated, and when Mafuta would havediscreetly withdrawn, stopped him.

  "Is this the man through whom you have hitherto communicated with mypeople?" the king demanded, and Mafuta duly translated the question.

  Dick answered in the affirmative, adding: "Tell him, Mafuta, that weknow you to be faithful, and are ready to trust you even with ourlives."

  This speech also Mafuta translated, with an air of mingled hauteur andhumility which was amusing enough to Dick and Grosvenor.

  For answer the king stood up and, laying his hand upon Mafuta'sshoulder, looked piercingly into the man's eyes for the space of a fullminute or more. On
his part, Mafuta returned the gaze as steadfastly asit was given; and it was an interesting sight to the onlookers to seethose two savages, both of them splendid specimens of their respectiveraces, endeavouring to read each other's character. At lengthLobelalatutu removed his hand from the other's shoulder and said:

  "It is well! Tell your chiefs that I say you are a true man, and thatI, too, am willing to put my life into your hands. Stay you here andinterpret for me, for I have a matter of moment to discuss with thewhite men."

  "Tell the king to say on," commanded Dick, when this speech had beentranslated to them; and Lobelalatutu, turning to Dick, said:

  "I am in a great strait, O _'mlungus_, and know not what to do. I wouldthat the four Spirits of the Winds, who made me king over the Makolo,were here, for I have faithfully obeyed their injunctions, and theywould help me. But you are friends of the Spirits, and it may be thatyour wisdom will find a way for me. May I speak?"

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  Note. The author is here referring to events which occurred in two ofhis previous books: _The Log of the "Flying-Fish"_, and _With Airshipand Submarine_ (both published by Messrs Blackie and Son, Limited).