CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WHAT HAPPENED AT JEKYLL'S STORE.
Jekyll's Store, near Malengwa, was an institution of considerableimportance in its way, for there not only did prospectors and travellersand settlers replenish their supplies, but it served as a place ofgeneral "roll up," when the monotony of life in camp or on lonely farmsbegan to weigh upon those destined to lead the same.
Its situation was an open slope, fronting a rolling country, more orless thickly grown with wild fig and mahobo-hobo, mimosa and featheryacacia. Behind, some three or four hundred yards, rose a low ridge ofrocks, whose dull greyness was relieved by the vivid green ofsugar-bush. Strategically its position was bad, but this was a side towhich those who planted it there had not given a thought. The Maxims ofthe Company's forces had done for the natives for ever and a day. Therewas not a kick left in them.
The building was a fair-sized oblong one, constructed of the usualwattle and "dagga" as to the walls, and with a high-pitched roof ofthatch. Internally it was divided into three compartments--asleeping-room, a living-room, and the store itself, the latter as largeas the two first put together. From end to end of this was a longcounter, about a third of which was partitioned off as a public bar.Rows of shelves lined the walls, and every conceivable article seemedrepresented--blankets and rugs; tinned food and candles; soap andcheese; frying-pans and camp-kettles; cooking-pots and high boots;straps and halters; Boer tobacco and Manila cheroots; all jostling eachother, down even to accordions and concertinas, seemed only to begin thelist of general "notions" which, either stacked on shelves or hangingfrom the beam which ran along the building parallel with the spring ofthe roof, filled every available space. Bags of mealies, too, and flourstood against the further wall; and the shelves backing the bardepartment were lined with a plentiful and varied assortment of bottles.
Not much less varied was the type of customer who was prone to sampletheir contents. Miners working for a wage, independent prospectors,transport riders, now and then a company promoter or a mining engineeror surveyor, settlers on farms, an occasional brace of troopers of theMatabeleland Mounted Police--would all roll up at Jekyll's in turn; butby reason of the wide distances over which the sparse population wasscattered, there were seldom more than a dozen gathered together thereat once--usually less. But even there the characteristics of thegathering were much akin to those pervading similar groups as seen inolder civilisation--the bore simple and the bore reiterative, the localAnanias, usually triplicated; the assumptive bore; the literary critic--the last especially in full bloom after a few rounds of "squareface" orJohn Dewar--and other varieties. Such characteristics, however, werewell known to the sound residue of the assemblage, who would delight to"draw" the individual owners thereof--after the few rounds aforesaid.
Within the store and canteen part of the building about a dozen men weregathered when Moseley and Tarrant rode up. All were attired in theusual light marching order of the country--shirt and trousers, highboots and wide-brimmed hat. Some were lounging against the counter,others squatting on sacks or packing-cases, and all were smoking.Jekyll, himself, a tall man with a grizzled beard, and who had been agood many years in the country before the entry of the first Pioneerforce, was dispensing drinks, with the help of his assistant, a youngEnglishman who had been ploughed for his degree at Oxford. To severalof these the new arrivals were known, and forthwith there was a freshcall on the resources of the bar department.
"News?" said Jekyll, in reply to a question from Moseley. "Thoughtmaybe you'd have brought some. There's talk of a rising among theniggers down beyond Sikumbutana. Heard anything of it?"
"Not a word."
"Gah on. There won't be no bloomin' rahsin'," cut in a prospector, aCockney ex-ship-steward. "Nothink but a lot o' gas. The wy to treatniggers is my wy."
"And what might that be?" said another prospector, a tall, bronzed,fine-looking man, who _had_ taken _his_ degree at Oxford.
"Why, one o' my boys cheeked me yesterday, so I ups with a bloomin'pick-'andle and jes lets 'im 'ave it over the bloomin' boko. That's mywy with 'em."
And the speaker cocked his head and looked around with the defiantbounce of a cad with a couple of drinks too many on board.
"H'm!" rejoined the other man, drily.
"By-the-by," said Tarrant, "I wonder what Mafuta did with my rifle andcartridges."
Jekyll pricked up his ears.
"Is that one of your boys?" he said.
"Yes. He was carrying my gun and cartridges."
"Well, there was no gun and cartridges with your donkeys when theyturned up."
"The devil there wasn't!" said Tarrant. "Let's go and look into it."
They went outside, Jekyll and two or three others accompanying them.The three boys in charge of the donkeys were there. They had off-loadedthe packs and taken them inside. Where was Mafuta? They did not know.They had last seen him about half way; after that no more. They thoughtperhaps he had been ordered to try and shoot some game on the way.Tarrant looked blue.
"Oh, he'll turn up," he said, in a tone which conveyed the idea thatsuch a contingency was remote.
"Pity you trusted him with a gun in these times," said Jekyll. "I'mafraid he'll clear with it."
"Wot'll yer tike for the chawnce?" said the Cockney, who was one ofthose who had accompanied them outside.
"Oh, he'll roll up directly," said Tarrant, ignoring this specimen;"Mafuta's a reliable boy. I've had him a long while."
Returning from the huts, they became aware of a certain amount ofexcitement in front of the store. A trooper of the Matabeleland MountedPolice had just ridden up. The rising was a fact, and he had been sentround to warn everybody to come in to Bulawayo if possible; if not, tocollect together and form laagers. Several prospectors and miners hadbeen murdered in the Sikumbutana district, but how far the outbreak hadspread could not as yet be determined. He was on his way to warnHollingworth; after that, if he could manage it, he must get through toJohn Ames'.
The excitement produced by this news was mingled with consternation.Half of those there collected were unarmed. Those who had weapons hadleft them behind at their camps; while some, with the habitual Britishcarelessness which passes for intrepidity, had not even got any there.
The police trooper's horse was offsaddled and put into one of the hutswhich did duty for stable for a feed and a brief rest, and then thewhole party re-entered the store to discuss the situation and a freshround of drinks. While this was in progress some one reported a partyof natives approaching from the open side in front of the house.Quickly Jekyll got out a powerful binocular.
"There are about thirty of them," he said, "but they've got no guns--only knobkerries and some axes. On the face of the latest news Ibelieve they mean mischief. Now, chaps, we'll startle 'em some. Theywon't know there's a whole crowd of you here. They'll think there'sonly me and Selwyn to deal with. Who've got guns?"
Seven answered in the affirmative.
"All right. Now then. You, Carbutt and Harris, get to that frontwindow in t'other room--don't let 'em see you, though. I'll go out infront and _indaba_ them. Selwyn 'll stand in the doorway lighting hispipe--and when I sing out, `Let go,' blaze away into the foremost ofthem. I shall want some men to go outside at the back of the house,though."
All volunteered.
"No. You three'll do"--indicating the policeman and two others."Directly you hear the first shot fired, whip round to the front andblaze into them for all you're worth. See the plan?"
"Rather, and an A1 plan it is," said Moseley, who was one of therearguard, slipping a couple of heavy buckshot cartridges into hisshot-gun.
Those for behind scrambled through the back windows--the other two werealready in position, one armed with a Winchester, the other with aLee-Metford. Hardly had they done so than the natives emerged from thesparse bush in front.
There was nothing warlike in their aspect; indeed, to all appearance,they might have been a gang of boys trave
lling round to look for work inthe mines. They halted about fifty yards from the house, and Jekyll, inpursuance of his plan, strolled about a dozen to meet them. Then hecalled for a couple of them to come up.
Who were they, he asked, and where going? They were looking for work,the spokesman answered. Could the _'Nkose_ take any of them on? Jekyllobserved that perhaps he could do with two or three. Selwyn, theEnglish assistant, was standing in the doorway, carelessly lighting hispipe. Others now began stealing up towards the two spokesmen. Thesavages little knew into what a trap their treachery was leading them.Then a shout arose from among them:--
"_Tyay' Amakiwa_!" [Strike down the whites.]
But, simultaneously with the rush made upon Jekyll, and for which thewords were the signal, the rifles of the two men at the window crashedforth in one report. The two foremost Matabele dropped dead, while thethree men stationed behind the house were in position at once, andsimply raked the whole crowd. Again and again the magazine riflesspoke, and between them and Moseley's buckshot the result was that alittle more than half the treacherous assailants were running for dearlife and for the nearest bush; while Jekyll, who had not stirredthroughout, stood re-lighting his pipe as if nothing had happened.
"Sharp work, chaps," he said, as they all came out to see the result."We've taught them how to fight the devil with fire--eh?"
The transformation was marvellous in its rapidity. The place which,five minutes before, had been the scene of a peaceful gathering, was nowone of slaughter. More than one there present, who had never witnesseddeath by violence, gazing upon the stark, bleeding corpses, lookeduncomfortable.
"Here's one who isn't dead," said Jekyll. "Let's see if he'll give awayanything." And, bending down, Jekyll began to talk fluently inSindabele. But the wounded man, a big, evil-looking savage, answerednever a word. He had a bullet through him, and a couple of grains ofheavy buckshot, and was bleeding profusely. The wonder was he was stillalive. To all of Jekyll's questions he answered nothing.
"I sy. 'E's a bloomin' impident black beggar, I _don't_ think," saidthe Cockney, giving the prostrate native a push with his foot that wasmore than half a kick. "Wish I 'ad my bloomin' pick-'andle 'ere."
"Oh, shut up, Higgins, and leave the nigger alone," said the man who hadfirst taken exception to the swaggering cad's bounce. "We don't dothings that way here."
"'Ere, I sy, I'd like to know what I've done. Cawn't a chep mike abloomin' blanked nigger awnswer a question when a gentleman arsts 'imone--hy?"
But whether this feat was practicable or not was destined to remainunrecorded, for at that moment came the crash of a volley poured fromthe line of bush wherein the discomfited barbarians had disappeared, andthe vicious hum of missiles overhead and around, knocking chips ofplaster from the walls of the house. Two men staggered, only woundedthough, among them the police trooper, who was shot in the leg.
"Get inside, sharp," sang out Jekyll, himself hauling in one of thewounded. "Stand ready. They'll charge directly."
Hurriedly, yet without panic, the men regained the shelter of the house.At the same time a cloud of savages, who had wormed their way upthrough the long grass, rose on the edge of the bush, and again pouredin their fire. Again the bullets whizzed overhead, some penetrating theplaster wail, but no one was hit. Those within had already flown to thewindows, and were returning the fire with a will. Several were seen tofall. The rest dropped down into cover again. Clearly they had nostomach for charging that determined few under cover.
"That's all right," said Jekyll. "This is all part of the scheme.These jokers have got on their war-gear. The first lot were an advanceguard. I say, Selwyn, where would you and I have been now but for ourfriend here giving us the office? We'd have been quietly knocked on thehead--eh?"
"We'd have had no show at all," replied the assistant, who was brimfulof pluck and beginning to enjoy the fight. But Jekyll, and two or threeothers, who were alive to the gravity of the situation, failed todiscover an enjoyable side thereto.
The Matabele were evidently in sufficient force to render themover-confident, and, indeed, they were hardly careful to remain undershelter. Squads of twenty and thirty could be seen pouring in to swellthe already formidable number, glancing through the bush and long grass,all in war-gear, with flowing tufts of red or white cowtail, and wearingthe _isiqoba_, or ball of feathers, on the forehead. Warriors, defyingfate, would spring up, and go through the performance known as "_gwaza_"making a series of quick leaps in the air, shouting the mostbloodcurdling promises with regard to their enemies, and darting stabs,lightning-like, this way and that, as though in hand-to-hand conflictwith an imaginary foe. At these the besieged whites, acting on theadvice of the more experienced, forebore to fire. The mark was a veryuncertain one, and there was not much to be gained by picking off two orthree of these boasters. Ammunition was not plentiful. In fact, therewas every chance of it giving out.
John Ames, Native Commissioner: A Romance of the Matabele Rising Page 13
