The Fire-Gods A Tale of the Congo - Charles Gibson (short novels in english .TXT) 📗

rifles and a

shot-gun; a great quantity of reserve ammunition had been left at the

camp on Observation Creek. Crouch and Max undertook to teach the Fans

to shoot; whilst Edward, with a party of villagers, made his way back to

the camp in the jungle, to bring up all their supplies.

 

The following morning Edward Harden set out upon his journey, and it was

a strange crowd that followed him into the forest. The majority of them

were women; but the African woman is accustomed to manual labour. At

Zanzibar, sea-going ships are coaled by great buxom wenches, who can

lift a hundredweight as though it were a trifle. With many inland

tribes, between Mombasa and the West Coast, the work in the fields is

conducted almost exclusively by women. The men pride themselves upon

being warriors, hunters of big game and setters of traps. They consider

it beneath their dignity to dig and delve and hoe the ground, since such

employment entails no personal danger. Edward, therefore, was well

contented to have women as his servants; and before he started he

bargained to pay them in beads, cloth and cowrie shells.

 

Whilst he was absent, Crouch and Max became drill-sergeants for the

nonce. The Fans were first taught the mechanism of the rifle, and how

to clean it. They were then instructed in aiming drill. Though Crouch

had now a fair working knowledge of their language, for the most part he

taught them by demonstration; and they proved most promising recruits.

At last a target was set up in the valley; and rifle practice took place

daily both in the morning and the evening.

 

By the time Edward returned, though the Fans were not yet marksmen, it

seemed probable that they would be ready to take the field in another

day or so. Still, both Crouch and Edward desired to run no risks. They

did not intend to operate against Makanda, until they could do so with

every chance of success. It was Edward’s suggestion that they should

reconnoitre the settlement before they advanced. They desired to

discover the quickest route to the granite hills, and some position

thereon--within striking distance of Makanda--where they could establish

their headquarters. It was also necessary to find out the strength of

Cæsar’s garrison. At the time of their visit, they had not been able to

ascertain how many Arabs were secreted in the kraal. De Costa, they

knew, need not be taken into account; the man was an arrant coward. But

the Arab is a foe who can never be despised; he is a good rifle-shot, an

intelligent soldier, and his religion teaches him to be brave.

 

The next question was to decide who should be sent forward as a scout;

and it was Max who was selected for the task. Edward had just returned

from the jungle; and besides, the big man was by no means so quick and

agile as his nephew. Crouch was out of the question; he had burnt so

much of his cork foot that he could only hobble and would take too long

over the journey. It was finally decided that Max should start a day in

advance of the others, taking with him provisions for three days, as

well as his rifle and revolver.

 

That evening, Edward and Max climbed to the top of Solitude Peak. During

the day the crest of the mountain was invariably wrapped in clouds, but

towards evening these usually disappeared. On this occasion, a most

magnificent panorama of the surrounding country was presented to their

view. They looked down upon the whole valley of the Hidden River, from

Makanda to the mangrove swamp; and it was then that Edward filled in the

final details of his map.

 

They saw that it was possible to reach Cæsar’s stockade without entering

the jungle. If one followed the valley above which lay the Pambala

village, one would come, in course of time, to the granite hills to the

east of Makanda. They calculated that, if Max started at daybreak, he

would reach his destination towards the evening.

 

Accordingly, soon after sunrise, Max set out, bearing with him the good

wishes of his friends. A native footpath led some distance down the

valley, but there turned into the jungle. Max struck across country,

holding his course south-west by the compass.

 

He halted at midday to enjoy a meal of biscuits and sardines, washed

down by the clear water from a neighbouring brook. As he sat in

solitude, in the midst of that illimitable wilderness, he could not but

reflect upon the strangeness of his situation. Here was he, who all his

life had been accustomed to the roll of London ’buses and the cries of

newsboys in the streets, seated on a boulder, in the blazing heat of the

tropics, thousands of miles beyond the pale of civilization.

 

It was whilst he was there that he beheld, for the first time in his

life--if we make exception of the animals he had seen in the Zoo--a

great rock-python which lay, coiled in the grass, not twenty paces from

him. The sight of the thing caused him to shudder. He sprang instantly

to his feet. As he did so the snake heard him, and glided away among

the rocks. In the thickest part of its body the great reptile was about

the size of a man’s thigh; and it must have been over twenty feet in

length.

 

Max, having no desire for such a companion, moved on in haste, keeping

the mountain to his left. For the most part, he passed through a kind

of neutral territory, where the dominion of the jungle gave way to the

barren, rock-bound slopes of Solitude Peak. The afternoon was well

advanced by the time he arrived at the granite hills.

 

Here, he exercised the greatest caution. It was possible that a

sentinel had been posted on the crest-line. He accordingly advanced by

way of a donga, which led to the hill-top, and in which he could not be

seen. When he cleared the donga, a few yards from the crest, he went

down on hands and knees, and crawled from boulder to boulder.

 

A few minutes later, he found himself looking down upon the settlement

of Makanda. He was immediately above the kraal, and from that altitude

he was able to see inside the enclosure. The kraal consisted of four

rows of huts. In one of these was a white figure which, even without

the aid of his glasses, he had no difficulty in recognizing as one of

the Arabs. This man, rifle in hand, entered a hut, and presently came

out with a party of six slaves, all of whom wore iron collars around

their necks, which were fastened together by a single chain. Followed

by the Arab, this party left the kraal, and turned to the left, towards

the southern extremity of the lake.

 

Max directed his field-glasses upon the stockade. He could see no one

therein but Cæsar’s Arab cook, who was walking leisurely from the

direction of the river with a bucket of water in either hand.

 

By now the slave-driver and his party were out of sight to the south.

Max, anxious to observe whatsoever was in progress, descended from the

sky-line and ran in all haste along the ridge. He soon came to a place

whence he was able to see the course of the river, which had taken a

sudden bend to the west above the lake, where it was spanned by a rope

suspension bridge, such as is often met with in the heart of Africa.

Beyond the bridge, the sight that he witnessed held him rooted to the

spot.

 

He beheld a large quarry, where about fifty natives were at work. In

charge of these were four Arabs, and Max had no difficulty in

distinguishing Cæsar and the half-caste de Costa.

 

The work which was in progress was singular, by reason of the fact that

this was Equatorial Africa where, at that time, commerce, industry and

enterprise were quite unknown. A group of slaves in charge of the

Portuguese himself, was gathered together beneath the walls of the

quarry. A little distance from them was a great heap of rubbish.

Suddenly, the whole party was seen to set off running in the direction

of the river. Cæsar was the last to retire.

 

There followed a tremendous explosion. A great column of dust and smoke

was thrown up into the air. And even before this had descended, or had

been carried away upon the wind, both Cæsar and the natives had hastened

back to the place, where there was now a great rent in the living rock.

There they set to work carrying baskets of débris to de Costa, who

supervised a party engaged in sifting. Now and then, something was

taken from the siftings and handed to de Costa, who examined it, and

cast it into a wheelbarrow. At intervals, this wheelbarrow was taken to

a third party at the water’s edge that was engaged in washing something

in pans.

 

Max was, at first, too interested and surprised at all this to take

notice of an occurrence in the nature of a tragedy which was taking

place farther up the stream. There, about a dozen natives lay stretched

at full length upon the sand at the water’s edge. Some of these lay

still and motionless, as if in death; others were writhing in agony;

from time to time one would endeavour to raise himself, but invariably

fell back, drawing up his knees as if in fearful pain.

 

Even at that distance, Max could not fail to recognize the symptoms of

cholera--the most severe and fatal of all diseases. At various

intervals in the history of the world, cholera has raged in Asia and

throughout the eastern parts of Europe. In the early part of the

nineteenth century a violent outbreak occurred in Bengal, which in a

short time spread throughout the length and breadth of India. Thence,

it raged eastward into China, and westward through Persia and Turkey to

Russia and Central Europe. North Africa was also afflicted, and the

valley of the Nile, whence the pestilence had evidently now crossed to

the basin of the Congo.

 

No disease in the world is more deadly and virulent. It strikes down

its victims swiftly and without warning. Even as the men worked at the

quarry, Max observed one who took himself a little distance from his

fellows, and sat down upon a rock as though he were in pain.

 

Cæsar followed him, and ordered the man to return. The poor fellow was

too weak to obey; and thereupon the slave-master raised his whip and

three times brought down his lash upon the naked back of the sufferer.

The man’s cries for mercy carried even to the hills, and it was all Max

could do to restrain the burning indignation which kindled in his soul.

 

Presently the order was given for the slaves to return to the kraal; and

the whole party set out across the bridge, driven forward by the whip.

If any man, in all God’s Kingdom, had merited death by dint of his

misdeeds, it was surely this relentless Portuguese.

 

 

THE FIRE-GODS - CHAPTER XVI--THE OPEN CHEST

 

At sundown Max looked about him for somewhere to sleep. He soon found a

sandy patch between two great boulders, and here he took off the

haversack in which he had carried his provisions. He had filled his

water-bottle at the brook.

 

After he had eaten he lay down, converting his helmet into a pillow. He

felt quite secure; he could not possibly be discovered, unless some one

actually walked over him--an event that was very unlikely to occur. He

was thoroughly tired out after the day’s march; for all that, he found

himself quite unable to sleep. He could not rid his mind of the sight

he had seen that evening: the miserable slaves, dropping like poisoned

flies, struck down by the cholera which raged amongst them, and yet

goaded by the whip. And if Max’s sense of pity had been aroused, he was

scarcely less curious to discover the nature of the work that