Part 49 (1/2)
The other filled and lighted his pipe. ”Well, the fact is, I've had a lot to do of late,” he replied at length, between sundry vigorous puffs.
”And then, you see, I'm a rough sort of feller and haven't got any company manners, and now you've got company. Perhaps, after all, I'm best here.”
”You surly old humbug,” said Payne, with a laugh, ”I never heard such bosh. You come up on Sunday at latest, or we shall quarrel. Call yourself a neighbour, indeed! Now you'll come, won't you?”
”I'll try.”
”All right, that's settled. Ta-ta;” and mounting his horse Payne rode off.
Gradually the long smooth slopes became steeper, falling off into abrupt ravines, affording a glimpse of the Great Kei, which glided along, far down between its lofty banks--now winding round a smooth-headed knoll, now straightening as it washed the base of some huge wall of rock--a distant musical murmur being upborne upon the still air as it rushed over a stony shallow. From the far plains beyond, many a blue column of smoke rose into the suns.h.i.+ne, where dotted about lay the cl.u.s.tering kraals of the savage Gcalekas, whose hordes, even then, were gathering for the long-expected and somewhat dreaded inroad upon the peace of the colony. A bird sang in the thick thorn-protected brake adjoining the path, a white vulture or two soared lazily from one of the huge krantzes overhanging the river, insects hummed in the sunlight, and it seemed as if nothing but the savagery of man could avail to break the peaceful calm of that glorious scene, amid which Payne pursued his way wrapped in uneasy thought; for in spite of his sceptical tone when talking to Marshall he felt by no means the a.s.surance that he would have had that worthy believe.
His horse suddenly p.r.i.c.ked up its ears as the sound of deep voices immediately in front became audible, and in a moment three tall, savage-looking Kafirs, their athletic bodies smeared from head to foot with red ochre, advanced down the path at a run, swinging their kerries.
Now the said path was, just there, only wide enough for a single horseman, being shut in on either side by high thorn-bushes, and Payne naturally expected the pedestrians to make way for him. They, however, had no such intention, and his steed began to show signs of terror at the sudden appearance of the brawny, ochre-smeared barbarians, with their gleaming necklaces of jackal's teeth rattling as they advanced.
”Out of the way, you vagabonds,” shouted Payne, angrily. ”Out of the road; d'you hear?” and he raised his whip menacingly.
”Aow! Out of the way yourself, _umlungu_!” [white man] insolently replied the foremost Kafir in his great deep tones, at the same time seizing the bridle and trying to jerk the horse's head round. ”We won't get out of the way for you.”
Payne's whip descended, the lash curling with an angry ”swish” round the naked body of the speaker.
”Take that, you hound!” he cried. ”And now let go.” And he clubbed his whip to strike with the heavy loaded end.
”Haoo-ow! Hah!” roared the savage, dropping the bridle and stepping back a pace or two, while the lurid lightnings of wild-beast wrath shot from his eyes. Then he sprang at Payne like a tiger-cat, aiming a sledge-hammer blow at him with his heavy stick.
Fortunately for Payne he managed to throw up his arm in time to save his head, or he would have fallen to the ground, brained by the terrific force of the blow. Fortunately, too, for him, his adversaries carried no a.s.segais, or he would there and then have been stabbed through and through and his body flung over the adjacent cliff into the Kei, for he need expect no mercy from such foes. The land was almost in a state of war, and brutal outrages of this kind were only too terribly common. He made a furious blow at his opponent with the b.u.t.t of his whip, but ineffectively, for at the moment of striking he felt himself seized by a powerful hand and dragged from his horse, which backed into the bushes terrified and snorting. Then nearly stunned by the fall he lay upon the ground, and the sky and earth and foliage all went round in one giddy, sickening whirl, and still he could see the gigantic figure of the savage, who, with glaring eyes and white gleaming teeth, was advancing upon him with kerrie upraised to strike, and he lay there, powerless even to avoid the blow. In a second it would fall, when--woof!
something descended through the air, a large dark object darted between him and the sky, and his enemy fell heavily to the earth. He heard the clash of kerries in strike and parry, a fierce imprecation, and the ring of a pistol-shot; then he knew no more till he awoke to consciousness with some one bending over him and fanning his brow.
”Don't move,” said the stranger. ”Take it easy a little longer, and then you'll feel better.”
Payne looked wonderingly at the dark sun-browned face bent over him, with the calm, resolute, blue-grey eyes and clear-cut features, and it seemed to him that he had seen the owner of it before.
”Oh, I feel all right now,” he said, raising himself upon one elbow and then sitting up. ”A little muddled, you know, that's all.”
”I venture to say that our friend here, feels 'a little muddled,'”
remarked the other, pus.h.i.+ng with his foot the form of a prostrate Kafir.
Payne stood up, rather giddily, and recognised his a.s.sailant in the inert, motionless ma.s.s.
”I say, though, but the brute isn't dead?” he said, with just a tinge of concern, bending over the fallen savage.
”He isn't dead. A stirrup-iron properly handled is a grand weapon; but Kafir skulls are notoriously thick. The chances are a hundred to one, though, that yours would have been split at this moment, had that individual carried out his amiable little programme just then.”
”Of course--I was forgetting. You saved my life. Why, what an ungracious dog you must think me!”
”And I could have dropped the other two so nicely in their tracks,”
continued the stranger, as if he had not heard Payne's remark. ”They both came at me with their kerries; but directly they saw this,”-- producing a revolver--”off they went. I wanted to fell another chap, so I didn't trot out the barker at first, till they began to think they had it all their own way, and pressed me so hard that I was obliged to.