Jasper Lyle Part 30

"Because I see no end to be answered in killing him; it is surely sufficient that the one already dead should die. Killing his murderer will not raise him to life again, neither will it benefit his family: besides, it is depriving the chief of one man more."

Zoonah interposed, "The English say that the murderer must be made to feel what the dead man felt--that was, to die."

"But what help," asked Lulu, who, though the least educated, was the shrewdest of the three in argument,--"what help is that to the living?

Why do they not _eat him up_ [a Kafir phrase for ruining any one by confiscation of his property], and let him live?"

Zoonah spoke, in a low, deep voice, "Where _is_ the dead?"

"_No_ more!" replied Doda; "he has ceased to be."

"Then," asked Lulu, "how will he know his murderer has been killed or eaten up?--he is not there to see him."

"What need," asked Zoonah, "for him to know he is no more?"

"It would compensate his heart for the loss of his body," replied Lulu.

"But," said Doda, "we have nothing more to do with his heart--his body is gone--he is no longer a man."

There was a long pause.

Doda was the first to break silence. "When," said he, "I inquire of my own heart, one view of the case makes me on the side of the English lawgivers. We know the two princ.i.p.als in a murder are the murderer and the murdered. The last has left this world, so we cannot call for his evidence. The murderer denies all about it. The English say, G.o.d made man; to destroy what G.o.d made is _ukwapula umsila_, to break His representative. It is clearly a case beyond the jurisdiction of man.

It can only be understood and disposed of by the maker of the _dead thing_; and on these grounds it seems reasonable that the murderer should be sent the same path that he caused the other to go, in order that _they may meet and he judged before G.o.d_."

"I see what you say," answered Lulu, after due deliberation; "it is too strong for me. Do the English do this from such views? They can talk: they do talk--but one cannot always believe them. His argument is good.

My heart is satisfied; I have heard. My heart is satisfied with your words. Nevertheless, I do not comprehend--"

And Lulu withdrew to ponder in silence on this argument.

After this, Lyle bid Doda question Zoonah on all that he had seen in his late perambulations "to and fro" upon the earth.

Zoonah complied partially, but omitted the episode of his being discovered by May, and outwitted also by the bushman.

He described the two sportsmen, and the cavalcade with which they were attended; and added, that they had retraced their steps, and had joined the bivouac at Annerley, which was known by all the Kafir scouts to be the rendezvous for the women and children of the district farmers. The scouts, of course, were in constant communication with some of the Annerley herdsmen, who, as was shown in the last chapter, were spies, ready to desert at the right moment. One of these had, some weeks previously to the open demonstrations of enmity in the frontier districts, on overhearing Mr Daveney announce to a farmer that England was sending troops, quitted the settlement, travelled 160 miles without sleep, and, after delivering his message, dropped dead at the feet of his chief. All Kafirland now was ripe for war, the tribes were gathering in the hill, and the watch-fires beginning to smoke.

Zoonah, in his turn, put manifold queries to Doda. The former said his path was uncertain; his "feet were towards Umlala's Kraal, but his face turned away sometimes." He asked, also, about Amani's proceedings.

Amani was his bitter foe. Lulu was bound for the settlements in the Annerley district, to look for plunder. Was Amayeka at Umlala's Kraal?

He must get cattle to offer Doda, for his daughter. He thought he should go with Lulu; he must come to Doda with full hands, to ask for Amayeka. How many bullocks would Doda want for her--the girl with the s.h.i.+ning hair?

And then there was the usual subtle bartering argument between the two Kafirs.

Meanwhile, a thought had struck Lyle. Taking one of Zoonah's a.s.segais from the bundle, he scratched with his clasp-knife his name and a certain date on the blade of the weapon. Zoonah, who could elicit no decided answers from Doda, leaned over the convict's shoulder.

He had seen books; indeed, as a boy, in a former war, he had, with others, cut them up as wadding for muskets, but could not read.

Nevertheless, he knew that letters were, as he called them, "silent words."

Lulu came too, and sat down beside Lyle--"Was he bewitching Zoonah's a.s.segai?"

Zoonah grasped the weapon, and would have drawn it away.

Lyle explained to him, in a mingled jargon, that the words _were_ mystical, but not intended to injure _him_. "Take it," he said, "to Daveney's Great Place, Annerley. Be like the asphogels. Watch them, but let them not see you till the time comes to cast the weapon before them. You know that Daveney is your enemy. Doda knows that I am the friend of the Amakosas. I have brought you guns and powder. I have made a path between you and the Dutch. The Dutch hate the English more than you do now. There are people in my country, beyond the great waters, who know that the English colonists are great liars. Can the white chiefs sent hither ever carry their threats as far they declare they will? No. You know that when they have laid schemes to drive you from your lands, a word comes to them across the foaming vley, and they are forced to eat their own words.--Your chiefs have many to speak for them in my country. I have been one of your mouths there. I was here long ago, when the son of Umlala's great wife was no taller than that mimosa: when I went back to my land, I spoke in council. I said you were under the feet of the English here; that you were not permitted to sit still in green places in your own territory; that you only wanted grazing-ground and patches of land to grow corn in; but that instead of rewarding you for refusing to help the Boers against the English, we have suffered your cattle and your land to be taken from you. You see, too, that the Boers are angry. They have cause. You and they were as two gnoos fighting for plunder. One gnoo comes first, and possesses himself of the prey; another follows, and would seize it. Up stalks the lion, he parts the combatants, seizes the plunder, and takes it to himself. What should the gnoos do? They should unite, go to war with the lion, take the plunder from him and share it. The land is large enough for all; but when you would have justice, the lion puts his paw beyond his own boundary, shakes his mane, his eyeb.a.l.l.s burn and roll like flames, he roars, and the very trees of the forest tremble at the sound. Up, then, Amakosas, and at this roaring, ravaging lion. Quarrel not among yourselves; the musket and the flint, and the powder and the bullet, are all good when used together; apart, what are they?

"Drive these greedy white men to the sea. The Boers are already treking towards those great solitudes where the sun rises; divide this glorious country among you, and make a place along the sh.o.r.e for white men to come and traffic, bringing you beads, and blankets, and knives, and brandy, and all those good things which white men love best, but which they tell you, when they preach, that G.o.d has no delight in, and forbids."

Lyle went on much further in this strain, standing up, and declaiming in a strange dialect with increasing spirit. The these Kafirs seated themselves at his feet, and listened attentively to his specious reasoning. He informed them that he was going among the Boers: that they too would make a stand for their rights; that there were more men like himself in the land intent on seeing justice done to all; and that if the Kafirs were overcame by numbers in the forthcoming onset, they had but to fall back to the sources of the white Kei, and mingle their war-cry with the thunder of the Storm mountains. There the Boers would answer them, and, ere long, the Zooluhs would echo it back, and bring their hosts to join them in the onslaught. The Zooluhs and the Amatembus, the Amapondas and the Amakosas, should be brothers; they came from the same father originally, they were brandies of the same tree.

The Zooluhs were worthy to be the brothers of the Amakosas, for they were brave. What a day it would be for Kafirland when they should chant the same war-song, when, the Fingoes should be their dogs again. The Fingoes, who, like the Zooluhs and Amakosas, had once been a great nation, but who had lost their name, had no longer a place to sit, and were fain to do the white man's bidding now, and work! Lyle laughed scornfully, and there was a low chuckle among the three Kafirs.

He pursued the theme skilfully, and if he did not persuade the three men to believe him implicitly, he succeeded in stirring up their hearts to join hopefully in the coming strife. In proof of his allegations against his countrymen, he reminded them of what a Kafir chief, who had visited England, had told them--how he had been brought before a council [the Committee of the House of Commons], and questioned, and how even women had stood up and pleaded that their land should be restored.

They were fully aware, too, of the difficulties which many a "cruel white Governor" had met with in trying to oppress those whom he was sent to protect--how strong had been the words of those who spoke in their favour. They, the Kafirs, had heard of and seen English papers. They could not read them, but they knew that, like the Kafir watch-fires, they were silent messengers. They had heard the teachers read from books. Who asked the teachers to come? What good did they do? They drew the people away from their chiefs: they would break up chieftains.h.i.+p in Kafirland.

The shades of evening were beginning to gather over the glen, and the sky above was like a spangled banner of deep blue. Lyle was determined to proceed that evening, and brought his speech to a close by bidding Zoonah take the mystic a.s.segai to Annerley, and having, when opportunity offered, cast it where it could not fail to be observed, warned him to note carefully, by means of household spies, the effect that would be produced on the whole family at the sight of the inscription on the blade. Lyle had already been in communication with Brennard regarding the present position and circ.u.mstances of the Daveney family, and Zoonah's information, gathered from various sources, confirmed him in the idea that the two young officers, now domesticated at Annerley, were, whether in earnest or not, on most agreeable terms with the whole family, especially with the younger ladies.

He knew every inch of ground about that settlement,--he could realise the whole scene;--he learned that the place had been made very defensible, and that a block-house was in progress. It was clear that the magistrate intended to hold out vigorously against all attacks; but there was much cattle, said Zoonah, most of which had been seized on commandoes, and the chiefs were outrageous at being deprived of their property, for Zoonah did not call it plunder.

Lyle knew his ground in thus sowing the seed of evil in a small way. A white man standing up, and venturing opinions among a tribe of Kafirs, would meet with argument from some, contradiction from others dissent from most, distrust from all; but these three men would soon be on different routes. Two were accredited scouts in Kafirland; wherever they went they were asked, "What news?" then they sat down, and "talked;" thus what he had said would spread gradually, but surely, and doubtless gain in importance.

He had already become popular at Umlala's Kraal; the trade in muskets, gunpowder, tobacco, and Cape brandy had been brisker under his guidance than it had ever been. He was an athletic man, a rider, a swimmer, a perfect marksman, and had once beat a Kafir in hurling the a.s.segai.

He was wont to respond cheerfully to the cry of "Baseila;" would join in the games even of the boy warriors--this was the very cla.s.s to conciliate; and with his fearless air, his reckless laugh, and withal a certain deferential manner to the chief, Lyle had contrived, to make himself much at home with the tribe: while poor Gray was looked upon with some distrust and much contempt; his step was slow, his whole air cast down and melancholy, and the women and the youths, had some suspicion of his pa.s.sion for Amayeka; but Lyle was his friend, outwardly, that was clear; and as the whole population must suffer by quarrelling with the traders, Gray's presence was endured. The children liked him, for however abstracted or dejected he might be, he had always a smile for them, and the mothers thanked him for this. The Kafir women love their children as long as the latter are helpless, but cast them aside when, they become adults, and able to live by their own exertions.

Lyle's authoritative manner had due weight with the three Kafirs; the ox was divided into portions, and each man took a goodly piece with him.

Lyle and Doda started ere the Southern Cross began to bend and tell the midnight hour had pa.s.sed. Zoonah and Lulu bent their course westward, and idling as they went, resting here and talking there, lurking about the settlements, and helping the Kafir women whom they met in their commissariat arrangements for the ensuing periods of strife; they separated in the Buffalo Mountains, Lulu to join the warriors in the Amatolas, Zoonah to keep watch in the Devil's Kloof.

You have seen the result of Lyle's plan. The herdsmen at Annerley, who fled into the wilderness at the sound of the war-cry, caught sight of Zoonah at sunrise next morning, when he was skimming along a distant ridge, and recognising him, by the feather at his ankle, to be a special messenger, waved their karosses. He waited for them; they had not deserted empty-handed. Two fine heifers were driven before them, and dropping into a neighbouring kloof on the shady side of a mountain, they all met together to hold a parley, and fare sumptuously on one of the slaughtered animals.

The detention in the "Sunless Kloof" was so far fortunate, that it prevented Lyle and Doda from encountering the young Dutch burghers bearing off. Amayeka, and, by a strange coincidence, Gray, in his uncertain route, pa.s.sed during the day within two miles of them; his course, however, lay more to the westward, for he no longer cared to conceal himself: but, as his ill-luck would have it, he was overtaken by his fellow-convict two days after, on the northern bank of the Kabousie River.

Weak from hunger, he had been obliged to keep to the more fruitful spots, and had subsisted on roots, Kei apples, and a little Kafir corn, gathered from deserted gardens. Utterly disheartened, he again yielded pa.s.sively to his fate, and told the tale of the events which had driven him forth as a wanderer again.

After this, the three pushed forward night after night, and in the course of a few days, the heavy clouds that had veiled the horizon cleared off, and they found themselves within a few hours' journey of the Stormberg Mountains.

Gray's narration of the events which had been the cause of his leaving Umlala's Kraal did not particularly move Lyle or Doda; if the latter had any suspicion of the deserter's regard for his daughter, he did not betray it. Until a Kafir is excited by incidents pa.s.sing before him, he never displays any decided emotion; hating Amani, he was more inclined to be enraged with him for his condemnation of Amayeka, than anxious for his daughter's fate. In the hands of white men, he felt certain enough of her safety to take the matter coolly, suggesting that he was now among the Boers in the Stormberg; and, under this impression, he tramped steadily on, staff in hand, and, with a loose a.s.segai, ready to bring down any game that might cross the path.

Lyle, on learning the destruction of the ammunition, congratulated himself on having settled all monetary transactions ere he started. The articles of barter exchanged by the Kafirs for the gunpowder were all well on their way to the Witches' Krantz, and the only point now on which he was ill at ease, was Gray's faint-heartedness, as he termed it.

"What would you do?" said Lyle, as, side by side, the two Englishmen followed Doda through the tangled pathways intersecting the small plains, covered with fine pasturage, and watered by numerous streams proceeding from the Stormberg,--"what would you do? declare yourself a runaway convict, a deserter from the Royal Artillery? My good fellow, you are the man the Boers want--they have got guns, as you know, but few to handle them--you will meet some old comrades, though, I have no doubt, up in those hills."

Then Gray spoke the first resolute words he had uttered for a long time.

"If," said he, "you think I will work a gun against my own countrymen, you are mistaken. You may call me fool, coward, if you will--I may be branded, shot as a deserter but I will not die a traitor!"

Lyle gave a long, low, contemptuous whistle, and then burst into a laugh. "What do you call a traitor?" he asked: "to my mind, he is a man who enlists in a good cause, and then, without rhyme or reason, or for some vicious purpose, turns against it. Why, they condemned me to transportation as a traitor, because I took the side of justice and the oppressed. It is more manly to fight for the weak than for the strong.

Talk of might against right in this country--I should like to know who are the rightful owners of it--why, those little nations, the bushmen.

As for justice, she may well be painted blind, for the strongest arm turns for scale, and she can't see to help herself. It is the same everywhere. We left the Government in England riding rough-shod over the poor starving devils, and when the worms began to turn, the law, as they call it, crushed them with its iron heel. The lion of England is a mighty fine fellow to boast of, but wherever he stalks, he leaves the traces of his b.l.o.o.d.y paws. They are beginning to find this out at home.

Home!--it is no home to us." Gray heaved a deep sigh. "They are getting sick of being taxed for those hired a.s.sa.s.sins, the soldiers. I was one of those to show the people what they were taxed for--to pay men for shooting them like dogs, if they complained of wrong. I did not conceal from them that I had been a soldier myself and I pointed out the slavery of such a condition. I was licenced to talk of what I had been.

I might have been pulled up and shown up, for I had got into a few sc.r.a.pes from want of money; but this would have dragged forward some respectable names, so justice was deaf, as well as blind, on this question, and Jasper Lee was only talked of as a Chartist leader. The real traitors to the cause were those who sat safely at their desks in dusty offices, and made promises which gained them popularity at the time, but which they never intended to perform. One wrote, 'If Jasper Lee leaves the B--D--dock in a felon's van, it shall be over a hurdle of Chartists' bodies.' Another, that if I 'did not walk a free man from my gaol--free by the verdict of a British jury--thousands of armed citizens were ready to fling back the defiance I should hurl from the felon's dock.' One party 'resolved,' that the vessel carrying off Jasper Lee, as a convict, should have to cleave its way through an ocean of Chartist blood,--'and,' shouted another from a platform at a hill-side meeting in one of the manufacturing districts, 'so long as I live, the manacle will not be forged that will encircle the heel, or the scissors that will cut a hair from the head of Jasper Lee, the felon.'

"I did not take all the epistles I received for gospel, but I did reckon on a rescue. The miserable mob, however, terrified at the sight of the soldiers, quailed before an unloaded gun; but at last they began to show fight with brickbats. There was barely time to read the Riot Act--ha, ha! how the old mayor's hand trembled that held it, when a charge of cavalry came down the street and drove the poor devils right and left.