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Dead Man's Land: Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 7. 'Mak' Is Sent In |
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_ CHAPTER SEVEN. 'MAK' IS SENT IN The barracks of Illakaree did not form an attractive object in the lovely landscape surrounded by hills, in and out amongst which the Reptile River ran, for a building hastily raised of corrugated iron never was and never will be beautiful. "I say ugly," said Mark to his cousin, "but all the same I should like to be inside one when there was a bad hailstorm. My word, what a shindy there would be with the big stones--lumps of ice, I suppose, they would be in a place like this--hammering down upon the zinc roof." "The soldiers look cheery enough." "And healthy," said the doctor. "Thoroughly," said Sir James. "It is a pity they cannot make arrangements down at the port to give their men a holiday up here." They were close up to the captain's quarters, and he, catching sight of the party, came out hastily to shake hands. "Well," he said, in a light cheery way, "what can I do for you? How are you getting on?" "Excellently," said the doctor, "thanks to you. We have secured the ponies, two waggons, and two span of oxen with their drivers." "That's right. Have you got your forelopers too." "Not yet, but I suppose there will be no difficulty about them." "Not the slightest. We generally have one or two black fellows eager to get a job with someone going up country. I will undertake to find them. The oxen are all right, for I have seen them. You couldn't have had a better lot, and you are quite right too over the ponies. Now, is there anything else I can do?" Before the doctor could speak, the frank, good looking young captain turned to the boys. "Nice lucky pair of young dogs you are--going on a natural history and hunting trip like this! What wouldn't I give to come with you!" "Well, come, then," said Sir James. "I should be delighted to strengthen our party with such a companion. You know a good deal about the country, don't you?" "Well--yes. I have had two or three little excursions in the direction you are going through the great forests and away on to where the old stones are said to be, Dr Robertson," continued the speaker, turning to that visitor. "But I understood you to say that you had never seen them." "No; I had to turn back, for my leave had nearly expired, and I came away with the belief that there were no ruins, and that those who had reported about them had seen nothing but some of the castle-like kopjes that look sometimes at a distance like built fortresses of huge granite stones. Still I have heard on the other hand that there are such ruins, and that after their fashion the black tribes keep it a secret and look upon the spot as a sort of Mecca--a sacred place which it is dangerous to approach and which they will not allow the white man to come near for fear he should be hurt, and from fear on their own part of the old bogeys which haunt the ruins. I don't answer for this. It may be all talk, and if I had time there is nothing I should like to do better than to prove it." "Then you think there is risk in going there." "No," said the captain, "I really do not. If there were I don't think that the guide would be so ready to undertake his task." "But the ruins may exist," said the doctor; and the boys listened with their ears wide open or well on the gape for news. "Certainly; there is plenty of room," said the captain, laughing; "and the black fellow I told you about, as far as I can make out from his jumble of the Ulaka language and broken English, declares that he has seen them--big stone kraals, he calls them." "Well, why can't you come with us to see?" said the doctor. "It is bound to be very interesting." "Awfully," said the captain, "and there must be plenty of good sport out there. I'll vouch for that." "What shall we get?" asked Mark eagerly. "Lions," said the captain, smiling--"plenty of them. Do you like lion shooting?" "How can I?" said Mark testily. "How could I? I never shot anything bigger than a pheasant in my life. You are laughing at me." "Oh, no," said the captain, patting him on the shoulder; "and I daresay next time we meet you will have bagged one or more, and have the skins to show me. Then you will get leopards, which by all means shoot, for they are very mischievous. You will find plenty of hippos in the river, and crocs too. That's why they call it Reptile River; and if you go on far enough, as you ought to if you have plenty of time, you may get a shot or two at giraffes. Ah, and as I say if you go on far enough you may run against okapis." "O--what, sir?" cried the boys eagerly. "Oh, a curious new animal that they are reporting. They say it looks half way between a giraffe and a zebra, and it's found in the great central forests. Ah, boys, you have got a fine time before you, and as I said before, I envy you both." "Then why not think better of Sir James's invitation?" said the doctor. "I am sure you would be able to assist us wonderfully. Say you will come." "Can't," said the captain firmly. "Duty. The people about here are very peaceable now, but they may break out at any time; and suppose there was an _emeute_ amongst these blacks while I was away shooting. I thank you, Sir James, most heartily, but it is impossible. You will have a capital guide, though, who will show you the way far better than I could." "Yes, the guide," said Mark hastily. "That's why we have come up this morning." "Well, you couldn't have come at a better time," said the officer. "He has been far away, for some reason best known to himself, but he marched into camp last evening, looking as if he were monarch of all he surveyed." "Then that's the man we saw!" cried Dean excitedly. "Tall, black, fine-looking fellow, well built, and a savage chief every inch of him?" "Yes," said Mark eagerly; "and hardly any clothes." "That's the man. There, I will send one of my men to fetch him here;" and stepping to the window he called to the sentry on duty to pass the word for someone to hunt out Mak and bring him there. "Mak!" said the doctor, laughing. "What, have you got Scotch blacks here?" "Oh, no. We call him Mak because he is like one of the Makalaka. Properly he belongs to a great tribe called the Ulakas, who used at one time to occupy the kopjes about here. I suppose that is why this place has come to be known as Illakaree." Only a few minutes later the tall, stately-looking black of the preceding evening was seen crossing the barrack enclosure, carrying his spear over his shoulder and looking down with a sort of contempt at the young bugler by his side, to which the boy retorted by looking up as contemptuously at the stalwart black, thinking of him as a naked nigger. "Now I don't wish to interfere," said the captain. "I only want to be of service to you gentlemen out in this wild place, if I can. It is no presumption to say, I suppose, that you can't understand the Illaka dialect?" "Certainly not," said the doctor. "I daresay I could get on if the man addressed me in ancient Greek." "Which he will not do," said the captain, laughing. "He will say very little, and what he does say will consist of the most curious jumble of English that ever man gave utterance to. So will you trust me to make terms with him as to what he is to do and what he is to be paid? I purpose offering him the same terms as were given to him by his last employers. He wants very little--and no current coin. A good knife or two and some brass rings will satisfy him. And as to his work that he is to do for you, I tell you frankly that he will not do a stroke, but he will tramp with you upon hunting expeditions till he will tire you out; he will be as keen-scented as a dog, a splendid tracker of every kind of wild beast, and if needs be he will fight for you bravely to the death." "Well, you couldn't give him a better character," said the doctor, "for our purpose. But what bad qualities have you to put against this?" "Oh, he is a very wolf at eating." "Well, it's only fair that he should be," said Mark, "if he hunts for and finds the meat." "I quite agree with you," said the captain. "Then let me see; I did tell you that he won't do a stroke of work. He is too great a swell-- for he really is a chief, and was beaten by a stronger party and had to retreat for his life." "But I say," said Mark, "how are we going to get on with him if he is going to carry on in that stuck-up, haughty way?" "Oh, that's nothing," said the captain, laughing. "He puts that on when he comes into camp, to show his contempt for my men. A few of the larky spirits teased him a bit some time ago, and he wouldn't stand it. But I have seen a good deal of him, and he likes me because I wigged the men and gave them to understand before him that I would have none of that nonsense. Why, when he is away out in the forest or veldt with a hunting party--and people treat him well--he is like a merry boy, a regular child of nature. But treat him with contempt, and it raises his bile directly. We are too fond of treating these natives as niggers, but some of them are fine fellows, and as brave as lions--Pooh! Nonsense! As brave as men can be. Yes," he continued, as an orderly appeared, "send in Mak." The fine-looking black stepped in, to stand in dignified silence, looking keenly round at the party, while the captain spoke to him in broken English which sounded somewhat like that of a weak old nurse prattling to a child, and in answer to which the black responded with the single word, "Good." "There," said the captain, "I have explained everything to him, gentlemen, and his word 'Good' means that he will serve you faithfully, and show you plenty of game, to find which he will take you to the mineral forest where the trees are so high that it is nearly always twilight, and after that guide you on to the great city where the old people lived, and show you the mighty stones with which they built. That's all, gentlemen. Metaphorically signed and sealed and witnessed by your humble servant, Frank Lawton, of Her Majesty's 200th Light Infantry." "Thank you," said the doctor. "I never knew there was so much in the one word good before." Mark glanced at the black, who had been listening intently to the doctor, and catching the boy's movement he fixed him with his eyes so that they two were for some moments apparently trying to read each other's thoughts. "Well, you look all right," said the boy to himself, and his frank, open countenance expanded into a pleasant smile. At this the haughty face before him changed suddenly, as if so much natural sunshine had flashed out, and stepping up to the boy he turned his spear upside down so that the point of the keen, leaf-like blade rested on the plain boarded floor of the captain's room, and bending forward he laid the back of his right hand upon Mark's breast. "Baas," he said, in a deep musical voice; and then moving slowly and with dignity he passed round to each, to repeat the action and the word, his eyes beaming upon everyone in turn, and then finishing off by uttering once more the one word, "Good." He then glanced at the captain and asked him some question, to which the captain nodded. The next minute he had glided bare-footed and silent out of the room, while as the party watched they saw him march haughtily past the window and away across the barrack yard. "There, gentlemen, that's settled, then," said the captain. "Settled?" said Sir James. "But I ought to give him what the country people call a fastening penny, ought I not?" "Oh, no, nothing of the kind." "But about finding him when we want to start? For I want to get away from here as soon as possible." "You will not have to find him," said the captain, laughing. "He will find you. You may see him hanging about, or you may not. But you may depend upon one thing, that from henceforth he will be like your shadow. Oh, but one word," the captain added. "Your men seem quiet, respectable fellows, but it might be advisable for you to say a few words to them about their treatment of your guide. You know what I mean--about their looking upon him as a nigger. I don't think you need speak to Buck Denham, the big bullock driver, nor to the Hottentot. There." Sir James and the doctor offered plenty of words of thanks, at which the captain laughed. "My dear sirs," he said, "not a word more. Put yourselves in my place and suppose I came up country as you did. Wouldn't you have been as pleased as I and our mess are to meet a brother Englishman so far away from home? So not a word more but these: If ever I can serve you in any way, here I am, and you know my name. There, boys, we will see you off when you start, and fire a salute, just as if we had had a visit from the Prince." _ |
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