Chapter XII. Captain Arcoll Sends a Message

Prester John

by John Buchan

I once read - I think in some Latin writer - the story of a man
who was crushed to a jelly by the mere repeated touch of many
thousand hands. His murderers were not harsh, but an infinite
repetition of the gentlest handling meant death. I do not suppose
that I was very brutally manhandled in the cave. I was trussed up
tight and carried out to the open, and left in the care of the
guards. But when my senses returned I felt as if I had been cruelly
beaten in every part. The raw-hide bonds chafed my wrists and ankle
and shoulders, but they were the least part of my aches. To be
handled by a multitude of Kaffirs is like being shaken by some wild
animal. Their skins are insensible to pain, and I have seen a Zulu
stand on a piece of red-hot iron without noticing it till he was
warned by the smell of burning hide. Anyhow, after I had been bound
by Kaffir hands and tossed on Kaffir shoulders, I felt as if I had
been in a scrimmage of mad bulls. I found myself lying looking up at
the moon. It was the edge of the bush, and all around was the stir
of the army getting ready for the road. You know how a native
babbles and chatters over any work he has to do. It says much for
Laputa's iron hand that now everything was done in silence. I heard
the nickering of horses and the jolt of carts as they turned from the
bush into the path. There was the sound of hurried whispering, and
now and then a sharp command. And all the while I lay, staring at
the moon and wondering if I was going to keep my reason.

If he who reads this doubts the discomfort of bonds let him try
them for himself. Let him be bound foot and hand and left alone, and
in half an hour he will be screaming for release. The sense of
impotence is stifling, and I felt as if I were buried in some
landslip instead of lying under the open sky, with the night wind
fanning my face. I was in the second stage of panic, which is next
door to collapse. I tried to cry, but could only raise a squeak like
a bat. A wheel started to run round in my head, and, when I looked
at the moon, I saw that it was rotating in time. Things were very
bad with me. It was 'Mwanga who saved me from lunacy. He had been
appointed my keeper, and the first I knew of it was a violent kick in
the ribs. I rolled over on the grass down a short slope. The brute
squatted beside me, and prodded me with his gun- barrel.

'Ha, Baas,' he said in his queer English. 'Once you ordered me
out of your store and treated me like a dog. It is 'Mwanga's turn
now. You are 'Mwanga's dog, and he will skin you with a sjambok
soon.'

My wandering wits were coming back to me. I looked into his
bloodshot eyes and saw what I had to expect. The cheerful savage
went on to discuss just the kind of beating I should get from him.
My bones were to be uncovered till the lash curled round my heart.
Then the jackals would have the rest of me.

This was ordinary Kaffir brag, and it made me angry. But I
thought it best to go cannily.

,if I am to be your slave,' I managed to say, 'it would be a
pity to beat me so hard. You would get no more work out of me.'

'Mwanga grinned wickedly. 'You are my slave for a day and a
night. After that we kill you - slowly. You will burn till your
legs fall off and your knees are on the ground, and then you will be
chopped small with knives.'

Thank God, my courage and common sense were coming back to
me.

'What happens to me to-morrow,' I said, 'is the Inkulu's
business, not yours. I am his prisoner. But if you lift your hand
on me to-day so as to draw one drop of blood the Inkulu will make
short work of you. The vow is upon you, and if you break it you know
what happens.' And I repeated, in a fair imitation of the priest's
voice, the terrible curse he had pronounced in the cave.

You should have seen the change in that cur's face. I had
guessed he was a coward, as he was most certainly a bully, and now I
knew it. He shivered, and drew his hand over his eyes.

'Nay, Baas,' he pleaded, 'it was but a joke. No harm shall come
on you to-day. But tomorrow -' and his ugly face grew more
cheerful.

'To-morrow we shall see what we shall see,' I said stoically,
and a loud drum-beat sounded through the camp.

It was the signal for moving, for in the east a thin pale line
of gold was beginning to show over the trees. The bonds at my knees
and ankles were cut, and I was bundled on to the back of a horse.
Then my feet were strapped firmly below its belly. The bridle of my
beast was tied to 'Mwanga's, so that there was little chance of
escape even if I had been unshackled.

My thoughts were very gloomy. So far all had happened as I
planned, but I seemed to have lost my nerve, and I could not believe
in my rescue at the Letaba, while I thought of Inanda's Kraal with
sheer horror. Last night I had looked into the heart of darkness,
and the sight had terrified me. What part should I play in the great
purification? Most likely that of the Biblical scapegoat. But the
dolour of my mind was surpassed by the discomfort of my body. I was
broken with pains and weariness, and I had a desperate headache.
Also, before we had gone a mile, I began to think that I should split
in two. The paces of my beast were uneven, to say the best of it,
and the bump- bump was like being on the rack. I remembered that the
saints of the Covenant used to journey to prison this way, especially
the great Mr Peden, and I wondered how they liked it. When I hear of
a man doing a brave deed, I always want to discover whether at the
time he was well and comfortable in body. That, I am certain, is the
biggest ingredient in courage, and those who plan and execute great
deeds in bodily weakness have my homage as truly heroic. For myself,
I had not the spirit of a chicken as I jogged along at 'Mwanga's
side. I wished he would begin to insult me, if only to distract my
mind, but he kept obstinately silent. He was sulky, and I think
rather afraid of me.

As the sun got up I could see something of the host around me.
I am no hand at guessing numbers, but I should put the fighting men I
saw at not less than twenty thousand. Every man of them was on this
side his prime, and all were armed with good rifles and bandoliers.
There were none of your old roers* and decrepit Enfields, which I had
seen signs of in Kaffir kraals. These guns were new, serviceable
Mausers, and the men who bore them looked as if they knew how to
handle them. There must have been long months of training behind
this show, and I marvelled at the man who had organized it. I saw no
field-guns, and the little transport they had was evidently for food
only. We did not travel in ranks like an orthodox column. About a
third of the force was mounted, and this formed the centre. On each
wing the infantry straggled far afield, but there was method in their
disorder, for in the bush close ranks would have been impossible. At
any rate we kept wonderfully well together, and when we mounted a
knoll the whole army seemed to move in one piece. I was well in the
rear of the centre column, but from the crest of a slope I sometimes
got a view in front. I could see nothing of Laputa, who was probably
with the van, but in the very heart of the force I saw the old priest
of the Snake, with his treasure carried in the kind of litter which
the Portuguese call a machila, between rows of guards. A white man
rode beside him, whom I judged to be Henriques. Laputa trusted this
fellow, and I wondered why. I had not forgotten the look on his face
while he had stared at the rubies in the cave. I had a notion that
the Portugoose might be an unsuspected ally of mine, though for
blackguard reasons.

*Boer elephant guns.*

About ten o'clock, as far as I could judge by the sun, we passed
Umvelos', and took the right bank of the Labongo. There was nothing
in the store to loot, but it was overrun by Kaffirs, who carried off
the benches for firewood. It gave me an odd feeling to see the
remains of the meal at which I had entertained Laputa in the hands of
a dozen warriors. I thought of the long sunny days when I had sat by
my nachtmaal while the Dutch farmers rode in to trade. Now these men
were all dead, and I was on my way to the same bourne.

Soon the blue line of the Berg rose in the west, and through the
corner of my eye, as I rode, I could see the gap of the Klein
Labongo. I wondered if Arcoll and his men were up there watching us.
About this time I began to be so wretched in body that I ceased to
think of the future. I had had no food for seventeen hours, and I
was dropping from lack of sleep. The ache of my bones was so great
that I found myself crying like a baby. What between pain and
weakness and nervous exhaustion, I was almost at the end of my
tether, and should have fainted dead away if a halt had not been
called. But about midday, after we had crossed the track from
Blaauwildebeestefontein to the Portuguese frontier, we came to the
broad, shallow drift of the Klein Labongo. It is the way of the
Kaffirs to rest at noon, and on the other side of the drift we
encamped. I remember the smell of hot earth and clean water as my
horse scrambled up the bank. Then came the smell of wood-smoke as
fires were lit. It seemed an age after we stopped before my feet
were loosed and I was allowed to fall over on the ground. I lay like
a log where I fell, and was asleep in ten seconds. I awoke two hours
later much refreshed, and with a raging hunger. My ankles and knees
had been tied again, but the sleep had taken the worst stiffness out
of my joints. The natives were squatting in groups round their
fires, but no one came near me. I satisfied myself by straining at
my bonds that this solitude gave no chance of escape. I wanted food,
and I shouted on 'Mwanga, but he never came. Then I rolled over into
the shadow of a wacht-en-beetje bush to get out of the glare.

I saw a Kaffir on the other side of the bush who seemed to be
grinning at me. Slowly he moved round to my side, and stood
regarding me with interest.

'For God's sake get me some food,' I said.

'ja, Baas,' was the answer; and he disappeared for a minute, and
returned with a wooden bowl of hot mealie-meal porridge, and a
calabash full of water.

I could not use my hands, so he fed me with the blade of his
knife. Such porridge without salt or cream is beastly food, but my
hunger was so great that I could have eaten a vat of it.

Suddenly it appeared that the Kaffir had something to say to me.
As he fed me he began to speak in a low voice in English.

'Baas,' he said, 'I come from Ratitswan, and I have a message
for you.'

I guessed that Ratitswan was the native name for Arcoll. There
was no one else likely to send a message. 'Ratitswan says,' he went
on, "'Look out for Dupree's Drift." I will be near you and cut your
bonds; then you must swim across when Ratitswan begins to shoot.'

The news took all the weight of care from my mind. Colin had
got home, and my friends were out for rescue. So volatile is the
mood of 19 that I veered round from black despair to an unwarranted
optimism. I saw myself already safe, and Laputa's rising scattered.
I saw my hands on the treasure, and Henriques' ugly neck below my
heel.

'I don't know your name,' I said to the Kaffir, 'but you are a
good fellow. When I get out of this business I won't forget you.'

'There is another message, Baas,' he said. 'It is written on
paper in a strange tongue. Turn your head to the bush, and see, I
will hold it inside the bowl, that you may read it.'

I did as I was told, and found myself looking at a dirty half-
sheet of notepaper, marked by the Kaffir's thumbs. Some words were
written on it in Wardlaw's hand; and, characteristically, in Latin,
which was not a bad cipher. I read - 'Henricus de Letaba transeunda
apud Duprei vada jam nos certiores fecit.'*

*'Henriques has already told us about the crossing at
Dupree's Drift.'

I had guessed rightly. Henriques was a traitor to the cause he
had espoused. Arcoll's message had given me new heart, but Wardlaw's
gave me information of tremendous value. I repented that I had ever
underrated the schoolmaster's sense. He did not come out of Aberdeen
for nothing.

I asked the Kaffir how far it was to Dupree's Drift, and was
told three hours' march. We should get there after the darkening. It
seemed he had permission to ride with me instead of 'Mwanga, who had
no love for the job. How he managed this I do not know; but Arcoll's
men had their own ways of doing things. He undertook to set me free
when the first shot was fired at the ford. Meantime I bade him leave
me, to avert suspicion.

There is a story of one of King Arthur's knights - Sir Percival,
I think - that once, riding through a forest, he found a lion
fighting with a serpent. He drew his sword and helped the lion, for
he thought it was the more natural beast of the two. To me Laputa
was the lion, and Henriques the serpent; and though I had no good
will to either, I was determined to spoil the serpent's game. He was
after the rubies, as I had fancied; he had never been after anything
else. He had found out about Arcoll's preparations, and had sent him
a warning, hoping, no doubt, that, if Laputa's force was scattered on
the Letaba, he would have a chance of getting off with the necklace
in the confusion. If he succeeded, he would go over the Lebombo to
Mozambique, and whatever happened afterwards in the rising would be
no concern of Mr Henriques. I determined that he should fail; but how
to manage it I could not see. Had I had a pistol, I think I would
have shot him; but I had no weapon of any kind. I could not warn
Laputa, for that would seal my own fate, even if I were believed. It
was clear that Laputa must go to Dupree's Drift, for otherwise I
could not escape; and it was equally clear that I must find the means
of spoiling the Portugoose's game.

A shadow fell across the sunlight, and I looked up to see the
man I was thinking of standing before me. He had a cigarette in his
mouth, and his hands in the pockets of his riding- breeches. He
stood eyeing me with a curious smile on his face.

'Well, Mr Storekeeper,' he said, 'you and I have met before
under pleasanter circumstances.'

I said nothing, my mind being busy with what to do at the
drift.

'We were shipmates, if I am not mistaken,' he said. 'I dare say
you found it nicer work smoking on the after-deck than lying here in
the sun.'

Still I said nothing. If the man had come to mock me, he would
get no change out of David Crawfurd.

'Tut, tut, don't be sulky. You have no quarrel with me. Between
ourselves,' and he dropped his voice, 'I tried to save you; but you
had seen rather too much to be safe. What devil prompted you to
steal a horse and go to the cave? I don't blame you for overhearing
us; but if you had had the sense of a louse you would have gone off
to the Berg with your news. By the way, how did you manage it? A
cellar, I suppose. Our friend Laputa was a fool not to take better
precautions; but I must say you acted the drunkard pretty well.'

The vanity of 19 is an incalculable thing. I rose to the
fly.

'I know the kind of precaution you wanted to take,' I
muttered.

'You heard that too? Well, I confess I am in favour of doing a
job thoroughly when I take it up.'

'In the Koodoo Flats, for example,' I said.

He sat down beside me, and laughed softly. 'You heard my little
story? You are clever, Mr Storekeeper, but not quite clever enough.
What if I can act a part as well as yourself?' And he thrust his
yellow face close to mine.

I saw his meaning, and did not for a second believe him; but I
had the sense to temporize.

'Do you mean to say that you did not kill the Dutchmen, and did
not mean to knife me?'

'I mean to say that I am not a fool,' he said, lighting another
cigarette.

'I am a white man, Mr Storekeeper, and I play the white man's
game. Why do you think I am here? Simply because I was the only man
in Africa who had the pluck to get to the heart of this business. I
am here to dish Laputa, and by God I am going to do it.'

I was scarcely prepared for such incredible bluff. I knew every
word was a lie, but I wanted to hear more, for the man fascinated
me.

'I suppose you know what will happen to you,' he said, flicking
the ashes from his cigarette. 'To-morrow at Inanda's Kraal, when the
vow is over, they will give you a taste of Kaffir habits. Not death,
my friend - that would be simple enough - but a slow death with every
refinement of horror. You have broken into their sacred places, and
you will be sacrificed to Laputa's god. I have seen native torture
before, and his own mother would run away shrieking from a man who
had endured it.'

I said nothing, but the thought made my flesh creep.

'Well,' he went on, 'you're in an awkward plight, but I think I
can help you. What if I can save your life, Mr Storekeeper? You are
trussed up like a fowl, and can do nothing. I am the only man alive
who can help you. I am willing to do it, too - on my own terms.'

I did not wait to hear those terms, for I had a shrewd guess
what they would be. My hatred of Henriques rose and choked me. I
saw murder and trickery in his mean eyes and cruel mouth. I could
not, to be saved from the uttermost horror, have made myself his
ally.

'Now listen, Mr Portugoose,' I cried. 'You tell me you are a
spy. What if I shout that through the camp? There will be short
shrift for you if Laputa hears it.'

He laughed loudly. 'You are a bigger fool than I took you for.
Who would believe you, my friend. Not Laputa. Not any man in this
army. It would only mean tighter bonds for these long legs of
yours.'

By this time I had given up all thought of diplomacy. 'Very
well, you yellow-faced devil, you will hear my answer. I would not
take my freedom from you, though I were to be boiled alive. I know
you for a traitor to the white man's cause, a dirty I.D.B. swindler,
whose name is a byword among honest men. By your own confession you
are a traitor to this idiot rising. You murdered the Dutchmen and God
knows how many more, and you would fain have murdered me. I pray to
Heaven that the men whose cause you have betrayed and the men whose
cause you would betray may join to stamp the life out of you and send
your soul to hell. I know the game you would have me join in, and I
fling your offer in your face. But I tell you one thing - you are
damned yourself. The white men are out, and you will never get over
the Lebombo. From black or white you will get justice before many
hours, and your carcass will be left to rot in the bush. Get out of
my sight, you swine.'

In that moment I was so borne up in my passion that I forgot my
bonds and my grave danger. I was inspired like a prophet with a
sense of approaching retribution. Henriques heard me out; but his
smile changed to a scowl, and a flush rose on his sallow cheek.

'Stew in your own juice,' he said, and spat in my face. Then he
shouted in Kaffir that I had insulted him, and demanded that I should
be bound tighter and gagged.

It was Arcoll's messenger who answered his summons. That
admirable fellow rushed at me with a great appearance of savagery.
He made a pretence of swathing me up in fresh rawhide ropes, but his
knots were loose and the thing was a farce. He gagged me with what
looked like a piece of wood, but was in reality a chunk of dry
banana. And all the while, till Henriques was out of hearing, he
cursed me with a noble gift of tongues.

The drums beat for the advance, and once more I was hoisted on
my horse, while Arcoll's Kaffir tied my bridle to his own. A Kaffir
cannot wink, but he has a way of slanting his eyes which does as
well, and as we moved on he would turn his head to me with this
strange grimace.

Henriques wanted me to help him to get the rubies - that I
presumed was the offer he had meant to make. Well, thought I, I will
perish before the jewel reaches the Portuguese's hands. He hoped for
a stampede when Arcoll opposed the crossing of the river, and in the
confusion intended to steal the casket. My plan must be to get as
near the old priest as possible before we reached the ford. I spoke
to my warder and told him what I wanted. He nodded, and in the first
mile we managed to edge a good way forward. Several things came to
aid us. As I have said, we of the centre were not marching in close
ranks, but in a loose column, and often it was possible by taking a
short cut on rough ground to join the column some distance ahead.
There was a vlei, too, which many circumvented, but we swam, and this
helped our lead. In a couple of hours we were so near the priest's
litter that I could have easily tossed a cricket ball on the head of
Henriques who rode beside it.

Very soon the twilight of the winter day began to fall. The far
hills grew pink and mulberry in the sunset, and strange shadows stole
over the bush. Still creeping forward, we found ourselves not twenty
yards behind the litter, while far ahead I saw a broad, glimmering
space of water with a high woody bank beyond.

'Dupree's Drift;' whispered my warder. 'Courage, Inkoos;* in an
hour's time you will be free.'

*Great chief.