章节正文
above the clamour I heard a fierce word of command.
After that I fainted.
CHAPTER XII
CAPTAIN ARCOLL SENDS A MESSAGE
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 cruellybeaten 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 desperateheadache. 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 bodilyweakness
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
After that I fainted.
CHAPTER XII
CAPTAIN ARCOLL SENDS A MESSAGE
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 cruellybeaten 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 desperateheadache. 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 bodilyweakness
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
- fierce [fiəs]
a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词) - writer [´raitə] n.作者；作家 (初中英语单词)
- beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- multitude [´mʌltitju:d] n.大群(批)；众多 (初中英语单词)
- shaken [´ʃeikən] shake的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- keeper [´ki:pə] n.管理人；看守；保管人 (初中英语单词)
- coward [´kauəd] n.胆怯者 a.胆小的 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- firmly [´fə:mli] ad.坚固地，稳定地 (初中英语单词)
- rescue [´reskju:] vt.&n.救援；挽救 (初中英语单词)
- horror [´hɔrə] n.恐怖；战栗 (初中英语单词)
- desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
- execute [´eksikju:t] vt.执行；表演；演奏 (初中英语单词)
- insult [in´sʌlt, ´insʌlt] n.&vt.侮辱；损害 (初中英语单词)
- transport [træn´spɔ:t] n.运输；流放 (初中英语单词)
- column [´kɔləm] n.柱；柱状物；纵队 (初中英语单词)
- priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
- elephant [´elifənt] n.象 (初中英语单词)
- weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)
- frontier [´frʌntiə] n.国境；边疆；边界 (初中英语单词)
- wooden [´wudn] a.木制的；呆板的 (初中英语单词)
- hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
- despair [di´speə] vi.&n.绝望 (初中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- repetition [,repi´tiʃən] n.重复；背诵；复制品 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- collapse [kə´læps] vi.&n.崩溃；病倒；衰败 (高中英语单词)
- squeak [skwi:k] n.&vi.(发)尖叫(声) (高中英语单词)
- bridle [´braidl] n.(马)笼头；束缚 (高中英语单词)
- gloomy [´glu:mi] a.昏暗的；忧郁的 (高中英语单词)
- headache [´hedeik] n.头痛；使人头痛的事 (高中英语单词)
- ingredient [in´gri:diənt] n.(混合物的)成分 (高中英语单词)
- homage [´hɔmidʒ] n.敬意，尊敬 (高中英语单词)
- heroic [hi´rəuik] a.英雄的，英勇的 (高中英语单词)
- distract [di´strækt] vt.使分心 (高中英语单词)
- infantry [´infəntri] n.步兵(部队) (高中英语单词)
- disorder [dis´ɔ:də] n.杂乱 vt.扰乱 (高中英语单词)
- litter [´litə] n.杂乱 v.乱丢 (高中英语单词)
- solitude [´sɔlitju:d] n.孤独；寂寞；荒凉 (高中英语单词)
- regarding [ri´gɑ:diŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)
- cruelly [´kruəli] ad.残酷地；极，非常 (英语四级单词)
- uneven [ʌn´i:vən] a.崎岖的；不匀的 (英语四级单词)
- covenant [´kʌvənənt] n.盟约，契约 v.订盟约 (英语四级单词)
- bodily [´bɔdili] a.身体的 ad.亲自 (英语四级单词)
- wonderfully [´wʌndəfuli] ad.令人惊讶地；奇妙地 (英语四级单词)
- portuguese [,pɔ:tʃu´gi:z] a.葡萄牙的 n.葡萄牙人 (英语四级单词)
- discomfort [dis´kʌmfət] n.不适；不安；困难 (英语六级单词)
- beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)
- firewood [´faiəwud] n.柴，薪 (英语六级单词)
- beastly [´bi:stli] a.残忍的；卑鄙的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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