章节正文
of the flanks, who crossed with the water to their waists, and
their guns held high above their heads. They made a portentous
splashing, but not a sound came from their throats. I shall
never know how Laputa imposed silence on the most noisy
race on earth. Several thousand footmen must have followed
the riders, and disappeared into the far bush. But not a shot
came from the bluffs in front.
I watched with a sinking heart. Arcoll had failed, and there
was to be no check at the drift. There remained for me only
the horrors at Inanda's Kraal. I resolved to make a dash for
freedom, at all costs, and was in the act of telling Arcoll's man
to cut my bonds, when a thought occurred to me.
Henriques was after the rubies, and it was his interest to get
Laputa across the river before the attack began. It was Arcoll's
business to split the force, and above all to hold up the leader.
Henriques would tell him, and for that matter he must have
assumed himself, that Laputa would ride in the centre of the
force. Therefore there would be no check till the time came
for the priest's litter to cross.
It was well that I had not had my bonds cut. Henriques
came riding towards me, his face sharp and bright as a ferret's.
He pulled up and asked if I were safe. My Kaffir showed my
strapped elbows and feet, and tugged at the cords to prove
their tightness.
'Keep him well,' said Henriques, 'or you will answer to
Inkulu. Forward with him now and get him through the
water.' Then he turned and rode back.
My warder, apparently obeying orders, led me out of the
column and into the bush on the right hand. Soon we were
abreast of the litter and some twenty yards to the west of it.
The water gleamed through the trees a few paces in front. I
could see the masses of infantry converging on the drift, and
the churning like a cascade which they made in the passage.
Suddenly from the far bank came an order. It was Laputa's
voice, thin and high-pitched, as the Kaffir cries when he
wishes his words to carry a great distance. Henriques repeated
it, and the infantry halted. The riders of the column in front
of the litter began to move into the stream.
We should have gone with them, but instead we pulled our
horses back into the darkness of the bush. It seemed to me
that odd things were happening around the priest's litter.
Henriques had left it, and dashed past me so close that I could
have touched him. From somewhere among the trees a pistol-
shot cracked into the air.
As if in answer to a signal the high bluff across the stream
burst into a sheet of fire. 'A sheet of fire' sounds odd enough
for scientificwarfare. I saw that my friends were using shot-
guns and firing with black powder into the mob in the water.
It was humane and it was good tactics, for the flame in the
grey dusk had the appearance of a heavy battery of ordnance.
Once again I heard Henriques' voice. He was turning the
column to the right. He shouted to them to get into cover, and
take the water higher up. I thought, too, that from far away I
heard Laputa.
These were maddening seconds. We had left the business of
cutting my bonds almost too late. In the darkness of the bush
the strips of hide could only be felt for, and my Kaffir had a
woefully blunt knife. Reims are always tough to sever, and
mine had to be sawn through. Soon my arms were free, and I
was plucking at my other bonds. The worst were those on my
ankles below the horse's belly. The Kaffir fumbled away in the
dark, and pricked my beast so that he reared and struck out.
And all the while I was choking with impatience, and gabbling
prayers to myself.
The men on the other side had begun to use ball-cartridge.
I could see through a gap the centre of the river, and it was
filled with a mass of struggling men and horses'. I remember
that it amazed me that no shot was fired in return. Then I
remembered the vow, and was still more amazed at the power
of a ritual on that savage horde.
The column was moving past me to the right. It was a
disorderly rabble which obeyed Henriques' orders. Bullets
began to sing through the trees, and one rider was hit in the
shoulder and came down with a crash. This increased the
confusion, for most of them dismounted and tried to lead their
horses in the cover. The infantry coming in from the wings
collided with them, and there was a struggle of excited beasts
and men in the thickets of thorn and mopani. And still my
Kaffir was trying to get my ankles loose as fast as a plunging
horse would let him.
At last I was free, and dropped stiffly to the ground. I fell
prone on my face with cramp, and when I got up I rolled like
a drunk man. Here I made a great blunder. I should have left
my horse with my Kaffir, and bidden him follow me. But I
was too eager to be cautious, so I let it go, and crying to the
Kaffir to await me, I ran towards the litter.
Henriques had laid his plans well. The column had abandoned
the priest, and by the litter were only the two bearers.
As I caught sight of them one fell with a bullet in his chest.
The other, wild with fright, kept turning his head to every
quarter of the compass. Another bullet passed close to his
head. This was too much for him, and with a yell he ran away.
As I broke through the thicket I looked to the quarter
whence the bullets had come. These, I could have taken my
oath, were not fired by my friends on the farther bank. It was
close-quarter shooting, and I knew who had done it. But I saw
nobody. The last few yards of the road were clear, and only
out in the water was the struggling shouting mass of humanity.
I saw a tall man on a big horse plunge into the river on his way
back. It must be Laputa returning to command the panic.
My business was not with Laputa but with Henriques. The
old priest in the litter, who had been sleeping, had roused
himself, and was looking vacantly round him. He did not look
long. A third bullet, fired from a dozen yards away, drilled a
hole in his forehead. He fell back dead, and the ivory box,
which lay on his lap, tilted forward on the ground.
I had no weapon of any kind, and I did not want the fourth
bullet for myself. Henriques was too pretty a shot to trifle
with. I waited quietly on the edge of the shade till the
Portugoose came out of the thicket. I saw him running forward
with a rifle in his hand. A whinny from a horse told me that
somewhere near his beast was tied up. It was all but dark, but
it seemed to me that I could see the lust of greed in his eyes as
he rushed to the litter.
Very softly I stole behind him. He tore off the lid of the
box, and pulled out the great necklace. For a second it hung in
his hands, but only for a second. So absorbed was he that he
did not notice me standing full before him. Nay, he lifted his
head, and gave me the finest chance of my life. I was something
of a boxer, and all my accumulated fury went into the blow. It
caught him on the point of the chin, and his neck cricked like
the bolt of a rifle. He fell limply on the ground and the jewels
dropped from his hand.
I picked them up and stuffed them into my breeches pocket.
Then I pulled the pistol out of his belt. It was six-
chambered, and I knew that only three had been emptied. I
remembered feeling extraordinarily cool and composed, and
yet my wits must have been wandering or I would have never
taken the course I did.
The right thing to do - on Arcoll's instructions - was to
make for the river and swim across to my friends. But Laputa
was coming back, and I dreaded meeting him. Laputa seemed
to my heated fancy omnipresent. I thought of him as covering
the whole bank of the river, whereas I might easily have
crossed a little farther down, and made my way up the other
bank to my friends. It was plain that Laputa intended to evade
the patrol, not to capture it, and there, consequently, I should
be safe. The next best thing was to find Arcoll's Kaffir, who
was not twenty yards away, get some sort of horse, and break
for the bush. Long before morning we should have been over
the Berg and in safety. Nay, if I wanted a mount, there was
Henriques' whinnying a few paces off.
Instead I did the craziest thing of all. With the jewels in one
pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I started
running back the road we had come.
CHAPTER XIV
I CARRY THE COLLAR OF PRESTER JOHN
I ran till my breath grew short, for some kind of swift motion
I had to have or choke. The events of the last few minutes had
inflamed my brain. For the first time in my life I had seen men
die by violence - nay, by brutal murder. I had put my soul
into the blow which laid out Henriques, and I was still hot
with the pride of it. Also I had in my pocket the fetich of the
whole black world; I had taken their Ark of the Covenant,
and soon Laputa would be on my trail. Fear, pride, and a
blind exultation all throbbed in my veins. I must have run
three miles before I came to my sober senses.
I put my ear to the ground, but heard no sound of pursuit.
Laputa, I argued, would have enough to do for a little,
shepherding his flock over the water. He might surround and
capture the patrol, or he might evade it; the vow prevented
him from fighting it. On the whole I was clear that he would
ignore it and push on for the rendezvous. All this would take
time, and the business of the priest would have to wait. When
Henriques came to he would no doubt have a story to tell, and
the scouts would be on my trail. I wished I had shot the
Portugoose while I was at the business. It would have been no
murder, but a righteous execution.
Meanwhile I must get off the road. The sand had been
disturbed by an army, so there was little fear of my steps being
traced. Still it was only wise to leave the track which I would
be assumed to have taken, for Laputa would guess I had fled
back the way to Blaauwildebeestefontein. I turned into the
bush, which here was thin and sparse like whins on a common.
The Berg must be my goal. Once on the plateau I would be
inside the white man's lines. Down here in the plains I was in
the country of my enemies. Arcoll meant to fight on the
uplands when it came to fighting. The black man might rage
as he pleased in his own flats, but we stood to defend the gates
of the hills. Therefore over the Berg I must be before morning,
or there would be a dead man with no tales to tell.
I think that even at the start of that night's work I realized
the exceeding precariousness of my chances. Some twenty
miles of bush and swamp separated me from the foot of the
mountains. After that there was the climbing of them, for at
the point opposite where I now stood the Berg does not
descend sharply on the plain, but is broken into foot-hills
around the glens of the Klein Letaba and the Letsitela. From
the spot where these rivers emerge on the flats to the crown of
the plateau is ten miles at the shortest. I had a start of an hour
or so, but before dawn I had to traverse thirty miles of
unknown and difficult country. Behind me would follow the
best trackers in Africa, who knew every foot of the wilderness.
It was a wild hazard, but it was my only hope. At this time I
was feeling pretty courageous. For one thing I had Henriques'
pistol close to my leg, and for another I still thrilled with the
satisfaction of having smitten his face.
I took the rubies, and stowed them below my shirt and next
my skin. I remember taking stock of my equipment and
laughing at the humour of it. One of the heels was almost
twisted off my boots, and my shirt and breeches were old at
their guns held high above their heads. They made a portentous
splashing, but not a sound came from their throats. I shall
never know how Laputa imposed silence on the most noisy
race on earth. Several thousand footmen must have followed
the riders, and disappeared into the far bush. But not a shot
came from the bluffs in front.
I watched with a sinking heart. Arcoll had failed, and there
was to be no check at the drift. There remained for me only
the horrors at Inanda's Kraal. I resolved to make a dash for
freedom, at all costs, and was in the act of telling Arcoll's man
to cut my bonds, when a thought occurred to me.
Henriques was after the rubies, and it was his interest to get
Laputa across the river before the attack began. It was Arcoll's
business to split the force, and above all to hold up the leader.
Henriques would tell him, and for that matter he must have
assumed himself, that Laputa would ride in the centre of the
force. Therefore there would be no check till the time came
for the priest's litter to cross.
It was well that I had not had my bonds cut. Henriques
came riding towards me, his face sharp and bright as a ferret's.
He pulled up and asked if I were safe. My Kaffir showed my
strapped elbows and feet, and tugged at the cords to prove
their tightness.
'Keep him well,' said Henriques, 'or you will answer to
Inkulu. Forward with him now and get him through the
water.' Then he turned and rode back.
My warder, apparently obeying orders, led me out of the
column and into the bush on the right hand. Soon we were
abreast of the litter and some twenty yards to the west of it.
The water gleamed through the trees a few paces in front. I
could see the masses of infantry converging on the drift, and
the churning like a cascade which they made in the passage.
Suddenly from the far bank came an order. It was Laputa's
voice, thin and high-pitched, as the Kaffir cries when he
wishes his words to carry a great distance. Henriques repeated
it, and the infantry halted. The riders of the column in front
of the litter began to move into the stream.
We should have gone with them, but instead we pulled our
horses back into the darkness of the bush. It seemed to me
that odd things were happening around the priest's litter.
Henriques had left it, and dashed past me so close that I could
have touched him. From somewhere among the trees a pistol-
shot cracked into the air.
As if in answer to a signal the high bluff across the stream
burst into a sheet of fire. 'A sheet of fire' sounds odd enough
for scientificwarfare. I saw that my friends were using shot-
guns and firing with black powder into the mob in the water.
It was humane and it was good tactics, for the flame in the
grey dusk had the appearance of a heavy battery of ordnance.
Once again I heard Henriques' voice. He was turning the
column to the right. He shouted to them to get into cover, and
take the water higher up. I thought, too, that from far away I
heard Laputa.
These were maddening seconds. We had left the business of
cutting my bonds almost too late. In the darkness of the bush
the strips of hide could only be felt for, and my Kaffir had a
woefully blunt knife. Reims are always tough to sever, and
mine had to be sawn through. Soon my arms were free, and I
was plucking at my other bonds. The worst were those on my
ankles below the horse's belly. The Kaffir fumbled away in the
dark, and pricked my beast so that he reared and struck out.
And all the while I was choking with impatience, and gabbling
prayers to myself.
The men on the other side had begun to use ball-cartridge.
I could see through a gap the centre of the river, and it was
filled with a mass of struggling men and horses'. I remember
that it amazed me that no shot was fired in return. Then I
remembered the vow, and was still more amazed at the power
of a ritual on that savage horde.
The column was moving past me to the right. It was a
disorderly rabble which obeyed Henriques' orders. Bullets
began to sing through the trees, and one rider was hit in the
shoulder and came down with a crash. This increased the
confusion, for most of them dismounted and tried to lead their
horses in the cover. The infantry coming in from the wings
collided with them, and there was a struggle of excited beasts
and men in the thickets of thorn and mopani. And still my
Kaffir was trying to get my ankles loose as fast as a plunging
horse would let him.
At last I was free, and dropped stiffly to the ground. I fell
prone on my face with cramp, and when I got up I rolled like
a drunk man. Here I made a great blunder. I should have left
my horse with my Kaffir, and bidden him follow me. But I
was too eager to be cautious, so I let it go, and crying to the
Kaffir to await me, I ran towards the litter.
Henriques had laid his plans well. The column had abandoned
the priest, and by the litter were only the two bearers.
As I caught sight of them one fell with a bullet in his chest.
The other, wild with fright, kept turning his head to every
quarter of the compass. Another bullet passed close to his
head. This was too much for him, and with a yell he ran away.
As I broke through the thicket I looked to the quarter
whence the bullets had come. These, I could have taken my
oath, were not fired by my friends on the farther bank. It was
close-quarter shooting, and I knew who had done it. But I saw
nobody. The last few yards of the road were clear, and only
out in the water was the struggling shouting mass of humanity.
I saw a tall man on a big horse plunge into the river on his way
back. It must be Laputa returning to command the panic.
My business was not with Laputa but with Henriques. The
old priest in the litter, who had been sleeping, had roused
himself, and was looking vacantly round him. He did not look
long. A third bullet, fired from a dozen yards away, drilled a
hole in his forehead. He fell back dead, and the ivory box,
which lay on his lap, tilted forward on the ground.
I had no weapon of any kind, and I did not want the fourth
bullet for myself. Henriques was too pretty a shot to trifle
with. I waited quietly on the edge of the shade till the
Portugoose came out of the thicket. I saw him running forward
with a rifle in his hand. A whinny from a horse told me that
somewhere near his beast was tied up. It was all but dark, but
it seemed to me that I could see the lust of greed in his eyes as
he rushed to the litter.
Very softly I stole behind him. He tore off the lid of the
box, and pulled out the great necklace. For a second it hung in
his hands, but only for a second. So absorbed was he that he
did not notice me standing full before him. Nay, he lifted his
head, and gave me the finest chance of my life. I was something
of a boxer, and all my accumulated fury went into the blow. It
caught him on the point of the chin, and his neck cricked like
the bolt of a rifle. He fell limply on the ground and the jewels
dropped from his hand.
I picked them up and stuffed them into my breeches pocket.
Then I pulled the pistol out of his belt. It was six-
chambered, and I knew that only three had been emptied. I
remembered feeling extraordinarily cool and composed, and
yet my wits must have been wandering or I would have never
taken the course I did.
The right thing to do - on Arcoll's instructions - was to
make for the river and swim across to my friends. But Laputa
was coming back, and I dreaded meeting him. Laputa seemed
to my heated fancy omnipresent. I thought of him as covering
the whole bank of the river, whereas I might easily have
crossed a little farther down, and made my way up the other
bank to my friends. It was plain that Laputa intended to evade
the patrol, not to capture it, and there, consequently, I should
be safe. The next best thing was to find Arcoll's Kaffir, who
was not twenty yards away, get some sort of horse, and break
for the bush. Long before morning we should have been over
the Berg and in safety. Nay, if I wanted a mount, there was
Henriques' whinnying a few paces off.
Instead I did the craziest thing of all. With the jewels in one
pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I started
running back the road we had come.
CHAPTER XIV
I CARRY THE COLLAR OF PRESTER JOHN
I ran till my breath grew short, for some kind of swift motion
I had to have or choke. The events of the last few minutes had
inflamed my brain. For the first time in my life I had seen men
die by violence - nay, by brutal murder. I had put my soul
into the blow which laid out Henriques, and I was still hot
with the pride of it. Also I had in my pocket the fetich of the
whole black world; I had taken their Ark of the Covenant,
and soon Laputa would be on my trail. Fear, pride, and a
blind exultation all throbbed in my veins. I must have run
three miles before I came to my sober senses.
I put my ear to the ground, but heard no sound of pursuit.
Laputa, I argued, would have enough to do for a little,
shepherding his flock over the water. He might surround and
capture the patrol, or he might evade it; the vow prevented
him from fighting it. On the whole I was clear that he would
ignore it and push on for the rendezvous. All this would take
time, and the business of the priest would have to wait. When
Henriques came to he would no doubt have a story to tell, and
the scouts would be on my trail. I wished I had shot the
Portugoose while I was at the business. It would have been no
murder, but a righteous execution.
Meanwhile I must get off the road. The sand had been
disturbed by an army, so there was little fear of my steps being
traced. Still it was only wise to leave the track which I would
be assumed to have taken, for Laputa would guess I had fled
back the way to Blaauwildebeestefontein. I turned into the
bush, which here was thin and sparse like whins on a common.
The Berg must be my goal. Once on the plateau I would be
inside the white man's lines. Down here in the plains I was in
the country of my enemies. Arcoll meant to fight on the
uplands when it came to fighting. The black man might rage
as he pleased in his own flats, but we stood to defend the gates
of the hills. Therefore over the Berg I must be before morning,
or there would be a dead man with no tales to tell.
I think that even at the start of that night's work I realized
the exceeding precariousness of my chances. Some twenty
miles of bush and swamp separated me from the foot of the
mountains. After that there was the climbing of them, for at
the point opposite where I now stood the Berg does not
descend sharply on the plain, but is broken into foot-hills
around the glens of the Klein Letaba and the Letsitela. From
the spot where these rivers emerge on the flats to the crown of
the plateau is ten miles at the shortest. I had a start of an hour
or so, but before dawn I had to traverse thirty miles of
unknown and difficult country. Behind me would follow the
best trackers in Africa, who knew every foot of the wilderness.
It was a wild hazard, but it was my only hope. At this time I
was feeling pretty courageous. For one thing I had Henriques'
pistol close to my leg, and for another I still thrilled with the
satisfaction of having smitten his face.
I took the rubies, and stowed them below my shirt and next
my skin. I remember taking stock of my equipment and
laughing at the humour of it. One of the heels was almost
twisted off my boots, and my shirt and breeches were old at
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:]
ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词) - column [´kɔləm] n.柱；柱状物；纵队 (初中英语单词)
- scientific [,saiən´tifik] a.科学(上)的 (初中英语单词)
- savage [´sævidʒ] a.野蛮的 n.蛮人 (初中英语单词)
- priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
- bullet [´bulit] n.子弹 (初中英语单词)
- fright [frait] n.惊吓；恐怖；怪人 (初中英语单词)
- compass [´kʌmpəs] n.指南针；圆规 (初中英语单词)
- plunge [plʌndʒ] v.插进 n.投入；冲击 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- forehead [´fɔrid] n.额，前部 (初中英语单词)
- weapon [´wepən] n.武器；斗争手段 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- pistol [´pistl] n.手枪 vt.用手枪射击 (初中英语单词)
- whereas [weər´æz] conj.鉴于；因此；而 (初中英语单词)
- capture [´kæptʃə] vt.&n.捕获；俘获；夺取 (初中英语单词)
- collar [´kɔlə] n.衣领；(狗等的)项圈 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- violence [´vaiələns] n.猛烈；暴力(行) (初中英语单词)
- sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
- emerge [i´mə:dʒ] vi.出现；显露；暴露 (初中英语单词)
- equipment [i´kwipmənt] n.装备，设备 (初中英语单词)
- humour [´hju:mə] n.幽默，诙谐 (初中英语单词)
- litter [´litə] n.杂乱 v.乱丢 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- infantry [´infəntri] n.步兵(部队) (高中英语单词)
- warfare [´wɔ:feə] n.战争；斗争；竞争 (高中英语单词)
- battery [´bætəri] n.炮兵连；炮台；电池 (高中英语单词)
- stiffly [´stifli] ad.硬；顽固地 (高中英语单词)
- blunder [´blʌndə] n.&v.(犯)大错；疏忽 (高中英语单词)
- thicket [´θikit] n.灌木丛；密集的东西 (高中英语单词)
- consequently [´kɔnsikwəntli] ad.因此，所以 (高中英语单词)
- plateau [´plætəu] n.高原；平稳；托盘 (高中英语单词)
- traverse [´trævə:s] vt.横越，穿过 (高中英语单词)
- hazard [´hæzəd] n.危险 vt.冒...险 (高中英语单词)
- resolved [ri´zɔlvd] a.决心的；坚定的 (英语四级单词)
- cascade [kæ´skeid] n.小瀑布；喷流 (英语四级单词)
- happening [´hæpəniŋ] n.事件，偶然发生的事 (英语四级单词)
- tactics [´tæktiks] n.策略；战术 (英语四级单词)
- impatience [im´peiʃəns] n.不耐烦，急躁 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- cautious [´kɔ:ʃəs] a.小心的；谨慎的 (英语四级单词)
- necklace [´neklis] n.项链 (英语四级单词)
- breeches [´britʃiz] n.裤子；马裤 (英语四级单词)
- composed [kəm´pəuzd] a.镇静自若的 (英语四级单词)
- patrol [pə´trəul] n.巡逻 v.巡逻(查) (英语四级单词)
- brutal [´bru:tl] a.兽性的；残暴的 (英语四级单词)
- righteous [´raitʃəs] a.正直的；正当的 (英语四级单词)
- exceeding [ik´si:diŋ] a.超越的，非常的 (英语四级单词)
- courageous [kə´reidʒəs] a.勇敢的；无畏的 (英语四级单词)
- cracked [krækt] a.有裂缝的；碎的；粗哑 (英语六级单词)
- humane [hju:´mein] a.有人情的，高尚的 (英语六级单词)
- ritual [´ritʃuəl] n.典礼；礼节 a.典礼的 (英语六级单词)
- extraordinarily [ik´strɔ:dənərili] ad.非常，特别地 (英语六级单词)
- exultation [egzʌl´teiʃən] n.欢腾，狂欢 (英语六级单词)
- smitten [´smitn] smite的过去分词 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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