thus ended the first night's battle, since for this time the enemy hadfought enough. nodwengo and his men had also had enough, for out ofthe five thousand of them some eleven hundred were killed or wounded.
yet they might not rest, for all that night, assisted by the women,they laboured, building stone walls across the narrowest parts of thevalley. also the cattle, women and children were moved along thegorge, which in shape may be compared to a bottle with two necks, oneat either end, and encamped in the opening of the second neck, wherewas the spring of water. this spot was chosen both because here alonewater could be obtained, without which they could not hold out morethan a single day, and because the koppie whereon grew the strange-looking euphorbia known as the tree of doom afforded a natural rampartagainst attack.
shortly after dawn, while the soldiers were resting and eating of suchfood as could be procured--for the most part strips of raw or half-cooked meat cut from hastily killed cattle--the onslaught was renewedwith vigour, hafela directing his efforts to the forcing of thenatural archway. but, strive as he would, this he could not do, for itwas choked with stones and thorns and guarded by brave men.
"you do but waste your labour, hafela," said noma, who stood by himwatching the assault.
"what then is to be done?" he asked, "for unless we come at them wecannot kill them. it was clever of them to take refuge in this hole. ithought surely that they would fight it out yonder, beneath the fencesof the great place.""ah!" she answered, "you forgot that they had hokosa on their side.
did you then think to catch him sleeping? this retreat was hokosa'scounsel. i learned it from the lips of that wounded captain beforethey killed him. now, it seems that there are but two paths to follow,and you can choose between them. the one is to send a regiment a dayand a half's journey across the cliff top to guard the further mouthof the valley and to wait till these jackals starve in their hole, forcertainly they can never come out.""it has started six hours since," said hafela, "and though theprecipices are steep, having the moon to travel by, it should reachthe river mouth of the valley before dawn to-morrow, cutting nodwengooff from the plains, if indeed he should dare to venture out uponthem, which, with so small a force, he will not do. yet this firstplan of yours must fail, noma, seeing that before they starve within,the generals of nodwengo will be back upon us from the mountains,catching us between the hammer and the anvil, and i know not how thatfight would go.""yet, soon or late, it must be fought.""nay," he answered, "for my hope is that should the /impi/ return tofind nodwengo dead, they will surrender and acknowledge me as king,who am the first of the blood royal. but what is your second plan?"by way of answer, she pointed to the cliff above them. on the right-hand side, facing the archway, was a flat ledge overhanging thevalley, at a height of about a hundred feet.
"if you can come yonder," she said, "it will be easy to storm thisgate, for there lie rocks in plenty, and men cannot fight when stonesare dropping on their heads.""but how can we come to that home of vultures, where never man has seta foot? look, the cliff above is sheer; no rock-rabbit could standupon it."with her eye noma measured the distance from the brink of theprecipice to the broad ledge commanding the valley.
"sixty paces, not more," she said. "well, yonder are oxen in plenty,and out of their hides ropes can be made, and out of ropes a ladder,down which men may pass; ten, or even five, would be enough.""well thought of noma," said hafela. "hokosa told us last night thatto him had passed the wisdom of the messenger; but if this be so, ithink that to you has passed the guile of hokosa.""it seems to me that some of it abides with him," answered nomalaughing.
then the prince gave orders, and, with many workers of hides toilingat it, within two hours the ladder was ready, its staves, set twentyinches apart, being formed of knob-kerries, or the broken shafts ofstabbing spears. now they lowered it from the top of the precipice sothat its end rested upon the ledge, and down it came several men, whoswung upon its giddy length like spiders on a web. reaching this greatshelf in safety and advancing to the edge of it, these men started aboulder, which, although as it chanced it hurt no one, fell in themidst of a group of the defenders and bounded away through them.
"now we must be going," said hokosa, looking up, "for no man can fightagainst rocks, and our spears cannot reach those birds. had the armybeen taught the use of the bow, as i counselled in the past days, wemight still have held the archway; but they called it a woman'sweapon, and would have none of it."as he spoke another stone fell, crushing the life out of a man whostood next to him. then they retreated to the first wall, which hadbeen piled up during the night, where it was not possible to rollrocks upon them from the cliffs above. this wall, and others reared atintervals behind it, they set to work to strengthen as much as theycould, making the most of the time that was left to them before theenemy could clear the way and march on to attack.
presently hafela's men were through and sweeping down upon them with aroar, thinking to carry the wall at a single rush. but in this theyfailed; indeed, it as only after an hour's hard fighting and by theexpedient of continually attacking the work with fresh companies thatat length they stormed the wall.
when hokosa saw that he could no longer hold the place, but before thefoe was upon him, he drew off his soldiers to the second wall, aquarter of a mile or more away, and here the fight began again. and soit went on for hour after hour, as one by one the fortifications werecarried by the weight of numbers, for the attackers fought desperatelyunder the eye of their prince, caring nothing for the terrible lossthey suffered in men. twice the force of the defenders was changed byorder of nodwengo, fresh men being sent from the companies held inreserve to take the places of those who had borne the brunt of thebattle. this indeed it was necessary to do, seeing that it wasimpossible to carry water to so many, and in that burning valley mencould not fight for long athirst. only hokosa stayed on, for theybrought him drink in a gourd, and wherever the fray was fiercest therehe was always; nor although spears were rained upon him by hundreds,was he touched by one of them.
at length as the night fell the king's men were driven back from theirlast scherm in the western half of the valley, across the open spaceback upon the koppie where stood the tree of doom. here they stayed awhile till, overmatched and outworn, they were pushed from its rocksacross the narrow stretch of broken ground into the shelter of thegreat stone scherm or wall that ran from side to side of the furtherneck of the valley, whereon thousands of women and such men as couldbe spared had been working incessantly during the past night and day.
it was as he retreated among the last upon this wall that hokosacaught sight of noma for the first time since they parted in the houseof the messenger. in the forefront of his troops, directing theattack, was hafela the prince, and at his side stood noma, carrying inher hand a little shield and a spear. at this moment also she saw himand called aloud to him:--"you have fought well, wizard, but to-morrow all your magic shallavail you nothing, for it will be your last day upon this earth.""ay, noma," he answered, "and yours also."then of a sudden a company of the king's men rushed from the shelterof the wall upon the attackers driving them back to the koppie andkilling several, so that in the confusion and gathering darknesshokosa lost sight of her, though a man at his side declared that hesaw her fall beneath the thrust of an assegai. thus ended the secondday.
now when the watch had been set the king and his captains took counseltogether, for their hearts were heavy.
"listen," said nodwengo: "out of five thousand soldiers a thousandhave been killed and a thousand lie among us wounded. hark to thegroaning of them! also we have with us women and children and sick tothe number of twelve thousand, and between us and those who wouldbutcher them every one there stands but a single wall. nor is this theworst of it: the spring cannot supply the wants of so great amultitude in this hot place, and it is feared that presently the waterwill be done. what way shall we turn? if we surrender to hafela,perhaps he will spare the lives of the women and children; butwhatever he may promise, the most of us he will surely slay. if wefight and are defeated, then once his regiments are among us, all willbe slain according to the ancient custom of our people. i havebethought me that we might retreat through the valley, but the riverbeyond is in flood; also it is certain that before this multitudecould reach it, the prince will have sent a force to cut us off whilehe himself harasses our rear. now let him who has counsel speak.""king, i have counsel," said hokosa. "what were the words that themessenger spoke to us before he died? did he not say: 'even now theheathen is at your gates, and many of you shall perish on his spears;but i tell you that he shall not conquer'? did he not say: 'befaithful, cling to the cross, and do not dare to doubt your lord, forhe will protect you, and your children after you, and he will be yourcaptain and you shall be his people'? did he not bid you also tolisten to my counsel? then listen to it, for it is his: your caseseems desperate, but have no fear, and take no thought for the morrow,for all shall yet be well. let us now pray to him that the messengerhas revealed to us, and whom now he implores on our behalf in thatplace where he is to guide us and to save us, for then surely he willhearken to our prayer.""so be it," said nodwengo, and going out he stood upon a pillar ofstone in the moonlight and offered up his supplication in the hearingof the multitude.
meanwhile, those of the camp of hafela were also taking counsel. theyhad fought bravely indeed, and carried the schanses; but at greatcost, since for every man that nodwengo had lost, three of theirs hadfallen. moreover, they were in evil case with weariness and the wantof water, as each drop they drank must be carried to them from thegreat place in bags made of raw hide, which caused it to stink, forthey had but few gourds with them.
"now it is strange," said hafela, "that these men should fight sobravely, seeing that they are but a handful. there can be scarce threethousand of them left, and yet i doubt not that before we carry thoselast walls of theirs as many of us or more will be done. ay! and afterthey are done with, we must meet their great /impi/ when it returns,and of what will befall us then i scarcely like to think.""ill-fortune will befall you while hokosa lives," broke in noma. "hadit not been for him, this trouble would have been done with by now;but he is a wizard, and by his wizardries he defeats us and puts heartinto nodwengo and the warriors. you, yourself, have seen him this daydefying us, not once but many times, for upon his flesh steel has nopower. ay! and this is but the beginning of evil, for i am sure thathe leads you into some deep trap where you shall perish everlastingly.
did he not himself declare that the power of that dead white worker ofmiracles has fallen upon him, and who can fight against magic?""who, indeed?" said hafela humbly; for like all savages he was verysuperstitious, and, moreover, a sincere believer in hokosa'ssupernatural capacities. "this wizard is too strong for us; he isinvulnerable, and as i know well he can read the secret thoughts ofmen and can suck wisdom from the dead, while to his eyes the darknessis no blind.""nay, hafela," answered noma, "there is one crack in his shield. hearme: if we can but catch him and hold him fast we shall have no need tofear him more, and i think that i know how to bait the trap.""how will you bait it?" asked hafela.
"thus. midway between the koppie and the wall behind which lie the menof the king stands a flat rock, and all about that rock are stretchedthe bodies of dead soldiers. now, this is my plan: that when next oneof those dark storm-clouds passes over the face of the moon six of thestrongest of our warriors should creep upon their bellies down thisway and that, as though they were also numbered with the slain. thisdone, you shall despatch a herald to call in the ears of the king thatyou desire to treat with him of peace. then he will answer that ifthis be so you can come beneath the walls of his camp, and your heraldshall refuse, saying that you fear treachery. but he must add that ifnodwengo will bid hokosa to advance alone to the flat rock, you willbid me, noma, whom none can fear, to do likewise, and that there wecan talk in sight of both armies, and returning thence, make report toyou and to nodwengo. afterwards, so soon as hokosa has set his footupon the rock, those men who seem to be dead shall spring upon him anddrag him to our camp, where we can deal with him; for once the wizardis taken, the cause of nodwengo is lost.""a good pitfall," said the prince; "but will hokosa walk into thetrap?""i think so, hafela, for three reasons. he is altogether without fear;he will desire, if may be, to make peace on behalf of the king; and hehas this strange weakness, that he still loves me, and will scarcelysuffer an occasion of speaking with me to go past, although he hasdivorced me.""so be it," said the prince; "the game can be tried, and if it fails,why we lose nothing, whereas if it succeeds we gain hokosa, which ismuch; for with you i think that our arms will never prosper while thataccursed wizard sits yonder weaving his spells against us, andbringing our men to death by hundreds and by thousands."then he gave his orders, and presently, when a cloud passed over theface of the moon, six chosen men crept forward under the lee of theflat rock and threw themselves down here and there amongst the dead.
soon the cloud passed, and the herald advanced across the open spaceblowing a horn, and waving a branch in his hand to show that he cameupon a mission of peace.
