“bang! boom!”
rock and frowning krantz rolled back the reverberations in swooping echo as the first seven-pounder spoke, launching its whistling shrapnel across the deep, thickly-bushed valley of the tsolo river. hardly had the echoes died away than the second gun spoke.
simultaneously with its roar, branches and stones were seen to split and fly, on the opposite hillside, some six hundred yards away. simultaneously, too, a deep-chested ejaculation of wonderment broke from the throats of more than double that number of human beings. but the mere handful of brown-clad, helmeted men stood calm and alert, feeling perhaps a little grim, as they marked the effect of the gun practice upon the ochre-smeared groups which dotted the hillside hard by. more and more kafirs came hurrying up from near and far, eager to witness the fun of what was to them an entirely new experience. for this was no battle, only a “demonstration” on the part of the frontier armed and mounted police, whose recently formed battery of artillery was delighted to have a chance of showing the turbulent inhabitants of the transkei what they might hope to expect in case of—accidents.
with each successful shot—and the new artillerymen were making wonderfully good practice—a gasp of admiring amazement ran through the entranced spectators like the breaking of a wave on the shore. these had increased till there could not have been less than a couple of thousand, reddening the slopes like a swarm of ants. they were not armed, except with sticks; and without his kerrie a kafir rarely moves. the police commandant had sent word to all the principal chiefs, inviting them to witness the gun drill, and some had accepted. besides the artillery, there were three full troops of mounted men.
tall and bearded, his stature and smart uniform and shining sword impressing the savages no less than his calm imperturbability of demeanour, the commandant stood, among three or four inspectors. two others made up the group, and these, old friends of ours—harley greenoak and his charge, dick selmes. a little way from these squatted a knot of chiefs and councillors, eagerly discussing, in a low hum, the effect of every shot. they were all old or elderly men, differing outwardly in no way from the commonest of their people. they wore the same red blanket, and some the massive ivory armlet. but the faces of all were remarkably shrewd and intelligent.
“well, greenoak, so you couldn’t induce old kreli to show up?” said the commandant, naming the great and paramount chief of all the transkeian, and also of the kafir tribes within the colonial border. “even you couldn’t manage that, eh?”
“not even me,” was the laconic reply.
“well, i never supposed you would. he’s got a long memory, and that warns him that it may be no safer for his father’s son within a white man’s camp than it was for his father before him.”
“why? what happened to his father, commandant?” eagerly struck in dick selmes, scenting a yarn.
“shot—‘while trying to escape.’”
“but wasn’t he trying to escape?” said dick, upon whom a certain significant cynicism of tone underlying this remark was not lost.
“i didn’t say he wasn’t, and history agrees that he was,” answered the commandant, drily. “but then, you see, kreli can’t read history, and wouldn’t believe it if he could. so he’d rather be excused coming to see the new police artillery make very fair gun practice, and i for one don’t blame him. why, there’s my old friend, botmane,” he broke off, as his glance rested on the group of potentates above mentioned. then to an orderly, “bring him here, harris, i must have a talk with him.”
“who’s he?” asked dick.
“one of kreli’s big amapakati, or councillors,” answered greenoak. “in fact the biggest.”
“oh!” and he looked with vivid interest as the kafir, an old man with a pleasant face, rose from his place in the group and strode forward, which interest deepened as he listened to the subsequent conversation. this he was able to do, as the commandant, though perfectly at home in the vernacular, chose, for reasons of his own, to use an interpreter. but the said conversation was of no political importance, being a mere exchange of compliments, with here and there a reminiscence. the old kafir expressed unbounded wonder at the gun practice. the white people could do anything—he declared, as he was shown the working of the guns—could kill men as far distant as anybody could see. “what was it done with?”
“show him the powder,” said the commandant.
this was done, and the old councillor dipped his fingers, not without awe, into the black, large-grained stuff. no wonder the guns could shoot so far with stuff like that, he remarked.
“give him a big handful to take borne and show his chief. he can tell him what he has seen to-day,” said the commandant.
most savages are more or less like children over the acquisition of a novelty, and now as old botmane rejoined his brother magnates the whole group of these craned eagerly forward to look at this mysterious and wonderful stuff which he held in the corner of his blanket, and many a deep-toned exclamation of suppressed excitement rose above the hum of animated discussion. the police looked on in semi-contemptuous amusement.
the practice was over now, and the swarms of red-ochred savages began to melt away; though a goodly proportion remained on the ground to discuss what they had seen. meanwhile, the police were mounting for their return march.
with them went harley greenoak and dick selmes. the bulk of the patrol would return across the kei to the colonial side, but a. troop would remain behind in camp to keep an eye on a particularly unreliable and turbulent chief named vunisa. the officer in command of this, inspector chambers, and greenoak were old friends, and it was arranged that the latter and his charge should camp with them for awhile.
at that time the transkei was in a state of simmer, and the same might be said of the tribes inhabiting british kaffraria. chiefs were known to be calling in their followers; and this was done by a system that worked with marvellous rapidity. at night mysterious beacons flashed answering messages to each other from this or that lofty hill-top, and it was known that war-dancing on a real scale was going on in this or that disaffected chief’s location; and notably in that of vunisa, situated in the gudhluka reserve. this vunisa was the chief over an important section of the gcaleka tribe.
in front of the officers’ mess hut in the a. troop camp, a group of four sat chatting.
“pity we can’t find out something more definite, greenoak,” inspector chambers was saying. “i believe i’d be justified in arresting vunisa on my own responsibility.”
harley greenoak laughed drily.
“don’t you do it, chambers. you’d stoke up the whole country then and there. even if you didn’t—what price the government? too much zeal isn’t encouraged in the police any more than in other departments, i take it.”
the inspector and his sub. laughed ironically.
“not much,” said the latter. “and these devils are war-dancing every night right bang under our noses. it’s genuine too, for i’ve seen it before, as you know.”
“by jove! i would like to see a real war-dance,” struck in dick selmes. “i say, inspector, couldn’t some of us go over some night and have a look in? why not to-night?”
“tired of life yet, selmes?” answered chambers, good-naturedly. “because if a few of us went to have a look in at it none of us would come back—in their present state of mind. if a lot—why, there’d be no war-dance.”
“bother!” said dick.
the conversation rolled on; then came dusk—then dinner. life in the open makes men drowsy. it was not long before the camp of a. troop—bar the sentries—was fast asleep.
the night was moonless, but the blue black of the unclouded sky was beautiful with its myriad golden stars, shining as they only can shine in southern skies. the loom of the hills was perceptibly defined, notably in one direction, where a faint glow brought into relief the v-shaped scarp of converging slopes, constituting, as it were, a portal to the country lying beyond. hence sounds were borne, distant but indescribably weird. but the police were accustomed to such by this time. there was war-dancing going on in the gudhluka reserve.
we said that the camp was fast asleep. dick selmes constituted an exception. lying on his blanket outside one of the huts—he preferred to sleep in the open for the sake of freshness—he was planning out an extraordinarily mad scheme. why should he not steal out, make his way over to vunisa’s location, and witness the fun? it would be a chance he might never get again. as for the risk, old chambers was probably exaggerating. even if he were discovered, they wouldn’t hurt one man all alone. he would just give them tobacco and tell them to go on with the programme; and, acting on this idea, he rose quietly and stole out of the camp.
“halt! who goes there?”
hang it! he had forgotten the confounded sentry.
“oh, it’s all right, old man,” he answered genially. “it’s only me, and i’m taking a walk. here, fill your pipe, i’ll be back soon,” putting a coin into the man’s hand.
trooper carter was not one of the best men in the force, and f.a.m. police pay was none too liberal in those days. the weight of a sovereign felt good.
“all right, sir. don’t be too long, though.”
