'Tween Snow and Fire by Bertram Mitford (world best books to read txt) đ
- Author: Bertram Mitford
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Kind regards to Mrs Carhayesâand keep this from her at present.
Yours ever, Percy F. Hoste.
Carefully Eustace read through every word of this communication; then, beginning again, he read it through a second time.
âThis requires some thinking out,â he said to himself. Then taking up the letter he went out in search of some retired spot where it would be absolutely impossible that he should be interrupted.
Wandering mechanically he found himself on the very spot where they had investigated the silver box together. That would do. No one would think of looking for him there.
He took out the letter and again studied every word of it carefully. There was no getting behind its contents: they were too plain in their fatal simplicity. And there was an inherent probability about the potentiality hinted at. He would certainly start at once to investigate the affair. Better to know the worst at any rate. And then how heartily he cursed the Kafirâs obtrusive gratitude, wishing a thousand-fold that he had left that sable bird of ill-omen at the mercy of his chastisers. However, if there was any truth in the story, it was bound to have come to light sooner or later in any caseâperhaps better now, before the mischief wrought was irreparable. But if it should turn out to be trueâwhat then? Good-bye to this beautiful and idyllic dream in which they two had been living during all these months past. Good-bye to a lifeâs happiness: to the bright golden vista they had been gazing into together. Why had he not closed with Hlanganiâs hideous proposal long ago? Was it too late even now?
The man suffered agonies as he sat there, realising his shattered hopesâthe fair and priceless structure of his lifeâs happiness levelled to the earth like a house of cards. Like Lucifer fallen from Paradise he felt ready for anything.
Great was Eanswythâs consternation and astonishment when he announced the necessity of making a start that afternoon.
âThe time will soon pass,â he said. âIt is a horrible nuisance, darling, but there is no help for it. The thing is too important. The fact is, something has come to lightâsomething which may settle that delayed administration business at once.â
It might, indeed, but in a way very different to that which he intended to convey. But she was satisfied.
âDo not remain away from me a moment longer than you can help, Eustace, my life!â she had whispered to him during the last farewell, she having walked a few hundred yards with him in order to see the last of him. âRemember, I shall only existânot liveâduring these next few days. This is the first time you have been away from me sinceâsince that awful time.â
Then had come the sweet, clinging, agonising tenderness of parting. Eanswyth, having watched him out of sight, returned slowly to the house, while he, starting upon his strange venture, was thinking in the bitterness of his soul howâwhenâthey would meet again. His heart was heavy with a sense of coming evil, and as he rode along his thoughts would recur again and again to the apparition which had so terrified Eanswyth a few nights ago. Was it the product of a hallucination on her part after all, or was it the manifestation of some strange and dual phase of Nature, warning of the ill that was to come? He felt almost inclined to admit the latter.
âYou ought to consider yourself uncommonly fortunate, Milne,â said Hoste, as the two men drew near Antaâs Kloof. âYou are the only one of the lot of us not burnt out.â
âThatâs a good deal thanks to Josane,â replied Eustace, as the house came into sight. âHe thought he could manage to save it. I didnât. But he was right.â
âHa-ha! I believe the old scamp has been enjoying himself all this time with the rebels. I dare say he has been helping to do the faggot trick.â
âQuite likely.â
Hoste eyed his companion with a curious glance. The latter had been rather laconic during their ride; otherwise he seemed to show no very great interest one way or another in the object of it. Yet there was reason for believing that if Xalasaâs tale should prove true it would make every difference to the whole of Eustace Milneâs future life.
The sun was just setting as they reached Antaâs Kloof. The Kafir had stipulated that they should meet him at night. He did not want to incur potential pains and penalties at the hands of his compatriots as an âinformerâ if he could possibly help it. The house, as Hoste had said, was the only one in the whole neighbourhood which had escaped the torch, but that was all that could be said, for it was completely gutted. Everything portable had been carried off, if likely to prove of any use to the marauders, what was not likely so to prove being smashed or otherwise destroyed. Windows were broken and doors hung loose on their hinges; in fact, the place was a perfect wreck. Still it was something that the fabric would not need rebuilding.
Hardly had they off-saddled their horses, and, knee-haltering them close, turned them out to graze around the house, than the night fell.
âXalasa should be here by now,â remarked Hoste, rather anxiously. âUnless he has thought better of it. I always expected we should learn something more about poor Tom when the war was over. Kafirs will talk. Not that I ever expected to hear that he was alive, poor chapâif he is, thatâs to say. But what had been the actual method of his death: that was bound to leak out sooner or later.â
Eustace made no reply. The remark irritated him, if only that his companion had made it, in one form or another, at least half a dozen times already. Then the sound of a light footstep was heard, and a tall, dark figure stood before them in the gloom, with a muttered salutation.
âGreeting, Xalasa!â said Eustace, handing the new arrival a large piece of Boer tobacco. âWe will smoke while we talk. The taste of the fragrant plant is to conversation even as the oil unto the axles of a heavily laden waggon.â
The Kafir promptly filled his pipe. The two white men did likewise.
âHave you been in the war, Xalasa?â went on Eustace, when the pipes were in full blast. âYou need not be afraid of saying anything to us. We are not Government people.â
âAu!â said the Gaika, with a quizzical grin upon his massive countenance. âI am a âloyal,â Ixeshane.â
âThe chiefs of the Ama Ngqika, Sandili and the rest of them, have acted like children,â replied Eustace, with apparent irrelevance. âThey have allowed themselves to be dragged into war at the âwordâ of Kreli, and against the advice of their real friends, and where are they now? In prison, with a lot of thieves and common criminals, threatened with the death of a dog!â
The Kafir uttered an emphatic murmur of assent. Hoste, who was excusably wondering what the deuce the recent bad behaviour, and eventual fate of Sandili and Co., had to do with that of Tom Carhayes, could hardly restrain his impatience. But Eustace knew what he was about. The Briton may, as he delights to boast, prefer plain and straightforward talking in matters of importanceâor he may not. The savage, of whatever race or clime, unequivocally does not. He dearly loves what we should call beating around the bush. However important the subject under discussion, it must be led up to. To dash straight at the point is not his way. So after some further talk on the prospects and politics of the Gaika nation, and of the Amaxosa race in generalâpast, present, and to comeâEustace went on:
âYou were not always a âloyal,â Xalasa?â
âWhau!â cried the man, bringing his hand to his mouth, in expressive native fashion. âWhen the fire trumpet first sounded in the midnight sky, I answered its call. While the chiefs of the Ama Ngqika yet sat still, many of their children went forth to war at the âwordâ of the Paramount Chief. Many of us crossed into the GcalĂ©ka country and fought at the side of our brethren. Many of us did not return. Hau!â
âThen you became a âloyalâ?â
âIhuvumentĂ© (The Government) was very strong. We could not stand against it. Ha! AmasojaâAmapolisiâbonkĂ©. (Soldiersâpoliceâall) I thought of all the men who had crossed the Kei with me. I thought of the few who had returned. Then I thought, âArt thou a fool, Xalasa? Is thy fatherâs son an ox that he should give himself to be slain to make strength for Sariliâs fighting men?â Hau! I came home again and resolved to âsit still.ââ
âBut your eyes and ears were open among the Ama-GcalĂ©ka. They sawâthey heard of my brother, Umlilwane?â
âThy brother, Umlilwane, was alive at the time the white Amagcagca (Rabble) knocked me down and kicked me. He is alive still.â
âHow do you know he is alive still?â said Eustace, mastering his voice with an effort, for his pulses were beating like a hammer as he hung upon the otherâs reply. It cameâcool, impassive, confident:
âThe people talk.â
âWhere is he, Xalasa?â
âListen, Ixeshane,â said the Kafir, glancing around and sinking his voice to an awed whisper. âWhere is he! Au! Kwa âZinyoka.â
âKwa âZinyoka! âThe Home of the Serpents!ââ Well he remembered the jeering, but ominous, words of the hideous witch-doctress at the time his unfortunate cousin was being dragged away insensible under the directions of his implacable foe, Hlangani. âHe will wake. But he will never be seen again.â And now this manâs testimony seemed to bear out her words.
âWhat is this âHome of the Serpents,â Xalasa?â he said.
âAu!â returned the Kafir, after a thoughtful pause, and speaking in a low and apprehensive tone as a timid person in a haunted room might talk of ghosts. âIt is a fearsome place. None who go there ever returnânoneâno, not one,â he added, shaking his head. âBut they say your magic is great, Ixeshane. It may be that you will find your brother alive. The war is nearly over now, but the war leaves every man poor. I have lost all I possessed. When you find your brother you will perhaps think XalĂ sa is a poor man, and I have too many cattle in my kraal. I will send four or five cows to the man who told me my brother was alive.â
In his heart of hearts Eustace thought how willingly he would send him a hundred for precisely the opposite intelligence.
âWhere is âThe Home of the Serpentsâ?â he said.
âWhere? Who knows? None save Ngcenika, who talks with the spirits. None save Hlangani, who rejoices in his revenge as he sees his enemy there, even the man who struck him, and drew the blood of the Great Chiefâs herald. Who knows? Not I. Those who go there never return,â he added impressively, conveying the idea that in his particular instance âignorance is bliss.â
Eustaceâs first instinct was one of relief. If no one knew where the place was, clearly no one could tell. Then it struck him that this rather tended to complicate matters than to simplify them. There had been quite enough insinuated as to himself, and though guiltless as to his cousinâs fate, yet once it got wind that the unfortunate man was probably alive somewhere, it would devolve upon himself to leave no stone unturned until that probability should become a certainty. Public opinion would demand that much, and he knew the world far too well to make the blunder of treating public opinion, in a matter of this kind, as a negligeable quantity.
âBut if you donât know where the place is, Xalasa, how am I to find it?â he said at length. âI would give much to the man who would guide me to it. Think! Is there no man you know of who could do so?â
But the Kafir shook his head. âThere
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