Prester John by John Buchan
CHAPTER XIX
ARCOLL'S SHEPHERDING
While I lay in a drugged slumber great things were happening. What Ihave to tell is no experience of my own, but the story as I pieced ittogether afterwards from talks with Arcoll and Aitken. The history ofthe Rising has been compiled. As I write I see before me on theshelves two neat blue volumes in which Mr Alexander Upton, sometimecorrespondent of the _Times_, has told for the edification of posteritythe tale of the war between the Plains and the Plateau. To him theKaffir hero is Umbooni, a half-witted ruffian, whom we afterwardscaught and hanged. He mentions Laputa only in a footnote as a renegadeChristian who had something to do with fomenting discontent. Heconsiders that the word 'Inkulu,' which he often heard, was a Zulu namefor God. Mr Upton is a picturesque historian, but he knew nothing ofthe most romantic incident of all. This is the tale of the midnightshepherding of the 'heir of John' by Arcoll and his irregulars.
At Bruderstroom, where I was lying unconscious, there were two hundredmen of the police; sixty-three Basuto scouts under a man calledStephen, who was half native in blood and wholly native in habits; andthree commandoes of the farmers, each about forty strong. Thecommandoes were really companies of the North Transvaal Volunteers, butthe old name had been kept and something of the old loose organization.There were also two four-gun batteries of volunteer artillery, butthese were out on the western skirts of the Wolkberg following Beyers'shistoric precedent. Several companies of regulars were on their wayfrom Pietersdorp, but they did not arrive till the next day. When theycame they went to the Wolkberg to join the artillery. Along the Bergat strategic points were pickets of police with native trackers, and atBlaauwildebeestefontein there was a strong force with two field guns,for there was some fear of a second Kaffir army marching by that placeto Inanda's Kraal. At Wesselsburg out on the plain there was a biggishpolice patrol, and a system of small patrols along the road, with afair number of Basuto scouts. But the road was picketed, not held; forArcoll's patrols were only a branch of his Intelligence Department. Itwas perfectly easy, as I had found myself, to slip across in a gap ofthe pickets.
Laputa would be in a hurry, and therefore he would try to cross at thenearest point. Hence it was Arcoll's first business to hold the linebetween the defile of the Letaba and the camp at Bruderstroom. Adetachment of the police who were well mounted galloped at racing speedfor the defile, and behind them the rest lined out along the road. Thefarmers took a line at right angles to the road, so as to prevent anescape on the western flank. The Basutos were sent into the woods as asort of advanced post to bring tidings of any movement there. Finally abody of police with native runners at their stirrups rode on to thedrift where the road crosses the Letaba. The place is called MainDrift, and you will find it on the map. The natives were first of allto locate Laputa, and prevent him getting out on the south side of thetriangle of hill and wood between Machudi's, the road, and the Letaba.If he failed there, he must try to ford the Letaba below the drift, andcross the road between the drift and Wesselsburg. Now Arcoll had notmen enough to watch the whole line, and therefore if Laputa were oncedriven below the drift, he must shift his men farther down the road.Consequently it was of the first importance to locate Laputa'swhereabouts, and for this purpose the native trackers were sentforward. There was just a chance of capturing him, but Arcoll knew toowell his amazing veld-craft and great strength of body to build muchhope on that.
We were none too soon. The advance men of the police rode into one ofthe Kaffirs from Inanda's Kraal, whom Laputa had sent forward to see ifthe way was clear. In two minutes more he would have been across andout of our power, for we had no chance of overtaking him in the woodyravines of the Letaba. The Kaffir, when he saw us, dived back into thegrass on the north side of the road, which made it clear that Laputawas still there.
After that nothing happened for a little. The police reached theirdrift, and all the road west of that point was strongly held. Theflanking commandoes joined hands with one of the police posts farthernorth, and moved slowly to the scarp of the Berg. They saw nobody;from which Arcoll could deduce that his man had gone down the Berg intothe forests.
Had the Basutos been any good at woodcraft we should have had betterintelligence. But living in a bare mountain country they are apt tofind themselves puzzled in a forest. The best men among the trackerswere some renegades of 'Mpefu, who sent back word by a device knownonly to Arcoll that five Kaffirs were in the woods a mile north of MainDrift. By this time it was after ten o'clock, and the moon was rising.The five men separated soon after, and the reports became confused.Then Laputa, as the biggest of the five, was located on the banks ofthe Great Letaba about two miles below Main Drift.
The question was as to his crossing. Arcoll had assumed that he wouldswim the river and try to get over the road between Main Drift andWesselsburg. But in this assumption he underrated the shrewdness ofhis opponent. Laputa knew perfectly well that we had not enough men topatrol the whole countryside, but that the river enabled us to dividethe land into two sections and concentrate strongly on one or theother. Accordingly he left the Great Letaba unforded and resolved tomake a long circuit back to the Berg. One of his Kaffirs swam theriver, and when word of this was brought Arcoll began to withdraw hisposts farther down the road. But as the men were changing 'Mpefu'sfellows got wind of Laputa's turn to the left, and in great hasteArcoll countermanded the move and waited in deep perplexity at MainDrift.
The salvation of his scheme was the farmers on the scarp of the Berg.They lit fires and gave Laputa the notion of a great army. Instead ofgoing up the glen of Machudi or the Letsitela he bore away to the northfor the valley of the Klein Letaba. The pace at which he moved musthave been amazing. He had a great physique, hard as nails from longtravelling, and in his own eyes he had an empire at stake. When I lookat the map and see the journey which with vast fatigue I completed fromDupree's Drift to Machudi's, and then look at the huge spaces ofcountry over which Laputa's legs took him on that night, I am lost inadmiration of the man.
About midnight he must have crossed the Letsitela. Here he made agrave blunder. If he had tried the Berg by one of the faces he mighthave got on to the plateau and been at Inanda's Kraal by the dawning.But he over-estimated the size of the commandoes, and held on to thenorth, where he thought there would be no defence. About one o'clockArcoll, tired of inaction and conscious that he had misread Laputa'stactics, resolved on a bold stroke. He sent half his police to theBerg to reinforce the commandoes, bidding them get into touch with thepost at Blaauwildebeestefontein.
A little after two o'clock a diversion occurred. Henriques succeededin crossing the road three miles east of Main Drift. He had probablyleft the kraal early in the night and had tried to cross farther west,but had been deterred by the patrols. East of Main Drift, where thepolice were fewer, he succeeded; but he had not gone far till he wasdiscovered by the Basuto scouts. The find was reported to Arcoll, whoguessed at once who this traveller was. He dared not send out any ofhis white men, but he bade a party of the scouts follow thePortugoose's trail. They shadowed him to Dupree's Drift, where hecrossed the Letaba. There he lay down by the roadside to sleep, whilethey kept him company. A hard fellow Henriques was, for he couldslumber peacefully on the very scene of his murder.
Dawn found Laputa at the head of the Klein Letaba glen, not far from'Mpefu's kraal. He got food at a hut, and set off at once up thewooded hill above it, which is a promontory of the plateau. By thistime he must have been weary, or he would not have blundered as he didright into a post of the farmers. He was within an ace of capture, andto save himself was forced back from the scarp. He seems, to judgefrom reports, to have gone a little way south in the thicker timber,and then to have turned north again in the direction ofBlaauwildebeestefontein. After that his movements are obscure. He wasseen on the Klein Labongo, but the sight of the post atBlaauwildebeestefontein must have convinced him that a _korhaan_ couldnot escape that way. The next we heard of hi
So it happened that while Laputa was being driven east from the Berg,Henriques was travelling north, and their lines intersected. I shouldlike to have seen the meeting. It must have told Laputa what hadalways been in the Portugoose's heart. Henriques, I fancy, was makingfor the cave in the Rooirand. Laputa, so far as I can guess at hismind, had a plan for getting over the Portuguese border, fetching awide circuit, and joining his men at any of the concentrations betweenthere and Amsterdam.
The two were seen at midday going down the road which leads fromBlaauwildebeestefontein to the Lebombo. Then they struck Arcoll's newfront, which stretched from the Letaba to the Labongo. This drove themnorth again, and forced them to swim the latter stream. From there tothe eastern extremity of the Rooirand, which is the Portuguesefrontier, the country is open and rolling, with a thin light scrub inthe hollows. It was bad cover for the fugitives, as they found totheir cost. For Arcoll had purposely turned his police into a flyingcolumn. They no longer held a line; they scoured a country. OnlyLaputa's incomparable veld-craft and great bodily strength preventedthe two from being caught in half an hour. They doubled back, swam theLabongo again, and got into the thick bush on the north side of theBlaauwildebeestefontein road. The Basuto scouts were magnificent inthe open, but in the cover they were again at fault. Laputa andHenriques fairly baffled them, so that the pursuit turned to the westin the belief that the fugitives had made for Majinje's kraal. Inreality they had recrossed the Labongo and were making for Umvelos'.
All this I heard afterwards, but in the meantime I lay in Arcoll's tentin deep unconsciousness. While my enemies were being chased likepartridges, I was reaping the fruits of four days' toil and terror.The hunters had become the hunted, the wheel had come full circle, andthe woes of David Crawfurd were being abundantly avenged.
I slept till midday of the next day. When I awoke the hot noontide sunhad made the tent like an oven. I felt better, but very stiff andsore, and I had a most ungovernable thirst. There was a pail of waterwith a tin pannikin beside the tent pole, and out of this I drankrepeated draughts. Then I lay down again, for I was still very weary.
But my second sleep was not like my first. It was haunted by wildnightmares. No sooner had I closed my eyes than I began to live andmove in a fantastic world. The whole bush of the plains lay before me,and I watched it as if from some view-point in the clouds. It wasmidday, and the sandy patches shimmered under a haze of heat. I sawodd little movements in the bush--a buck's head raised, a paauwstalking solemnly in the long grass, a big crocodile rolling off amudbank in the river. And then I saw quite clearly Laputa's figuregoing east.
In my sleep I did not think about Arcoll's manoeuvres. My mind waswholly set upon Laputa. He was walking wearily, yet at a good pace,and his head was always turning, like a wild creature snuffing thewind. There was something with him, a shapeless shadow, which I couldnot see clearly. His neck was bare, but I knew well that the collarwas in his pouch.
He stopped, turned west, and I lost him. The bush world for a spacewas quite silent, and I watched it eagerly as an aeronaut would watchthe ground for a descent. For a long time I could see nothing. Thenin a wood near a river there seemed to be a rustling. Some guinea-fowlflew up as if startled, and a stembok scurried out. I knew that Laputamust be there.
Then, as I looked at the river, I saw a head swimming. Nay, I saw two,one some distance behind the other. The first man landed on the farbank, and I recognized Laputa. The second was a slight short figure,and I knew it was Henriques.
I remember feeling very glad that these two had come together. It wascertain now that Henriques would not escape. Either Laputa would findout the truth and kill him, or I would come up with him and have myrevenge. In any case he was outside the Kaffir pale, adventuring onhis own.
I watched the two till they halted near a ruined building. Surely thiswas the store I had built at Umvelos'. The thought gave me a horridsurprise. Laputa and Henriques were on their way to the Rooirand!
I woke with a start to find my forehead damp with sweat. There was somefever on me, I think, for my teeth were chattering. Very clear in mymind was the disquieting thought that Laputa and Henriques would soonbe in the cave.
One of two things must happen--either Henriques would kill Laputa, getthe collar of rubies, and be in the wilds of Mozambique before I couldcome up with his trail; or Laputa would outwit him, and have thehandling himself of the treasure of gold and diamonds which had beenlaid up for the rising. If he thought there was a risk of defeat, Iknew he would send my gems to the bottom of the Labongo, and all myweary work would go for nothing. I had forgotten all about patriotism.In that hour the fate of the country was nothing to me, and I got nosatisfaction from the thought that Laputa was severed from his army.My one idea was that the treasure would be lost, the treasure for whichI had risked my life.
There is a kind of courage which springs from bitter anger anddisappointment. I had thought that I had bankrupted my spirit, but Ifound that there was a new passion in me to which my past sufferingstaught no lesson. My uneasiness would not let me rest a moment longer.I rose to my feet, holding on by the bed, and staggered to the tentpole. I was weak, but not so very weak that I could not make one lasteffort. It maddened me that I should have done so much and yet fail atthe end.
From a nail on the tent pole hung a fragment of looking-glass whichArcoll used for shaving. I caught a glimpse of my face in it, whiteand haggard and lined, with blue bags below the eyes. The doctor thenight before had sponged it, but he had not got rid of all the stainsof travel. In particular there was a faint splash of blood on the lefttemple. I remembered that this was what I had got from the basin ofgoat's blood that night in the cave. I think that the sight of thatsplash determined me. Whether I willed it or not, I was sealed ofLaputa's men. I must play the game to the finish, or never again knowpeace of mind on earth. These last four days had made me very old.
I found a pair of Arcoll's boots, roomy with much wearing, into which Ithrust my bruised feet. Then I crawled to the door, and shouted for aboy to bring my horse. A Basuto appeared, and, awed by my appearance,went off in a hurry to see to the _schimmel_. It was late afternoon,about the same time of day as had yesterday seen me escaping fromMachudi's. The Bruderstroom camp was empty, though sentinels wereposted at the approaches. I beckoned the only white man I saw, andasked where Arcoll was. He told me that he had no news, but added thatthe patrols were still on the road as far as Wesselsburg. From this Igathered that Arcoll must have gone far out into the bush in his chase.I did not want to see him; above all, I did not want him to findLaputa. It was my private business that I rode on, and I asked for noallies.
Somebody brought me a cup of thick coffee, which I could not drink, andhelped me into the saddle. The _schimmel_ was fresh, and kicked freelyas I cantered off the grass into the dust of the highroad. The wholeworld, I remember, was still and golden in the sunset.