Chapter XVII. A Deal and its Consequences

Prester John

by John Buchan

My eyes were bandaged tight, and a thong was run round my right
wrist and tied to Laputa's saddle-bow. I felt the glare of the
afternoon sun on my head, and my shins were continually barked by
stones and trees; but these were my only tidings of the outer world.
By the sound of his paces Laputa was riding the Schimmel, and if any
one thinks it easy to go blindfold by a horse's side I hope he will
soon have the experience. In the darkness I could not tell the speed
of the beast. When I ran I overshot it and was tugged back; when I
walked my wrist was dislocated with the tugs forward.

For an hour or more I suffered this breakneck treatment. We were
descending. Often I could hear the noise of falling streams, and
once we splashed through a mountain ford. Laputa was taking no risks,
for he clearly had in mind the possibility of some accident which
would set me free, and he had no desire to have me guiding Arcoll to
his camp.

But as I stumbled and sprawled down these rocky tracks I was not
thinking of Laputa's plans. My whole soul was filled with regret for
Colin, and rage against his murderer. After my first mad rush I had
not thought about my dog. He was dead, but so would I be in an hour
or two, and there was no cause to lament him. But at the first
revival of hope my grief had returned. As they bandaged my eyes I
was wishing that they would let me see his grave. As I followed
beside Laputa I told myself that if ever I got free, when the war was
over I would go to Inanda's Kraal, find the grave, and put a
tombstone over it in memory of the dog that saved my life. I would
also write that the man who shot him was killed on such and such a
day at such and such a place by Colin's master. I wondered why
Laputa had not the wits to see the Portugoose's treachery and to let
me fight him. I did not care what were the weapons - knives or guns,
or naked fists - I would certainly kill him, and afterwards the
Kaffirs could do as they pleased with me. Hot tears of rage and
weakness wet the bandage on my eyes, and the sobs which came from me
were not only those of weariness.

At last we halted. Laputa got down and took off the bandage,
and I found myself in one of the hill-meadows which lie among the
foothills of the Wolkberg. The glare blinded me, and for a little I
could only see the marigolds growing at my feet. Then I had a
glimpse of the deep gorge of the Great Letaba below me, and far to
the east the flats running out to the hazy blue line of the Lebombo
hills. Laputa let me sit on the ground for a minute or two to get my
breath and rest my feet. 'That was a rough road,' he said. 'You can
take it easier now, for I have no wish to carry you.' He patted the
Schimmel, and the beautiful creature turned his mild eyes on the pair
of us. I wondered if he recognized his rider of two nights ago.

I had seen Laputa as the Christian minister, as the priest and
king in the cave, as the leader of an army at Dupree's Drift, and at
the kraal we had left as the savage with all self- control flung to
the winds. I was to see this amazing man in a further part. For he
now became a friendly and rational companion. He kept his horse at
an easy walk, and talked to me as if we were two friends out for a
trip together. Perhaps he had talked thus to Arcoll, the half-caste
who drove his Cape-cart.

The wooded bluff above Machudi's glen showed far in front. He
told me the story of the Machudi war, which I knew already, but he
told it as a saga. There had been a stratagem by which one of the
Boer leaders - a Grobelaar, I think - got some of his men into the
enemy's camp by hiding them in a captured forage wagon.

'Like the Trojan horse,' I said involuntarily.

'Yes,' said my companion, 'the same old device,' and to my
amazement he quoted some lines of Virgil.

'Do you understand Latin?' he asked.

I told him that I had some slight knowledge of the tongue,
acquired at the university of Edinburgh. Laputa nodded. He
mentioned the name of a professor there, and commented on his
scholarship.

'O man!' I cried, 'what in God's name are you doing in this
business? You that are educated and have seen the world, what makes
you try to put the clock back? You want to wipe out the civilization
of a thousand years, and turn us all into savages. It's the more
shame to you when you know better.'

'You misunderstand me,' he said quietly. 'It is because I have
sucked civilization dry that I know the bitterness of the fruit. I
want a simpler and better world, and I want that world for my own
people. I am a Christian, and will you tell me that your
civilization pays much attention to Christ? You call yourself a
patriot? Will you not give me leave to be a patriot in turn?'

'If you are a Christian, what sort of Christianity is it to
deluge the land with blood?'

'The best,' he said. 'The house must be swept and garnished
before the man of the house can dwell in it. You have read history,
Such a purging has descended on the Church at many times, and the
world has awakened to a new hope. It is the same in all religions.
The temples grow tawdry and foul and must be cleansed, and, let me
remind you, the cleanser has always come out of the desert.'

I had no answer, being too weak and forlorn to think. But I
fastened on his patriotic plea.

'Where are the patriots in your following? They are all red
Kaffirs crying for blood and plunder. Supposing you were Oliver
Cromwell you could make nothing out of such a crew.'

'They are my people,' he said simply.

By this time we had forded the Great Letaba, and were making our
way through the clumps of forest to the crown of the plateau. I
noticed that Laputa kept well in cover, preferring the tangle of
wooded undergrowth to the open spaces of the water-meadows. As he
talked, his wary eyes were keeping a sharp look-out over the
landscape. I thrilled with the thought that my own folk were near at
hand.

Once Laputa checked me with his hand as I was going to speak,
and in silence we crossed the kloof of a little stream. After that we
struck a long strip of forest and he slackened his watch.

'if you fight for a great cause,' I said, 'why do you let a
miscreant like Henriques have a hand in it? You must know that the
man's only interest in you is the chance of loot. I am for you
against Henriques, and I tell you plain that if you don't break the
snake's back it will sting you.'

Laputa looked at me with an odd, meditative look.

'You misunderstand again, Mr Storekeeper. The Portuguese is
what you call a "mean white." His only safety is among us. I am
campaigner enough to know that an enemy, who has a burning grievance
against my other enemies, is a good ally. You are too hard on
Henriques. You and your friends have treated him as a Kaffir, and a
Kaffir he is in everything but Kaffir virtues. What makes you so
anxious that Henriques should not betray me?'

'I'm not a mean white,' I said, 'and I will speak the truth. I
hope, in God's name, to see you smashed; but I want it done by honest
men, and not by a yellow devil who has murdered my dog and my
friends. Sooner or later you will find him out; and if he escapes
you, and there's any justice in heaven, he won't escape me.'

'Brave words,' said Laputa, with a laugh, and then in one second
he became rigid in the saddle. We had crossed a patch of meadow and
entered a wood, beyond which ran the highway. I fancy he was out in
his reckoning, and did not think the road so near. At any rate,
after a moment he caught the sound of horses, and I caught it too.
The wood was thin, and there was no room for retreat, while to
recross the meadow would bring us clean into the open. He jumped
from his horse, untied with amazing quickness the rope halter from
its neck, and started to gag me by winding the thing round my jaw.

I had no time to protest that I would keep faith, and my right
hand was tethered to his pommel. In the grip of these great arms I
was helpless, and in a trice was standing dumb as a lamp-post; while
Laputa, his left arm round both of mine, and his right hand over the
schimmel's eyes, strained his ears like a sable antelope who has
scented danger.

There was never a more brutal gagging. The rope crushed my nose
and drove my lips down on my teeth, besides gripping my throat so
that I could scarcely breathe. The pain was so great that I became
sick, and would have fallen but for Laputa. Happily I managed to get
my teeth apart, so that one coil slipped between, and eased the pain
of the jaws. But the rest was bad enough to make me bite frantically
on the tow, and I think in a little my sharp front teeth would have
severed it. All this discomfort prevented me seeing what happened.
The wood, as I have said, was thin, and through the screen of leaves
I had a confused impression of men and horses passing interminably.
There can only have been a score at the most; but the moments drag if
a cord is gripping your throat. When Laputa at length untied me, I
had another fit of nausea, and leaned helplessly against a tree.

Laputa listened till the sound of the horses had died away; then
silently we stole to the edge of the road, across, and into the
thicker evergreen bush on the far side. At a pace which forced me to
run hard, we climbed a steepish slope, till ahead of us we saw the
bald green crown of the meadowlands. I noticed that his face had
grown dark and sullen again. He was in an enemy's country, and had
the air of the hunted instead of the hunter. When I stopped he
glowered at me, and once, when I was all but overcome with fatigue,
he lifted his hand in a threat. Had he carried a sjambok, it would
have fallen on my back.

If he was nervous, so was I. The fact that I was out of the
Kaffir country and in the land of my own folk was a kind of qualified
liberty. At any moment, I felt, Providence might intervene to set me
free. It was in the bond that Laputa should shoot me if we were
attacked; but a pistol might miss. As far as my shaken wits would
let me, I began to forecast the future. Once he got the jewels my
side of the bargain was complete. He had promised me my life, but
there had been nothing said about my liberty; and I felt assured that
Laputa would never allow one who had seen so much to get off to
Arcoll with his tidings. But back to that unhallowed kraal I was
resolved I would not go. He was armed, and I was helpless; he was
strong, and I was dizzy with weakness; he was mounted, and I was on
foot: it seemed a poor hope that I should get away. There was little
chance from a wandering patrol, for I knew if we were followed I
should have a bullet in my head, while Laputa got off on the
Schimmel. I must wait and bide events. At the worst, a clean shot on
the hillside in a race for life was better than the unknown mysteries
of the kraal. I prayed earnestly to God to show me His mercy, for if
ever man was sore bested by the heathen it was I.

To my surprise, Laputa chose to show himself on the green
hill-shoulder. He looked towards the Wolkberg and raised his hands.
It must have been some signal. I cast my eyes back on the road we
had come, and I thought I saw some figures a mile back, on the edge
of the Letaba gorge. He was making sure of my return.

By this time it was about four in the afternoon, and as heavenly
weather as the heart of man could wish. The meadows were full of
aromatic herbs, which, as we crushed them, sent up a delicate odour.
The little pools and shallows of the burns were as clear as a Lothian
trout-stream. We were now going at a good pace, and I found that my
earlier weariness was growing less. I was being keyed up for some
great crisis, for in my case the spirit acts direct on the body, and
fatigue grows and ebbs with hope. I knew that my strength was not
far from breaking-point; but I knew also that so long as a chance was
left me I should have enough for a stroke.

Before I realized where we were we had rounded the hill, and
were looking down on the green cup of the upper Machudi's glen. Far
down, I remember, where the trees began, there was a cloud of smoke.
Some Kaffir - or maybe Arcoll - had fired the forest. The smoke was
drifting away under a light west wind over the far plains, so that
they were seen through a haze of opal.

Laputa bade me take the lead. I saw quite clear the red kloof
on the far side, where the collar was hid. To get there we might
have ridden straight into the cup, but a providential instinct made
me circle round the top till we were on the lip of the ravine. This
was the road some of Machudi's men had taken, and unthinkingly I
followed them. Twenty minutes' riding brought us to the place, and
all the while I had no kind of plan of escape. I was in the hands of
my Maker, watching, like the Jews of old, for a sign.

Laputa dismounted and looked down into the gorge.

'There is no road there,' I said. 'We must go down to the foot
and come up the stream-side. It would be better to leave your horse
here.' He started down the cliff, which from above looks a sheer
precipice. Then he seemed to agree with me, took the rope from the
schimmel's neck, and knee-haltered his beast. And at that moment I
had an inspiration.

With my wrist-rope in his hand, he preceded me down the hill
till we got to the red screes at the foot of the kloof. Then, under
my guidance, we turned up into the darkness of the gorge. As we
entered I looked back, and saw figures coming over the edge of the
green cup - Laputa's men, I guessed. What I had to do must be done
quickly.

We climbed up the burn, over the succession of little cataracts,
till we came to the flat space of shingle and the long pool where I
had been taken that morning. The ashes of the fire which Machudi's
men had made were plain on the rock. After that I had to climb a
waterfall to get to the rocky pool where I had bestowed the
rubies.

'You must take off this thong,' I said. 'I must climb to get
the collar. Cover me with a pistol if you like. I won't be out of
sight.'

Laputa undid the thong and set me free. From his belt he took a
pistol, cocked it, and held it over his left hand. I had seen this
way of shooting adopted by indifferent shots, and it gave me a wild
hope that he might not be much of a marksman.

It did not take me long to find the pool, close against the
blackened stump of a tree-fern. I thrust in my hand and gathered up
the jewels from the cool sand. They came out glowing like living
fires, and for a moment I thrilled with a sense of reverence. Surely
these were no common stones which held in them the very heart of
hell. Clutching them tightly, I climbed down to Laputa.

At the sight of the great Snake he gave a cry of rapture.
Tearing it from me, he held it at arm's length, his face lit with a
passionate joy. He kissed it, he raised it to the sky; nay, he was
on his knees before it. Once more he was the savage transported in
the presence of his fetich. He turned to me with burning eyes.

'Down on your knees,' he cried, 'and reverence the Ndhlondhlo.
Down, you impious dog, and seek pardon for your sacrilege.'

'I won't,' I said. 'I won't bow to any heathen idol.'

He pointed his pistol at me.

'In a second I shoot where your head is now. Down, you fool, or
perish.'

'You promised me my life,' I said stubbornly, though Heaven
knows why I chose to act thus.

He dropped the pistol and flung himself on me. I was helpless
as a baby in his hands. He forced me to the ground and rolled my
face in the sand; then he pulled me to my feet and tossed me
backward, till I almost staggered into the pool. I saved myself, and
staggered instead into the shallow at the foot of it, close under the
ledge of the precipice.

That morning, when Machudi's men were cooking breakfast, I had
figured out a route up the cliff. This route was now my hope of
escape. Laputa had dropped his pistol, and the collar had plunged
him in an ecstasy of worship. Now, if ever, was my time. I must get
on the shelf which ran sideways up the cliff, and then scramble for
dear life.

I pretended to be dazed and terrified.

'You promised me my life,' I whimpered.

'Your life,' he cried. 'Yes, you shall have your life; and
before long you will pray for death.'

'But I saved the Collar,' I pleaded. 'Henriques would have
stolen it. I brought it safe here, and now you have got it.'

Meantime I was pulling myself up on the shelf, and loosening
with one hand a boulder which overhung the pool.

'You have been repaid,' he said savagely. 'You will not
die.'

'But my life is no use without liberty,' I said, working at the
boulder till it lay loose in its niche.

He did not answer, being intent on examining the Collar to see
if it had suffered any harm.

'I hope it isn't scratched,' I said. 'Henriques trod on it when
I hit him.'

Laputa peered at the gems like a mother at a child who has had a
fall. I saw my chance and took it. With a great heave I pulled the
boulder down into the pool. It made a prodigious splash, sending a
shower of spray over Laputa and the Collar. In cover of it I raced up
the shelf, straining for the shelter of the juniper tree.

A shot rang out and struck the rock above me. A second later I
had reached the tree and was scrambling up the crack beyond it.

Laputa did not fire again. He may have distrusted his shooting,
or seen a better way of it. He dashed through the stream and ran up
the shelf like a klipspringer after me. I felt rather than saw what
was happening, and with my heart in my mouth I gathered my dregs of
energy for the last struggle.

You know the nightmare when you are pursued by some awful
terror, and, though sick with fear, your legs have a strange
numbness, and you cannot drag them in obedience to the will. Such
was my feeling in the crack above the juniper tree. In truth, I had
passed the bounds of my endurance. Last night I had walked fifty
miles, and all day I had borne the torments of a dreadful suspense.
I had been bound and gagged and beaten till the force was out of my
limbs. Also, and above all, I had had little food, and I was dizzy
with want of sleep. My feet seemed leaden, my hands had no more grip
than putty. I do not know how I escaped falling into the pool, for
my head was singing and my heart thumping in my throat. I seemed to
feel Laputa's great hand every second clawing at my heels.

I had reason for my fears. He had entered the crack long before
I had reached the top, and his progress was twice as fast as mine.
When I emerged on the topmost shelf he was scarcely a yard behind me.
But an overhang checked his bulky figure and gave me a few seconds'
grace. I needed it all, for these last steps on the shelf were the
totterings of an old man. Only a desperate resolution and an extreme
terror made me drag one foot after the other. Blindly I staggered on
to the top of the ravine, and saw before me the Schimmel grazing in
the light of the westering sun.

I forced myself into a sort of drunken run, and crawled into the
saddle. Behind me, as I turned, I could see Laputa's shoulders
rising over the edge. I had no knife to cut the knee- halter, and
the horse could not stir.

Then the miracle happened. When the rope had gagged me, my
teeth must have nearly severed it at one place, and this Laputa had
not noticed when he used it as a knee-halter. The shock of my
entering the saddle made the Schimmel fling up his head violently,
and the rope snapped. I could not find the stirrups, but I dug my
heels into his sides, and he leaped forward.

At the same moment Laputa began to shoot. It was a foolish
move, for he might have caught me by running, since I had neither
spurs nor whip, and the horse was hampered by the loose end of rope
at his knee. In any case, being an indifferent shot, he should have
aimed at the Schimmel, not at me; but I suppose he wished to save his
charger. One bullet sang past my head; a second did my business for
me. It passed over my shoulder, as I lay low in the saddle, and
grazed the beast's right ear. The pain maddened him, and, rope-end
and all, he plunged into a wild gallop. Other shots came, but they
fell far short. I saw dimly a native or two - the men who had
followed us - rush to intercept me, and I think a spear was flung.
But in a flash we were past them, and their cries faded behind me. I
found the bridle, reached for the stirrups, and galloped straight for
the sunset and for freedom.