Allan's Wife Read online

  CHAPTER X

  HENDRIKA PLOTS EVIL

  On the following morning I had a conversation with Indaba-zimbi. Firstof all I told him that I was going to marry Stella.

  "Oh!" he said, "I thought so, Macumazahn. Did I not tell you that youwould find happiness on this journey? Most men must be content to watchthe Star from a long way off, to you it is given to wear her on yourheart. But remember, Macumazahn, remember that stars set."

  "Can you not stop your croaking even for a day?" I answered, angrily,for his words sent a thrill of fear through me.

  "A true prophet must tell the ill as well as the good, Macumazahn. Ionly speak what is on my mind. But what of it? What is life but loss,loss upon loss, till life itself be lost? But in death we may find allthe things that we have lost. So your father taught, Macumazahn, andthere was wisdom in his gentleness. Ou! I do not believe in death; it ischange, that is all, Macumazahn. Look now, the rain falls, the drops ofrain that were one water in the clouds fall side by side. They sink intothe ground; presently the sun will come out, the earth will be dry, thedrops will be gone. A fool looks and says the drops are dead, they willnever be one again, they will never again fall side by side. But I am arain-maker, and I know the ways of rain. It is not true. The drops willdrain by many paths into the river, and will be one water there. Theywill go up to the clouds again in the mists of morning, and there willagain be as they have been. We are the drops of rain, Macumazahn. Whenwe fall that is our life. When we sink into the ground that is death,and when we are drawn up again to the sky, what is that, Macumazahn? No!no! when we find we lose, and when we seem to lose, then we shall reallyfind. I am not a Christian, Macumazahn, but I am old, and have watchedand seen things that perhaps Christians do not see. There, I havespoken. Be happy with your star, and if it sets, wait, Macumazahn, waittill it rises again. It will not be long; one day you will go to sleep,then your eyes will open on another sky, and there your star will beshining, Macumazahn."

  I made no answer at the time. I could not bear to talk of such a thing.But often and often in the after years I have thought of Indaba-zimbiand his beautiful simile and gathered comfort from it. He was a strangeman, this old rain-making savage, and there was more wisdom in him thanin many learned atheists--those spiritual destroyers who, in the nameof progress and humanity, would divorce hope from life, and leave uswandering in a lonesome, self-consecrated hell.

  "Indaba-zimbi," I said, changing the subject, "I have something to say,"and I told him of the threats of Hendrika.

  He listened with an unmoved face, nodding his white lock at intervals asthe narrative went on. But I saw that he was disturbed by it.

  "Macumazahn," he said at length, "I have told you that this is an evilwoman. She was nourished on baboon milk, and the baboon nature is inher veins. Such creatures should be killed, not kept. She will make youmischief if she can. But I will watch her, Macumazahn. Look, the Star iswaiting for you; go, or she will hate me as Hendrika hates you."

  So I went, nothing loth, for attractive as was the wisdom ofIndaba-zimbi, I found a deeper meaning in Stella's simplest word. Allthe rest of that day I passed in her company, and the greater part ofthe two following days. At last came Saturday night, the eve of ourmarriage. It rained that night, so we did not go out, but spent theevening in the hut. We sat hand in hand, saying little, but Mr. Carsontalked a good deal, telling us tales of his youth, and of countriesthat he had visited. Then he read aloud from the Bible, and bade usgoodnight. I also kissed Stella and went to bed. I reached my hut bythe covered way, and before I undressed opened the door to see what thenight was like. It was very dark, and rain was still falling, but asthe light streamed out into the gloom I fancied that I caught sight ofa dusky form gliding away. The thought of Hendrika flashed into my mind;could she be skulking about outside there? Now I had said nothing ofHendrika and her threats either to Mr. Carson or Stella, because I didnot wish to alarm them. Also I knew that Stella was attached to thisstrange person, and I did not wish to shake her confidence in her unlessit was absolutely necessary. For a minute or two I stood hesitating,then, reflecting that if it was Hendrika, there she should stop, I wentin and put up the stout wooden bar that was used to secure the door. Forthe last few nights old Indaba-zimbi had made a habit of sleeping in thecovered passage, which was the only other possible way of access. As Icame to bed I had stepped over him rolled up in his blanket, and to allappearances fast asleep. So it being evident that I had nothing to fear,I promptly dismissed the matter from my mind, which, as may be imagined,was indeed fully occupied with other thoughts.

  I got into bed, and for awhile lay awake thinking of the great happinessin store for me, and of the providential course of events that hadbrought it within my reach. A few weeks since and I was wandering inthe desert a dying man, bearing a dying child, and with scarcely apossession left in the world except a store of buried ivory that I neverexpected to see again. And now I was about to wed one of the sweetestand loveliest women on the whole earth--a woman whom I loved more thanI could have thought possible, and who loved me back again. Also, asthough that were not good fortune enough, I was to acquire with hervery considerable possessions, quite sufficiently large to enable us tofollow any plan of life we found agreeable. As I lay and reflected onall this I grew afraid of my good fortune. Old Indaba-zimbi's melancholyprophecies came into my mind. Hitherto he had always prophesied truly.What if these should be true also? I turned cold as I thought of it, andprayed to the Power above to preserve us both to live and love together.Never was prayer more needed. While its words were still upon my lips Idropped asleep and dreamed a most dreadful dream.

  I dreamed that Stella and I were standing together to be married.She was dressed in white, and radiant with beauty, but it was a wild,spiritual beauty which frightened me. Her eyes shone like stars, a paleflame played about her features, and the wind that blew did not stir herhair. Nor was this all, for her white robes were death wrappings, andthe altar at which we stood was formed of the piled-up earth from anopen grave that yawned between us. So we stood waiting for one to wedus, but no one came. Presently from the open grave sprang the form ofHendrika. In her hand was a knife, with which she stabbed at me, butpierced the heart of Stella, who, without a cry, fell backwards into thegrave, still looking at me as she fell. Then Hendrika leaped after herinto the grave. I heard her feet strike heavily.

  "_Awake, Macumazahn! awake!_" cried the voice of Indaba-zimbi.

  I awoke and bounded from the bed, a cold perspiration pouring from me.In the darkness on the other side of the hut I heard sounds of furiousstruggling. Luckily I kept my head. Just by me was a chair on which werematches and a rush taper. I struck a match and held it to the taper. Nowin the growing light I could see two forms rolling one over the other onthe floor, and from between them came the flash of steel. The fat meltedand the light burnt up. It was Indaba-zimbi and the woman Hendrika whowere struggling, and, what is more, the woman was getting the better ofthe man, strong as he was. I rushed towards them. Now she was uppermost,now she had wrenched herself from his fierce grip, and now the greatknife she had in her hand flashed up.

  But I was behind her, and, placing my hands beneath her arms, jerkedwith all my strength. She fell backwards, and, in her effort to saveherself, most fortunately dropped the knife. Then we flung ourselvesupon her. Heavens! the strength of that she-devil! Nobody who has notexperienced it could believe it. She fought and scratched and bit,and at one time nearly mastered the two of us. As it was she did breakloose. She rushed at the bed, sprung on it, and bounded thence straightup at the roof of the hut. I never saw such a jump, and could notconceive what she meant to do. In the roof were the peculiar holes whichI have described. They were designed to admit light, and covered withoverhanging eaves. She sprung straight and true like a monkey, and,catching the edge of the hole with her hands, strove to draw herselfthrough it. But here her strength, exhausted with the long struggle,failed her. For a moment she swung, then dropped to the ground and fellsenseless.


  "Ou!" gasped Indaba-zimbi. "Let us tie the devil up before she comes tolife again."

  I thought this a good counsel, so we took a reim that lay in the cornerof the room, and lashed her hands and feet in such a fashion that evenshe could scarcely escape. Then we carried her into the passage, andIndaba-zimbi sat over her, the knife in his hand, for I did not wish toraise an alarm at that hour of the night.

  "Do you know how I caught her, Macumazahn?" he said. "For several nightsI have slept here with one eye open, for I thought she had made a plan.To-night I kept wide awake, though I pretended to be asleep. An hourafter you got into the blankets the moon rose, and I saw a beam of lightcome into the hut through the hole in the roof. Presently I saw the beamof light vanish. At first I thought that a cloud was passing over themoon, but I listened and heard a noise as though some one was squeezinghimself through a narrow space. Presently he was through, and hanging byhis hands. Then the light came in again, and in the middle of it I sawthe Babyan-frau swinging from the roof, and about to drop into thehut. She clung by both hands, and in her mouth was a great knife. Shedropped, and I ran forward to seize her as she dropped, and gripped herround the middle. But she heard me come, and, seizing the knife, struckat me in the dark and missed me. Then we struggled, and you know therest. You were very nearly dead to-night, Macumazahn."

  "Very nearly indeed," I answered, still panting, and arranging the ragsof my night-dress round me as best I might. Then the memory of my horriddream flashed into my mind. Doubtless it had been conjured up by thesound of Hendrika dropping to the floor--in my dream it had been a gravethat she dropped into. All of it, then, had been experienced in thatsecond of time. Well, dreams are swift; perhaps Time itself is nothingbut a dream, and events that seem far apart really occur simultaneously.

  We passed the rest of the night watching Hendrika. Presently she cameto herself and struggled furiously to break the reim. But the untannedbuffalo hide was too strong even for her, and, moreover, Indaba-zimbiunceremoniously sat upon her to keep her quiet. At last she gave it up.

  In due course the day broke--my marriage day. Leaving Indaba-zimbi towatch my would-be murderess, I went and fetched some natives from thestables, and with their aid bore Hendrika to the prison hut--thatsame hut in which she had been confined when she had been broughta baboon-child from the rocks. Here we shut her up, and, leavingIndaba-zimbi to watch outside, I returned to my sleeping-place anddressed in the best garments that the Babyan Kraals could furnish. Butwhen I looked at the reflection of my face, I was horrified. It wascovered with scratches inflicted by the nails of Hendrika. I doctoredthem up as best I could, then went out for a walk to calm my nerves,which, what between the events of the past night, and of those pendingthat day, were not a little disturbed.

  When I returned it was breakfast time. I went into the dining hut, andthere Stella was waiting to greet me, dressed in simple white and withorange flowers on her breast. She came forward to me shyly enough; then,seeing the condition of my face, started back.

  "Why, Allan! what have you been doing to yourself?" she asked.

  As I was about to answer, her father came in leaning on his stick, and,catching sight of me, instantly asked the same question.

  Then I told them everything, both of Hendrika's threats and of herfierce attempt to carry them into execution. But I did not tell myhorrid dream.

  Stella's face grew white as the flowers on her breast, but that of herfather became very stern.

  "You should have spoken of this before, Allan," he said. "I now see thatI did wrong to attempt to civilize this wicked and revengeful creature,who, if she is human, has all the evil passions of the brutes thatreared her. Well, I will make an end of it this very day."

  "Oh, father," said Stella, "don't have her killed. It is all dreadfulenough, but that would be more dreadful still. I have been very fond ofher, and, bad as she is, she has loved me. Do not have her killed on mymarriage day."

  "No," her father answered, "she shall not be killed, for though shedeserves to die, I will not have her blood upon our hands. She is abrute, and has followed the nature of brutes. She shall go back whenceshe came."

  No more was said on the matter at the time, but when breakfast--whichwas rather a farce--was done, Mr. Carson sent for his headman and gavehim certain orders.

  We were to be married after the service which Mr. Carson held everySunday morning in the large marble hut set apart for that purpose. Theservice began at ten o'clock, but long before that hour all the nativeson the place came up in troops, singing as they came, to be present atthe wedding of the "Star." It was a pretty sight to see them, the mendressed in all their finery, and carrying shields and sticks in theirhands, and the women and children bearing green branches of trees,ferns, and flowers. At length, about half-past nine, Stella rose,pressed my hand, and left me to my reflections. A few minutes to ten shereappeared again with her father, dressed in a white veil, a wreath oforange flowers on her dark curling hair, a bouquet of orange flowersin her hand. To me she seemed like a dream of loveliness. With her camelittle Tota in a high state of glee and excitement. She was Stella'sonly bridesmaid. Then we all passed out towards the church hut. The barespace in front of it was filled with hundreds of natives, who set upa song as we came. But we went on into the hut, which was crowded withsuch of the natives as usually worshipped there. Here Mr. Carson, asusual, read the service, though he was obliged to sit down in order todo so. When it was done--and to me it seemed interminable--Mr. Carsonwhispered that he meant to marry us outside the hut in sight of all thepeople. So we went out and took our stand under the shade of a largetree that grew near the hut facing the bare space where the natives weregathered.

  Mr. Carson held up his hand to enjoin silence. Then, speaking in thenative dialect, he told them that he was about to make us man and wifeafter the Christian fashion and in the sight of all men. This done, heproceeded to read the marriage service over us, and very solemnly andbeautifully he did it. We said the words, I placed the ring--it was herfather's signet ring, for we had no other--upon Stella's finger, and itwas done.

  Then Mr. Carson spoke. "Allan and Stella," he said, "I believe that theceremony which has been performed makes you man and wife in the sightof God and man, for all that is necessary to make a marriage bindingis, that it should be celebrated according to the custom of the countrywhere the parties to it reside. It is according to the custom that hasbeen in force here for fifteen years or more that you have been marriedin the face of all the people, and in token of it you will both sign theregister that I have kept of such marriages, among those of my peoplewho have adopted the Christian Faith. Still, in case there should beany legal flaw I again demand the solemn promise of you both that on thefirst opportunity you will cause this marriage to be re-celebrated insome civilized land. Do you promise?"

  "We do," we answered.

  Then the book was brought out and we signed our names. At first mywife signed hers "Stella" only, but her father bade her write it StellaCarson for the first and last time in her life. Then several of theindunas, or headmen, including old Indaba-zimbi, put their marks inwitness. Indaba-zimbi drew his mark in the shape of a little star, inhumorous allusion to Stella's native name. That register is beforeme now as I write. That, with a lock of my darling's hair which liesbetween its leaves, is my dearest possession. There are all the namesand marks as they were written many years ago beneath the shadow of thetree at Babyan Kraals in the wilderness, but alas! and alas! where arethose who wrote them?

  "My people," said Mr. Carson, when the signing was done, and we hadkissed each other before them all--"My people, Macumazahn and the Star,my daughter, are now man and wife, to live in one kraal, to eat ofone bowl, to share one fortune till they reach the grave. Hear now, mypeople, you know this woman," and turning he pointed to Hendrika, who,unseen by us, had been led out of the prison hut.

  "Yes, yes, we know her," said a little ring of headmen, who formedthe primitive court of justice, and after the fashion of natives
hadsquatted themselves in a circle on the ground in front of us. "We knowher, she is the white Babyan-woman, she is Hendrika, the body servant ofthe Star."

  "You know her," said Mr. Carson, "but you do not know her altogether.Stand forward, Indaba-zimbi, and tell the people what came about lastnight in the hut of Macumazahn."

  Accordingly old Indaba-zimbi came forward, and, squatting down, told hismoving tale with much descriptive force and many gestures, finishing upby producing the great knife from which his watchfulness had saved me.

  Then I was called upon, and in a few brief words substantiated hisstory: indeed my face did that in the sight of all men.

  Then Mr. Carson turned to Hendrika, who stood in sullen silence, hereyes fixed upon the ground, and asked her if she had anything to say.

  She looked up boldly and answered--

  "Macumazahn has robbed me of the love of my mistress. I would haverobbed him of his life, which is a little thing compared to that which Ihave lost at his hands. I have failed, and I am sorry for it, for had Ikilled him and left no trace the Star would have forgotten him and shoneon me again."

  "Never," murmured Stella in my ear; but Mr. Carson turned white withwrath.

  "My people," he said, "you hear the words of this woman. You hear howshe pays me back, me and my daughter whom she swears she loves. She saysthat she would have murdered a man who has done her no evil, the man whois the husband of her mistress. We saved her from the babyans, we tamedher, we fed her, we taught her, and this is how she pays us back. Say,my people, what reward should be given to her?"

  "Death," said the circle of indunas, pointing their thumbs downwards,and all the multitude beyond echoed the word "Death."

  "Death," repeated the head induna, adding, "If you save her, myfather, we will slay her with our own hands. She is a Babyan-woman, adevil-woman; ah, yes, we have heard of such before; let her be slainbefore she works more evil."

  Then it was that Stella stepped forward and begged for Hendrika's lifein moving terms. She pleaded the savagery of the woman's nature, herlong service, and the affection that she had always shown towardsherself. She said that I, whose life had been attempted, forgave her,and she, my wife, who had nearly been left a widow before she was made abride, forgave her; let them forgive her also, let her be sent away, notslain, let not her marriage day be stained with blood.

  Now her father listened readily enough, for he had no intention ofkilling Hendrika--indeed, he had already promised not to do so. But thepeople were in a different humour, they looked upon Hendrika as a devil,and would have torn her to pieces there and then, could they have hadtheir way. Nor were matters mended by Indaba-zimbi, who had alreadygained a great reputation for wisdom and magic in the place. Suddenlythe old man rose and made quite an impassioned speech, urging them tokill Hendrika at once or mischief would come of it.

  At last matters got very bad, for two of the Indunas came forward todrag her off to execution, and it was not until Stella burst into tearsthat the sight of her grief, backed by Mr. Carson's orders and my ownremonstrances, carried the day.

  All this while Hendrika had been standing quite unmoved. At last thetumult ceased, and the leading induna called to her to go, promisingthat if ever she showed her face near the kraals again she should bestabbed like a jackal. Then Hendrika spoke to Stella in a low voice andin English--

  "Better let them kill me, mistress, better for all. Without you to loveI shall go mad and become a babyan again."

  Stella did not answer, and they loosed her. She stepped forward andlooked at the natives with a stare of hate. Then she turned and walkedpast me, and as she passed whispered a native phrase in my ear, that,being literally translated, means, "Till another moon," but which hasthe same significance as the French "au revoir."

  It frightened me, for I knew she meant that she had not done with me,and saw that our mercy was misplaced. Seeing my face change she ranswiftly from me, and as she passed Indaba-zimbi, with a sudden movementsnatched her great knife from his hand. When she had gone about twentypaces she halted, looked long and earnestly on Stella, gave one loud cryof anguish, and fled. A few minutes later we saw her far away, boundingup the face of an almost perpendicular cliff--a cliff that nobody exceptherself and the baboons could possibly climb.

  "Look," said Indaba-zimbi in my ear--"Look, Macumazahn, there goes theBabyan-frau. But, Macumazahn, _she will come back again_. Ah, whywill you not listen to my words. Have they not always been true words,Macumazahn?" and he shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

  For a while I was much disturbed, but at any rate Hendrika was gone forthe present, and Stella, my dear and lovely wife, was there at my side,and in her smiles I forgot my fears.

  For the rest of that day, why should I write of it?--there are thingstoo happy and too sacred to be written of.

  At last I had, if only for a little while, found that rest, that perfectjoy which we seek so continually and so rarely clasp.