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Page 68
The moonlight flickering along their spears, played upon their
features and made them ghastly; the chilly night wind tossed their
tall and hearse-like plumes. There they lay in wild confusion, with
arms outstretched and twisted limbs; their stern, stalwart forms
looking weird and unhuman in the moonlight.
"How many of these do you suppose will be alive at this time
to-morrow?" asked Sir Henry.
I shook my head and looked again at the sleeping men, and to my tired
and yet excited imagination it seemed as though Death had already
touched them. My mind's eye singled out those who were sealed to
slaughter, and there rushed in upon my heart a great sense of the
mystery of human life, and an overwhelming sorrow at its futility and
sadness. To-night these thousand slept their healthy sleep, to-morrow
they, and many others with them, ourselves perhaps among them, would
be stiffening in the cold; their wives would be widows, their children
fatherless, and their place know them no more for ever. Only the old
moon would shine on serenely, the night wind would stir the grasses,
and the wide earth would take its rest, even as it did �ons before we
were, and will do �ons after we have been forgotten.
Yet man dies not whilst the world, at once his mother and his
monument, remains. His name is lost, indeed, but the breath he
breathed still stirs the pine-tops on the mountains, the sound of the
words he spoke yet echoes on through space; the thoughts his brain
gave birth to we have inherited to-day; his passions are our cause of
life; the joys and sorrows that he knew are our familiar friends--the
end from which he fled aghast will surely overtake us also!
Truly the universe is full of ghosts, not sheeted churchyard spectres,
but the inextinguishable elements of individual life, which having
once been, can never /die/, though they blend and change, and change
again for ever.
All sorts of reflections of this nature passed through my mind--for as
I grow older I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems
to be getting a hold of me--while I stood and stared at those grim yet
fantastic lines of warriors, sleeping, as their saying goes, "upon
their spears."
"Curtis," I said, "I am in a condition of pitiable fear."
Sir Henry stroked his yellow beard and laughed, as he answered--
"I have heard you make that sort of remark before, Quatermain."
"Well, I mean it now. Do you know, I very much doubt if one of us will
be alive to-morrow night. We shall be attacked in overwhelming force,
and it is quite a chance if we can hold this place."
"We'll give a good account of some of them, at any rate. Look here,
Quatermain, this business is nasty, and one with which, properly
speaking, we ought not to be mixed up, but we are in for it, so we
must make the best of our job. Speaking personally, I had rather be
killed fighting than any other way, and now that there seems little
chance of our finding my poor brother, it makes the idea easier to me.
But fortune favours the brave, and we may succeed. Anyway, the battle
will be awful, and having a reputation to keep up, we shall need to be
in the thick of the thing."
He made this last remark in a mournful voice, but there was a gleam in
his eye which belied its melancholy. I have an idea Sir Henry Curtis
actually likes fighting.
After this we went to sleep for a couple of hours or so.
Just about dawn we were awakened by Infadoos, who came to say that
great activity was to be observed in Loo, and that parties of the
king's skirmishers were driving in our outposts.
We rose and dressed ourselves for the fray, each putting on his chain
armour shirt, for which garments at the present juncture we felt
exceedingly thankful. Sir Henry went the whole length about the
matter, and dressed himself like a native warrior. "When you are in
Kukuanaland, do as the Kukuanas do," he remarked, as he drew the
shining steel over his broad breast, which it fitted like a glove. Nor
did he stop there. At his request Infadoos had provided him with a
complete set of native war uniform. Round his throat he fastened the
leopard-skin cloak of a commanding officer, on his brows he bound the
plume of black ostrich feathers worn only by generals of high rank,
and about his middle a magnificent moocha of white ox-tails. A pair of
sandals, a leglet of goat's hair, a heavy battle-axe with a
rhinoceros-horn handle, a round iron shield covered with white ox-
hide, and the regulation number of /tollas/, or throwing-knives, made
up his equipment, to which, however, he added his revolver. The dress
was, no doubt, a savage one, but I am bound to say that I seldom saw a
finer sight than Sir Henry Curtis presented in this guise. It showed
off his magnificent physique to the greatest advantage, and when
Ignosi arrived presently, arrayed in a similar costume, I thought to
myself that I had never before seen two such splendid men.
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