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Page 72
"That's awkward."
"Yes; especially as Infadoos says that the water supply has given
out."
"My lord, that is so," said Infadoos; "the spring cannot supply the
wants of so great a multitude, and it is failing rapidly. Before night
we shall all be thirsty. Listen, Macumazahn. Thou art wise, and hast
doubtless seen many wars in the lands from whence thou camest--that is
if indeed they make wars in the Stars. Now tell us, what shall we do?
Twala has brought up many fresh men to take the place of those who
have fallen. Yet Twala has learnt his lesson; the hawk did not think
to find the heron ready; but our beak has pierced his breast; he fears
to strike at us again. We too are wounded, and he will wait for us to
die; he will wind himself round us like a snake round a buck, and
fight the fight of 'sit down.'"
"I hear thee," I said.
"So, Macumazahn, thou seest we have no water here, and but a little
food, and we must choose between these three things--to languish like
a starving lion in his den, or to strive to break away towards the
north, or"--and here he rose and pointed towards the dense mass of our
foes--"to launch ourselves straight at Twala's throat. Incubu, the
great warrior--for to-day he fought like a buffalo in a net, and
Twala's soldiers went down before his axe like young corn before the
hail; with these eyes I saw it--Incubu says 'Charge'; but the Elephant
is ever prone to charge. Now what says Macumazahn, the wily old fox,
who has seen much, and loves to bite his enemy from behind? The last
word is in Ignosi the king, for it is a king's right to speak of war;
but let us hear thy voice, O Macumazahn, who watchest by night, and
the voice too of him of the transparent eye."
"What sayest thou, Ignosi," I asked.
"Nay, my father," answered our quondam servant, who now, clad as he
was in the full panoply of savage war, looked every inch a warrior
king, "do thou speak, and let me, who am but a child in wisdom beside
thee, hearken to thy words."
Thus adjured, after taking hasty counsel with Good and Sir Henry, I
delivered my opinion briefly to the effect that, being trapped, our
best chance, especially in view of the failure of our water supply,
was to initiate an attack upon Twala's forces. Then I recommended that
the attack should be delivered at once, "before our wounds grew
stiff," and also before the sight of Twala's overpowering force caused
the hearts of our soldiers "to wax small like fat before a fire."
Otherwise, I pointed out, some of the captains might change their
minds, and, making peace with Twala, desert to him, or even betray us
into his hands.
This expression of opinion seemed, on the whole, to be favourably
received; indeed, among the Kukuanas my utterances met with a respect
which has never been accorded to them before or since. But the real
decision as to our plans lay with Ignosi, who, since he had been
recognised as rightful king, could exercise the almost unbounded
rights of sovereignty, including, of course, the final decision on
matters of generalship, and it was to him that all eyes were now
turned.
At length, after a pause, during which he appeared to be thinking
deeply, he spoke.
"Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, brave white men, and my friends;
Infadoos, my uncle, and chiefs; my heart is fixed. I will strike at
Twala this day, and set my fortunes on the blow, ay, and my life--my
life and your lives also. Listen; thus will I strike. Ye see how the
hill curves round like the half-moon, and how the plain runs like a
green tongue towards us within the curve?"
"We see," I answered.
"Good; it is now mid-day, and the men eat and rest after the toil of
battle. When the sun has turned and travelled a little way towards the
darkness, let thy regiment, my uncle, advance with one other down to
the green tongue, and it shall be that when Twala sees it he will hurl
his force at it to crush it. But the spot is narrow, and the regiments
can come against thee one at a time only; so may they be destroyed one
by one, and the eyes of all Twala's army shall be fixed upon a
struggle the like of which has not been seen by living man. And with
thee, my uncle, shall go Incubu my friend, that when Twala sees his
battle-axe flashing in the first rank of the Greys his heart may grow
faint. And I will come with the second regiment, that which follows
thee, so that if ye are destroyed, as it might happen, there may yet
be a king left to fight for; and with me shall come Macumazahn the
wise."
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