Benita, an African romanceHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
General
Benita, an African romance
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Africa, East -- Fiction
“I suppose that I must have overslept myself then,” she replied wearily.
“But it does not seem to have refreshed me much, and my head aches. Oh!
I remember,” she added with a start. “I have had such a horrid dream.”
“What about?” he asked as carelessly as he could.
“I can’t recall it quite, but it had to do with Mr. Meyer,” and she
shivered. “It seemed as though I had passed into his power, as though he
had taken possession of me, body and soul, and forced me to tell him all
the secret things.”
“What secret things, Benita?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know now, but we went away among dead people, and I told him
there. Oh! father, I am afraid of that man--terribly afraid! Protect me
from him,” and she began to cry a little.
“Of course I will protect you, dear. Something has upset your nerves.
Come, dress yourself and you’ll soon forget it all. I’ll light the
fire.”
A quarter of an hour later Benita joined him, looking pale and shaken,
but otherwise much as usual. She was ravenously hungry, and ate of the
biscuits and dried meat with eagerness.
“The coffee tastes quite different from that which I drank last night,”
she said. “I think there must have been something in it which gave me
those bad dreams. Where is Mr. Meyer? Oh, I know!” and again she put her
hand to her head. “He is still asleep by the wall.”
“Who told you that?”
“I can’t say, but it is so. He will not come here till one o’clock.
There, I feel much better now. What shall we do, father?”
“Sit in the sun and rest, I think, dear.”
“Yes, let us do that, on the top of the wall. We can see the Makalanga
from there, and it will be a comfort to be sure that there are other
human beings left in the world besides ourselves and Jacob Meyer.”
So presently they went, and from the spot whence Meyer used to shoot at
the Matabele camp, looked down upon the Makalanga moving about the first
enclosure far below. By the aid of the glasses Benita even thought that
she recognised Tamas, although of this it was difficult to be sure, for
they were all very much alike. Still, the discovery quite excited her.
“I am sure it is Tamas,” she said. “And oh! how I wish that we were down
there with him, although it is true that then we should be nearer to the
Matabele. But they are better than Mr. Meyer, much better.”
Now for a while they were silent, till at length she said suddenly:
“Father, you are keeping something back from me, and things begin to
come back. Tell me; did I go anywhere last night with Mr. Meyer--you and
he and I together?”
He hesitated and looked guilty; Mr. Clifford was not a good actor.
“I see that we did; I am sure that we did. Father, tell me. I must know,
I will know.”
Then he gave way.
“I didn’t want to speak, dear, but perhaps it is best. It is a very
strange story. Will you promise not to be upset?”
“I will promise not to be more upset than I am at present,” she
answered, with a sad little laugh. “Go on.”
“You remember that Jacob Meyer wanted to mesmerize you?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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