Maiwa's Revenge; Or, The War of the Little HandHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
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Maiwa's Revenge; Or, The War of the Little Hand
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Africa -- Fiction; Hunting guides -- Fiction; Quatermain, Allan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction
“‘Very good; now all you have to do is to walk a little quicker than he
does. No, no, you don’t leave those elephant tusks behind—I am not
going to part with them I can tell you.’
“Gobo said no more, but hastily directed the men to take up their
loads, and then asked which way we were to run.
“‘Ah,’ I said to Maiwa, ‘which way?’
“‘There,’ she answered, pointing towards the great mountain spur which
towered up into the sky some forty miles away, separating the
territories of Nala and Wambe—‘there, below that small peak, is one
place where men may pass, and one only. Also it can easily be blocked
from above. If men pass not there, then they must go round the great
peak of the mountain, two days’ journey and half a day.’
“‘And how far is the peak from us?’
“‘All to-night shall you walk and all to-morrow, and if you walk fast,
at sunset you shall stand on the peak.’
“I whistled, for that meant a five-and-forty miles trudge without
sleep. Then I called to the men to take each of them as much cooked
elephant’s meat as he could carry conveniently. I did the same myself,
and forced the woman Maiwa to eat some as we went. This I did with
difficulty, for at that time she seemed neither to sleep nor eat nor
rest, so fiercely was she set on vengeance.
“Then we started, Maiwa guiding us. After going for a half-hour over
gradually rising ground, we found ourselves on the further edge of a
great bush-clad depression something like the bottom of a lake. This
depression, through which we had been travelling, was covered with bush
to a very great extent, indeed almost altogether so, except where it
was pitted with glades such as that wherein I had shot the elephants.
“At the top of this slope Maiwa halted, and putting her hand over her
eyes looked back. Presently she touched me on the arm and pointed
across the sea of forest towards a comparatively vacant space of
country some six or seven miles away. I looked, and suddenly I saw
something flash in the red rays of the setting sun. A pause, and then
another quick flash.
“‘What is it?’ I asked.
“‘It is the spears of Wambe’s impi, and they travel fast,’ she answered
coolly.
“I suppose that my face showed how little I liked the news, for she
went on—
“‘Fear not; they will stay to feast upon the elephants, and while they
feast we shall journey. We may yet escape.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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