By the light of the fire that burned dimly in the midst of his
captor's house he could see, as his eyes grew gradually accustomed
to the murky gloom, a strange and savage scene, such as he had never
before in his life dreamt of. In the pit of the hut some embers
glowed feebly, from whose midst a fleecy object was sputtering and
hissing. A second glance assured him that the savoury morsel was
the head of an antelope in process of roasting. Two greasy black
women, naked to the waist, were superintending this primitive
cookery; all round, a group of unclad little imps, as black as their
mothers, lounged idly about, with their eyes firmly fixed on the
chance of dinner. As Granville entered, the husband and father,
poking in his head, shouted a few words after him. Another native
outside kept watch and ward with a spear at the door meanwhile, to
prevent his escape against King Khatsua's orders.
For two long hours the Englishman waited there, fretting and fuming,
in that stifling atmosphere. Meanwhile, the antelope's head was
fully cooked, and the women and children falling on it like wild
beasts, tore off the scorched fleece and snatched the charred flesh
from the bones with their fingers greedily. It was a hideous sight;
it sickened him to see it.
By--and--by Granville heard a loud voice outside. He listened
in surprise. It sounded as though Barolong had another prisoner.
There was a pause and a scuffle. Then, all of a sudden, somebody
else came bundling unceremoniously through the hole that served for
a door, in the same undignified fashion as he himself had done.
Granville's eyes, now accustomed to the gloom, recognised the
stranger at once with a thrill of astonishment. He could hardly
trust his senses at the sight. It was--no, it couldn't be--yes, it
was--Guy Waring.
Guy Waring, sure enough; as before, they were companions. The
Kelmscott character had worked itself out exactly alike in each
of them. They had come independently by the self-same road to the
rumoured diamond fields of the Barolong country.
It was some minutes, however, before Guy, for his part, recognised
his fellow-prisoner in the dark and gloomy hut. Then each stared
at the other in mute surprise. They found no words to speak their
mutual astonishment. This was more wonderful, to be sure, than even
either of their former encounters.
For another long hour the two unfriendly English-men huddled away
from one another in opposite corners of that native hut, without
speaking a word of any sort in their present straits. At the end
of that time, a voice spoke at the door some guttural sentences
in the Barolong language. The natives inside responded alike in
their own savage clicks. Next the voice spoke in English; it was
Granville's captor, he now knew well.
"White men, you come out; King Khatsua himself, him go to 'peak to
you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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