Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1890 — ALLAN QUATERMAIN. [ARTICLE]

ALLAN QUATERMAIN.

A Reoord of Remarkable Adventures and Discoveries.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

CHAPTER XI. th* FRowHiae cm. • ;s.v.£■£ For an hour or more I sat waiting (Unertopogaas having meanwhile gone to sleep also) tiU at length the east turned gray, and huge misty shapes moved over the surface of the water tike ghosts of long forgotten dawns." They were the vapors rising from their watery bed to greet the sun. Then the gray turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars of light sprung up across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy way, scattering the ghostly vapors and awaking the mountains with a kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to longitude. Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and

glory and a flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and eoveretHter with brightness, and it was day. But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole surface had been covered witlr hillows of cotton wool. By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we wei-C afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make out the shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there stretched as far as the eye could roach a range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some exit ih these hills that the subterranean river found its way into the open water. Indeed, I afterward ascertained this to be the fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary strength and directness of the current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering to it. Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas. who woke up just then, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it was. Perceiviug some whitish object upon the water Umslopogaas called my attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to the spot, whereupon we discovered that the object was the body of a man floating face downward. This was bad enough, but im-

agine my horror when. Umslopogaas having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunken features the lineaments of—whom do you suppose? None other than our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the waters of the subterranean river. It gave me quite a turn. I thought that we had left him behind forover, and behold! borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His appearance also was very dreadful. He had been a black man, now he was a livid white, for the boiling water had scalded off nearly all his outer skin. Also he bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire—one a«m being completely shriveled up and all his hair being burned off. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight quite unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone through, and 1 was heartily glad when suddenly and without any warning the body be-* gan to sink just as though it had a

mission, which having been accomplished, it retired: the real’reason no doubt being that turning it on its back allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went into the transparent depths—fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at last a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other to the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At length these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish. “What did he follow us for?” he asked. « ’Tis an ill omen fortheeand me, Macumazahn." And he laughed. I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions. If people have such ideas, they ought in oommon decency to keep them to themselves. I detest individuals who make one the subject bf their disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream that they saw one hanged as a common felon, or some sueh horror, will insist upon telling one all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do it.

Juki then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly at dnding that they were out of that dreadful river and once more beneath the blue sky. Then followed a babble of talk and suggestions as to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was that as we were exceedingly angry, and had nothing whatsoever left to eat exoept a few scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained of our provisions to those horrible fresh-water orabs, we determined make for the shore. But now a new difficulty arose. We did opt know where the shore was, and, with the exoeptlon of the cliffs through which the subterranean river made its entry, oould see nothing but e wide expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however that the long High to of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that they were advancing from their feedinggrounds on shore to puss the day in the lake, and accordingly headed the boat toward the quarter whenoe they «MRM,Midb*gau to paddle Before leog, however, a sttfflsh breeae sprung

wp, olowing directly La the direction we wanted; so we improvised a sail with a blanket and the pole, which took us along merrily. This done, we proceeded W devour the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and then awaited whatever might turn up. When we had been Sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that he saw land,

tiiiQ poinirGti oui» LUttt, ironi mo CuoagO in the color of the water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth of the river. In another minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul’s, piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reported another and still more important discovery, namely, that a small sailing boat was advancing toward us. This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that they possessed some

degree of civilzation. In a few more minutes it became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancing boat had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the wind as though in doubt, and then came taking toward us with great swiftness. ’ln ten more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat—not a canoe “dugout,” but built more or less in the European fashion with planks, and carrying a singularly large sail for her size. But our attention was soon diverted from the boat to her crew, which consisted of a man and woman, nearly* as white as ourselves. We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we must be mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished from a black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards <fr Italians. It was a patent fact. So it was true, after all; and. mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I could have shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder Of the thing; and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on the unexpected success of our wild search. Ail my life had I heard rumors of a white race that existed in the highlands of the interior of this vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir ienry said, the old Roman was right when he wrote, “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi,” which he tells me means that out of Africa there always comes 60me new thing.

The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique, and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline features, and an intelligent face. He whs dressed in a sort of brown cloth something like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of the same material. The legs and feet were hare. Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings of yeti© s ®: metal that I judged to be gold. The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the man’s, and consisted, as we afterward discovered, first of a linen undergarment that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip ofcloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the body in graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder, so that the end, which was dyed blue or purple or some

other color, ~ accdramg tothe social standing of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm and breast being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress, especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. G ood (who has an eye for such things) was greatly struck with it. and so indeed was I. It was so simple and yet so effective. Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for awhile hovered round our canoe but would not approach. At last, however, he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we qould not understand one word. So we hailed back in English. French, Latin, Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana. and a few other native dialects that I am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she was busily employed in taking stocji of us, and Good was returning the compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length the man, being unable to make anything out of us, suddenly headed his boat round and began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow As she passed across our bows the man turned to attend to the large sail, and Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss his hand to the young lady. I was horrified at this proceeding, both on general grounds and because I feared she might take offense, but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever it was, was engaged, she promptly kissed hers back. “Ah!” said I. “It seems that we have at last found a language that the peop'e of this country understand - “In whioh case," said Sir Henry, <-■ “Good will prove an invaluable interpreter."

I frowned, for Ido not approve of GoodV frivolities, and he knows il, and turned the conversation to more serioini subjects. “It is very clear to me,” I said, “that that man will be back before long with a host of his fellows, 'bo we had best make up our minds as to how we are going to receive them.” '‘The question is how will they receive usP” said Sir Henry. As for Good, he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings, from under a pile of things. Now we had often remon-

strated with Good about this tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never given an jr very explicit account as to its contents; but he had insisted on sticking to it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very useful one day. “What on earth are you going to do, Good?” asked Sir Henry. “Do—why, dress, of course! You don’t expect me to appear in a new country in these things', do you?” add he pointed to his soiled and worn garments, which were, however, very tidy, like all Good’s things, and with every tear neatly mended. We said no more, but watched his proceedings with breathless interest. His first step was to get Alphonse, who was thoroughly competent in such matters, to trim his hair ard beard in the most approved fashion. I think that if he had had some hot water and

a cake of soap handy, he, would have shaved off the latter; but ho had neti This done, he suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all lake a bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and astonishment of Alphonse, who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were indeed a wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most highbred Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water, and sat to dry in the sun; whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced first a beautiful elean white shirt, iust as it had left ii

London steam laundry, and then some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper. We watched this undoing with the tenderest interest and much speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their splendors, carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its gold epaulets, lace, and buttons, a_eommander of the royal navy’sfull-dress, uniform—dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent-leather boots, and all. We literally gasped. “What!” we said, “what! Are you going to put those things on?” “Certainly,” he answered, composedly; “you see so much depends upon a first impression, especially,” he added, “as I observe that there are ladles about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.” We said no more; we were simply dumfounded, especially when we considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the contents of that box for ail these months. Only ■ one suggestion did we make, namely, that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the creases out, but finally consented to this precautionary measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old Umslopogaas’s astonishment and Alphonse’s delight at Good’s transformation. When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to the medals on his breast, and contemplated himself in the atill waters of the lake, after the fashion of the young gentleman in ancient history, whose name I can’t remember, but who fell in love with his own shadow, the old Zulu could no longer restrain his feelings. “Oh, Bougwan!” he said. “Oh, Bougwan! I always thought thee an ugly little man, and fat—fat as the eows at calving time; and now thou art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan, it hurts my eyes to look at thee.”

Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which, to tell the truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exorcise had brought himwlown four inches; but on the whole he was pleased at Umslopogaas’s admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted. “Ah! but monsieur has the beautiful air—the air of the warrior. It is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore. Monsieur is complete, he puts me in mind of my heroic grand—”

Here we stopped Alphonse. As we gazed upon these beauties thus revealed by Good, a spirit of emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves up as well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to do was to array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting-clothes, of which we eacn had one, keeping on our mail shirts underneath. As for my appearance, all the fine clothes In

the world could never make it otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but Sir Henry looked what he is, a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit, gaijers and boots. Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn to his enormous mustache. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way given to the vain adorning of his oody, got hold Of some oil out of the lantern and a bit of tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone like Good's patentleather boots!. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir Henry bad given him and his “moocha,” and, having cleaned up Intcosi-kaas a little, stood forth complete. ■ All this while we had. having hoisted, the sail again as soon as we had bathed. In i II Jll'llgfliHlHi ■lnuifilj iniThii land, or, rather, for the mouth of a great

1 ■ „ A .' river. Presently—in all aboutan hour and a‘half after the little boat had left us—we saw emerging from the river or harbor a large numherlnf bnat-a, rangging up to ten Or twelve tons burden. One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars,- and most of the rest □ sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the rowboat was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of uniform, _ whilst on the half-deck forward- stood an old man of venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword strapped to his side, who was

evidently the commander of the craft. The other boats were apparently occupied by people drawn out of curiosity, and were rowing or sailing toward us as quickly as they could. “Now for it, ” said I. “What is the betting? Are they going to be friendly or to put an end to ns?” Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we “felt a little ahxfbbi! : Just then Good spied - a school of hippopotami on the water about two hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them if possible. This, unluckily enough, S struck us as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out our eightbore rifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action. There were four of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three parts grown. We got up to them without difficult, the great. ■ animals contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again a few yards further Twr; deed, their excessive tameness struck me as being peculiar. When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three-parts grown young one. The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull, killed it. and it sunk, leaving a long train of blood behind it. At the same moment, I fired at the cow and Good at the old bull, j My shot took effect, but not fatally, j and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only to rise again presently blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round her orimson, when I killed hor with the left barrel. Good, who is an ex- , ecrable shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting the side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I had 1 fired my second shot, I perceived that the peo- - pie we had fallen among were evidently ignorant of the nature of fire-arms, for the consternation caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious. Some of the parties in the boats began to cry out with fear; others turned and made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentleman with the sword looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted his big row-boat. We had, however, but little time for observation, for just then the old bull, rendered furious by the wound he had received rose fair within forty yards' of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and hit him in places, and down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now began to overcome the fear of the on-lookers, and some of them sailed on close to us, amongst the m being the man and woman whom we had first seen a couple of hours or so before, who drew up almost alongside."~7Just then the great brute rose again within ten yards of their boat, and instantly with a roar of fury made at it openmouthed. The woman shrieked, and the man tried to give the boat way, but without success. In another Seoond t saw the huge red jaws and gleaming ivories elose with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous mouthful out of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its occupants struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could do anything toward saving them, the huge and furious creature was up again and making open-mouthed at the poor girl, who was struggling in the water. Lifting my rifle just as the grinding jaws were about to close on the girl, 1 fired over her head right down the hippopotamus’s throat. Over he went, and commenced turning round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of blood through his nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however, I let him have the other barrel in the side of the throat, and that finished him. He never moved or struggled again, but instantly 9unk. Our next effort was directed toward saving the girl, the man having swum off toward another boat; and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling her into tho canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt. f To bh Continued*