Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1890 — ALLAN QUATERMAIN. [ARTICLE]

ALLAN QUATERMAIN.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

Chapter XX— Continued. ’•Now, farewell, ” I said. “Send a thousand horsemen with remounts af»r us in an hour, if possible. Stay,dispatch a general to the left wing to take over the command and explain my absence.” ••You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?” he said, in a broken voice“Av, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.” He cast one glance at us. and accompanied by his staff, galloped off to join the advance, which by this time was fording the little brook that now ran red with the blood of the fallen* As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as arrows leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out of the sight of slaughter, the smell of blood and the turmoil and shouting, which only came to'our ears as a faint, far-off roaring, like the sound of distant breakers*

CHAPTER XXI. “ away! away! At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses; and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath -as, which, illumined as it was, by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red. looked from where we were more like some wild Titanic picture, than an actual hand-to-hand combat. The distinguishing scenic effect from that distance was the countless distinct flashes of light reflected from the swords and Bpears, otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, ind the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what was tremendous enough, when one was in it, grew insignificant when viewed from the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings of our race about which wo blow the loud trumi>et, and make such a fuss and a worry? How utterly ant-like, and morally and physically insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyes that watch them from the arching depths above!

~ “We win the day, Maeumazahn,” said old Umslopogaas, taking in the whole situation with a glance of his practiced eye. “Look, the Lady of the Night’s forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in them, they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But alas! the battle will in a manner be drawn, for the darkness gathers, and the regiments will not be able to follow and slay!”—and he shook his head sadly. “But,” he added, “I do not think that that they will fight again, we have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have lived! At last I have seen a fight wortn seeing.” By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I told him what our mission Was, and how that, it it failed, all the lives that had been lost that day would have been lost in vain. “Ahl” he said, “nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to be there before dawn! Well—away! away! man can but try, Maeumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old ‘witch-finder’s’ [Agon’s] skull for him. Once he wanted to burn us, the old arain-mak-er,’ did he? And now he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good! So sure as my name is the \N oodpecker, so surely, he my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay, by T’Chaka's head I swear it!” and he shook Inkosikaas as he galloped. By now the darkness was closing Wj—but fortunately there would be a moon later, and the road was good.

On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide steady stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile. Down the sides of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot of faroff hills. Nearer and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were traveling up their steeps, and now we were oyer and passing toward otUcrs that sprung up like visions in the far faint distance beyond. □On, never pahsing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet of the night, that was set like a song to the falling music of our horses’s hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some forgotten starving dog howled a melancholy welcome{ on, past lonely moated dwellings; on, through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide bosom of the earth, as though there was no warmth in it, knee to knee, for hour after hour!

We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious horses, and listenod to their deep, ioug-drawn breaths as they filled their groat lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside mo, mountod on the great white hosre, like Death in the Revelation of St John, as now and age-uv lifting his fierce set face he gazed out along the road, ( and pointed with his as toward some distant rise or house. □ And so on, till, without break or pause for hour after hour. . At last I began to feel that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning to give out I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight and we were considerably more than half way. i n tho top of a rise was a little spring wuich I remembered because I had slept by it 3 few nights before, and here I mentioned to Umslopogaas to pull up, having determined to give the horses and ourselves ten minutes to breathe in. He did so, and we dis- ■

mounted —that Is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me off. for what with fatigue, and the pain of my wound, I could not do so for myself ;and the gallant horses stood panting there, resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat fell drip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds in the Still night air. Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was parched up, though my fatigue was too great to allow me to feel hungry. Then, having laved my fevered head and hands, I returned and the Zulu went and drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a couple of mouthfuls each—no more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and inspecting condition of the horses. My mare, gallant animal though she was, was evidently much distressed; she hung her head, and her eye looked sick and dull: but Daylight, Nyleptha’s glorious horse—who, if he is served aright, should, like the steeds who saved the great Rameses in his need, feed for the rest of his days out of a golden manger—was still, comparatively speaking, fresh, notwithstanding that he had by far the heavier weight to carry. He was “tucked up,” indeed, and his legs were weary, but his

eye was bright and clear, and he held his shapely head up and gazed out into the darkness around him in a way that seemed to say that who ever failed he was good for those five and forty miles that yet law between us and Milosis. ThCn-Uraslopagaas helped me into the saddle and—vigorous old savage that he was!—vaulted into his own without touching stirrup, and we were Oif once more, slowly at first, till the horses got into their stride, and then more swiftly. So we -passed over another ten miles, and then came a long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three times did my poor black mare nearly come to the ground with me. But on the top she seemed to gather herself together, and rattled down the slope with long, convulsive strides, breathing in gasps. We did that three or four miles more swiftly than any since we had started on our wild ride, but-I felt it to be a last effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took 'the bit between her teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for some three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or three jerky strides, pulled herself up and fell with a crash right onto her head, I rolling myself free as she did so. As I struggle onto my feet, the brave beast raised her head and looked at me with piteous bloodshot eyes, «and then her head dropped with a groan and she was dead. Her heart was broken.

Lmslopogaas pulled up beside the carcass, and I looked at him in, dismay. There were still more than twenty to do by dawn, and how were we to do it with one. horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old Zulu’s extraordinary running powers. Without a single word he sprung from the saddle and began to hoist me into it. - -----4-^-— 7 “What wilt thou do?” tasked. “Run,” he answered, my stirrup leather. Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief it was to me to get that change of horses Anybody who has ever ridden against time will know what it meant. Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the gaunt Zulu a lift at everys stride. It was a wonderful thing to see old Umslopogaas r-uu mile after mile, his lips slightly parted and his nostrils agape like the horse’s. Every five miles or so we stopped for a few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again. “Canst thou go further,” I said, at the third of these stoppages, “or shall I leave thee to follow me?” He pointed with his ax to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of the Sun, now not more than five miles away.

“I reach it or I die,” he gasped. Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my legs, and every movement of my horse gave me anguish. Nor was that all. I was exhausted with toil, want of food and sleep, and also suffering very much from the blow I had received in my left side; it seeified as though a piece of bone or something was slowly piercing into my lung. JPoor Daylight, too was pretty nearly finished, and no wonder. But there was a smell of dawn in the air, and we might aot stay; better that all three of us should die upon the road than that we should linger while there was life in us: The

air was thick and heavy, as it sometimes is before the dawn breaks, and—another infallible sign in certain parts of Zu-vendis that sunrise is at hand—hundreds of little spiders pendant on the end of long tough webbs were floating about in it. These early-rising creatures, or rather their webs, caught upon too horso's and our own forms by scores, and, as we had neither the nor tho euergy to brush, thsrav we rushed along covered with hundreds of long gray threads that streamed out a yard or more behind us—and a very strange appearance they must have given us. And now before us are the huge brazen gates of the outer wait of the Frowning City, and a new and horrible doubt strikes me: What if they will not let us in? | •‘Open! Open!” I shout imperiously, at the same time giving the royal password. “Open! open a messenger, a messenger with tidings of the war!” “What news?” cried the guard. “And who art thou that ridest so umdly, and who is that whos*. tongue lolls

out”—and it actually did— -“and who runs by thee like a dog by a chariot?” •Tt is the Lord Macumazahtt, and with him is his dog, his black dog. Open! open! I bring tiding^” The great gates ran back on their rollers, and the drawbridge fell with a rattling crash, and we dashed on through the one and over the other. “What news, my lord, what news?” cried the guard. , ~ “Incubu rolls Sorais back, as the wind a cloud,” f “&hg#'ered, and was gone. ~=C- —— One more effort, gallant horse, and' yet more gallant man! So, fall not now, Daylight, and hold thy life in thee for fifteen short minutes more,. old Zulu war dog, and ye shall both live forever in the annals of the land.

On, clattering through the sleeping streets. We are passing the Flower Temple now—one mile more, only one little mile—hold on, keep your life in ye, see the houses run past of themselves. Up, good horse, up, there, but fifty yards no#. Ah! you see your stables and stagger on gallantly. “Thank God, the palace at last!”, and see, the first arrows of the dawn are striking on the temple’s golden dome. But shall I get in here, or is the deed done and the way barred? Once more I give the password and shout “Open! open!” No answer, and my heart grows very faint. Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my joy I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellowofficer of Nyleptha’s guards, a man I know to boas honest as the light--indeed, the same whom Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on the day she fled to the temple. “Is it thou, Kara?” I cry; “I am Macumazahn. Bid tne guard let down the bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick! quick!” Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length the bridge fell and one-half of the gate opened and we got into the court-yard, where at last poor Daylight foil down beneath me, as I thought, dead. I struggled free, and leaning against a post, looked around. Except Kara, there was nobody to be seen, and his garments were all torn. He had opened the gate and let down the bridge alone, and was now getting them up and shut again (as, owing to a very ingenious arrangement of cranks and levers, one man could easily do, and, indeed, generally did do.)

“Where are the guard?” I gasped, fearing his answer as I never feared anything before. “I know not,” he answered; “ two hours ago, as I slept, was I seized and bound by the watch under me, and but now this very moment, have I freed myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly fear, that we are betrayed,” His words gave mo fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered, followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man, through the court-yards, up the great hall, which was silent as the grave, toward the queen’s sleeping place.

We reached the first anteroom—-no guards; the second, still no guards. Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after all, too late! The silence and solitude of those great chambers was dreadful, and weighed me down like an evil dream. On, right into Nyleptha’s chamber we rushed and staggered, sick at heart, fearing the very worst;J we saw there was a light in it, ay, and a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it is the White Queen herself, the queen unharmed! There she stands in her night-gear, roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the heaviness of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame mantling her lovely breast and cheek. “Who is it?” she cries. “What moans this? Oh, Maeumazahn, is it thou? Why lookest thou so wildly? Thou comest as one bearing evil tididgs—and my lord—oh, tell me not my lord is dead—not dead!” she walled, wringing her white hands.

“I left Incubu wounded, but leading the advance against Sorais last night at sundown; therefore let thy heart have rest. Sorais is beaten back all along her lines,and thy arms prevail.” “I knew it!” she cried, in triumph.' “I knew that he would win; and they call him an outlander, and shook their wise heads whon I gave him the command. Last night at sundown, sayest thou? and it is not yet dawn. Surely

“Throw a cloak around thee, Nyleptha,” I broke in, “and give us wine to drink; ay, and call thy maidens quick if thou wouldst save thyself alive. Nay, stay not.” Thus adjured, she ran and called through the curtains toward some room beyond, and then hastily put on her sandals and a thick cloak, by which time a dozen or so half-dressed women were pouring into the room. “Follow us and be silent,” I said to them, as they gazed with wondering eyes, clinging one to another. So we went into the first anteroom.

“Now,” I said, “give us wine to drink and food, if ye have it, for we are near to death.” The room was usod as a mess-room for the officers of the guards, and from a cupboard somo ftagons of wine and some cold flesh were brought forth, and Umslopogaas and I drank, and felt life flow back into our veins as the good red wine went down. “Hark to me, Nyleptha," I said, as I put down the empty tankard. “Hast thou here among these thy waitingladies any-two of discretion?" “Ay,” she said, “Surely.” ••Then bid them go out by the side entrance to any citizens whom thou canst bethink thee of as men loyal to thee, and pray them come armed, with all honest folk that they can gather,, to rescue thee from death. Nay, question not;' do as I say, and quickly. Kara here will let out the maids.” —,•.i -——rj— r—~ —■■■■:.*-.^l ——* —>< - .

Sho turned, and selecting two of the crowd of damsels, repeated the words I had uttered, giving them besides a list of the names of tite men to whom each should run. ‘•Goswiftly and aecretly; go for your lives,” I added. In another moment they had left with Kara, whom I told to rejoin us at the door leading from the great courtyard on to the stairway as soon as he had made fast behind the girls. Thither, too, Umslopogaas and I made our way, followed by the queen and her women. As we went we tore off mouthfuls of food, and between them I told her what I knew of the danger which encompassed her, and how we had found Kara, and how all the guards and men servants were gone, and she was alone with her women in that great place; and she told me, too, that a rumor had spread through the town that our army had been utterly destroyed, and tbat Sorais was marching in triumph on Milosis, and how in consequence thereof all men had fallen away from her. Though all thi3 takes some time to tell, we had not been but six or seven minutes in the palace, and, nothwithstahding that the golden roof of the temple, being very lofty, was ablaze with the rays of the rising sun, it was not yet dawn, nor would be for another ten minutes. We were in the court-yard now, and here my wound pained me so that I had to take Nyleptha’s arm, while Umslopogaas rolled along after us. eating as he went-, Now we were across it, and had reached the narrow door-way through the palace wall that opened on to the mighty stair.

I looked through and stood aghast, as well I might. The door was gone and so were the outer gates of bronze entirely gone. They had been taken from their hinges, and as we afterward found, hurled from the stair way to the ground two hundred feet beneath. There in front of us was the semi-cir-cular standing space, about twice the the size of a large oval dining-table, and the ten cured black marble Btaps leading onto the main stair—and that was all. TO BE CONTINUED.