Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1890 — ALLAN QUATERMAIN. [ARTICLE]

ALLAN QUATERMAIN.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

CHAPTER XXII. HOW UMSLOPOGAAS HELD THE STAIR. We looked one at another. “Thou seest,” I said, “they have taken away the deor. Is there aught with which- we may fill the place? Speak quickly, for they will be on us ere the daylight. I spoke thus. beoaose I knew that we most hold this place or none, as there were no inner doors in the palace, the rooms, being separated one from another by curtains. I also knew that if we could by any means defend this door way the murderers could get in nowhere else, for the palace is absolutely impregnable, that is, since the secret door by which Sorais had entered on that memorable night of attempted murder had, by Nyleptha’s order, been closed up with masonry. •: “I have it,” said Nyleptha, who, as usual with her, rose to the emergency in a wonderful way. «‘On the further side of the court-yard are blocks of cut marble—the worikmen brought them there for the bed of the new statue of Ineubu, my lord; let us block the door with them.”

I jumped at the idea, and having dispatched one of the remaining maidens down the great stair to see if she could obtain assistance from the docks below, where her father, who was a great merchant, employing many men, had his dwelling-place, and set another to watch through the door-way, we made our way back across the courtyard to where the hewn marble lay. and here we met Kara returning from dispatching the first two messengers. There were the marble blocks, sure enough, broad, massive lumps, some six inches thick, and weighing about eighty pounds each, and there, too, were a couple of implements like small stretchers, that the workmen used to carry them on. Without delay we got some of the blocks on the stretchers, and four of the girls carried them to the door-way. “Listen, Macumazahn,” said Umslopogaas, “if these low fellows come, it is I who will hold the stair against them till the door is built up. Nay, nay, it will be a man’s death, gainsay me not, old friend. It has been a good day, let it now be good-night See, I throw myself down to rest on the marble there, when their footsteps are nigh, wake thou me, not before, for I need my strength,” and without a word he went outside and flung himself down on the marble, and was instantly asleep. At this time, I too was overcome, and was forced to sit down by the door-way, and content myself with directing operations. The girls brought the blocks, while Kara and Nyleptha built them up across the six-foot-wide door-way, a triple row of them, for less would be useless. But the marble had to he brought forty —yards, and then there were forty yards to run back, and though the girls labored gloriously, even staggering along alone, each with a block in her arms, it was slow work, dreadfully slow. The light was growing now, and presently, in the silence, we heard a commotion at the far-off bottom of the stair, and the faint clanking of armed men. As yet the wall was only two feet high, and we had been eight minutes at the building of it. So they -had come. Alphonse had heard aright.

The clanking sound had come nearer, and in the ghostly gray of the dawning we could make out long files of men some fifty or so in all, slowly creeping up the stair. They were now at the half-way standing place that rested on the great flying arch; and here, perceiving that something was going on above, they, to our great gain, halted for three or four minutes and consulted, then slowly and cautiously advanced again. We had oeen nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and it was almost three feet high. Then I awoke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself, and swung Inkosi-kaas around his head. * -It is well, ”he said. •‘I fell as a young man once more. My strength has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before it dies. Fear not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine and the sleep have put a new heart into mo.

“Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and I stood together on a star, and looked down on the world, and thou wast a spirit. Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy flesh, but I could not see what was the fashion of mine own face. The hour has come for us, old hunter. So be it; we have had our time, but I would that in it I had seen v some more such fights as yesterday's. * ‘Let them bury me according to the fashion of my people, Macumazahn, and set my eyes toward Zululand;” and he took my hand and shook it, and then turned to face the advancing foe. Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Yendi officer, Kara, clambored over our‘improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way, and took his stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his aw ord as he did so. “What, comest thou, too?'' laughed out the old warrior. “Welcome— a welcome to thee brave heart! Ow! for the man who cun die like a man; ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel. Ow! we are ready. We wet ouf beaks like Cagles, our spears flash in the sun; we shake our assegais, and we ate anxious to 'fight. Who comes to give greeting the great ohieftainess. [lnkosi-kasa]? Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit irdesthf I, the woodpecker; I, the slaughterer; I, the swiftfooted! I Umflopogaas, of the tribe of the Maquili■ini of the people of Araasu'u, r. captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi; I Umalopogaas, the son of Ind>

baabnbi, the son of Aryl, the son o Mosiliktaakze, L of the royal blood o! T’Chaka, I, of the King’s House, I, tht Ringed Man, I, the Inpuna; I call tc them as a buck calls; I challenge them, I await them. Ow! it is thou, it is thou!” As he spake, or rather chanted his wild war-song, the armed men, among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta and Agon, came streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big fellow, armed with a big spear, dashed up the ten semi-circular steps ahead of his comrades and struck at the great Zulu with the spear. Umslopogaas moved his body but not his legs, so that the blow missed him. and next instant Inkosi-kaas crashed through ths headpiece, hair and skull, and the man’s corpse was rattling down the steps. As he dropped, hie round hippopotamus-hide shield fell from his hand on the marble, and the Zulu stooped down and seized it, still chanting as he did so. In another second the sturdy Kara had also slain a man, and then began a scene the like of which has not been known to me. Up raised the assailants, one, two, three at a time, and as fast as they came, the ax crashed and the sword Bwung, and down they rolled again dead or dying. And ever as the fight thickened, the old Zulu’s eyes seemed 10 get quicker and his arm stronger, tie shouted out his war cries and the names of chiefs whom he had slain, and the blows of bis awful ax rained straight and true, shearing through everything they fell on. There was none of the scientific method he was so fond of about this last immortal fight of his; he had no time for it, but struck with his full strength, and at every stroke a man sunk in his tracks, and went rattling down the marble steps,

They hacked and hewed at him with swords and spears, wounding him in a dozen places till he streamed red with blood; but the shield protected his head and (the chain-shirt his vitals, and for minute after minute, aided by the gallant Zu-Vendi, he still held the stair. At last Kara’s sword broke, and he grappled with a foe, and they rolled down together, and he was out to pieces, dying like the brave man that he was. Umslopogaas was alone now, but he never blanched or turned. Shoutiug out some wild Zulu battle-cry, he boat down a foe, ay, and another, and another, till at last they drew back from the the slippery blood-stained steps, and stared at him in amazement, thinking he was no mortal man.

The wall of marble block was no more than four feet six inches high now, and hope rose in my heart as I Leaned there against it a miserable, helpless log, and ground my teeth and wa\ched that glorious struggle. I could do no more for I had lost my revolver in the battle. And old Umslopogaas, he leaned too on hie good ax, and, faint as he was with wounds, he mocked them, he called them “women”— the grand old warrior, standing there one against so many! And for a breathing space none would come against him, notwithstanding Nasta’s exortations, till at last old Agon who, to do him justice, was a brave mam, mad with baffled rage, and seeing that the wall would soon be built and his plans defeated, shook the great spearthat he held, and rushed up the dripping steps.

“Ah, ah!” shouted the Zulu, as he recognized the priest’s flowing white beard, “It is thou, old ‘watchfinder!’ Come on! I await thee, white ‘medi-cine-man;’ "come on! come on! I have sworn to slay thee, and I ever keep my faith.” On he came, taking him at his word, and drove the big spear with such force at Umslopogaas that it sunk right through the tough shield and pierced him in the neck. The Zulu cast down his transfixed shield, and that moment was Agon’s last, for before he could free his spear and strike again, with a shout of “There's for thee, Rain-maker!" Umslopogaas took inkosi-kaas with both hands and whirled her on high and drove her right on his venerable head, so that Agnon rolled down dead among the corpses of his fellow-murderers, and there was an end to him and his plots. And even as he fell, a great cry rose from the foot of the stair, and looking out through the portion of the doorway that Was yet unclosed, wo saw armed men rushing up to the rescue, and called an answer to their shouts. Then the wood-be-murderers who yet remained on the stairway, and amongst whom I saw several priests, turned to fly, hut, having nowhere to go, were butchered as they fled. Only one man stayed, and he was the great Lord Nasta, Nvleptha’s suitor, and the father of the plot. For a moment the black bearded Nasta stood with bowed face, leaning on his long sword, as though in despair, and then, With a dreadful shout, he too rushed at the Zulu, aud, swinging the sword around his head, dealt him such a mighty blow beneath his guard, that the keen steel of the heavy blade bit right through the chain armor and deep into Umslopogaas’s side, for a moment paralyzing him and causing him to drop his ax. Raising the sword again, Nasta sprung forward to make an end of him, but little he knew his foe. With a shake and a yell of fury, the Zulu gathered himself together and sprung straight at Nasta's throat, as I have sometimes scon a wounded lion spring. Hh struck him full as his foot was on the top-most stair, and his long arms closing round him like bands, down they rolled together struggling furiously. Nasta was a strong man and a desperate, hut he could not match the strongest man in Zululand. sore wounded though he was, whose strength was as of the strength of a

huUL In a minute the-,1 3aw old Umslopogaas stagger te his f®et—ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing up the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight over the parapet oi the bridge, to be crushed to powder on tbe rocks two hundred feet below. Thp succor which had been summoned by the girl who had passed down the stair before the assassins passsed up wan at hand, and the Zoud shouts which reached usfrom the outer “gates told iis that the town was also aroused, and the men awakened by the women were calling to be admitted. Some of Nyleptha’s brave ladies, who id their night shifts and with their long hair streaming do*wn their backs, just as they had been roused from rest, had worked so gallantly at blocking the passage through the wall, went off to admit them at the side entrance, while others, assisted by the rescuing party outside, pushed and pulled down the marble blocks they had placed there with so mueh labor.

Soon the wall was down again, and through the door-way, followed by a crowd of rescuers, staggered old Umslopogaas, an awful and, in a way, a glorious figure. The man was a mass of wounds, and a glance at his wild eye told me that he was dying. The “keshla” gum-ring upon his head was severed in several places by sword-' cuts, one just over the curious hole in his skull, and the blood poured down bis face from the gushes. Also on the right side of his neck was a stab from a spear, inflicted by Agon; there was a deep cut on his left arm just below where the mail-shirt sleeve stopped, and on the right side of his body tbe armor was severed by a gash six inches long, where Nasta 1 s mighty sword had bitten through it and deep into its wearer’s vitals.

On, ax in hand, ho staggered, that dreadful fooking, splendid savage, and the ladies forgot to turn faint at the scene of blood, and cheered him, as well they might, but he never stayed or heeded. With outstretched arms and tottering gait, he pursued his way, followed by us all along the broad shell-strewn walk that ran through the court-yard, past the spot where the blocks of marble lay through the round arched doorway and the thick curtains that hung within it, down the short passage and into the great hall, which was now filling with hastily armed men, who poured through the side entrance. Straight up the hall he went, leaving behind liim a track of blood on the marble pavemont, till at last he reached the stone, which stood in the center, of it, and here his strength seemed to fail him, for he stopped and leaned upon his ax. Then suddenly he lifted up his voice, and aloud: “I die, I die—but it was a kingly fray. VV here are they who came up the great stair? I see them not. Art thou there, Macumazahn, or art thou gone before to wait for me in the dark whither I go? The blood blinds me—the place turns round—l hear the voice of waters.” Next, as though a new thought had struck him, he lifted the red ax and kissed the blade. “Farewell, Inkosikaasi,” he cried. “Nay, nay, we will go together; we can not part, thou and I. We have lived too long one with another, thou and 1. “One more stroke, only one! A good stroke! a straight stroke! a strong stroke!” and drawing himself to his full height, with a wild, heart-shaking shout, he with both hands began to whirl the ax round his head till it looked like a circle of flaming steel. Then, suddenly, with awful force he brought it down straight on to the crown of the mass of sacrod stone. A shower of sparks flew up, and such was the almost superhuman strength of the blow, that the mass of marble split with a rending sound into a score of pieces, while of Inkosikaasi there remained but some fragments of steel and a fibrous rope of shattered horn that had been the handle. Down with a crash on to the pavement fell the fragments of the holystone, and down with a crash on to them, still grasp- i ing the knob of Inkosikaasi, fell tbe i brave old Zulu—dead. And thus the I hero died. TO BE CONTINUED.