Maiwas Revenge | Page 7

were
stacked against the tree--and then turned as though to walk away, the
others keeping their eyes fixed upon him all the while. I rose and
covered him with the rifle, and though he kept up a brave appearance of
unconcern, I saw that he was glancing nervously at me all the time.

When he had gone about twenty yards I spoke very quietly--
"'Now, Gobo,' I said, 'come back, or I shall fire.'
"Of course this was taking a very high hand; I had no real right to kill
Gobo or anybody else because they objected to run the risk of death by
entering the territory of a hostile chief. But I felt that if I wished to keep
up any authority it was absolutely necessary that I should push matters
to the last extremity short of actually shooting him. So I sat there,
looking fierce as a lion, and keeping the sight of my rifle in a dead line
for Gobo's ribs. Then Gobo, feeling that the situation was getting
strained, gave in.
"'Don't shoot, Boss,' he shouted, throwing up his hand, 'I will come
with you.'
"'I thought you would,' I answered quietly; 'you see Fate walks about
outside Wambe's country as well as in it.'
"After that I had no more trouble, for Gobo was the ringleader, and
when he collapsed the others collapsed also. Harmony being thus
restored, we crossed the line, and on the following morning I began
shooting in good earnest.

II
A MORNING'S SPORT
"Moving some five or six miles round the base of the great peak of
which I have spoken, we came the same day to one of the fairest bits of
African country that I have seen outside of Kukuanaland. At this spot
the mountain spur that runs out at right angles to the great range, which
stretches its cloud-clad length north and south as far as the eye can
reach, sweeps inwards with a vast and splendid curve. This curve
measures some five-and-thirty miles from point to point, and across its
moon-like segment the river flashed, a silver line of light. On the
further side of the river is a measureless sea of swelling ground, a

natural park covered with great patches of bush-- some of them being
many square miles in extent. These are separated one from another by
glades of grass land, broken here and there with clumps of timber trees;
and in some instances by curious isolated koppies, and even by single
crags of granite that start up into the air as though they were
monuments carved by man, and not tombstones set by nature over the
grave of ages gone. On the west this beautiful plain is bordered by the
lonely mountain, from the edge of which it rolls down toward the fever
coast; but how far it runs to the north I cannot say--eight days' journey,
according to the natives, when it is lost in an untravelled morass.
"On the hither side of the river the scenery is different. Along the edge
of its banks, where the land is flat, are green patches of swamp. Then
comes a wide belt of beautiful grass land covered thickly with game,
and sloping up very gently to the borders of the forest, which,
beginning at about a thousand feet above the level of the plain, clothes
the mountain-side almost to its crest. In this forest grow great trees,
most of them of the yellow-wood species. Some of these trees are so
lofty, that a bird in their top branches would be out of range of an
ordinary shot gun. Another peculiar thing about them is, that they are
for the most part covered with a dense growth of the Orchilla moss; and
from this moss the natives manufacture a most excellent deep purple
dye, with which they stain tanned hides and also cloth, when they
happen to get any of the latter. I do not think that I ever saw anything
more remarkable than the appearance of one of these mighty trees
festooned from top to bottom with trailing wreaths of this sad-hued
moss, in which the wind whispers gently as it stirs them. At a distance
it looks like the gray locks of a Titan crowned with bright green leaves,
and here and there starred with the rich bloom of orchids.
"The night of that day on which I had my little difference of opinion
with Gobo, we camped by the edge of this great forest, and on the
following morning at daylight I started out shooting. As we were short
of meat I determined to kill a buffalo, of which there were plenty about,
before looking for traces of elephants. Not more than half a mile from
camp we came across a trail broad as