登陆注册
15451200000050

第50章 CHAPTER XIV I CARRY THE COLLAR OF PRESTER JOHN(3)

Then I restored the jewels to their old home, and found their cool touch on my breast very comforting. The country was getting more broken as I advanced. Little kopjes with thickets of wild bananas took the place of the dead levels. Long before I reached the Letsitela, I saw that I was right in my guess. It ran, a brawling mountain stream, in a narrow rift in the bush.

I crossed it almost dry-shod on the boulders above a little fall, stopping for a moment to drink and lave my brow.

After that the country changed again. The wood was now getting like that which clothed the sides of the Berg. There were tall timber-trees - yellowwood, sneezewood, essenwood, stinkwood - and the ground was carpeted with thick grass and ferns. The sight gave me my first earnest of safety. I was approaching my own country. Behind me was heathendom and the black fever flats. In front were the cool mountains and bright streams, and the guns of my own folk.

As I struggled on - for I was getting very footsore and weary - I became aware of an odd sound in my rear. It was as if something were following me. I stopped and listened with a sudden dread. Could Laputa's trackers have got up with me already? But the sound was not of human feet. It was as if some heavy animal were plunging through the undergrowth.

At intervals came the soft pad of its feet on the grass.

It must be the hungry lion of my nightmare, and Henriques' pistol was in the mud of the Klein Letaba! The only thing was a tree, and I had sprung for one and scrambled wearily into the first branches when a great yellow animal came into the moonlight.

Providence had done kindly in robbing me of my pistol. The next minute I was on the ground with Colin leaping on me and baying with joy. I hugged that blessed hound and buried my head in his shaggy neck, sobbing like a child. How he had traced me I can never tell. The secret belongs only to the Maker of good and faithful dogs.

With him by my side I was a new man. The awesome loneliness had gone. I felt as if he were a message from my own people to take me safely home. He clearly knew the business afoot, for he padded beside me with never a glance to right or left. Another time he would have been snowking in every thicket; but now he was on duty, a serious, conscientious dog with no eye but for business.

The moon went down, and the starry sky was our only light.

The thick gloom which brooded over the landscape pointed to the night being far gone. I thought I saw a deeper blackness ahead which might be the line of the Berg. Then came that period of utter stillness when every bush sound is hushed and the world seems to swoon. I felt almost impious hurrying through that profound silence, when not even the leaves stirred or a frog croaked.

Suddenly as we came over a rise a little wind blew on the back of my head, and a bitter chill came into the air. I knew from nights spent in the open that it was the precursor of dawn. Sure enough, as I glanced back, far over the plain a pale glow was stealing upwards into the sky. In a few minutes the pall melted into an airy haze, and above me I saw the heavens shot with tremors of blue light. Then the foreground began to clear, and there before me, with their heads still muffled in vapour, were the mountains.

Xenophon's Ten Thousand did not hail the sea more gladly than I welcomed those frowning ramparts of the Berg.

Once again my weariness was eased. I cried to Colin, and together we ran down into the wide, shallow trough which lies at the foot of the hills. As the sun rose above the horizon, the black masses changed to emerald and rich umber, and the fleecy mists of the summits opened and revealed beyond shining spaces of green. Some lines of Shakespeare ran in my head, which I have always thought the most beautiful of all poetry:

'Night's candles are burned out, and jocund day Walks tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.'

Up there among the clouds was my salvation. Like the Psalmist, I lifted my eyes to the hills from whence came my aid.

Hope is a wonderful restorative. To be near the hills, to smell their odours, to see at the head of the glens the lines of the plateau where were white men and civilization - all gave me new life and courage. Colin saw my mood, and spared a moment now and then to inspect a hole or a covert. Down in the shallow trough I saw the links of a burn, the Machudi, which flowed down the glen it was my purpose to ascend.

Away to the north in the direction of Majinje's were patches of Kaffir tillage, and I thought I discerned the smoke from fires.

Majinje's womankind would be cooking their morning meal.

To the south ran a thick patch of forest, but I saw beyond it the spur of the mountain over which runs the highroad to Wesselsburg. The clear air of dawn was like wine in my blood.

I was not free, but I was on the threshold of freedom. If I could only reach my friends with the Prester's collar in my shirt, I would have performed a feat which would never be forgotten. I would have made history by my glorious folly.

Breakfastless and footsore, I was yet a proud man as I crossed the hollow to the mouth of Machudi's glen.

My chickens had been counted too soon, and there was to be no hatching. Colin grew uneasy, and began to sniff up wind. I was maybe a quarter of a mile from the glen foot, plodding through the long grass of the hollow, when the behaviour of the dog made me stop and listen. In that still air sounds carry far, and I seemed to hear the noise of feet brushing through cover. The noise came both from north and south, from the forest and from the lower course of the Machudi.

I dropped into shelter, and running with bent back got to the summit of a little bush-clad knoll. It was Colin who first caught sight of my pursuers. He was staring at a rift in the trees, and suddenly gave a short bark. I looked and saw two men, running hard, cross the grass and dip into the bed of the stream. A moment later I had a glimpse of figures on the edge of the forest, moving fast to the mouth of the glen. The pursuit had not followed me; it had waited to cut me off. Fool that I was, I had forgotten the wonders of Kaffir telegraphy. It had been easy for Laputa to send word thirty miles ahead to stop any white man who tried to cross the Berg.

And then I knew that I was very weary.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 网游之仙魔传奇

    网游之仙魔传奇

    修行之道,危机并存,逆天之旅,至此方生,是生是死,是因是果,是命运,是抉择。
  • 探索与发现

    探索与发现

    从钻木取火、结绳记事的远古时期发展到今天虚拟网络的数字时代,人类经历了数千年的时间。数千年来,我们人类所经历的最美妙的事就是神秘。而所接触的未知领域越多,人类对未来勇于追求和探索的精神也愈强。本书以最生动的文字,最精彩的图片,将这些神秘现象的奥妙娓娓道来,与青少年朋友们一起探索种种扑朔迷离的科学疑云。
  • 刺猬的刺不用来伤害

    刺猬的刺不用来伤害

    这个故事需要你们在平静的的心去读。因为烦躁的会觉得太淡,开心的会觉得无聊,只有你在不烦不躁,不悲不喜的心态下才能认真的读懂这个故事。因为这是我自己的故事。
  • 融合纪元

    融合纪元

    被小萝莉扔进了一个奇特的西方世界年幼的皇帝君权旁落,野心勃勃的领主们暗暗扩张领土。隐居在远古森林的精灵,躲藏在铁脊山脉的矮人,时不时前来劫掠的兽人,还有常常毁城灭国刷刷存在感的巨龙,就连被众神封印的深渊也稍稍的探出了爪牙,乱世的幕布拉开了一角。斗气、魔法,我都不会,不过我有小萝莉的棒棒糖。虽然有点不靠谱,但是,我因此拥有了融合物品的能力,就像异界的科学怪人一样,疯狂的进行实验,盗版写轮眼,盗版青眼白龙,盗版的弑神枪应运而生,管你兽人还是精灵、恶魔或是巨龙,统统都到碗里来。——来自《穿越者的日志》
  • 天降女皇:骗婚老公滚远点

    天降女皇:骗婚老公滚远点

    宁家大院———“佑佑甜心~”笑的一脸奸诈的某人,手里拿着一本结婚证,上面的照片赫然就是他自己和某女皇。某人笑得满面春风,某女皇却盯着某人手里的那张结婚证,眼睛瞪的大大的,心里恨得咬牙切齿。“不服?”接着某女皇就被某饿狼扑倒吃掉。“贱民,孤要离婚!离婚!”南风佑佑扶着已经快被折断的腰,恶狠狠得盯着笑得满面春分的某人。“离婚?”某人开始反省,难道是自己满足不了她?想通了的某人又开始扑倒某女皇。“宁储煜!快放开孤!孤还未成年!”“反对无效!你已经十八了”接着又被扑倒。男女主身心干净,无虐,甜文哦~欢迎入坑~撒花~撒花
  • 回到华夏当城主

    回到华夏当城主

    在那遥远的时空星河,有着神秘的古老传说;经过漫长的岁月蹉跎,依然美丽的东方之歌。炎黄时代末期,华夏大地遭受到异族凶手的袭击,女娲神和伏羲神联手为人族制造了三大结界,以保人族百年时间。谁知人族内部出了奸细,女娲和伏羲遭到邪神的袭击,身手重伤。一个经脉不通的挂名城主,如何能在乱世之中修身齐家治国平天下,一切尽在华夏之章!
  • 亿万萌妻:老公僚技,不给力
  • 胖女孩,我爱你

    胖女孩,我爱你

    幼儿的时候,林依夕父亲的朋友因为要出差,所以把林子枫寄托在了自己的家里,直到小学毕业后两人就再也没有见过面,林依夕因为热爱美食而体重不断增加,高中时,两人再一次遇到,可是林依夕因为一场车祸早就忘记了林子枫,林子枫了解情况后绝定要与林依夕从新创造一个属于他们的记忆。于是,一天家庭聚会上,父亲请了林子枫一家,那时起,他们的婚事已经定了下来,两人走上了同居生活,林依夕跟林子枫坦露了心声,林子枫帮林依夕减肥,几年后,同学聚会上,同学看到了林依夕纷纷惊叹与后悔......
  • 老公欠调教:乖乖等我来宠幸

    老公欠调教:乖乖等我来宠幸

    “怎么,想吃我做的饭菜了?”“老婆,我错了。”“怎么,想让我陪你去宴会?”“老婆,我错了。”“怎么,想爬我的床?”“老婆,我错了。”乖乖洗白白等我来宠幸。围观学生时代万人敬仰的男神,苏市有名的青年才俊,被调教成妥妥的妻奴。“白先生,请问您有什么想对您太太说的吗?”“我老婆是全世界最好的女人。”
  • 寻天碑

    寻天碑

    相传修炼到极致,封神踏仙,寻得天碑,便可获得高于天道的秘辛,从此超脱天地,唯我独尊……因修歧,而天碑。这便是,“逆天修”的由来。但,或许只是无稽之谈罢了……