The Ghost Kings

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Noie answered that she would give her message, but that it was needless,
since the Ghost-Kings could see all that passed "in the bowls of water
beneath their trees, and doubtless knew already of her coming and of the
cause of it," a reply of which Rachel had not time to inquire the meaning.
After this they embraced and parted, not without some tears.

When the gate shut behind Noie, Rachel walked to the high ground at the
back of her hut, whence she could see over the fence of the kraal, and
watched her departure. She had an escort of a hundred picked soldiers,
with whom went fifty or sixty strong bearers, who carried food, karosses,
and a litter. Also there were three doctors of magic and medicine, and two
women, widows of high rank who were to attend upon her. At the head of
this procession, save for two guides, walked Noie herself, with sandals on
her feet, a white robe about her shoulders, and in her hand a little bough
on which grew shining leaves, whereof Rachel did not know the meaning. She
watched them until they passed over the brow of the hill, on the crest of
which Noie turned and waved the bough towards her. Then Rachel went back
to her hut, and sat there alone and wept.

This was the beginning of many dreadful days, most of which she passed
wandering about within the circuit of the kraal fence, a space of some
three or four acres, or seated under the shadow of certain beautiful
trees, which overhung a deep, clear pool of the stream that ran through
the kraal, a reed-fringed pool whereon floated blooming lilies. That quiet
water, the happy birds that nested in the trees and the flowering lilies
seemed to be her only friends. Of the last, indeed, she would count the
buds, watching them open in the morning and close again for their sleep at
night, until a day came when their loveliness turned to decay, and others
appeared in their place.

On the morrow of Noie's departure, Tamboosa and other indunas visited her,
and asked her if she would not descend to the kraal of the King, and help
him and his council to try cases, since while she was in the land she was
its first judge. She answered, "No, that place smelt too much of blood."
If they had cases for her to try, let them be brought before her in her
own house. This she said idly, thinking no more of it, but next day was
astonished to learn that the plaintiff and defendant in a great suit, with
their respective advocates, and from thirty to forty witnesses, were
waiting without to know when it was her pleasure to attend to their
business.

With characteristic courage Rachel answered, "Now." Her knowledge of law
was, it is true, limited to what, for lack of anything more exciting, she
had read in some handbooks belonging to her father, who had been a justice
of the peace in the Cape Colony, and to a few cases which she had seen
tried in a rough-and-ready fashion at Durban, to which must be added an
intimate acquaintance with Kaffir customs. Still, being possessed with a
sincere desire to discover the truth and execute justice, she did very
well. The matter in dispute was a large one, that of the ownership of a
great herd of cattle which was claimed as an inheritance by each of the
parties. Rachel soon discovered that both these men were very powerful
chiefs, and that the reason of their cause being remitted to her was that
the King knew that if he decided in favour of either of them he would
mortally offend the other.

For a long while Rachel, seated on her stool, listened silently to the
impassioned pleadings of the plaintiff's lawyers. Presently this plaintiff
was called as a witness, and in the course of his evidence said something
which convinced her that he was lying. Then breaking her silence for the
first time, she asked him how he dared to give false witness before the
Inkosazana-y-Zoola, to whom the truth was always open, and who was
acquainted with every circumstance connected with the cattle in dispute.
The man, seeing her eyes fixed upon him, and being convinced of her
supernatural powers, grew afraid, broke down, and publicly confessed his
attempted fraud, into which he said he had been led by envy of his cousin,
the defendant's, riches.

Rachel gave judgment accordingly, commanding that he should pay the costs
in cattle and a fine to the King, and warned him to be more upright in
future. The result was that her fame as a judge spread throughout the
land, and every day her gates were beset with suitors whose causes she
dealt with to the best of her ability, and to their entire satisfaction.
Criminal prosecutions that involved the death-sentence or matters
connected with witchcraft, however, she steadily refused to try, saying
that the Inkosazana should not cause blood to flow. These things she left
to the King and his Council, confining herself to such actions as in
England would come before the Court of Chancery. Thus to her reputation as
a spiritual queen, Rachel added that of an upright judge who could not be
influenced by fear or bribes, the first, perhaps, that had ever been known
in Zululand.

But she could not try such cases all day, the strain was too great,
although in the end most of them partook of the nature of arbitrations,
since the parties involved, having come to the conclusion that it was not
possible to deceive one so wise, grew truthful and submitted their
differences to the decision of her wisdom.

After they were dismissed, which was always at noon, for she opened her
court at seven and would not sit more than five hours, Rachel was left in
her solitary state until the next morning, and oh! the hours hung heavily
upon her hands. A messenger was despatched to Ramah, but after ten days he
returned saying that the Tugela was in flood, and he could not cross it.
She sent him out again, and a week later was told that he had been killed
by a lion on his journey. Then another messenger was chosen, but what
became of him she never knew.

It was about this time that Rachel learned that Ishmael, having recovered
from his sickness, had escaped from Umgugundhlovo by night, whither none
seemed to know. From that moment fears gathered thick upon the poor girl.
She dreaded Ishmael and guessed that his departure without communicating
with her boded her no good. Indeed, once or twice she almost wished that
she had taken Noie's counsel and given him over to the justice of the
King. Meanwhile of Noie herself nothing had been heard. She had vanished
into the wilderness.

Living this strange and most unnatural life, Rachel's nerves began to give
way. While she tried her cases she seemed stern and calm. But when the
crowd of humble suitors had dispersed from the outer court in which she
sat as a judge, and the shouts of the praisers rushing up and down beyond
the fence and roaring out her titles had died away, and having dismissed
the obsequious maidens who waited upon her, she retired to the solitude of
her hut to rest--ah! then it was different. Then she lay down upon her bed
of rich furs and at times burst into tears because she who seemed to be a
supernatural queen, was really but a white girl deserted by God and man.

Now it was the season of thunderstorms, and almost every afternoon these
dreadful tempests broke over her kraal, which shook in the roll and crash
of the meeting clouds, while beyond the fence the jagged lightning struck
and struck again upon the ironstone of the hillside.

She had never feared such storms before, but now they terrified her. She
dreaded their advent, and the worst of it was that she must not show her
dread, she who was supposed to rule and direct the lightning. Indeed, the
bounteous rains which fell ensuring a full harvest after several years of
drought, were universally attributed to the good influence of her presence
in the land. In the same way when a thunderbolt struck the hut of a doctor
who but a day or two before had openly declared his disbelief in her
powers, killing him and his principal wife, and destroying his kraal by
fire, the accident was attributed to her vengeance, or to that of the
Heavens, who were angry at this lack of faith. After this remarkable
exhibition of supernatural strength, needless to say, the voice of adverse
criticism was stayed; Rachel became supreme.

But the storms passed, and when they had rolled away at length, doing her
no hurt, and the sun shone out again, she would go and sit beneath the
trees at the edge of the beautiful pool until the closing lilies and the
chill of the air told her that night drew on.

Oh! those long nights--how endless they seemed to Rachel in her
loneliness. Now she who used to sleep so well, could not sleep, or when
she slept she dreamed. She dreamed of her mother, always of her mother,
that she was ill, and calling her, until she came to believe that in truth
this was so. So much did this conviction work upon her mind, that she
determined not to wait for the return of Noie, but at all costs to try to
leave Zululand, and through Tamboosa declared her will to the King.

Next morning the answer cams back that of course none could control her
movements, but if she would go, she must fly, as all the rivers were in
flood, as she might see if she would walk to the top of the mountain
behind her kraal. Tamboosa added that a company of men who had been sent
to recapture Ishmael, were kept for a week upon the banks of the first of
them, and at length, being unable to cross, had returned, as her messenger
had done. Knowing from other sources that this was true, Rachel made no
answer. What she did not know, however, was that Ishmael had crossed the
smaller rivers before the flood came down, and gone on to meet the
soldiers, who were ordered to await him on the banks of the Tugela.

Escape was evidently impossible at present, and if it had been otherwise,
clearly the Zulus did not mean to let her go. She must abide here in the
company of her terrors and her dreams.

At length, happily for her, these distressing dreams of Rachel's began to
be varied by others of a pleasanter complexion, of which, although they
were vivid enough, she could only remember upon waking that they had to do
with Richard Darrien, the companion of her adventure in the river, of whom
she had heard nothing for so many years. For aught she knew he might have
died long ago, and yet she did not think that he was dead. Well, if he
lived he might have forgotten her, and yet she did not believe that he had
forgotten her, he who as a boy had wished to follow her all his life, and
whom she had thought of day by day from that hour to this. Yes, she had
thought of him, but not thus. Why, at such a time, did he arise in
strength before her, seeming to occupy all her soul? Why was her mind
never free of him? Could it be that they were about to meet again? She
shivered as the hope took hold of her, shivered with joy, and remembered
that her mother had always said that they would meet. Could it be that he
of all men on the earth, for if he lived he was a man now, was coming to
rescue her? Oh! then she would fear nothing. Then in every peril she would
feel safe as a child in its mother's arms. No, the thing was too happy to
come about; her imagination played tricks with her, no more. And yet, and
yet, why did he haunt her sleep?

The dreary days went on; a month had passed since Noie vanished over
yonder ridge, and worst of all, for three nights the dreams of Richard had
departed, while those of her mother remained.

Rachel was worn out; she was in despair. All that morning she had spent in
trying a long and heavy case, which occupied but wearied her mind, one of
those eternal cases about the inheritance of cattle which were claimed by
three brothers, descendants of different wives of a grandfather who had
owned the herd. Finally she had effected a compromise between the parties,
and amidst their salutes and acclamations, retired to her hut. But she
could not eat; the sameness of the food disgusted her. Neither could she
rest, for the daily tempest was coming up, and the heavy atmosphere, or
the electricity with which it was charged, and the overpowering heat,
exasperated her nervous system and made sleep impossible. At length came
the usual rush of icy wind and the bursting of the great storm. The
thunder crashed and bellowed; the lightning flickered and flared; the rain
fell in a torrent. It passed as it always did, and the sun shone out
again. Gasping with relief, Rachel went out of the oven-like hut into the
cool, sweet air, and sat down upon a tanned bull's hide which she had
ordered her servants to spread for her by the pool of water upon the bank
beneath the trees. It was very pleasant here, and the raindrops shaken
from the wet leaves fell upon her fevered face and hands and refreshed
her.

She tried to forget her troubles for a little while, and began to think of
Richard Darrien, her boy-lover of a long-past hour, wondering what he
looked like now that he was grown to be a man.

"If only you would come to help me! Oh! Richard, if only you would come to
help me," the poor, worn-out girl murmured to herself, and so murmuring
fell asleep.

Suddenly it seemed to her that she was wide awake, and staring into a part
of the pool beneath her where the bottom was of granite and the water
clear. In this water she saw a picture. She saw a great laager of waggons,
and outside of one of them a group of bearded, jovial-looking men smoking
and talking. Presently another man of sturdy build and resolute carriage,
who was followed by a weary Kaffir, walked up to them. His back was
towards her so that she could not see his face, but now she was able to
hear all that was said, although the voices seemed thin and far away.

"What is it, Nephew?" asked the oldest of the bearded men, speaking in
Dutch. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"This, Uncle," he answered, in the same language, and in a pleasant voice
that sounded familiar to Rachel's ears. "That spy, Quabi, whom we sent out
a long time ago and who was reported dead, reached Dingaan's kraal, and
has come back with a strange story."

"Almighty!" grunted the old man, "all these spies have strange stories,
but let him tell it. Speak on, swartzel." [Footnote: Black-fellow.]

Then the tired spy began to talk, telling a long tale. He described how
he had got into Zululand, and reached Umgugundhlovo and lodged there with
a relative of his, and done his best to collect information as to the
attitude of the King and indunas towards the Boers. While he was there the
news came that the white Spirit, who was called Inkosazana-y-Zoola, was
approaching the kraal from Natal, where she dwelt with her parents, who
were teachers.

"Almighty!" interrupted the old man again, "What rubbish is this? How can
a Spirit, white or black, have parents who are teachers?"

The weary-looking spy answered that he did not know, it was not for him to
answer riddles, all he knew was that there was great excitement about the
coming of this Queen of the Heavens, and he, being desirous of obtaining
first-hand information, slipped out of the town with his relative, and
walked more than a day's journey on the path that ran to the Tugela, till
they came to a place where they hid themselves to see her pass. This place
he described with minuteness, so minutely, indeed, that in her dream,
Rachel recognised it well. It was the spot where the witch-doctoress had
died. He went on with his story; he told of her appearance riding on the
white horse and surrounded by an impi. He described her beauty, her white
cloak, her hair hanging down her back, the rod of horn she carried in her
hand, the colour of her eyes, the shape of her features, everything about
her, as only a native can. Then he told of the incident of the cattle
rushing across her path, of the death of the bull that charged her, of the
appearance of the furious witch-doctoress who seized the rein of the
horse, of the pointing of the wand, and the instant execution of the
woman.

He told of how he had followed the impi to the Great Place, of the story
of Noie as he had heard it, and the reports that had reached him
concerning the interview between the King and this white Inkosazana, who,
it was said, advised him not to fight the Boers.

"And where is she now?" asked the old Dutchman.

"There, at Umgugundhlovo," he answered, "ruling the land as its head
Isanuzi, though it is said that she desires to escape, only the Zulus will
not let her go."

"I think that we should find out more about this woman, especially as she
seems to be a friend to our people," said the old Boer. "Now, who dares to
go and learn the truth?"

"I will go," said the young man who had brought in the spy, and as he
spoke he turned, and lo! _his face was the face of Richard Darrien_,
bearded and grown to manhood, but without doubt Richard Darrien and none
other.

"Why do you offer to undertake so dangerous a mission?" asked the Boer,
looking at the young man kindly. "Is it because you wish to see this
beautiful white witch of whom yonder Quabi tells us such lies, Nephew?"

The shadow of Richard nodded, and his face reddened, for the Boers around
him were laughing at him.

"That is right, Uncle," he answered boldly. "You think me a fool, but I am
not. Many years ago I knew a little maid who was the daughter of a
teacher, and who, if she lives, must have grown into such a woman as Quabi
describes. Well, I joined you Boers last year in order to look for that
maid, and I am going to begin to look for her across the river yonder."

As the words reached whatever sense of Rachel's it was that heard them, of
a sudden, in an instant, laager, Boers, and Richard vanished. In her sleep
she tried to recreate them, at first without avail, then the curtain of
darkness appeared to lift, and in the still water of the pool she saw
another picture, that of Richard Darrien mounted on a black horse with one
white foot, riding along a native path through a bush-clad country, while
by his side trotted the spy whose name was Quabi.

They were talking together, and she heard, or, at any rate, knew their
words.

"How far is it now to Umgugundhlovo?" asked Richard.

"Three days' journey, Inkosi, if we are not stopped by flooded rivers,"
answered Quabi.

For one second only Rachel saw and heard these things, then they, too,
passed away, and she awoke to see in front of her the pool empty save for
its lilies, and above to hear the whispering of the evening wind among the
trees.

CHAPTER XIII

RICHARD COMES

As the sun set Rachel rose and walked to her hut. She was utterly dazed,
she could not understand. Was this but a fiction of an overwrought and
disordered mind, or had she seen a vision of things passing, or that had
passed, far away? If it were a dream, then this was but another drop in
her cup of bitterness. If a true vision--oh! then what did it mean to her?
It meant that Richard Darrien lived, Richard, of whom her heart had been
full for years. It meant that his heart was full of her also, for had she
not seemed to hear him say that he had travelled from the Cape with the
Boers to look for her, and was he not journeying alone through a hostile
land to pursue his search? Who would do such a thing for the sake of a
girl unless--unless? It meant that he would protect her, would rescue her
from her terrible plight, would take her from among these savages to her
home again--oh! and perhaps much more that she did not dare to picture to
herself.

Yet how could such things be? They were contrary to experience, at any
rate, to the experience of white folk, though natives would believe in
them easily enough. Yet in Nature things might be possible which were
generally held to be impossible. Her mother had certain gifts--had she,
perhaps, inherited them? Had her helplessness appealed to the pity of some
higher power? Had her ceaseless prayers been heard? Yet, why should the
universal laws be stretched for her? Why should she be allowed to lift a
corner of the black veil of ignorance that hems us in, and see a glimpse
of what lies beyond? If Richard were really coming, in a day or two she
would have learned of his arrival naturally; there was no need that these
mysterious influences should be set to work to inform her of his approach.

How selfish she was. The warning might concern him, not her. It was
probable enough that the Zulus would kill a solitary white man, especially
if they discovered that he proposed to visit their Inkosazana. Well, she
had the power to protect him. If she "threw her mantle" over him, no man
in all the land would dare to do him violence. Surely it was for this
reason that she had been allowed to learn these things, if she had learned
them, not for her own sake, but his. _If_ she had learned them! Well, she
would take the risk, would run the chance of failure and of mockery, yes,
and of the loss of her power among these people. It should be done at
once.

Rachel clapped her hands, and a maiden appeared whom she bade summon the
captain of the guard without the gate. Presently he came, surrounded by a
band of her women, since no man might visit the Inkosazana alone. Bidding
him to cease from his salutations, she commanded him to go swiftly to the
Great Place and pray of Dingaan that he would send her an escort and a
litter, as she must see him that night on a matter which would not brook
delay.

In an hour, just after she had finished her food, which she ate with more
appetite than she had known for days, it was reported that they were
there. Throwing on her white cloak, and taking her horn wand, she entered
the litter and, guarded by a hundred men, was borne swiftly to the House
of Dingaan. At its gate she descended, and once more entered that court by
the moonlight.

As before, there sat the King and his indunas without the Great Hut, and
while she walked towards them every man rose crying "Hail! Inkosazana."
Yes, even Dingaan, mountain of flesh though he was, struggled from his
stool and saluted her. Rachel acknowledged the salutation by raising her
wand, motioned to them to be seated, and waited.

"Art thou come, White One," asked Dingaan, "to make clear those dark words
thou spokest to us a moon ago?"

"Nay, King," she answered, "what I said then, I said once and for all.
Read thou the saying as thou wilt, or let the Ghost-people interpret it to
thee. Hear me, King and Councillors. Ye have kept me here when I would be
gone, my business being ended, that I might be a judge among this people.
Ye have told me that the rivers were in flood, that the beast I rode was
sick, that evil would befall the land if I deserted you. Now I know, and
ye know, that if it pleased me I could have departed when and whither I
would, but it was not fitting that the Inkosazana should creep out of
Zululand like a thief in the night, so I abode on in my house yonder. Yet
my heart grew wrath with you, and I, to whom the white people listen also,
was half minded to bring hither the thousands of the Amaboona who are
encamped beyond the Buffalo River, that they might escort me to my home."

Now at these bold words the King looked uneasy, and one of the councillors
whispered to another,

"How knows she that the white men are camped beyond the Buffalo?"

"Yet," went on Rachel, "I did not do so, for then there must have been
much fighting and bloodshed, and blood I hate. But I have done this. With
these Amaboona travels an English chief, a young man, one Darrien, whom I
knew from long years ago, and who does me reverence. Him, then, I have
commanded to journey hither, and to lead me to my own place across the
Tugela. To-night I am told he sleeps a short three days' journey from this
town, and I am come here to bid you send out swift messengers to guide him
hither."

She ceased, and they stared at her awhile. Then the King asked,

"What messenger is it, Inkosazana, that thou hast sent to this white
chief, Dario? We have seen none pass from thy house."

"Dost thou think, then, King, that thou canst see my messengers? My
thoughts flew from me to him, and called in his ear in the night, and I
saw his coming in the still pool that lies near my huts."

"_Ow!_" exclaimed one of the Council, "she sent her thoughts to him like
birds, and she saw his coming in the water of the pool. Great is the magic
of the Inkosazana."

"The chief, Darrien," went on Rachel, without heeding the interruption,
although she noted that it was Mopo of the withered hand who had spoken
from beneath the blanket wrapped about his head, "may be known thus. He is
fair of face, with eyes like my eyes, and beard and hair of the colour of
gold. If I saw right, he rides upon a black horse with one white foot and
his only companion is a Kaffir named Quabi who, I think," and she passed
her hand across her forehead, "yes, who was surely visiting a relation of
his, at this, the Great Place, when I crossed the Tugela."

Now the King asked if any knew of this Quabi, and an induna answered in an
awed voice, that it was true that a man so called had been in the town at
the time given by the Inkosazana, staying with a soldier whose name he
mentioned, but who was now away on service. He had, however, departed
before the Inkosazana arrived, or so he believed, whither he knew not.

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