MARIE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14806, 9 October 1911, Page 4

MARIE.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF THE LATE ALLAN QUARTER 51A IN.

COPYRIGHT. - SYNOPSIS, The story opens in. the Cradock district of Cape Colony, then a very wild placeThe narrator, Allan Quartermain. was tne eon of a Church of England clergyman, and am on est the neighbours was a Boer farmer Henri" Marais, who had a farm named .Maraisfontein, and who kept up a good, many French, cusfcocns. It was arranged that Allan should go to Maraisfontein to study French with little Marie Marais, under her tutor. Leblanc. On the first day Leblanc alluded to the English as pigs, which angered little Allan, and a scene took place. Henri Marais appeared and accused Leblanc ot being a drunken sot. and apologised to the lad. Allan afterwards found Marie in tears because of the insult offered to him. and after the manner of children they chummed up, and Marie stated that her father hated the English and she feared trouble would come of it. The Kaffir war took place in the district of Albany and Somerset, and the people of Cradock suffered little, and with natural optimism and carelessness they ■began to think themselves safe from attack. On a certain Sunday Leblanc had gone out to the hills, where he believed he had located, a copper vein, and. leaving his horse loose, had a bottle of peach brandy and fell asleep. CHAPTER ll.—(Continued).

Waking up towards evening, he found that his horse had gone, and at once jumped to the conclusion that it had been stolen by the Kaffirs, hough in truth the animal had but strolled over a ridge in search of grass. Running hither ami thither in search of it, he presently crossed this ridge and met the horse, apparently being led away by two of the. Red Kaffirs, who, as was usual, were armed with assegais. As a matter of fact, these men had found the beast, and, knowing well to whom it belonged, were seeking its owner, whom earlier in the day they had seen upon the hills, in order to restore it to him. This, however, never occurred to the mind of Monsieur Leblanc, excited as it was by the fumes of the peach brandy. Lifting the double-barrelled gun he carried, he fired at the first Kaffir, a young man. who chanced to be the eldest son and heir of the chief of the tribe, and, as the range was very close, shot- him de.id. Thereon his companion, leaving go of the horse, ran.for his life. At him Leblanc fired also, wounding him slightly in the thigh, but no more, so that he escaped U> tell the tale of what he and every other

native for miles round considered a wanton ana premeditated murder. The deed done, >' the fiery old Frenchman mounted his nag and rode quietly home. On the road, however, as the peach brandy evaporated from his brain, his doubts entered it, with the result that he determined to say nothing of his adventure; to Henri Marais, whom he knew was particularly anxious to avoid any "cause of quarrel with the Kaffirs. So he kept his own counsel and went to bed. Before lie was up next morning the Heer M3iais, suspecting neither trouble nor danger, had : idden off to' a farm 30 miles or more away to pay its owner for some cattle which lie had recently bought, leaving hi* home and his daughter quite unprotected, except by Leblanc and the ' few native servants, who were * really slaves, that lived about the place. ' Now; on the Monday night, I; went to bed as. usual, and slept, as I have always done through life,, like a top, till about four in the morning, when I was awakened by someone tapping at the glass of my window. Slipping from the bed, I felt for my pistol, as it was quite dark, crept to the window; opened it, ana, keeping my head below the level of the sill, fearing Isst'its appearance should be greeted with rn assegai, asked who was there.' "Me, baas, ' said the voice of Hans, 5- cur Hottentot servant, who, it will be re- j membered, had accompanied me as after- j i rider when first I went to MaraisfoKtein.' j •'/** I have ' bad news. ; Listen 5 The baas j . knows that 1 have been out searching' for j ihe red cow which was lest.. Well, lionnd her, and was sleeping by her side under a tree on the veld, when, about two hours ago, a woman whom I know came up to my camp fire and woke me. I asked her j what she was doing at that hour of the night, and she answered that she had come j to tell me something. She said that some young men of the tribe of the chief Quabie, "who lives ;in the hills yonder, had been visiting at their kraal, and that a few hours before a messenger had arrived from the chief, saying that they must return »t . once, as this morning at dawn he and all his men were going to attack Maraisfontein and kill everyone in it and take the cattle ! " 1 " Good God! " 1 ejaculated. "Why?" " Because, young baas," drawled the Hottentot from the other side of the win- . dow, " because someone from Maraisfon- : tein — think it was the Vulture " (the natives gave this name to Leblanc on account of his bald head . and hooked nose) " shot Quabie's son on Sunday when he was holding-his horse." ZGood God " I said again, " the old fool must have been drunk. • When did you . say the attack was .to be—at dawn ? " and 1 glanced at the stars, adding, " Why, that will be within less than an hour, and the Baas Marais is away." ''Yes," croaked Hans, "and Missie . Marie— of what the Red Kaffirs will do with Missie Marie when their blood is

up." "V iv.' . . I thrust my fist through the window and struck the Hottentot's toad-like face, on which the starlight gleamed faintly. "Dog!"I said, "saddle my mare and the roan horse, and get your gun. In two ■' minutes I come. - Be swift or I kill you! " ; " I go," he answered, and shot out into ; the night like a frightened snake. : > ; . Then I began to dress, shouting as I ' dressed, till my father and the Kaffirs ran I into the room. As I threw on my things I told them all. ; \ "Send. out. messengers," I said, "to Mara is— is at Botha's farm —and to all ! the neighbours. Send, for your lives; Gather up the friendly Kaffirs and ride like bell to Maraisfontein. Don't talk to me, father don't talk! Go and do what I tell you. Stay! Give me two guns, fill the saddlebags with powder tins and loop•ers, and tie them to my mare. Oh ! be quick, be quick!" • - Now at length they understood, and flew this way and that with candles and lanterns. Two minutes laterit could scarcely have been morel was in front of the stables just as' Hans led out the bay mare, a famous beast that for two years I had saved all my money to buy. Someone strapped on the saddlebags while I tested the girths; someone else appeared with , the stout roan stallion that I knew would follow the mare to death. There was not time to saddle him, so Hans chambered -on to his back like a monkey, holding two guns under his arm, for I carried but one and my double-barrelled pistol. " Send off the messengers," I shouted to . my father. "If you would see me again . send them swiftly, and follow with every man you can raise." - ► Then we were away with fifteen miles to do and fiye-and-thirly minutes before . the dawn. ■. ' • ' . "Softly up the slope," I said to Hans, , " till the beasts get their wind, and then ride as you never rode before." Those first two miles of rising ground ! I thought we should never come to the . end of them, and yet I dared not let the mare out lest she should bucket herself. Happily she and her companion, the stallional most enduring horse, though not so very —had stood idle for the last thirty hours, and, of course, had not eaten or drunk since sunset. Therefore, being in fine fettle, they were keen on the business: also we were light weights. I held in' the mare as she sported up the rise, and the horse kept his pace to hers. We reached its crest, and before ' us lay the great level plain, eleven miles * of it, and "then two miles down hill to . Maraisfontein. — " Now," I said to Hans, shaking loose the reins, "keep up if you can!" :; ' Away sped the. mare till the keen air v of the night -sung past my ears, and beliind her strained the good roan horse ,7 „ with ; the Hottentot monkey on its back. *:■ Oh J .what a ride was > that!

i Further I Lave gone for a like cause, I but never at such speed, for I knew the strength of the beasts and how long it would last them. Half an hour of it they might endure; more, and at this pace they must founder or die. And yet such was the agony of mv fear that it -seemed to me as though I only crept along the ground like a tortoise. The roan was left behind, the sound of his foot beats died away, and I was left alone with the night and my fear. Mile added itself to mile, for now and again the starlight showed me a stone or the skeleton of some dead beast that 1 knew. Once I dashed into a herd of trekking gain© so suddenly that a springbok, unable to stop itself, leapt right over me. Once the mare put her foot into an ant-hole and nearly fell, but recovered herself— be to God, unharmed— and I worked myself back into the saddle whence 1 had been almost shaken. If I had fallen ; oh ! if I had fallen ! We were near the end of the flat, and she began to fail. I had over-pressed her; the pace was too tremendous. Her speed lessened to an ordinary fast gallop as she faced the gentle rise that led to the brow. And now, behind me, once more 1 heard the sound of the hoofs of the roan. The tireless beast was coming up. By the time we reached the edge of the plateau he was quite near, not fifty yards behind, for I heard him whinny faintly. Then began the descent. The morning star was setting, the east grey grey with light. Oh! could., we get there before the dawn? Could we get there before the dawn? That is what my horse's hoofs beat out to me.

Now I could see the mass of the trees about the stead. And now I dashed into something, though until 1 was through it I did not know that it was a line of men, for the faint light gleamed upon the spear of one of them who had been overthrown. So it was no lie!_ The Kaffirs were there! As I thought it a fresh horror filled my heart: perhaps their murdering work was already done and they were departing. The minutes of suspense—or was it but seconds?seemed an eternity. But itended at last. Now I was at the door in the high wall that enclosed the outbuildings at the back of the house, and there, by an inspiration, pulled up the mare—glad enough she was to stop, poor thing— it occurred to me that if I rode to the front I should very probably be assegaied and of no further use. I tried the door, which was made of stout stinkwood planks. By design, or accident, it had been left unbolted. As I thrust it open Hans arrived with a rush, clinging to the roan with his face hidden in its mane. The beast pulled up by the side of the mare which it had been pursuing, and in the faint light I saw that an assegai was fixed in its flame. Five seconds later we were in the yard and locking and barring the door behind us. Then, snatching the saddlebags of ammunition from the horses, we left them standing there, and I ran for the back entrance of the house, bidding Hans rouse the natives who slept in the outbuildings, and follow with them. If any one of them showed signs of treachery be was to shoot him at. once. I remember that is I went 1,, tore the spear out of the stallion's Hank and brought it away with me. ■ _ . Now I was hammering upon the back door of the house, which I could not open. After a pause that seemed long a window was thrown wide, and a voice—it was ..Marie's—asked in frightened tones who was there. , "I. Allan Quartermain," I answered. ' Open at once, Marie. You are in great danger; the Red Kaffirs are going to attack the house." She flew to the door in her nightdress, and at length I was in the place. "Thank God! you are still safe." I gasped. " Put on your clothes while 1 call , Leblane. No, stay, do you call him; I must wait- here for Hans and your slaves." -

Away she sped without a word, and presently Hans arrived, bringing with him eight frightened men, who as yet scarcely knew whether they slept or woke. •' Is that all ?" I. asked. " Then bar the door 'and follow- me to the sitkammer, where the baas keeps his guns." Just as we reached it Leblanc entered, clad in his - shirt and trousers, and was followed presently by Marie with a candle. " What is it?" he asked.

I took the cadle from Marie's hand and set it on the floor close to the wall, lest it should prove a target for an assegai or a bullet. Even in those days the Kaffirs had a few firearms, for the most part captured, or stolen from white men. Then in a few words I told them all.

" " And when did you learn all . this?" asked Leblanc in' French.

"At the mission station a little more than half an hour ago," I answered, looking at my watch. "At the station a little more than half an hour ago!' Peste! it is not possible! Yon dream or are drunken," he cried ex citedly. " All right, monsieur, we will argue afterwards," I answered. " Meanwhile the Kaffirs are here, for I - rode through them; and if you want to save your life, stop talking and act. Marie, how many guns are there • "Four," she answered, "one -of my father's; two roers and two smaller ones." "And how many of these men"and I pointed to the Kaffirs — shoot?"

"Three well and one badly, Allan." "Good," I said. " Let them load the guns with loopers"that is, slugs, not bullets" and let the rest stand in the passage with their assegais, in case the Quabies should try to force the back door." ■ Now, in this house there were in all but six windows, one to each sitting-room, one to each of the larger bedrooms, these four opening on to the verandah, and one at either end of the' house, to give light and air .to the two small bedrooms, which were approached through the larger bedrooms. At the back, fortunately, there were no windows, for the stead was but one room, deep with a passage running from the front of the back door, a distance of little over fifteen feet. ' As soon as the guns were loaded I divided up the men, a man with a gun at each window. The right-hand sittingroom window I took myself with two guns, Marie coming with me to load, which, like all girls in that wild country, she could do well enough. So we arranged ourselves in.'a rough-and-ready fashion; and while we were doing it felt quite cheerful— is, except Monsieur Leblanc, who, I noticed, seemed very much disturbed. I do not for one moment mean to suggest that he- was afraid, as he might well have been, for he was an extremely brave and even rash man; but I think the knowledge that his drunken act had brought this terrible danger upon us all weighed on his mind. Also there may have been more; some subtle fore-know-ledge of the approaching end to a life that, when all allowances were made, could scarcely be called well spent. At any rate he fidgeted at his window-place, cursing beneath his breath, and eoon, as I saw out of the corner of my eye, began to have recourse to his favourite bottle of peach brandy, which he fetched out of a cupboard. The slaves, too, were 1 gloomy, as all natives are when suddenly awakened in the night; but as the light grew they became more cheerful. It is a poor Kaffir that does not love fighting, especially when he has a gun and a white man or two to lead him. (To be continued.)