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I think I had forgotten all about that night when I lay in the cellar and heard Laputa's plans. Indeed, my doings of the past days were all hazy and trivial in my mind. I only saw one sight clearly two men, one tall and black, the other little and sallow, slowly creeping nearer to the Rooirand, and myself, a midget on a horse, spurring far behind through the bush on their trail.
I can get my life from him if I offer to give them back. It had sounded a good scheme three hours before, but with the man's hard face before me, it seemed a frail peg to hang my fate on. Laputa's eye fell on me, a clear searching eye with a question in it. There was something he was trying to say to me which he dared not put into words.
Then on Laputa's forehead and bare breast he drew a bloody cross. 'I seal thee, said the voice, 'priest and king of God's people. The ewer was carried round the assembly, and each dipped his finger in it and marked his forehead. I got a dab to add to the other marks on my face. 'Priest and king of God's people, said the voice again, 'I call thee to the inheritance of John.
I went straight for the Portugoose, determined that, pistol or no pistol, I would serve him as he had served my dog. For my years I was a well-set-up lad, long in the arms and deep in the chest. But I had not yet come to my full strength, and in any case I could not hope to fight the whole of Laputa's army. I was flung back and forwards like a shuttlecock.
'I suppose you know what will happen to you, he said, flicking the ashes from his cigarette. 'To-morrow at Inanda's Kraal, when the vow is over, they will give you a taste of Kaffir habits. Not death, my friend that would be simple enough but a slow death with every refinement of horror. You have broken into their sacred places, and you will be sacrificed to Laputa's god.
I had forgotten that the man called himself a Christian. 'One thing more I ask, I said. 'I want my dog decently buried. 'That has been already done, was the reply. 'He was a brave animal, and my people honour bravery. My eyes were bandaged tight, and a thong was run round my right wrist and tied to Laputa's saddle-bow.
By rights, I suppose, my blood should have been boiling at this treason. I am ashamed to confess that it did nothing of the sort. My mind was mesmerized by this amazing man. I could not refrain from shouting with the rest. Indeed I was a convert, if there can be conversion when the emotions are dominant and there is no assent from the brain. I had a mad desire to be of Laputa's party.
God had preserved me from deadly perils, but not that I might cower in some shelter. I had a mission as clear as Laputa's. For the first time I became conscious to what a little thing I owed my salvation. That matter of the broken halter was like the finger of Divine Providence. I had been saved for a purpose, and unless I fulfilled that purpose I should again be lost.
I learned much of the untold grievances of the natives, and saw something of their strange, twisted reasoning. Before we had got Laputa's army back to their kraals, with food enough to tide them over the spring sowing, Aitken and I had got sounder policy in our heads than you will find in the towns, where men sit in offices and see the world through a mist of papers.
With my wrist-rope in his hand, he preceded me down the hill till we got to the red screes at the foot of the kloof. Then, under my guidance, we turned up into the darkness of the gorge. As we entered I looked back, and saw figures coming over the edge of the green cup Laputa's men, I guessed. What I had to do must be done quickly.
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