CHAPTER XII

THE MAGIC OF INDABA-ZIMBI

We gained the spot by the stream where Stella had been taken.  The natives looked at the torn fragments of the dogs, and at the marks of violence, and I heard them swearing to each other, that whether the Star lived or died they would not rest till they had exterminated every baboon on Babyan’s Peak.  I echoed the oath, and, as shall be seen, we kept it.

We started on along the stream, following the spoor of the baboons as we best could.  But the stream left no spoor, and the hard, rocky banks very little.  Still we wandered on.  All night we wandered through the lonely moonlit valleys, startling the silence into a thousand echoes with our cries.  But no answer came to them.  In vain our eyes searched the sides of precipices formed of water-riven rocks fantastically piled one upon another; in vain we searched through endless dells and fern-clad crannies.  There was nothing to be found.  How could we expect to find two human beings hidden away in the recesses of this vast stretch of mountain ground, which no man yet had ever fully explored.  They were lost, and in all human probability lost for ever.

To and fro we wandered hopelessly, till at last dawn found us footsore and weary nearly at the spot whence we had started.  We sat down waiting for the sun to rise, and the men ate of such food as they had brought with them, and sent to the kraals for more.

I sat upon a stone with a breaking heart.  I cannot describe my feelings.  Let the reader put himself in my position and perhaps he may get some idea of them.  Near me was old Indaba-zimbi, who sat staring straight before him as though he were looking into space, and taking note of what went on there.  An idea struck me.  This man had some occult power.  Several times during our adventures he had prophesied, and in every case his prophecies had proved true.  He it was who, when we escaped from the Zulu Impi, had told me to steer north, because there we should find the place of a white man who lived under the shadow of a great peak that was full of baboons.  Perhaps he could help in this extremity—­at any rate it was worth trying.

“Indaba-zimbi,” I said, “you say that you can send your spirit through the doors of space and see what we cannot see.  At the least I know that you can do strange things.  Can you not help me now?  If you can, and will save her, I will give you half the cattle that we have here.”

“I never said anything of the sort, Macumazahn,” he answered.  “I do things, I do not talk about them.  Neither do I seek reward for what I do like a common witch-doctor.  It is well that you have asked me to use my wisdom, Macumazahn, for I should not have used it again without being asked—­no, not even for the sake of the Star and yourself, whom I love, for if so my Spirit would have been angry.  In the other matters I had a part, for my life was concerned as well as yours; but in this matter I have no part, and therefore I might not use my wisdom unless you thought well to call upon my Spirit.  However, it would have been no good to ask me before, for I have only just found the herb I want,” and he produced a handful of the leaves of a plant that was unfamiliar to me.  It had prickly leaves, shaped very much like those of the common English nettle.