The Sky And The Forest (30 page)

“I have them, the assassins!” he shouted.

He was training round the six-pounder gun on its pivot, looking along the sights and bracing himself against the shoulder-piece. There was a grey light over the water now, and streaks of grey mist drifted over its surface. From out of one of the grey streaks emerged a dark shape, distorted in the faint light, but just recognizable as a canoe paddling furiously away from the steamer, and a good half-mile away from it. Talbot went over and stood behind Masson as he sighted the gun. When the gun bellowed out Talbot saw a momentary black pencil-mark against the grey; it was the path of the shell speeding on its low trajectory. Straight to the canoe it went, to burst in smoke and spray, out of which for a second rose one end of the canoe standing vertically out of the water.

“A good shot, eh. Captain?” said Masson, turning so that Talbot was once more aware of how white Masson's teeth gleamed amidst the black of his moustache and beard.

Masson now had a telescope to his eye and was sweeping it round over the river.

“A canoe bottom up there,” said Masson. “And another beside it. Ha! No, that one is empty. Not a soul alive in it. Not a damned soul. That was another good shot of mine. Captain, was it not? The first I fired -- the shot that struck in the midst of the canoes.”

“It was that which stopped them,” agreed Talbot. “It would have been hard to keep them out of the steamer if they had all got alongside.”

Masson walked to the rail and looked over, Talbot along with him.

“One empty canoe there,” said Masson. “Another full of water and corpses.”

“There were some which got alongside the barge,” said Talbot.

“And not a man left,” said Masson. “They have had a lesson, these men of Loa.”

The soft lead Remington bullets made severe wounds at point-blank range, but there were yet some men alive who had been struck by them, in the barge and on the deck, and they could be prevailed upon to speak -- Talbot sent ashore for Sergeant Fleuron to carry out the interrogation. But Fleuron had hardly to make use of his peculiar talents, for a man torn by a fearful wound would readily answer questions if a bowl of water were withheld from him only a few inches from his dry lips. He would gasp out all he knew, for Fleuron to interpret it to Talbot. . . . Yes, the attack on the
Lady Stanley
had been made by Loa's whole fleet. That did not mean all Loa's fighting men -- Lanu was still on shore at the head of a great army. The fleet had been led by one of the twins ... at that information Fleuron showed annoyance, for if the other twin were dead and at the bottom of the river all his trouble in pickling that head in order to compare likenesses was wasted. . . . Loa's town was up the river here, a long two days' journey by canoe in calm weather. The port stood beside the river, on that bank, and Loa's town was only a short distance away from it. Yes, the speaker knew the port when he saw it -- he actually lived there. . . .

The two men who survived their wound and their examination both knew the port; with Talbot's permission Fleuron had their wounds bandaged to keep them alive, and he had them laid on deck, secured to the guardrail, for their guidance might save a good deal of trouble when the final advance should be made. They lay on the deck looking round with frightened eyes at everything about them. They were terrified at being aboard this immense devil-driven canoe. Even the wealth of iron all about them frightened them; so did the strange white men -- so did the strange black men. The shriek of the steam whistle, the clank of the capstan as the second barge was slowly wound up the last of the cataract, and the roar and bustle when it was drawn alongside, set their white eyeballs rolling. Talbot spared them a glance. These men, shaking with fright, were probably fair specimens of the men who had attacked them. Their fear only proved the fanaticism that must animate them. The attack had been boldly made, even against these frightful machines. They had come on in the face of rifle fire and even of shellfire, and the three or four surviving canoes had flung themselves in a forlorn hope against the steamer's sides. Such wild courage could only be the result of a frantic belief in their own cause. And there was still an army of such fanatics awaiting them on the riverbank, under the command of this Lanu. Well, in that case they would stand and fight, and not have to be pursued through the forest. That would mean a quick finish to the campaign. The barges were both alongside now, both jammed full of chattering black soldiers. Even to them, who had served the white invaders for some time, the prospect of this trip by water was exciting and a little frightening. The deck of the
Lady Stanley
was heaped with wood for fuel, so much that Talbot could confidently rely on going all the way up against the current to the next fall and back again if necessary without having to risk a working party ashore to cut more. There were great bags of food; not quite enough to make him feel at ease regarding the supply problem, but all that could be swept up from the country behind him despite the protests of the civil authorities. There were cartridges in plenty for the business in hand. So every possible precaution had been taken, and it was time to start. Talbot shouted an order to Sergeant Fleuron, and Fleuron, with many exasperated orders, set about the business of casting off the barges and stationing men at the anchor windlasses. Talbot caught Masson's eye, and Masson nodded, and sent down a bell signal to Carver below to admit steam to the cylinders. Slowly the current took the
Lady Stanley
astern; another note on the bell and she forged ahead, turning to push her nose accurately between the sterns of the two barges. The beat of the stern wheel quickened and the
Lady Stanley
headed upstream at several miles an hour through the water, at nearly two miles an hour over land. The barges wallowed along ahead of her -- Talbot, and the Belgians and Frenchmen too, felt they would never grow used to this method of pushing a tow instead of pulling it, but it was necessary with a stern-wheeler, and was no novelty to Carver, who at some time had worked in a Mississippi steamer. Beside Talbot the wounded prisoners clasped each other's hands in terror at the vibration of the monster beneath them.

In due course the
Lady Stanley
and the barges she was pushing arrived in the river opposite the port of Loa's town.

The two wounded prisoners pointed the place out eagerly enough -- they seemed to be glad to see their home again -- but it was really hardly necessary, for anyone could know it for what it was at a glance. The
Lady Stanley
hung in midriver, her stern wheel just pushing her against the current, while Talbot surveyed the place through his telescope. It was like a number of other Central African towns, perched upon a rocky bluff overlooking the river; the houses a little strange to Talbot's eyes in that they were long and rectangular, instead of circular as they usually were lower down the river. Even through his telescope Talbot could make out no sign of life; not a soul was stirring although he had a good view into much of the village street. The path down the bluff was clearly visible, and on the beach at its foot lay a single canoe, while beyond the village Talbot thought he could just make out signs of the usual banana groves on the outskirts. But there was no movement, not even a wreath of smoke.

“Try a shot at 'em and see if you can wake 'em up,” suggested Carver, who had left the engine-room to come up on deck and watch the course of events.

“All right,” said Talbot, and Carver walked forward to the six-pounder.

He trained the gun round and sighted it; the gun went off with a loud bark and a shout went up from the massed soldiers in the barges as, amid the smoke and dust, they saw the side of the most prominent house crumple outwards. Carver swung open the breech and inserted another round.

“That will do,” said Talbot; he was accountable to the Baron for those six-pounder shells.

There was no point in wasting further time; it was hopeless to think of trying to exhaust the patience of Africa. If the town were going to be defended he must force the defenders to show their hand. A brief colloquy with Carver settled the details of the landing, and Talbot went into the bows to give Sergeant Fleuron his orders. Then he came back to line his riflemen up along the guardrail. The
Lady Stanley
dropped back down the river to give herself room to get up speed, and then came forward again, pushing the barges valiantly ahead of her. She backed her stern wheel momentarily, and the barges were cast off, heading on up the river under their own momentum with Fleuron and a corporal at the tillers taking them diagonally across to the beach. Up onto the beach they ran side by side, with a grinding of the pebbles beneath them, and amid wild yells from the black soldiers. They had captured towns before, and if they could not look forward to loot they could at least expect an orgy of cruelty and rape. Over the bows tumbled the leading men, and it was at that moment that the defenders showed themselves. There was an answering yell, and dark figures showed themselves everywhere on the bluff, some leaping down with brandished weapons, and others standing, feet braced wide apart, drawing their bows to send their arrows down into the crowd on the beach. But there were rifles awaiting them -- Talbot himself was kneeling on the deck of the
Lady Stanley
along with his picked shots, the guardrail forming a convenient rest for his rifle. The range was a mere hundred yards, and he could not miss, sending shot after shot home; from the deck of the
Lady Stanley
, from the barges and from the beach, a hail of lead met the charging men. Even so, some of them got through, and plunged into a bloody melee on the beach with those men who had landed. But numbers as well as weapons were against them. The whole force which had attacked amounted to less than a couple of hundred men, and there were more than five hundred in the barges. It had been a forlorn hope, a bold attempt to beat back the invaders by assailing them at the most favourable moment -- not favourable enough. Fleuron's soldiers poured ashore and club and axe and spear fought out the battle on the beach, while Talbot and his riflemen picked off the archers on the bluff above. On the beach the battle was won, and the invaders began to push forward; but many more of the defenders died on the beach than turned to try to make their escape up the bluff, running the gantlet of the rifle fire from the steamer. The yelling victors swarmed up the bluff after them, mad with victory; Talbot saw them start the ascent, but he could not watch them enter the town, for his attention was distracted.

Fleuron's barge, freed from the weight of the hundreds of men crammed into her, had come adrift from the beach and was rapidly being carried downstream again; moreover, as Fleuron agitatedly shouted to his captain, her bottom had been damaged when she went aground and she was leaking badly. The
Lady Stanley
had to go down the river after her, imperilling herself amid the shallows close inshore, and heave her a line to bring her fussily back and beach her again to save her from sinking. Talbot and Fleuron hastily landed and went up the path to the town, the sweat streaming down them with their hurry as they went past the many dead. In the town five hundred mad men were raging through the houses, finding little enough on which to vent their fury. There had been three old women in the town, and they had been killed by the first arrivals without a thought for the sport they might have afforded to the cooler heads. Otherwise the place was deserted, abandoned. There were a few poor cooking utensils, the usual domestic gear, but no ivory, no treasure house, nothing worth saving for the benefit of His Majesty the King of the Belgians. But as Fleuron remarked, all the reports they had gathered indicated that this was no more than a suburb of Loa's town, which lay somewhere not far inland. It only remained to count the dead and see if among the wounded there were any who could increase their information, and so Fleuron and Talbot, surrounded by their guard, made their way back to the beach.

Halfway down the bluff Fleuron stopped beside a dead man, face downward on the slope. He lay in a pool of blood, his back, below his right shoulder blade, torn wide open by the exit of the soft-nosed .45 bullet which had entered his breast. But on his head there was still a headdress of twisted iron, and about the arms and neck there were spiral iron ornaments, while beside the body lay an axe -- Talbot noticed the excellence of the workmanship.

“A chief, I fancy. Captain,” said Fleuron.

He poked the body with his foot, and then at his order two of his men turned it over for them to examine it further. It was not the face of a young man, but that of a man of middle age at least. The breast was scarred with tattooing, but the face was hardly disfigured; the closed eyes and relaxed muscles conveyed an impression of peace.

“He must have been killed in the first moments of the attack,” said Fleuron, looking round him at the comparative distances from the brow and the beach.

“I expect I killed him myself,” supplemented Talbot -- he remembered stopping more than one warrior in mid-career on the bluff; he smiled deprecatingly as he said this, for the English gentleman's habit of not calling attention to personal exploits was still strong.

“I expect you did, Captain,” said Fleuron.

“I wonder who he is,” speculated Talbot.

“That we shall soon know. I intend to find out,” answered Fleuron.

The wounded man who was carried up the bluff to the corpse-- groaning as his shattered thighbone was jarred by his bearers -- enlightened them instantly, the moment he set eyes on the dead face.

“Lanu,” he said. “Lanu. Lord.”

Even with Lanu dead the awe and respect in his voice were quite unmistakable.

“Oh, it's Lanu, is it?” said Fleuron.

He asked further questions and turned back to Talbot when the wounded man had answered them.

“This,” he said -- with a wave of his hand to the corpses littering the bluff and the beach -- “This was the only army left. It was as I thought; the other twin was killed when they attacked us in canoes. Every man was killed then -- not a single one came back. So Lanu stood to fight here with all the soldiers left and the old men -- look at that grey head over there. And Lanu is dead, and you saw how many fighting men escaped from here.”