The People of the Mist

o lives on the banks of the Zambesi some four days’ march fr

ite man named?

, married a white woman, a Portuguese whose father dwelt at Delagoa Bay, and who was beautiful, ah! beautiful. Then he settled on the banks of the Zambesi and became a trader, building the house

several times he has collected ivory and feathers and gold worth much money, and also has bred cattle by hundreds. Then he would say

g drunk he gambled away all his money in a month, and once he lost it in a river, the boat being overset by a river-horse and the ivory and gold sinking out of sight. Still, the last time that he started he left his daughter, the Shepherdess, at Durban, and there she s

which is called Home. He listened to her, for Mavoom loves his daughter, and said that it should be so. But he said this also: that first he would go on a trading journey up the river to buy a

, and the lady Juanna his daughter wept, for though she is fearless, it was not fitting that she should be left thus

of that Great–Great whom she worships. On the thirteenth morning, therefore, she sat beneath the verandah of the house, reading in the book according to her custom, and I went about my work making food ready. Suddenly I heard a tumult, and looking over the wal

y and that. Some of the people fell, and more were made captive, but others of them

being still in her hand. But as she reached it, the man mounted on the mule overtook her, and she turned about and faced him, setting he

n the terror of this country for many years. He is named the Yellow Devil by the black people, but his Portuguese name is Pereira, and he has his place in a sec

ne trading up the river, has he not? Ah! I knew it, or perhaps I should not have ventured here. But it was wrong of him to leave one so pretty all alone. Well, well, he is about his business, and I must be about mine, for I am a merchant also, my dove, a m

ared at him with frightened eyes, and the slave-traders his servants laughed aloud at his evil words. Prese

e wilds, it is the custom of my mistress to carry a portion of this poison hidden in her hair, since a time might come when she must use it to save herself from worse than death. Now it seemed to her that this hour was upon her, and I knew that she was about to take the poison. Then in my fear I whispere

bow her head slightly, and her hand fel

s’ journey to my little Nest on the coast, and who can tell when the dhows wil

t your wickedness shall bring your own death upon you;’ and she glanced round at the bodies of those whom the slave-traders had murdered, at the captives u

after the fashion of his people as a protection against the curse, ‘What! you prophesy, do you, my dove, and

such of the captives as they thought to be of no value, the drivers flogged the slaves with their

rescue the Shepherdess whom they loved. But they would not do this, for the heart was out of them, they were cowed by fear, and most of the head-men had been taken captive. No, they would do nothing except weep over

of them, till at length the meat was done and my strength left me. On the morning of the fifth day I could go no farther, so I crept to the top of a koppie and watched their lon

in these mountains, and next day I travelled on in search of them, thinking perchance they would help me, for I know well that the English hate the slave-drivers. And here, my lord, I am come at last with much toil, and now I pray you deliver my mistress the Shepherdess from the hands of the Yellow D

s head and stared at her, thinking that her sorrows had made her mad. There was no look of madness upon the woman’s fierce face, ho

d you, are dead through fever, and I myself am smitten with it. And yet you ask me, alone as I am, to travel to this slave-trader’s camp that is you

ow also that you Englishmen can do great things when you are well paid. Strive to help me and you shall have your rewar

for the veiled sarcasm of Soa’s speech had stung him, “unless

wered quietly; “tomorrow

look for your mistress, to say nothing of rescuing her, when I do not know whither she has been taken?

he Nest, it is secret; that I have discovered

, who had been sitting by listening to all that was said in stolid si

ou not once ta

once, ten

was

r chief, as I was born to be. Then the Yellow Devil, that same man of whom the woman speaks, fell upon us with Arabs, and took us to his place, there to await the slave-dhows.

our way to that p

slaves were blindfolded during the last day’s march. But I worked up my bandage with my nose — ah! my big nose served me well that day —

ind the spot

ow Luabo. Then I should follow the river down a day’s journey. Afterwards two or more days through the swamps and we come to the p

aster’s settlement, so your mistress has been there some three or four days if she ever reached it. Now, from what I know of the habits of slave-traders on this coast, the dhows will not begin to take in their car

I will tell you tomorrow, after I have cured you of your fever. And now I pray, B