The monotonous strain rose and fell on the heavy air, a sickly vapour sifted in through the cracks in the wall, suspense gave way before the torture of thirst which suddenly assailed them, and Klaas shouted out to the unseen foes to come and kill him. The music rose to a wail as if in mockery, then receded, grew fainter, died away, was heard again from another point, grew nearer, retreated again, until even Sirayo’s iron nerves broke down under the irritation as he shouted hoarsely.
Suddenly, without sound or notice, the passage was darkened by the form of an old woman, black and withered. She looked at the prostrate captives with a mingling of fear and rage, but they looked not at her, but at a calabash poised on her head, on which glittered a few precious drops of water. Was this to be another mode of torture? No, she moved timidly forward, lifted her calabash from her head, while they followed her movements with glittering eyes, then shot a cooling stream into each mouth gaping wide to receive it. Then the old witch stood there talking passionately, stretching her skinny arms, pointing now to the passage, then at the broad trail of the python.
“Silence,” said Sirayo, “bring someone here who can listen as well as talk.”
She shook her lean hand in his face until the bones cracked, then shuffled out, still shrilly grumbling.
“I am past all feeling of curiosity,” groaned Webster, as his eyes shifted uneasily round the room; “but I should like to know two things: why that old woman has been cursing us after giving us water, and what became of the snake.” He turned his head to scan the wall. “I have a strange feeling in my bones,” he said with a shudder, “that those evil eyes are still fixed upon me!”
Laura shuddered, too, violently, and her dark eyes, looking unnaturally large and bright, glanced about restlessly. “I hope this will soon end,” she whispered.
“Good God!” groaned Hume; “if I could only see!”
They lapsed once more into silence, and listened again to the wailing of the native instrument, heard a sudden outbreak, the sharp crack of rifles, the shouts of men, the wild din of battle.