CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
RETRIBUTION OVERTAKES KING M'BONGWELE.
King M'Bongwele had evidently been keenly on the watch for the return ofthe four prisoners, for they had scarcely had time to enter their hutwhen the monarch presented himself before them, and, with some littleimpatience of manner, began his interrogations with the single word:
"Well?"
"We can cure them," briefly answered the professor.
"Good!" ejaculated the king, his impatience yielding to almost childishdelight. "When is the cure to be performed?"
"Within one span of the sun's journey through the sky after we haveadministered a certain medicine, which we must procure from the ship.Provide us each with a horse to go and fetch this medicine, and Ipromise you, that before you see the stars to-night those women shall bein as full possession of their reason as you are."
"No," said the king, eyeing the professor keenly, "I will arrange betterthan that. You shall tell Lualamba where to find this wonderfulmedicine, and he shall fetch it for you."
"That will not do at all," answered the professor. "Lualamba couldnever find the medicine; he could not even gain access to the ship. Wemust fetch it ourselves."
M'Bongwele rested his chin in his hand for some minutes, ponderingdeeply. Then he rose to his feet and stalked out of the hut againwithout vouchsafing a word, either "yea" or "nay."
"He is not quite such a fool as he looks," was the baronet's solecomment upon this strange behaviour, and then they sat down to luncheon.
The king, upon re-entering his palace, at once sent for Lualamba, and,upon that chief making his appearance, issued strict orders that everyavailable man, woman, and child, not only in the village but in theentire district, should be mustered by noon next day, to make one grandand final attempt to move the ship to the village, pending which theking decided to hold no further communications with his prisoners. Theattempt was made in due course, and, like the others, it proved, asmight be expected, a miserable failure. Poor M'Bongwele was nowcompletely at a loss; he knew not what to do. He was most anxious tohave the white women cured; but he had a powerful presentiment that ifthose singular beings, whom he certainly to some extent had in hispower, once again set foot upon that curious thing they called a "ship,"his power over them would be gone for ever. And in such a case he feltthat his fate was certain; he had laid unholy hands upon them, and direwould be his punishment. No; he was convinced that at all costs theymust be debarred from access to that terrible "ship," unless he couldfirst of all gain their forgiveness, amity, and good-will, and interestthem in his fortunes to the extent of securing their active co-operationin his schemes of conquest and aggrandisement. How to do this was,however, the question which puzzled king M'Bongwele; and it puzzled himso long that--but stay, we must not forestall the story.
Thus engaged in a futile endeavour to discover a way out of his dilemma,the king kept himself strictly secluded in his palace day after day,allowing no one access to him unless upon business of the utmost urgencyand importance. Meanwhile, Seketulo, deeming the period a favourableone for the furtherance of his own schemes, first exhibited an increasedamount of precaution in the proper posting of the guard over theprisoners, and then a gradually growing disposition to converse with theprisoners themselves. From this he proceeded to develop an interest,which, after a suitable lapse of time, was allowed to merge into anxietyfor their welfare and greater comfort, and, finding these cautiousadvances well received, he then set to work in real earnest upon thedelicate task of unfolding his proposals. He was so very cautious,however, and took so long a time about this, that he missed hisopportunity altogether, and that, too, through a very simple accident.
It happened one night that, after an unusually long, disjointed, anddesultory conversation with this same chief, Mildmay failed to get tosleep with his usual promptitude, and he lay tossing restlessly upon hispallet until he became impatient and finally exasperated at his want ofsuccess. The hut felt hot and stuffy to the verge of suffocation, andthe lieutenant at length came to the conclusion that there was no hopeof his getting to sleep until he had taken a turn or two up and down thecompound, in the comparatively cool night air.
He accordingly scrambled to his feet, and, groping his way in theintense darkness, made for the verandah. Here he paused for a moment,glancing upward to the sky, which he found to be obscured by a densecanopy of heavy black cloud, portending rain, which sufficientlyaccounted for the pitchy darkness. His eyes at length becomingaccustomed to the obscurity, he looked round for the guard; and heeventually discovered the various members faithfully occupying theirposts, but, one and all, squatted upon the ground evidently fast asleep.He stalked out toward the centre of the compound and took two or threeturns up and down its length, his footsteps falling noiselessly upon thelight sandy soil, and not one of the savages manifested the slightestconsciousness of his presence. Then he gradually extended his walkuntil he reached the gate in the palisade, and here too the guard wasfast asleep. An idea presented itself to him; and he was about to makean attempt to noiselessly remove the bars and open the gate, whenprudence suggested another and a better plan. He tiptoed lightly backto the hut, and, gently awakening each of his companions in turn,whispered in their ears:
"Up at once! There is an opportunity for us to effect our escape!"
The aroused sleepers instinctively comprehended the situation and sprangto their feet. Another minute, and four shadowy shapes stolenoiselessly across the compound, to vanish almost instantly in thedeeper shadows of the palisading. The closed gate was reached andpassed, and presently the fugitives found themselves in the angle of thecompound most distant from the slumbering guard. Here Mildmay offered a"back" to the baronet, whispering:
"You go first."
Without a word Sir Reginald complied, clambering first upon hiscompanion's back and thence noiselessly to the top of the palisading.In another second a faint thud on the outside told that the firstadventurer had successfully scaled the barrier. "You go next,"whispered Mildmay to the colonel, "and remain on the top of the palisadeto give the professor a hand."
Up went the colonel, and up after him went the professor. The latter,with the baronet's assistance from below on the outside, accomplishedhis descent in safety; and then the colonel, reaching as far down as hecould, assisted Mildmay to the top. The rest was easy; and a minutelater they were cautiously making their way up the road to the top endof the village, or that which was most thinly inhabited. At this momentdown came the rain, a regular tropical deluge, which was undoubtedly amost fortunate circumstance for the fugitives, as they could otherwisehave scarcely hoped to escape the vigilance of the numerous prowlingcurs belonging to the village, who, as it was, were driven by the rainto take refuge in their masters' huts.
Five minutes sufficed the travellers to reach the stout lofty palisadewhich inclosed the village; and this, the framework all being on theinner side, they were easily enabled to surmount. Once outside thisobstacle, Mildmay assumed the leadership, confidently declaring hisability to find the ship, though he had only once before, consciously,passed over the ground between the village and the ruins.
The party made their way in the first place along the outer side of thepalisading until they reached the main entrance gate to the village; andfrom this point Mildmay "took his departure." A well-defined pathwayled for some distance down into the plain, and this they traversed untilthe lieutenant believed he had reached the point at which to turn off.Here he paused for a full minute, looking about him and peering into thedarkness. The rain was still pelting down, though not so heavily as atfirst; and away to the eastward the clouds were already beginning tobreak, allowing a star to peep through here and there. At lengthMildmay thought he had got his bearings right; and, selecting a star tosteer by, away he plunged into the long thick wet grass, his companionsfollowing closely behind. A few minutes later the rain ceased, theclouds vanished from the sky, and the stars shone calmly out in alltheir beauty, affo
rding an ample sufficiency of light to distinctlyreveal to the wayfarers the nearer clumps of bush, trees, and otherlarge objects. Mildmay now paused again, and, shading his eyes with hishand, once more keenly surveyed the horizon.
"All right," he murmured. "We are going just right, I believe. I canindistinctly make out something away there on the horizon, just ahead,which I feel certain must be the ruins. Come along, my hearties; heaveahead!"
Again they pushed forward, dripping wet, drenched to the skin with therecent shower, and stumbling every now and then as their feet becameentangled in the long matted grass; now swerving to the right to avoid aclump of bush, then to the left for the same purpose; but ever keepingone particular star, low down on the horizon, as nearly straight aheadas possible. Though the rest of the party felt themselves utterly lost,without the faintest notion of where they were going, and though neitherof them could distinguish anything even remotely resembling the ruins,Mildmay still persisted that he was right; and he continued to pressrapidly forward, the rest following him, since they could do no better.At length they struck a narrow path through the grass, and Mildmay atonce announced his intention of following it.
"It is a little off our course," he said, "but the walking is so mucheasier here that we shall gain more than we shall lose by following it;and I should not be surprised to find that it leads to the ruins."
Half an hour later a brilliant star suddenly appeared in the densedarkness ahead. It shone steadily for nearly a minute, disappeared, andalmost instantly appeared again.
"Hurrah!" ejaculated the lieutenant joyously, "there is the ship'slight. Now we _know_ that we are right. Another hour's tramp will, ifall be well, take us alongside. How I wish I had a pipe of tobacco!"
"Don't mention it!" fervently ejaculated the professor, who was anardent lover of the weed. "However, in another hour, as you say--ah!"
The professor's "ah!" was so very expressive of anticipated pleasurethat his companions with one accord burst into a hearty laugh, which,however, was abruptly cut short by a low savage growl and a suddenrustling in the grass close by.
"What was that?" was the simultaneous inquiry as the party came abruptlyto a dead halt.
"Push on, push on!" urged the professor. "It is some nocturnal animalprowling in search of prey. At this moment he is more frightened thanwe are; but if we wait here until he has regained his courage he willperhaps spring on one of us."
The march was accordingly resumed, with perhaps some littleprecipitation; and at length Mildmay's companions began to be consciousof the presence of certain shapeless blotches of blackness rising upagainst the sky ahead of them and occasionally obscuring for a fewseconds the now brilliant light which gleamed from the top of the_Flying Fish's_ pilot-house. These shapeless blotches of blacknessincreased in size with almost startling rapidity; and in a few minutesthe travellers, still following the footpath, found themselves in themidst of them, winding in and out between great blocks of masonry whichsuddenly rose up in front of them in the darkness, and stumbling overloose boulders and fragments of stone. At length they found themselvesin the clear open space occupied by the _Flying Fish_; and in anotherquarter of an hour the party passed into the black tunnel formed by thebilge-keel and the side of the ship, and began to feel with their feetfor the open trap-door. This was soon reached; the party entered theopening, closed the flap, and, with a murmured "Thank God, we are safeat last!" began to feel for the button which was to open the door givingaccess to the interior proper of the ship. Another second and this doorswung open, and the party found themselves at the foot of thecylindrical staircase, in the full blaze of the electric lamps.
"Now," said the baronet, "ten minutes in which to strip, rub down, anddon dry garments, and then we will be off to the rescue of those poorwomen, after which I think we must give our friend M'Bongwele a salutarylesson on the evil and impolicy of treachery."
The allotted ten minutes had not quite expired when the professor, thelast of the party, made his appearance in the pilot-house, by which timethe _Flying Fish_ was some five hundred feet in the air, with her nosepointing in the direction of M'Bongwele's village, and her propellerdriving her ahead at full speed. The electric lights of the ship wereall called into requisition for the illumination of the landscape,producing a weird and ghostlike effect as the trees and clumps of bushfirst caught the light and then brightened into full radiance as theyflashed past, to instantly fade again into obscurity. A startled howlor two smote upon the ears of the travellers, and the forms of hastilyretreating animals were momentarily caught sight of; but all eyes wereintently directed ahead in anxious expectancy of catching sight of thevillage, and presently it came into view. The speed was at once reducedand the vessel's flight directed earthward, and in another moment shedashed through the palisade, shivering the principal entrance gate tosplinters, and (as was intended) frightening the guard clean out oftheir senses. With one shrill, piercing scream of terror, as theycaught sight of the dazzling bow lights of the ship, the sable warriorstook to their heels and vanished in the darkness, whilst the _FlyingFish_ was dexterously brought to earth close alongside the hut tenantedby Mrs Scott and her nieces. That appalling yell effectually awakenedthe entire occupants of the hut; and whilst they were sitting up ontheir pallets, rubbing their eyes and wondering what the terrible soundmight portend, the portiere was pushed aside and the professor, bearinga hand-lamp, unceremoniously made his appearance before them with anearnest request that they would dress with all speed and join him on theoutside of the hut, where he would await them, the hour of theirdeliverance having arrived.
A quarter of an hour later the bewildered ladies were conducted by vonSchalckenberg in through the trapdoor in the bottom of the _Flying Fish_and up the cylindrical staircase to the saloon, where they were warmlywelcomed by the other three gentlemen, who, after a few congratulatoryremarks on their fortunate escape, retired to secure and convey on boardthe boxes containing the remainder of their guests' wardrobes. Thisdone, Mrs Scott and her nieces were conducted to the cabins assignedfor their use, and the gentlemen then retreated to the pilot-house,where, over a keenly enjoyed pipe, a hasty council was held as to whatshould be done with M'Bongwele.
This question was settled just as the first faint streaks of approachingdawn began to brighten the eastern horizon, when the ship was moved upinto the great square before the king's house, where the whole of theking's body-guard were drawn up under arms, and, beyond them, theremaining inhabitants of the village, a dense, surging, excited,squabbling crowd.
On the approach of the _Flying Fish_ the latter flung themselves facedownwards, in abject terror, to the ground, and the armed and mountedwarriors betrayed a disposition to stampede which was only with theutmost difficulty checked and restrained by Seketulo. Even this chieffound himself unable to wholly conceal the feeling of nervousness whichagitated him; but he in this trying moment enjoyed a consciousness,unshared by any other man there present, of having done his best to makethe erstwhile prisoners comfortable.
As the huge ship settled quietly down in the centre of the great squarea profound and deathlike silence suddenly succeeded the confusedbabbling sound which had hitherto prevailed, and when the fourtravellers stepped out from the pilot-house to the deck and appeared atthe gangway a visible shudder ran through the entire concourse of peoplethere assembled. They dreaded they knew not what, and their fears wereonly in a very trifling degree allayed by the promise of intercession ontheir behalf which Seketulo had made to them.
The professor was of course to be spokesman for the occasion; it was he,therefore, who broke the terrible silence by exclaiming, in a loud,commanding tone of voice:
"Seketulo, we are your friends. Advance, therefore, and listen to thecommands which we are about to lay upon you!"
The reassured and now happy chief struck with his spurred heels thesides of his charger, and the animal, bounding and caracoling, advancedto within a few yards of the ship's side, where his rider dismountedand, with
bowed head and bended knee, waited for such communication asmight be vouchsafed him.
"Listen, O Seketulo!" continued the professor. "We entered this countryanimated by feelings of the most amicable nature to its king and toevery one of its inhabitants. We showed this by distributing presentsof beads, cloth, and other matters when Lualamba and his warriors firstvisited us. And we asked for nothing in return save permission toexamine and explore the ruins on yonder plain; offering to pay promptlyand liberally for whatever assistance we might need. Is not this thetruth?"
"It is, O most mighty wizard," answered Seketulo humbly; some of thebraver warriors also venturing to murmur:
"It is! It is!"
"And how have we been treated?" asked the professor. "Your king, notsatisfied with our friendship and the presents we gave him, wickedly andtreacherously devised a scheme to get us into his power--a scheme which,in order to try him, we permitted to succeed. And, having done that, hefurther attempted to gain possession of this ship,"--this fact havingleaked out in Seketulo's previous conversations--"profanely andaudaciously thinking he could subdue her to his will and control her aswe do. Now, therefore, be it understood by all present that, for hisbase treachery, _M'Bongwele is dethroned_, and Seketulo will, from thismoment, reign in his stead. Let a detachment of the guard enter thepalace and bring M'Bongwele forth to hear his sentence!"
In an instant Lualamba--anxious above all things to please the powersthat be, and having, moreover, in revengeful remembrance many littlegratuitous slights and insults which he had suffered at the king'shands--dismounted a squadron of the guard, and, surrounding the palace,himself entered the building at the head of half a dozen men. Two orthree minutes later the party reappeared with the dethroned monarch intheir midst. They advanced until almost level with the spot occupied bySeketulo, when, at a sign from the professor, they halted; the guardsdisposing themselves round M'Bongwele in such a manner that, whilst toescape was an utter impossibility, he could still see and hear theindividual who, perched far aloft in the gangway of the ship, was aboutto address him.
M'Bongwele never, perhaps, looked more kingly than whilst he thus stoodto receive his sentence of dethronement. He was fully conscious of histreacherous behaviour to his guests, but he felt no shame thereat, forhe had been schooled in the belief that treachery, falsehood, ay, evendeliberate, cold-blooded murder, was perfectly justifiable in thepursuit of power. His only feeling was that he had played a bold gamefor a high stake and had lost it. The moment of reckoning had nowarrived, the penalty of failure had to be paid, and though he knew notwhat that penalty might be--though his brain was teeming with all sortsof possible and impossible horrors--he never for a moment forgot that hewas a monarch, that the eyes of his people were on him, noting his everylook and gesture, and he summoned all his fortitude to his aid, in orderthat, since fall he must, he should fall as becomes a king.
So there he stood in the bright sunlight of the early morning--anunarmed man, surrounded by those who, whilst they would yesterday havepoured out their heart's blood at his command, were now prepared to hewhim in pieces at the bidding of a white-skinned stranger--with armsfolded across the muscular naked chest which throbbed visibly with theintensity of his hardly repressed emotions, his head thrown back, hisbrows knitted, his lips firmly closed over his rigidly set teeth, andhis eyes unquailingly fixed upon the group of white men whom herecognised and tacitly acknowledged as his conquerors and judges. Andwhen the sentence of dethronement, separation from his family, andinstant banishment for life from his country, was pronounced upon him,he offered no plea for pardon or mitigation of his punishment; he urgednothing in extenuation or justification of his conduct, but simply bowedhis head in token of his submission to the inevitable, and begged arespite of a few minutes in which to bid farewell to his family beforesetting out upon his journey to the frontier, whither he was to beescorted by a small well-armed party, in whom Seketulo knew he couldplace implicit trust.
This somewhat painful scene over, the troops and people there presentwere required to swear allegiance and fidelity to their new king, whichthey readily did with all the formalities customary among them on suchoccasions; after which the crown of gold and feathers worn by M'Bongwelewas brought forward and placed upon Seketulo's head; and the new kingwas then invited on board the ship to confer with--and in reality toreceive instructions respecting his future policy and conduct from--themen who had raised him to the supreme dignity. The advice--given withsufficient firmness and emphasis to constitute a command--comprised manyvaluable hints for the wise and humane government of the nation, and wasconcluded with a powerful exhortation to treat with fairness, justice,humanity, and hospitality all strangers who might be brought by accidentor otherwise into the country; to succour, nourish, and carefullyprotect them from molestation or spoliation of any and every kind whilstwithin its borders; and to afford them every help and facility to leavewhensoever they might desire. And, finally, a satisfactory arrangementwas made whereby the baronet and his companions were enabled to continueand complete their exploration and examination of the ruins.
The _Flying Fish_ and her inmates remained in the country for rathermore than three months from that date; quite long enough to satisfy theparty that they had really acted wisely, and for the benefit of thenation, in deposing M'Bongwele; and long enough to enable them to makeseveral most surprising and interesting discoveries among the ruins--discoveries which it is not necessary to describe or particularise here,since the professor has prepared, and is now revising for the press, anelaborate and exhaustive treatise upon the subject.
The Log of the Flying Fish: A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure Page 21
