The Romance of Golden Star ...

by George Chetwynd Griffith

  CHAPTER V

  HOW DJAMA DID HIS WORK

  I can tell you but little of what followed the taking of the body ofGolden Star back to the hacienda, for neither I nor any of the others,save only Djama himself, witnessed the secret mysteries of his strangeand fearful art. I could tell you of their wonder when, after I hadbidden Tupac bring the case into the cavern and he and I and Joyful Starhad gently and reverently raised her from her couch and laid her in it,we carried her out into the daylight. How they stood around the opencase and looked, half in wonder and half in fear, from her dead, coldface to the living likeness that was bending over it. How they praisedher beauty and marvelled at the forgotten arts that had preserved soperfect a likeness of life in one who for more than three centuries anda half had neither drawn breath nor known a thrill of feeling.

  I could tell you, too, with what loving and anxious care that preciousburden was borne over plain and valley and mountain in a litter that wehad brought with us for the purpose, and how at last we laid her in allher calm, unconscious loveliness on the great table which stood in themiddle of the chamber in which Djama was to do his work. But here mystory must cease for the time, for Djama made it an unalterablecondition that he should do the work that only he could do in absolutesolitude. Only thus, he said, would he, or could he, perform the taskupon whose issue the completion of Golden Star's life on earth, if itwas ever to be completed, depended.

  He told us plainly that a single interruption should be fatal to her andall our hopes. He would not even permit his sister to enter the roomuntil he should call for her. I was bitterly loath to yield--to leaveher who had been so dear to me powerless and unconscious in the hands ofa man whom I had already learned to hate, although not only did I owe myown new life to him, but on him alone rested all my hopes of seeingGolden Star once more restored to life and health, and the beauty thathad been peerless ages before Joyful Star had reached the perfection ofher young womanhood.

  How did I know what unholy arts he might use to rekindle thelong-quenched life-flame in that fair shape of hers? How could I domore than guess vaguely and fearfully at the awful mysteries that mightbe enacted in the silence and solitude of that fast-closed chamber inwhich, day and night, he would remain alone with her, the living withthe dead, like the potter with his clay, until it should please him touse the dreadful power that was his, and call her back from death tolife, perhaps--and oh! how horrible the thought was to me!--to be theslave of the man who, by his unearthly art, had made himself the masterof her new life.

  Yet, think of it, brood over it as I would, there was no help for it.He, and he alone, could exert the power that would loose the bonds ofdeath in which she lay enchained. Unless he had his will she wouldremain as she was, perhaps until the Last Day came, and the Lord of Lifecalled all his children, living and dead, back to the Mansions of theSun; and so we yielded, since there was nothing else to be done.

  On the evening of the day that we returned to the hacienda, he busiedhimself making the last preparations for his work. Then he came out ofthe room and locked the door, and, after eating his dinner almost insilence, went to bed, taking the key with him, and telling us that on noaccount must he be awakened. All that night and the next day and thenext night we neither saw nor heard anything of him; but on the morningof the second day, the door of his bedroom was open and his bed wasempty, but the door of the room in which Golden Star lay was still fastshut and locked.

  How the time passed I cannot tell you. Joyful Star, seemingly moreself-possessed than any of us, took up her household duties, and wentabout them with a quick, quiet industry that surprised and shamed us.But we three men wandered about aimlessly, now alone and now together,communing with our own thoughts or talking with each other always of thesame thing--of what was going on in that chamber, where, as we knew fromthe faint sounds that every now and then came through the closed door,the master of the arts of life and death was performing his awful task.

  The first day and night came and went, then the second, and still thedoor remained closed, and Djama gave no sign. But the professor soughtto comfort me and soothe our impatience by telling me how long the samework had lasted before I was recalled to life. I had sought also todistract my thoughts by talking with him and Francis Hartness of allthat was to be done for the deliverance of my people, and therealisation of my dreams of empire when Djama's task should be over.

  But it was useless, for fear and suspense kept my mind bound as thoughwith invisible chains, and, do what I would, my thoughts went back andback again to dwell upon the unknown secrets of that closed and silentroom. Then I tried to draw Joyful Star into conversation about thethoughts which I knew were filling both our hearts; but though shelistened to me she would say nothing herself, and I soon saw that withher the subject was forbidden, and the work not to be talked of till, insuccess or failure, it was ended.

  For the first two nights no sleep came to my eyes, but the third nightmy weariness was too much for me, and scarcely had my aching head fallenon the pillow than slumber, filled with broken dreams and visions ofthings unutterably horrible, came upon me. In the midst of one ofthem--I know not what it was, save that no human words could paint thehorror of it--I woke up with a cold, damp hand upon my shoulder, andheard Djama's voice, hoarse and trembling, saying to me,--

  'Get up and dress, Vilcaroya; I have something for you to see and tohear. Make haste, for there is not much time to be lost.'

  I looked up, and saw him standing by my bed with a light in his hand,ghastly pale, and staring at me with black, burning eyes, which seemed,as they looked into mine, to take my will a prisoner, and draw my verysoul towards him.

  'What is it?' I said, in the broken words of one just roused from sleep.'Is it over--have you succeeded? Is she alive? Have you come to take meto her?'

  'The work is not done yet,' he said. 'I have come for you to see itfinished. Make haste, I tell you, if you want to see what you have beenwaiting so long for.'

  I needed no second bidding. I sprang out of bed, and dressed myself withswift, though trembling, hands. Then I thrust my feet into a pair ofsoft slippers, such as Djama himself wore, and then I followed him fromthe room out on to the balcony that was built round the house over theinner courtyard. We went down into the court and into the dining-room,and through that down a long, narrow passage out of which opened theroom that had held all our hope and fear and wonder for so long.

  He unlocked the door, and motioned to me to go in. He followed me, andlocked the door behind us. I looked about the room, which was dimly litby two shaded lamps. The table on which we had laid Golden Star wasempty. Many strangely-shaped things, that I knew not the use of werescattered about. The air was hot and moist, and filled with a faint,sweet odour. At the opposite end from the door, which was covered by ascreen, I saw in one corner a bath--from which white, steamy fumes wererising--and in the other stood a little, narrow, curtained bed, such asI had first awakened in.

  Djama caught me by the arm, and half led, half dragged me to thebedside. Then with his other hand he parted the curtains and pointed tothe pillow. I felt his burning eyes fixed upon me as I looked and sawthe sweet fair face of Golden Star lying in the midst of her duskytresses, which lay spread out on the pillow, cleansed from the dust ofthe grave, and soft and shimmering as silk.

  I started forward, and, with my face close to hers, scanned everyfeature, and listened, but in vain, for the soft sound of her breathing.Her skin was clear and moist; I could see the thin, blue veins in hereyelids, and the moisture on her lips. I laid my hand gently on hercheek. It was soft and smooth, but still cold as death.

  Then a fierce, unreasoning anger came into my heart. I sprang back andseized Djama by the shoulders, and, looking with fierce, hot eyes intohis, I whispered hoarsely,--

  'Have you brought me here to mock me? She is not alive--she is but afair image of death. Tell me that you have failed and I will strangleyou, liar and cheat that you are!'

  He looked back steadily into my eyes an
d smiled, and said, in a voicethat had not the slightest tremor of fear,--

  'If I fail you may strangle me, and welcome; but I have not failed yet,Vilcaroya. It is for _you_ to say now whether Golden Star is to awake ornot.'

  'What do you mean?' I said, letting go my grip on his shoulders, andrecoiling a pace from him.

  'You shall hear what I mean,' he said. 'But you must hear patiently andquietly, and think well on what I say, for in your answer to what I askyou will also answer the question whether Golden Star is to awake tolife and health, or to be put back in that case yonder and buried, torot away into corruption like any other corpse.'

  'Say on, I am listening,' I said. My lips were dry, and the grip of adeadly fear seemed to be clutching at my heart and draining the lastdrop of blood from it.

  'Listen well, then,' he said. He paused for a moment as though tocollect his thoughts, and make words ready to express them. Then he wenton. 'You see, I have undone the work that your priests did three hundredand sixty years ago. Your Golden Star is now neither dead nor alive. Sheis lying on the narrow borderland that divides life from death, and foran hour from the time I left this room she will remain there--if Ichoose. At the end of that time she will pass beyond the border, and noearthly power, not even mine, could call her back. But at any timebefore the hour has expired I can complete the work that I have begun. Ican bring the breath back to her body; I can set the blood flowingthrough her veins. You shall see her eyes open and her lips smile, andyou shall hear her speak to you as though she had only awakened out ofsleep. This I can do, and I will, if you will do what I am going to askyou.'

  'What is it?' I whispered. 'Tell me quickly that I may know. You aremaster here. I can only listen and obey.'

  He smiled as I said this, a smile that it was not good for an honest manto look upon, and went on, speaking now rapidly and earnestly,--

  'When I did this work for you, I did it as a student and a man ofscience, who was making the greatest experiment of his life. I believedthat I had solved one, at least, of the secrets of life and death. Iwatched and noted every change that came over you. I marked everysymptom and measured every step of your return from death into life, butI did all this as a student inquiring into the mysteries of Nature, asan observer watching the working out of a great problem, and with nomore feeling than if I had been dissecting a corpse. But this time ithas been different. I began this work with the cold and passionlessdeliberation of one who toils only to learn and to succeed. Butafterwards--come here and look at her, and you will understand mebetter. She is a woman, and she is beautiful, and here, for two days andtwo nights, she has lain under my hands and my eyes. I have given herbeauty back to her, and if that beauty is to live it must be mine. Doyou understand me, Vilcaroya?'

  What could I say, what could I do to answer this man whom I hated, andyet who held the power of life and death for Golden Star in his hands?The vague fear that had smitten me when he began to speak had taken itsworst shape now. I looked at him with hate and horror staring out of myeyes. Again and again I tried to speak, but my lips only moved andtrembled without making any word. But he read my thoughts, and smiledthat evil smile of his again and said, in a low voice which seemed tohave the echo of a laugh in it,--

  'I see you hate me, as I have often thought you did, and that is why Ihave brought you here to tell you this. That is why I would not completemy work till you had sworn, as you yet shall do if you would see GoldenStar alive again, that what I have brought back out of the grave shallbe mine and mine only.'

  These last words of his let loose my anger and unchained my tongue. Igripped him by the arm, and in a whisper that had a strange hissingsound, I said,--

  'But that is _not_ all! What do you think your life would be worth ifyou left her to die? Have you forgotten what I said to you in the cavebeneath the Rodadero? Do you not know that this very night I could haveyou carried, gagged and bound, over the mountains and back to the gravethat we took Golden Star out of? Do you not know that I could lay youthere with food and drink beside you that you could not touch, and alamp whose light would show them to you, and then wall up the entranceagain, and leave you there to think of your fate till you went mad anddied of hunger and thirst? Do you not know that I could chain you to arock and light a fire about you, and watch you burn limb by limb tillyou shrieked your life out in lingering agony? Would this be better thangoing back to your own land loaded with treasure that would make youricher than you have ever dreamed of being? Now, _I_ have spoken, and itis for you to answer me.'

  Before I had done speaking he had taken a chair and seated himselfastride it, with his arms resting on the back and his chin on his arms,and was looking at me with white, set face, and steady, dark, shiningeyes. When I had finished there was a little silence between us, andthen he spoke, and the first time I ever felt fear in either of my liveswas when I heard those cold, cruel, carefully-measured words of his,--

  'That is well said, Vilcaroya. I am glad you have spoken plainly, fornow we understand each other; but I don't think you quite realise thedifference between your power and mine. You have, or think you have, thebrute force, the strength of numbers, and the slavish devotion of yourpeople on your side, and you threaten to use that power to put me to alingering and torturing death unless I withdraw my demands and do as youwish me. In that, however, you are quite wrong. I am as much the masterof my own life as I was once of yours, and still am of Golden Star's.Without moving hand or foot I could kill myself as I sit here beforeyou, so your threats of torture are nothing more than empty words. It isonly a matter of simple life or death. If I live, Golden Star will live.If I die, she will never draw the breath of life--but what I have said,I have said. She shall only live as my promised wife, bound to me by themost sacred oath that you can swear. You cannot consummate your ownmarriage with her, because in the modern world that is impossible. Youare refusing simply because, for some reason or other, you dislike mepersonally, but I don't propose that that shall stand in my way. As foryour treasures, their value has utterly changed for me. A week ago, Ifrankly confess that I would have sold my soul, if I thought I had one,for them. Now, without her, they would only make the world a goldenmockery to me, for I tell you, Vilcaroya, that I, who have never lovedliving woman yet, love that beautiful shape of inanimate flesh as thatold sculptor we have told you of loved his statue. Every hour that Ihave been alone in this room with her this strange love of mine hasgrown. First it was only scientific curiosity, then physical admiration,then something else. I don't know what it is, for it is beyond the reachof my analysis, but I know enough of it to call it love, and I tell youit is such love as only a man of my nature and pursuits is capable of.Unsatisfied, it would consume me and kill me, and I would rather diequickly than slowly. Now--once more--shall Golden Star and I live ordie?'

  How was I to answer such a speech as this? I heard him in silence to theend, my eyes held fast by his, and my spirit sinking as though beatendown by the pitiless force of those cold words of his. And in themeantime a great truth had been dawning in my mind. Force had ceased torule in this new world, and intellect had taken its throne. I was theinferior of this man, whose trained mind was the heir of the generationsthat had toiled and fought while I had slept. I was little better than asavage before him, and I knew it, and he knew it, and, bitter as thethought was to me, yet it was only the truth. I was conquered, and a newgleam in his eyes told me that he had read my thoughts before I hadspoken them.

  Then, while I stood hesitating before him, his white, hard-set facesoftened, and his lips melted into a smile that was almost as sweet as awoman's. It was that that saved me, for it reminded me of Ruth, and therecollection of her told me that I loved even as Djama did. The verythought of her put new blood into my heart. The words of yielding andsubmission died unuttered on my lips. I raised my head, which I hadbowed down in dejection, and looked at him steadily again. Then I saidslowly, and in the voice of a man who does not speak twice,--

  'I have thought, and I will speak for
the last time. I will swear by thesacred glory of the Lord of Light that Golden Star shall be yours, upontwo conditions.'

  'Conditions!' said he, bringing his dark brows down till they made astraight black line over his eyes. 'What are they?'

  The dagger-point dropped till it was within an inch ofGolden Star's breast.

  _To face page 119._]

  'These,' I said. 'You love and I love. First, then, you must win thelove of Golden Star, and, secondly, you must give me your sister, JoyfulStar, if I can win her love.'

  'My sister Ruth to _you_! Is that your earnest, Vilcaroya, or are youonly trying my patience?'

  The bitter, coldly-spoken words cut into my soul as the lash of a whipcuts into the flesh. I could have slain him as he sat there sneering atme, but it was a time for words, not deeds; and so, mastering my angeras best I could, I took two swift strides to Golden Star's bedside, and,snatching my dagger out of the sheath of the belt which I had put onwhen I had dressed, I turned and faced him, and said,--

  'I am not jesting. As you love I love, and by the glory and majesty ofmy Father the Sun I tell you if you do not say yes I will do with thisdagger what all your art will never repair, and then, if I must do that,I will kill you too; and before to-morrow night has passed Joyful Starshall be with me where none can find her. Now, what is your answer--yes,or no?'

  He looked at me and then at the dagger hanging in my hand, pointdownwards, over the breast of Golden Star. Then his eyes fell upon thestill loveliness of her face. He knew that if he moved the dagger wouldfall. His face, flushed a moment before, grew grey and pale again at thesound of my words, and then I saw that he had not lied to me when hesaid that his life would be worthless without her. Twice, thrice, hislips moved without shaping a word. Then the words came. They were dryand broken and trembling, for in the strength of my own love I had nowconquered my conqueror, and he said,--

  'Yes, since it must be so. My sister for your sister. Well, I supposeit's a fair exchange. We hate each other, you and I, but that's anaccident of fate. Take away your dagger. I know when I am beaten, and Iam beaten now. Will you swear that oath of yours again?'

  'Yes,' I said, 'and you?'

  I still kept the dagger within a span of Golden Star's heart, for Istill had but little trust in his faith. He rose from his chair,throwing it over as he did so, and stood up and faced me, saying,--

  'There is no need for oaths either from you or me. We have both too muchto lose to break faith. Put up your dagger and come away, and in tenminutes from now you shall hear Golden Star draw the first breath of hernew life, and see her eyes open and look at you. That would be worthmore than any oath I could swear, wouldn't it?'

  'Yes,' I said, 'but that is not all or enough. If you broke faith withme after that, I should have to shed blood--my sister's and yours. Now Ineed only make her life impossible. I will stop here. Go you and wakeyour sister and bring her here. Then we will say more.'

  'Bring Ruth here!' he cried, staring at me as though he wished, as nodoubt he did, that the fierce light in his eyes could blast and witherme where I stood. 'Bring her here to see what no human eyes but minehave ever seen. Bring her here to listen to what you have said--and ifher, why not Lamson and Hartness as well?'

  'You may bring all, if you please,' I said, 'but Joyful Star must come,no matter what she hears or sees. I have spoken--now go, or Golden Starshall never wake again.'

  He took a half pace towards me, with clenched hands and set teeth,crouching like a mountain lion about to spring on its prey. The daggerpoint dropped till it was only an inch from Golden Star's breast. If hehad made another step I would have driven it home. He read in my eyesthat I would do so, and he stopped. Then he hissed a curse at me throughhis clenched teeth, and turned and walked away towards the door. As hereached it he looked back, and saw me still standing there with thedagger ready to do the work that could never be undone. I saw his lipsmove, but heard no sound.

  Then he unlocked the door, went out, and locked it after him, leaving methere alone with my dead sister-love, whose new life, with all itspossibilities of love and happiness, or hate and misery, I had throwninto the balance of Fate in the game that I was playing against him towin that other love which had now become tenfold more dear to me.

  When he had gone I took his chair and put it by the side of the bed andsat down, still holding my bare dagger in my hand and looking on GoldenStar's dead loveliness, wondering what it would be like when thesunshine of her new life should shine upon it, and on whom her firstglance would fall, or whose name be the first that her lips would speak,and as I sat and watched and waited it seemed to me as though the ghostsof those long dead were taking shape and ranging themselves about thebed of her re-awakening as they had done about the bed of her fallingasleep and mine.

  I saw Anda-Huillac and his brother priests of the Sun standing about me,gazing at me and at her with sad and dreamy eyes, like phantoms of thepast looking upon the realities of the present. Then the shape ofAnda-Huillac seemed to glide towards me. His ghostly eyes looked intomine, and a smile of pity and reproach moved his pale lips. I felt acold, soft hand laid upon mine, my grasp relaxed and the dagger fellringing to the floor.

  The sound awoke me, and my vision vanished. How long it had lasted, orwhether it was a vision of sleep or waking, I know not, but I was awakenow for I heard the door creek on its hinges. I picked the dagger upagain and started to my feet, and, still guarding Golden Star's bed, Iturned and faced Djama as he came in, followed by the professor andFrancis Hartness, with Joyful Star between them.