CHAPTER XIV
AN EVENTFUL DECISION
The weeks that followed left only a hazy impression of hurry, effort,fatigue that was almost overwhelming, and anxiety which spurred wornoutmind and body to further action, with the two white men who livedthrough them. Some of the sick they cured, and though it is possibletheir lack of knowledge hastened the end of others, their intentions atleast were benevolent, and while they often went hungry the convalescentwere always fed. They put heart into the hopeless and buried the dead,stormed, exhorted, and jested by turn all day long, and sat watching theworst cases when the hot night fell. Dane was never afterward able torecollect the exact mixtures he dispensed, which Maxwell said wasprobably fortunate; but as a result of their labors, while all wouldotherwise have perished, part at least of their followers escaped. Theyhad also capable assistants. Amadu, Maxwell's man, had fought under agreat Emir who had made his name a terror in the Soudan; and Monday, soDane gathered, had carried the standard of a successful robber chieftainsomewhere far up in the land of the brown men who swear by the Prophet;but both had the full courage of their fatalist convictions, and whattheir masters bade them that they did. The rank and file of theorderlies were thick-headed heathen who grinned each time their leaderstormed at them.
One day when the sick were recovering, and a little hope was springingup again, Dane, staggering half asleep behind his bearer detachment,halted when Maxwell beckoned him.
"Get on, you dusky angels, and try to carry that poor devilright-side-up," Dane said. "Monday, tell them hopeless idiots if theyhandle the other fellow that way they'll pull his head off. You wouldtempt the most patient man to murder some of you."
The bearers beamed upon him with mouths extended, and Maxwell laughed.
"They take your abuse as a compliment, Hilton; and your capabilitiesbecome apparent by degrees. Still, after the success which has attendedyour daring pharmaceutical experiments, one could hardly be astonishedat your licking even yonder most unpromising raw material into shape."
"The credit is to necessity," replied Dane, surveying his assistantswith a certain air of pride. "Those are the most wooden-headed niggersin Africa, and the more I swear at them the wider they grin; but if Iwanted sulphur from the pit, and told them, the beggars would go--andget it."
"I wish we were both fresher," Maxwell said; "because there is anotherworry to grapple with. The man I sent over to Rideau found the campempty, and this pinned to the tree his tent had been pitched beneath."
"If Mr. Rideau desires to repeat his opinion that we should set them allto work it is as well he does it in writing. I could hardly keep myhands off the brute the last time he made the suggestion in person,"answered Dane.
"Read, and see," said Maxwell, holding out the note; and because Dane'shead was swimming he translated the indifferent French with difficulty.The message might have appeared ambiguous to a more accomplishedlinguist. Nevertheless, he gathered from it that their partner, whoprofessed a total ignorance of physics and a fear of contagion,regretted his inability to render them any assistance, and had decidedto visit a headman he had dealings with who dwelt at a considerabledistance. He stated that none of his boys could be induced to carry amessage to the stricken camp.
"He might have expressed himself more plainly, but it is plausible. Doyou attach a different meaning?" Dane asked.
Maxwell, instead of answering, asked another question.
"You feel tolerably certain that we have seen the worst of thisepidemic?"
"Yes," was the answer. "I did not, however, tell our estimable partnerso. It seemed a pity to relieve him prematurely of what he called hisfear of the sick. Perhaps I was wrong in this."
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Maxwell. "It is not the plague he fears the most. Infact, considering that he must have lived through one or two outbreaksalready, part, at least, of his fear must have been simulated. If youexpect to see Rideau here again on the old terms, Hilton, you aremistaken."
"His absence would not leave me disconsolate," said Dane. "In that case,one wonders what he is afraid of, and why he came? Isn't it alsosurprising that he should abandon his share of the gold?"
"In reply to the first query, I don't know--but we shall doubtlessdiscover in good time. There is no difficulty in answering the rest. Hecame to see if the river was worth exploitation, and to pick up apractical knowledge of the necessary operations. His share of what wehave obtained is, after all, but trifling for an avaricious man whocherishes a grudge against you, and desires the whole. Two men alone atpresent prevent him from obtaining it, and the life of any white man isvery uncertain in this country."
"A grudge against me?" Dane queried.
Maxwell nodded.
"Have you forgotten Miss Castro? Your powers of attraction may prove adangerous gift, Hilton."
Dane flushed with sudden anger, for this appeared to him ill-timedlevity; but Maxwell continued unheeding:
"The whole complication resembles a mosaic puzzle, and I have fittedmost of it together. One or two pieces, however, are missing, and wemust wait until accident supplies them. Meanwhile, every effort toexpedite our sick men's recovery would be advisable."
Maxwell left his comrade startled and uneasy. Dane could see that he wasanxious, and they already had sufficient to try their endurance withoutthe addition of a haunting fear. There was, however, no remedy, and theycontinued to tend the sick, setting those who had recovered to work asthe pestilence slackened its grip. So, while groups of naked tribesmenwhose tongue nobody therein could understand traveled southward past thecamp, the days went by until Maxwell was supplied with one missingportion of his mosaic. One morning a seaboard negro, whose leg had beenrendered useless by the horrible Guinea worm which had burrowed fromknee to ankle, crawled into camp, and told a story which roused bothlisteners to suppressed fury. Rideau had left him behind crippled, tostarve, but with many sufferings he had managed to drag himself to theircamp.
"I be missionary boy, sah, and savvy them JuJu palaver be all damfraud," he stated in the coast English. "When them low white niggerRideau lib for them first river by the Leopards' country he send one mantwo day into the bush."
"What was the man like? How that boy he look?" asked Maxwell.
"Yellow man with mark on front of him head, sah. He be fit to makefetich palaver."
"Oh," commented Maxwell. "This is going to be very interesting, Hilton."
"Two night go," continued the negro. "Then I look them white man he waitfor somebody sitting with a pistol outside him tent. I lib for behind acottonwood, where he not done see me. Bimeby, two leopard come soffly,soffly, and stand up when he see them. The white man light a lamp beforehim say: 'Why you done play them fool trick with me?'"
"You were too frightened to crawl away?" Maxwell asked; and though thenegro evidently trembled at the mere recollection, he answered boldly:
"I be missionary boy, and savvy all them JuJu palaver humbug, sah. Oneleopard done throw off him skin and sit down by the tent. I know him forthe man with the mark on him. 'How much you want for let me lib for yourcountry and come back again,' the white man say, and they all talkplenty. Then the white man say: 'I leave them cloth and bead and gun inthe bush, and when I lib for come back safe you get two time as much,but you see them other white men done get lost or sick too much in yourcountry.' Rideau talk more plenty, and them leopard go away. I not knowhow. I see him one lil' minute, then there be no more leopard, sah. Ilib for say nothing. Suppose Rideau guess I look him he shoot me, sah.The Lord he give me sense too much."
"Rideau is a capable rascal and this explains a good deal," saidMaxwell, when he had handed the cripple over to the Krooboy cook. "Theman with the scarred forehead is clearly an influence among theLeopards. Otherwise Rideau might never have overtaken us. His prudencein promising to double the toll demanded on his safe return strikes meas highly commendable; and one can only presume that, seeing ussuccessful in spite of his efforts, he determined to cast his lot inwith us for a time."
Dane's answe
r was fierce and emphatic; and Maxwell smiled.
"Over-confidence is a weakness of yours, Hilton. Now it is no doubtflattering to one's pride to disdain petty suspicions and precautions;but having done so, isn't it illogical to grow feverishly indignant whenyou are victimized?"
"You need not waste time in moralizing. It is much more necessary todiscover why Rideau cleared out in a hurry, and what he is doing now."
"I don't know, but it will be high time to move when we do. Meanwhile,we can only wait. It will become apparent presently."
Dane left him, and went back to his task, stolidly determined that hewould have a reckoning with M. Victor Rideau before he sailed fromAfrica. Hilton Dane, though by no means a fool, possessed neither hiscomrade's power of deduction nor his insight into the weakness of humannature; but he was, nevertheless, likely to prove an even more dangerousenemy when his natural generosity, being abused, had changed intovindictiveness. It is generally well to avoid the righteous indignationof the good-humored man when his patience is exhausted; and Dane'spatience was not of the longest.
The time dragged slowly by until, when those the plague had spared werewell on the way to recovery, chance supplied the partners with the finalclue. A man swathed in ragged cotton and of comparatively light colorhalted one morning to beg a little food at their camp, and Maxwell greweager when he found that Amadu could understand him. Headman Shaillu'svillages had been stricken by the plague, he said, and that ruler,either to avoid contagion or to prevent the spread of disaffection amonghis people, had marched them out on a campaign against his northernneighbors. He had been badly beaten, and the tribesmen had summonedevery petty chieftain who had suffered by his depredations to join themin retaliating. They would probably wait until the rains were over, thestranger said, though this was not certain; but once they started, theywould spare nothing on their march; and as their priests had a specialanimus against white men, he considered they would certainly storm thecamp.
It was dark when Dane and Maxwell held their final conference, and theysat moodily silent a while before either spoke. The sufferings andhardships undergone had left their mark on them; it is possible thatMaxwell's British acquaintances might scarcely have recognized him, ashe sat huddled, as it were, together under the smoky lamp. Even hisironical humor had deserted him along with every personal characteristicsave the courage and certain racial instincts that were ineradicable.Dane was reminded of an ancient portrait in Culmeny as he watched him.The old moss-trooper had looked much the same--lean and dour and grim;and the observer could recognize the same baleful light in his wolfisheyes. It was not an unnatural reversion, for the customs of modernAfrica are not greatly different from those of Britain in bygone days.
It was hotter than ever, and a darkness that could be felt hung over thetent.
"We have had several of these talks, Hilton, but never one half soimportant as that before us now," said Maxwell at length. "Rideau'swhole intentions are clear at last. He learned what was threatening longbefore we did, and profited by the sickness as an excuse for escapingand leaving us to our fate. The gold? Please wait until I haveconcluded. These tribesmen are mere predatory nomads, with no knowledgeof mining, and after burning every village they come across they willvanish into the bush again. Therefore, our partner clearly expects thatif the pestilence fails to remove us the spearmen will; and he no doubthopes to return when there is peace again, and clean out this riverwithout our assistance."
Dane smote the camp table hard with his fist, and was sullenly pleasedto see that he had not lost all his strength, for one of the thin boardssplit.
"Then I solemnly pledge myself to carry out the second portion of ourcompact. The vile, treacherous scoundrel shall not escape if I live," hedeclared.
Maxwell raised his hand, but there was an ominous light in his eyes asthey met those of his companion.
"That may come later; but in the first place the severely practicalaspect of this affair requires to be dealt with. To begin, less thanhalf our men are, even yet, capable of steady marching, and our numberswould be quite insufficient to convoy those too weak to walk safelythrough a hostile country. Therefore we have to choose between twoevils. The first possible course would be to leave all the sick andweakly, and striking due south, not by the way we came, endeavor toreach the coast with what gold we have won. We could return when itappeared safe to do so. I put it before you, without expressing my ownopinion, dispassionately."
Dane did not falter, but he remembered that in all probability there wasgold enough in the river to enable him to market his patent with atleast a hope of success, and this implied a prospect of winning Lilian.Of late his hopes that he would eventually do so had grown steadilystronger; and during many a lonely watch, when he recalled her delicatebeauty, the longing for her had almost mastered him. As Maxwell hadpointed out, one way to realize his ambitions was still open; but Daneknew that he could not go home with the blood of the men who had trustedhim upon his hands.
"That course is impossible!" he said hoarsely.
"Yes," agreed Maxwell with impressive quietness. "We have, it is said,outgrown superstition, but I can't help thinking misfortune would followthe money we made that way. They have done their best for us, poordevils. Therefore, we come to the second alternative. This camp could befurther stockaded into a very strong position, and you or I must holdit against all comers. While one of us does so, the other, with a coupleof picked men, will strike straight for the coast, catch the firstmailboat, and, if he can't persuade an agent to believe and finance himby the sight of a few ounces of gold, cable home for a credit to beopened by telegraph on some big trading firm. My bankers should managethat. Then he will return with a strong expedition. Speed affords theone chance for success, for if Rideau heard of the attempt, he and theLeopards would frustrate it; and both are doubtless watchful; but two orthree men traveling night and day might escape observation. They muststart unburdened, with just sufficient food, abandoning all idea ofcarrying treasure. The one question is, who is to go?"
Dane was conscious of a grim satisfaction. Everything pointed to him asthe one to stay, and he had no desire to return home with nothing morethan expectations; while, harassed as he had been by many enemies,deserted, and betrayed, the prospect of trying conclusions with an openfoe came as a relief to him.
"You have the money, and brains, Carsluith, and you must go," he said."I have the brute strength, and, I think, to-night some of its ferocity.I can promise that all the savages in Africa shall not turn me out ofthis camp. Neither would I be sorry if they attempted it."
As Maxwell turned toward him the smoldering fire was plainer in his eye.
"Are you not forgetting that other men are born with the same passions?Break that twig into unequal lengths, shut your eyes, and draw. The manwho picks the longest stays."
They were equal at the second draw, and Dane grew feverishly anxious ashe thrust in his hand again. Then he threw the twig on the tabletriumphantly.
"It points to me," he said.
"So be it," Maxwell answered quietly. "Then we will get ready two loadsof provisions. I start at sunrise to-morrow, taking Amadu and one otherman with me."
The night was far spent before the preparations were finished and theylay down to sleep; and Maxwell was dressed and equipped when his comradeawakened.
"I could not bring myself to disturb you earlier," he said, when Daneglanced at him reproachfully. "We will eat a morsel of breakfast, andthen I will start."
Dane could swallow nothing, but Maxwell ate a little, though he seemedto force his appetite. Then they walked silently together as far as thestockade gate, where Maxwell turned and held out his hand.
"God knows whether I will reach the coast. This gold, with whatever youcan add to it, is yours if I fail," he said. "If I live I will come backand join you should I come alone!"
"Whether you come late or early you will find me or my bones here," Daneanswered huskily, for there was a painful contraction in his throat.
Their hands met in a strenuous grasp, and with a hoarse "Good luck!"following him, Maxwell strode out through the gate. Dane watched himdescend the slope to the river, while all the camp boys capable ofmotion clustered about the one who stayed, and Monday squatted at hisfeet. They were all very silent until a murmur went up as the white man,halting on the edge of the forest, turned toward them. He raised hisshapeless sun-hat high above his head, answering Dane's salute; and longafterward the latter sighed each time that lonely figure rose out of theblurred memories.
A horrible sense of loneliness oppressed the man left behind, and therecame upon him an irrepressible desire for speech.
"He has gone, Monday," he said, patting the naked shoulder of the bigdark-skinned alien, who looked up at him sympathetically; "but if helives he will certainly come back; and you and I in the meantime aregoing to keep his place warm for him. You don't understand? Well, youprobably will when several hundred yelling devils come round this way atmidnight wanting to get in. Still, I don't think we'll make a bad showbetween us, even then."
The dusky man caught a glimpse of his meaning, for he grinned and noddedwhen Dane continued:
"You don't feel quite sure what I'm saying yet. I don't care, so long asyou sit up and listen patiently. I'm feeling very low and lonely thismorning, Monday."
The listener appeared to consider, and then rose upright, sayingsolemnly:
"Cappy Maxwell, say we lib for this place, then we dam well lib. CappyMaxwell fine white man too much. Suppose them low bushmen come we damwell go chop him."
The League of the Leopard Page 14
